OCR Text |
Show Feedtht Land and It Will Feed You. The importance of having the greatest possible quantity of manure is generally understood by farmers, even when they fail to give proper attention to the matter. Every crop taken, from the land, every pound of meat sold from the farm, represents an ascertained amount of fertility withdrawn . And none will! i deny that we can not continue con-tinue to draw from the soil without making return any more than we can draw on the bank without making deposits. The best blooded cow ever stabled could not furnished rich milk upon a diet of straw. Now the bank that never fails and can not be broken, is Nature, and if we make the necessary deposits of fertilizing matter into the soil we can be sure of getting bac': the principal with good interest. A good crop of wheat say 25 bushels has taken out of the soil in the form of straw about 16 lbs. nitrogen, 23.2 lbs. potash and 10.4 lbs. of phosphoric i acid; in the form of grain 27 lbs. nitrogen, 8.1 lbs. potash and 12 lbs. phosphoric acid; making a total drain of 43 lbs. nitrogen, 31.3 lbs. potash and 22.4 lbs. phoshoric acid. It will take three tons of good un-leached un-leached barnyard manure to restore those elements, to the soil. Our richest soils can not endure such drains for many years without showing show-ing it. Our uplands have to a great extent been so impoverished that it will cost the value of the land to restore re-store them to their original vigor, and our wonderful bottoms, although frequently enriched by floods and clover, do not yield as heavy as when they were new. When farmers pay as much attention to raising the the highest quantity of manure of highest quality, it will be comparatively compara-tively easy matter to raise premium crops. Feed your land and it will feed you. Agricultural Epitomist. |