OCR Text |
Show BURNING RUINS SCSL When you burn straw, cornstalks and other crop residues on the field you lose valuable nitrogen and destroy de-stroy organic matter vital to soil rebuilding re-building and crop production. If the stalks of a 100-bushel corn crop go up in smoke 6,500 pounds of organic matter and 55 pounds of nitrogen 1 mi are lost. When you light a match to a mature sweet clover crop, you lose about 150 pounds of nitrogen and three to four tons of organic matter. It takes more effort to plow these materials, under than it does to burn them, but an extra 10 to 20 bushels of corn per acre and a more fertile soil should be worth the extra ex-tra trouble. |