Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-18
SOIL MANAGEMENT
 FIRST, FERTILIZERS : :, ARE NEXT IN ORDER
Martin Nelson of Arkansas Experiment Station
 Gives Talk

Proper condition of the soil as re- gards drainage, cultivation and hu- mus in the soil must be assured be- fore best crops can be produced eith- CT with or without fertilizers is the substance of warning to Arkansas { farmers by Martin Nelson, vicedirec tor of the Arkansas experiment. sta tion and agronomist of the College of Agriculture.
 The future of the cotton market is on "a precarious basis" says MT. ! Nelsch. Europe is unable to buy 7 the /usual amount of cotton. It is necessary for cotton growers. to for Hfy themselves by increasing the acreage of food and feed crops. There is much evidence that farmers are
 thinking. Scores of inquiries are . coming to the experiment station 2 about the use of fertilizers.
 "A few people are systematically
 urging the use of fertilizers as a ,. means of increasing crop yields and producing the usual amount of cot
 ton on a fewer acres of land. This
 recommendation is alright when
 other conditions are taken care of,
 but it is a we'll known fact that farm
 CTS in many localities are planning to
 use fertilizers under conditions that
 mak profit impossible. Right here the farmer must examine hls own
 methods and the condition of his s fields to see that they are just what
 he should make them. There are a
 few things that must be fully under
 stood by cotton growers to avoid
 disappointment. They arc as fol-
 lows:
 Ut is waste of money to apply fertilizers to crops growing on land that is poorly drained 1t IS a waste
 of money to put fertilizer on land that has been piowed only two or three inches as IS the case in some
 sections of the state. 1t is vast
 of money to apply fertilizer to land that has been permitted to form hard pan three or four inches below the surface. It is questionable whether fertilizer will pay on land where the supply of organic matter has been al , most completely used up, leaving the soil in condition where it becomes hard quickly and can not stand dry weather. These conditions must be corrected before one can expect good results, either with or without fer tiIizers. In this day and age when food tillage implements can be had and the poor results coming from practice of blowing only two or three or perhaps four inches deep should be abandoned completely and no one should think of raising crops on an average soil where land is plowed less than five CT six inches deep. The great mistake of blowing cta hoc HriV n thousands of our people all over the state, and many of these people who
 were blowing three inches deep only
 few years ago are now blowing
 eight or ten inches deep and do not
 hesitate to say that they are posi- tive that it pays them well and they
 can not see why they ever did plow
 land as shallow as three or four inches.
 "One should use some degree of caution in beginning to blow deeper X To turn up two or four inches of subsoil that has not been disturbed by the blow before, should be done with caution, especially when plow- ing the spring. It Is best to blow about one inch deeper each year in the case of spring blowing until one gets down to the depth that he ex- poets to follow from then on. In case of fall blowing, one may blow x up as much as three inches of sub- soil. and let it lie exposed to the weather over winter. Another way sshf safely stirring the soil deeper < Immediately. is to follow the surface tsssplow with subsoiler, thereby break Esing up the subsoil without turning $ it on top. It. should be borne in mind that we must have considerable