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Show Legumes, Fertilizer Re-Build Worn Field Most Soil Will Produce If Cared for Properly The teamwork of legumes, grasses grass-es and plenty of fertilizer made the difference between these two fields in Huntington County, Indiana, points out the middle west soil improvement im-provement committee. The barren field in the upper photo had 6 feet of soil removed at the deepest point for road fill. It had no soil care, no fertilizer. After Aft-er three years the field is still badly eroded, criss-crossed with gullies 2 to 3 feet deep. The lower field located on Norman Nor-man Thompson's farm near Huntington, Hunt-ington, had 8 feet of soil removed v . r wi i hfirAmsit .kk, !f$a.t Ai.it - - i The above fields are examples exam-ples of what can be done to build soil even on the most barren, bar-ren, eroded' fields. Given proper plant food and plenty of it, plus legume-grass mixture, most soil can be made to produce. from a hilltop, for road fill. As soon as the soil was carted off, Thompson added heavy applications of fertilizer carrying nitrogen, phosphate phos-phate and potash. Altogether, he used the equivalent of 600 pounds of plant food per acre approximately approxi-mately 250 pounds of 3-12-12 and 350 pounds of 0-20-0. No lime was needed, as the subsoil is almost neutral. Thompson seeded bluegrass and some ladino and red clover. The roots anchored well and soon built up a protective growth that yields good forage. Volunteer white clover clo-ver has come in to add to the pasture. pas-ture. Now Thompson uses the field for night pasture. |
