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Show Taking Plant Food From the Soil 3y Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins X . .Vet! ' :';-v K V . ; VA'-t'- X V-- V I ;-.-' :". . Vv VjU. :. iv-- ,', ,-if THRKH absolute essentials are of as great importance for plants as animals good bleeding, good feeding ami good care. In animal production each of these factors has as a rule received much consideration, i But in erop production tbo average farmer 1 does not give much attention lo the selection J of seed and does not provide plant food for the J crops. The farmer still practices every expedient ex-pedient Known I man to gel the fertility out of the soil without making any adequate return. re-turn. But some farmers are already adopting adopt-ing permanent systems of farming under which the soil grows positively richer and perm.inenily more productive Tho cost j"if all the farm op rations In growing the corn crop I just llie same whether we grow, forty or eighty bushels to the aero. Tho essentials in a system of farming that will increase nnd permanently maintain tho fertility and production of the common land of Illinois arc phosphorus, organic matter and limestone. Half a ton per acre of llnely ground natural rock phosphate every four years will be ample. For a lifty-bushel erop of corn we must plow- under the equivalent of e-lght tons of aveiafie farm manure, or two tons of clover reveals gross Ignorance of agricultural history his-tory and of ubsolute science, and for one to teae h such a doctrine Is a crime against posterity. pos-terity. Mathematics alone will show that the rotation of crops will no more maintain tho fertility of the soil than the rotation of t'-check t'-check book among the members of tlv- fan ily will maintain the bank account. But some one will ask. "Jjon't we get larger crops when wc rotate''" Certainly, and ib-n't vve also get more rnemey out eif the Ijanlc ' j rotating tho check book? It Is a fair comparison. com-parison. The official statistics of the- I'nlted Slates show that consumption has overtaken production. pro-duction. As an average of forty years vve have scarcely maintained our yield per acre, lu spite tf the use of new lands and im- ' provement in seed and In methods of cultl-atlon; cultl-atlon; and wo supporte 1 our increasing population pop-ulation only by Increasing our acreage: of cultivated land, and in laic years we have also been compelled to decrease our exportation exporta-tion of foodstuffs In order to maintain a hiv;h Etandard ef living. The FniteeJ States export more than a million tons a your of our richest phosphut-:-rock, receiving less than $'.0 no. fun) ;.t iiv mines. If this pho.phonis were applied to our own lands It would be worth to its and These Were Used to Produce a I00-Bus1icl-Ir-Acre Crop of Corn Man is trying to do two thinfrs keep his soils fertile and at the same time convert as much plant food as possible into farm products. MoJern machinery makes it possible to so cultivate land that prcat quantities of plant food arc released. Deep plowinej is rccogni.cd as an essential part of the work. Only that quantity of soil loosened sufficiently to permit free circulation of air will support ordinary farm crops; therefore, the deeper land is plowed the greater is the space over which roots can feed. Sixteen to eighteen inches is the depth land is plowed in Trance, where intensive agriculture agri-culture is practiced. hay, and whoever ran to do as much as mat will linnlly have soil that will not produce fifty bushels of corn per acre. That Is a plain. Imrd agricultural fact. The nitrogen of our soil l conlalne.1 only In the organic matter, which In our common soil consists of the partially decayed roots and residues ol prairie grasses or other vegetation. The grain and straw (or sialics) for one bush'-l of oats require one iMmnd eif nitrogen; nitro-gen; of corn, one and one-half pounds; of wheat, two pounds; a ton of timothy hay require re-quire s twenty-four pounds. When Ihe stalks or slravv Is burned one-third of the nitrogen In the crop Is lost. A ton of average manure contains ten pounds of nitrogen: a ton of clover hay. forty pounds, a ton of cey pea hay, forty-three pounds. The roots and stubble stub-ble of e lover do not return to the seill any more nitrogen than the crop lakes from the soil. Half the value of manure Is lost as a rule If it Is left exposed for three month-. I'-e enough limestone to correct I lie soil acidity about two tons per acre every four years to keep the soil swe. I. The phosphate and liim-stono will cost about $l.u" per acre a year. After this system sys-tem Is well under way the phosphate and limestone will add u ton per acre In the clover erop. ten bushels oT wheal and twenty bushels bush-els of corn above the n Ms without lime-Mono lime-Mono and phosphate. Th- proofs arc shown by absolute chemical analysis and by the accurate ac-curate results of hundred i of actual trials tin many experiment he-Ids Thus plots at th- I'nlvcrslty "f Illinois which lei I'd sixty-three sixty-three to sixty-six bushels per acre as n three-year three-year average when broken from the sod in 1S05, have as the average of the last Ihre? years iclde-d as fellows: With catch crops and crop residues, liftv-c Ight bushels per acre: with organic matter and limestone added, sixty-four buaheW; with organic mat-t.-r, limestone and phosphorus, ighty-se-ven bushels; phosphorus plots have grown aheiut on.- ton more- clover per acre. Hundreds of piailk-al, progressive formers form-ers In Illinois have been iisliii; phosphorus Iroiii one to live years. So f.n- as I have j li-ntned man has given the use of phos- , pborus a lair trial and been disappointed In the result seiurtd. Frank I. Mann, who farms r.'.ia acres In Iroquois county, Ilhneiis, has already o t red all of his li. l.ls with half a ton of rock phosphate per acre, except ing cheek strips, and part of the farm has ren ive.l the second application. Ills r sult-i show large hit reaso from the use of phosphate phos-phate during several previous years. Al Odin. III., as an average of the last six years limestone has Increased Ihe yield of uh.nt from fifteen to nineteen bushels, and both limestone uml phosphorus have increased in-creased the yield from fifteen to twenty-seven twenty-seven bustels. Many thousand tons of ground limestone are being iiicd each year by southern south-ern UllnoU farmers. There limestone Is of i the lirst importance, hut as soon as organic matt' r can be plowed under, phosphate should also b added, while on the era belt soils phosphorus should lirst be applied, especially espe-cially for the benefit of o,r. clover crop, nml ,m most of the- older soils limestone also. But tlv organic matter of the soil must al.-io be maintained by plowing under much eiovcr and all .produce except the grain, or by using all pro'luco for feed and bedding and returning return-ing all manure to the land with the least possible lo.'.", I'or any one to believe that crop rotation Hnno will maintain the fertility of the foil our children not t.'i.OeKi.O"". but at least $1.-Oaa.OOO.nuo. $1.-Oaa.OOO.nuo. If you had a IMO-aere farm upon which you and your children mut depend it would Ik- altogether sensible, vv l-e arid l.-u.-J-nessllke to sell forty acres at SL'OO mii acre und Invest the money in I.Oih) tons of phos- phalc. with v. bleh ou could double the phosphorus phos-phorus content eif the remaining 200 acres. pon't use burnt lime, whit It Is very expensive ex-pensive and tends to burn out the organic matter ef tin; soli and to destroy eir waste the nitrogen; apply tlm natural limestone. When you apply phosphorus don't use small amounts of manufactured, acidulated, high-priced high-priced commercUl fertilizers, which serve as soil stimulants and which have been us..d so exten-lvely In the eastern states In systems which b-d only toward ultimate land ruin; but use large amounts of steamed bonemeal In emergencies, or, bettor still, larger amounts of line ground natural rock phosphate, neither of which will ever Injure any soli. 1-t us have one state In the union whoso soil shall not be ruined and whose children shall not be left with only a memory or tradition of the bountiful harvests of former years. |