The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1927-09-15
SOIL FERTILITY PROBLEMS

!
One of the fundamental prob
LENS in any agricultural section is
> soil fertility one. since the soil
is the basis of all agriculture. To
obtain the fundamental soil. fer
tility problems are neglected until
such a time as the soils have lost
much of their original fertility and
farming becomes more or less diff
ficult because of the depleted fer
tility. The sooner any community
or any individual farmer comes to
a well balanced soil program the
better off he will be for the future.
"A study of three of the main
crops produced in this section UNI
der irrigation, and namely. alfalfa,
potatoes and corn shows that po-
fash is the main element of soil
fertility. We do not have figures
available for the truck crops
grown here nor for the orchard
crops grown. We shall try to Sc
cure these some time in the future
and include in future news ar
ticle. information on fertilization
of the orchard lands. A further
study of the three crops named
above also shows that they are ra-
Their heavy feeders upon nitrogen
and in the case of alfalfa. excep-
tionally heavy feeder upon cal
cium. Since the above crops with
the exception of alfalfa are heavy
feeders upon nitrogen and all of
them heavy feeders upon potash
and alfalfa a heavy feeder upon
lime or calcium, these are the main
elements to which we must give
attention in the working out of our
soil fertility problem if these three
crops are to be grown to any ex-
tent in the general farm program.
From the standpoint of nitrogen,
if alfalfa is grown regularly in ro-
tation it should add to the soil
enough nitrogen to replace that
removed by other crops. If sweet
clover was added to the rotation
there certainly would be no need
of addition of nitrates since these
plants are able, thru the bacteria
on their roots to draw upon the
nitrogen of the air.
When we consider the potash
problem, however, there is no way
of maintaining the potash supply
in the soil other than by feeding of
crops raised on the soil and the ap-
plication of the manure to the land
or by purchasing commercial fer
tilizers which carry this out. In
the application of manure a study
of analysis shows that in all cases
the large part of the potash is in
the liquid manure which means
that special measures must be tax
en- to preserve this part of the ma
nure, which in 95 cases out of 100
is left to leach away into the soil.
A LIQUID manure also carries a
large part of the nitrates. with the
exception of that from cattle, when
the liquid manure carries about so
percent of the nitrates. While it is
not essential that the manure sup
ply be protected from the weather
in this country it is very important
that all of it be saved and either
be applied directly to the field or
placed in pit where none of the
elements will be lost.
When it comes to the purchase
of commercial fertilizers for gen.
eral farm purposes they are usual
" found to be much more expen-
sive than the preservation of, the
manure which may be produced
on the farm and the purchase of
the commercial fertilizer means a
cash outlay where the care of fer
tilizer produced on the farm is
largely time outlay on which the
farmer may earn by labor expend-
ed.
This topic of soil fertility will
be taken up later when we come
to the point where we are better
acquainted with individual prob
lens. We shall welcome inquiries
or questions from farmers on any
of the soil fertility problems.