The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1922-09-07
GRAVES FOR PROPERTY ON SAND
fFrom Northwestern Farmsteac) :.

Tsn worId's most coveted prize for
literary attainment last year .erha
warded to the author Of the book, me
Growth Of the Soil" IN II ,eou rem
resented / as having faclal ols
figurement. Its tragedies neeo not oe
reneated here. Sufficient to say tnat
after she had suffered for years the
aost narrowing misadventures, q
simple operation made her beautlfui
Minnesot has 100000 acres Of soil soil
too sandy to produce protitapy' Sne
re- 7 600 600 of peat, practically non
producing. eo,,;1v ybo
through error have settled on such
lands may we'll remind one OF the
heroine of Knut Hamsun's tragic tale.
sterile Waste Luxurious RIO
ductiOn.
Three years ago. however, the leg
islature placed in the hands or the
agricultural college $2,ooo'oe year oo,
experiments on the peat. A year ago
it authorized experiments on the sano
And today, thanks to the technlcal
knowledge and the indefatigable lapors
of Dr. F. ]. Away, and his assistants,
the sipmle operations are known by
which both may be converted from
sterile wastes into areas OF lux 1rlant
production
There are minor details of both yet
to be worked out. But in teth cases.
Alfalfa Dies Out.
Let us talk abont the SAND 1irst.
The principal feature OF the exh>blts
at Coon Creek experiment station n
this years visiting day. July i4 IT,
cinsisted of two big holes IN the
One IL feet deep and about ~ feet
square had been dug in 4 plot or alIaI1a
lime, had largely died olt There we1e
left few scattering plants, tnese
plants were dark green. vigorous and
thrifty But as to the petcn in general,
heard farmers say. But the June grass
had not run out the plots beside 1t,
the surface of which had been lined;
Let's join the crowd ar""nd this Du11al
dozen or more plants of alfalfa sur
mount it's edges Their long white tap
roots hang as the workmen caretnlly
left them unbroken. We can see them
q dozen feet long, DR.. Always tells us
he has followed them down 80 feet.
He calls our attention to the difference
in the effect of the drouth of last
spring on the alfalfa and on the red
years at best, suffers from the lack
of moisture because it must depend
on the rains Of the season. Dug in"
perhaps 80 feet deep. the alfalfa in its
siege of drouth lasting continuously
not for weeks, but years.
But why have some few plants sur
vived when none Of the check plot was
in nature. 1t is the job of the scientist
to dis cover the reason and turn it to
human advantage. Perhaps they have
found some lime the other plants
stone at the bottom of one of the roots?
Rootlets are matted all around it.
Let's get down into the hole and get
that stone. Professor Away holds it in
toE 10
pocket a bottle of hydrochloric Cor
muriatic) acid. He pours little on the
stone and wherever the acid touches
the stone, there steam up lot of bub
bles. 1t is the test for lime Calcium
carbonate, the professors call it).
Wherever in this unlimed check plot
the alfalfa has lived more than year
or two, we find somewhere near
the root of the plant, a pebble or a
stone that will effervesce when we
touch it with this acid. Professor AL
way tells us the acid is common and
cheap. We can make tests for our
selves. But he warns us not to let the
children get it or let it touch our cloth
ing or skins.
Lined Sand Produces Alfalfa
He tells us the scientific reasons
why lime makes alfalfa succeed. An
important one is this: Alfalfa is a
plant one of whose chief offices is to
take lime out of the soil and put it in
its leaves and stems so that the an
imals may get it to make it into bone
and milk and egg shells. AS without
lime, the animal cannot thrive, so with
out lime, this plant cannot live. He
tells us that lime, while it makes al |
falfa grow, is not, in the usually &C
copied sense an element OF fertility. |
1t ,s sweetens o sour soils Gneutrslizes
helps many plants some mad is alb
helps many plants some and is alb
Lime, Alfalfa, Live Stock Equals
Prosperity
We afford to hl1v cOmnarcial
nitrogen from the nitrate fields of
South America. Shall we plow under
our alfalfa, or grow clovers or soy
beans for green manure? 1t seems like
a pretty heavy sacrifice to plow under
crops worth from $1,000 to $4,000 an
acre
And DR. Away tells us we need not
do it-that it isn't good business. How
then? Why, we'll just feed the alfalfa
to our horses and our cows and our
pigs and our chickens. Well work the
eggs-and return to the soil a ferti-
lizer even better than the green
manure which would result from plow-
ing under valuable crops.
So our problem is solved? Lime plus
alfalfa plus livestock equals prosper
ity? That is the solution. But it all
rests on lime. And the solution Is
still incomplete till we solve the prob
lem of supplying the soil with lime, too.
MARI Is Gold to Soils Man.
That brings us to the other hole in
the ground. 1t is only about four feet
deep, and it lies. not in the sand, but
in the black muck of the adjoining
peat bog. With $500 instrument.
David Soil tester. c. o. Rost, assist
ant professor of soils, has punched
holes in the bog and brought up cores
OF the soil. Under the brown peat and
the black muck he has found what he
knew must be there. 1t is a stratum of
greyish: slippery, Shiny stuff. But 1t
looks like gold to the soils man. His
hand goes into his pocket for the acid.
He pours little on the wet core. 1t
bubbles and foams, thus giving him
the information he seeks. 1t is lime,
almost pure calcium carbonate. In
this form 1t Is called mari.
Ready for the Shovel.
So here is the lime that falling rain
through the ages has leached out of
the coarse. permeable sand. 1t is gone
from the sand. But it has not gone
far. Here it is, 6, 8, 10 feet thick. I'm
der few acres in the Coon Creek
bog, there Is $1,000 tons Of it, enough
to bring prosperity to every sandy
farm in Anoka County. And we don't
need to go to Coon Creek for 1t. Ma