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Show Soil and Crop Improvement By J. O. HO GENS ON, Agronomist A. O . Experiment Station. Tho question of improving tho farm crops of our stato is a very important one, becauso if wo aro ablo to inoreaso our yield even one bushel per acre it will mean considerable increased wealth to tho particular individual growing tho crop and also to tho stato. Improvement Improve-ment depends upon a great many factors, fac-tors, all of which aro important. First. Wo must havo a fertile soil in which to grow our crops, for no matter mat-ter how improved or highly specialized the crop, nothing can bo secured from an infertile soil. The fertility of a soil depends upon a number of things, among which wo may mention: (a) Soil texture, that is, a Hoil must bn looso and mellow so that the roots of plants, water and air can enter it freely. 1 ho texture of a soil depends not so much upon tho sizo of tho individual in-dividual soil grains which coustituto a soil as upon the way these soil grains are grouped together into compound kernels or clusters. In a soil that ia in good tilth these compound kernels aro neither-too largo nor too small nor arc they too firmly connected together. (b) - Soil Moisture A soil to bo fertile' fer-tile' must have a sufficient amount of moi8turo to supply the plant with all , that it requires Plants take a great deal of food from tho soil by menus of their roots. They tako no solid food, however, so that all that it gets must be dissolved in the' soil moisture and only that xiart of the soil moisturo which surrounds, sur-rounds, tho soil grains, or film moisture, is of ubo to the plants. (c) Plant Food A fortilo soil must contain an abundant supply of available avail-able plant food. (d) Air ia essential to a fertile soil, not only becauso tho root3 of plants must have oxygen, but also because it acts chemically upon certain compounds that exist in tho soul which aro not availablo to tho plant as food and render ren-der them solublo so that plants can make use of them. Not only this, but there aro certain bqneficial bacteria in the soil which also help greatly in increasing increas-ing the fertility of the soil, especially whero decaying organic matter is present. pres-ent. These bacteria break down the existing compounds and leave in return re-turn compounds that tho plants can use in their growth, but whero air i? not present, these bacteria rcfuso to work and instead a class of bacteria begins to work which breaks down the compounds com-pounds existing in the soil that plants can uso and leaves other compounds instead that plants cannot use. (c) Heat A certain amount of heat is necessary for the full growth and development de-velopment of plants. A. great deal of this heat conies from the sun. If a field is left perfectly . smooth a largo per cent of the heat which falls upon it will be absorbed and retained by tho soil for the benefit of tho plant. If tho field is left rough and cloddy nearly all tho heat is used up in warming up tho clods and then escapes into the air, so that very littio of it is beneficial to the plant. (f) A certain amount of organic matter is necessary, because organic niatlor contains many of tho plant foods necessary and also helps to warm tho. Eoil and make it more open so that air and water can enter it more freely and be held there. Second. Improvement depends upon proper tillage of tho soil. Deep plowing, which forms a deep root run and allows moro. moisture to be stored there. Cultivation Cul-tivation and harrowing which cxposo the least possible turfacc, keep weeds in check and form a mulch which prevents pre-vents the escape of tljp moisturo already in tho soil. Third. m Improvement depends upon tho adding of substances to the soil which havo been taken away by previous prev-ious crops. Plant improvement never can take place in a soil whero crops havo boon growing year after year and nothing returned. 'Every crop takes a certain amount of food out of tho soil which must bo added in order to keep up the fertility of that soil. Barnyard manure is tho best fertility restorer, in certain parts of the United States they uso chemical fertilizers, but theso aro expensive and aro n'ot so good as manure. Somo persons grow a crop and plow it under. This is called green manuring and is a splendid way of restoring re-storing soil fertility, especially if tho cron plowed under is a leguminous crop, sucli as alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, or an' pod-bearing plant. These havo the power of storing up nitrogen, a vor3F important im-portant plant food, so that it can bo used by future crops. Sow Good Seed. Fourth. Improvement in crops depend de-pend upon good seed being sown. By good seed is meant largo, plump, heavy kernels of ono variety of grain, free from weeds, smut or other diseases. Farmers are too careless in selecting their seed. A higher price is always paid for a pure variety than is paid for a mixturo of several varieties or grades, Thcroforc, wjiatover tho crop might be, sow a straight grade, one variety, puro seed. It has been demonstrated time and again that large, plump, heavy seeds produco superior and more productive plants than do small, shrunken kernels. Not only that, but a majoritj of the largest and plumpest grams aro always found in the largest hoads. This being tho case, if we then select, by hand if necessary, the largest and most productive produc-tive heads in our fields and sow theso in a breeding plot, it will not be long until wo shall have an improved variety va-riety of grain, potatoes, corn or whatever what-ever tho crop is. A farmer should know the viability of his seeds. By a viablo seed is meant one having life enough to germinate. It is not only necessary that they germinate, but the- must germinate germ-inate strongly aud vigorously. Tho sprouts from weak seeds are easily killed by adverse conditions. A strong , and vigorous seed will bo ablo .to withstand with-stand a great mauy harmful conditions. All seeds planted should bo tested. This is best dono by taking two common plates aud putting into ono a picco of blotting paper well moistened with water. Now count out ouc hundred seeds of those you wish to test and placo them on tho moistened blotter, cover with the other plate, add sufficient water from time to timo to keep tliG blotter moist. The number of seeds that germinate will give you tho per cent of your seeds that will grow. One Way of Bettering Crops. Another way of improving farm crops is to grow crops well suited to our purposo pur-poso and to sow seeds well adapted to grow under our conditions. Plants aro like human beings nnd aro greatly influenced in-fluenced by tho environment in which they have doveloped. Thus a crop that has" been grown for a number of years under irrigation will not do well under arid conditions, becauso it has not adapted itself to grow under thoBe conditions. con-ditions. Likowiso plants that have been grown in a warm climate will not do well in a cold climate, becauso it has not adapted itself for such environment. There arc many other factors that influence in-fluence tho improvement of farm crops, the most important of which bear directly di-rectly on the improvement of plants by selection and breeding. I hope to deal with theso two factors in a future article. ar-ticle. . I |
