The Glasgow courier., 1922-09-08

dissolved IN water, or the plant can
not use it. The moisture must b
conserved so as to dissolve the min
eral elements as needed by the crop.
One-Crop System Robs the Soil.
The one-crop system Of grain farm
ing draws more heavily on the plan
food in the soil than any other system
as usually no provision is made for re
turning anything for what is takel
out. The grain is sold, and often th'
straw and even some Of the stubble i:
burned, which leaves the soil poorer
to the extent of the full amount of the
plant food required to produce the
crop. It takes from the soil approx
mately 25 cents worth of fertility, ant
wears out a lot of humus, to produce
a bushel of wheat. When the bushe
of wheat is hauled away and the straw
burned, or not returned to the land
that fertility is gone, and the soil is
just that much poorer. 1t is not pos
sible to entirely deplete the soil ir
a short time, as only small percent
age of the necessary elements become
available each year, depending on how
the land is farmed. Humus, or decay.
ing organic matter helps liberate plant
food, and hold moisture so that these
elements are made available for the
plants. Nearly one-half of the fertil
ity required to produce crop of grain
is left in the straw and stubble; hence
if the grain farmer simply took the
precaution to return the straw to his
fields he would greatly prolong the
producing power of his land.
Nothing in the world responds more
readily to fair treatment than the soil
but there is no reward for the soil.
robber or shiftless farmer. Have our
soils received fair treatment? They
have been plowed, summer fallowed
planted, harvested, burned, pastured
driven over, allowed to become weedy
blown away and been robbed indis-
criminately. Only the natural fertil.
ity, the shortage of rainfall, and the
fact that the surface is frozen halt
the time has enabled the soil to with
stand such treatment to the extent il
has. The grain farmer robs the soil
of its fertility, because he puts moth
ing back for what he takes away. Ole
wheat land, manured, planted to a
cultivated crop, a clover or grass crop
may be made to double or treble the
yield. Adding active organic matter
to decay and liberate plant food, hold
moisture and improve the physical
condition of the soil, givesthis result
The time of the one-crop grain far.
mer is passing in this region. A real
ization Of the fundamental Importance
Of soil fertility is essential to the pro.
per appreciation of the Importance of a
more diversified system of farming
corn, alfalfa, livestock, crop rotation
and the return of as much fertility in
the shape of barnyard manure as pos
sible. The farmer who will not start
now, even on a small scale, to devote
a part of his land to corn, sweet clo-
yer, alfalfa and grass, and keep enough
stock to utilize these feeds, is court
ing disaster for himself and the sec
IIOii III WIICIl Ic lives.
How to Diversity.
Each farmer must work out the ro-
tation best suited to his needs. A
three-year rotation of corn, grain, al
falfa or sweet clover, requires plow-
ing only one-third of the land each
year. The sweet clover has with us
proven the most valuable crop of the
three. The sweet clover hay and corn
fed to stock will produce enough ma
nure to cover one field each year. This
is put on the sweet clover stubble and
disked as preparation for grain and
sweet clover seeded with the grain.
One field is kept in alfalfa and ro-
tated once in five years. We keep
enough stock on the farm to untilize
the corn and hay. In the drier Sec
tions, and where the soil is in poor
condition, summer fallow to conserve
moisture and destroy weeds may be
necessary to put the land in condition
to be seeded down. The rotation would
have to be arranged with this condition
in mind.
Permanent Agriculture.
No extensive agricultural section
has yet devised system of farming
that will produce paying crops indef-
initely without applying mineral ele-
ments of fertility. The nearest ap-
proach is a system including the grow
ing of legumes, clover and alfalfa and
feeding livestock. One-half to two
thirds of the crops should be fed on
the farm, and the manure carefully
returned. Such system should pro-
long profitable production without the
need of applying commercial fertili-
zers for many years.
The exclusive growing of small
grains, as practiced in this region, is
the most wasteful system possible. It
is not really farming but more cor
rectly mining and selling soil fertil-
ity. The grain farmer, if he would
return all the straw and stubble, and
every third of fourth year plow under
a legume crop, such as sweet clover,
could greatly prolong profitable pro-
duction. Ultimately all soils will