Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1921-10-20
HOW TO MAKE AND KEEP
THE SOIL FERTILE
By George D. Coleman
No. I

mary Importance - Nitrogen. Phos-
phorus or phosphates, Potash, and
Lime. Nitrogen gives rapid growth,
succulency, and the dark green foil
age, and the nutritious character of
that foliage, the Juicy flavor of fruits,
and the protein elements.
Phosphates increase the vitality and
virility of the seeds and the whole re-
productive powers of both plants and
animals.
Potash gives flavor and keeping
qualities in fruits and all products Of
the soil, and aids in the available chem
ical combinations carried on in the
soils.
Lime has a most valuable mechani-
cal action upon the soil, as it renders
lcIays more open and friable and closes
and compacts loose sands; also lime
forms from two-thirds tothree-fourths
Of tie ash of plants. showing that it
is essential. Where lime is deficient in
a soil the natural grasses are short of
the necessary nutrition, and the ami
mails raised on such grasses cannot OBJ
tain size or strength because of the
absence of the phosphate of lime that
is the chief constituent of their bones,
and they are more liable to diseases
than animals that have plenty of the
mineral elements necessary.
But nitrogen is the king head and
the most essential of these four ele-
ments. Soils once rich in the East and
South are now agriculturally bankrupt
and worn out because of the use of
Commercial fertilizers which contain
no humus, aid the result is all kinds
of plant diseases. inability to resist the
insect plant enemies, and the absence
of the bacteria of notification and 9TH
er beneficial bacteria; this has allow
ed the bacteria of plant diseases full
sway to breed and demoralize once
rich soils.
Hardly one farmer in ten in the
North. and probably one in 40 or SO
in the South. is giving his land fair
chance. The average American far
mer is a SCHROEDER and not an agri-
cuIturalist. The practice. Of the faith
, ers squandered the inheritance of the
rich soil the colonist found here, and
as the crops tall off, agricultural ma
chinery ives invented that enabled
less labor to tiIL larger area. The
increase of the fertility of our soils,
and the vlrility of the seeds raised and
the health of our diseased soils, and
mot the combating of the diseases by
sprays, washes. and insecticides Gall a
loss OF labor and money!, is the great
and peremptory question that must be
solved. Crop. rotation is only COM
promise and a palliative.
A ton of corn contains a ton OF
plant food elements. Three of these
are secured from the air and water,
land seven are taken from the soil.
Three of the elements compose 9096 !;
but the seven others are also essen
tial. These seven elements are gener-
ally found in most of the soils, in guam
titles to last from 100 to 1000 ,-cars,
only they are locked up in unavaila-
bic chemical combinations or ere In
soluble; for be it remembered th~t all
plants feed upon liquid food. Often
what is insoluble in water, the roots
of the plants secrete acids and aka
lies that dissolve them and make them
soluble and available; but, if the plant:
are diseased and weakly, they cannot
do this work. Besides that, the abb
sence of organic matter, or humus, rem
ders soils, rich in plant foods, closed
and unavailable, while the presence Of
humus, with its humic. geeic, and ul-
mic acids, attack the insoluble combin.
ations and make them soluble. Thus
it can readily be seen that humus Oh
organic matter is the secret and preem-
ptory need to attain fertility. But
more, the humus is the culture ground
for all kinds of beneficial bacteria and
especially the bacteria of notification,
or the azotobacter; but, these being
absent, the plant food is quickly ex-
hausted and the soil gradually be-
comes practically barren. Commercial
fertilizers are expensive and breed
more profits for the fertilizer trust than
for the farmer. The mineral element.
are the skeleton of the soil, but organic
matter is its, flesh. But there is still
more to this-organic matter gives
light soils a closer texture and body
and makes clay more open, or the
same mechanical action as lime. Sui
phate of lime or land plaster acts the
same. Again, organic matter hold:
and retains r,nnra rnnsst.,rn u a.. 81