THE ESSENTIALS
OF SOIL FERTILITY

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THE ESSENTIALS OF
SOIL FERTILITY

Copyright, 1910, by
The Stockman-Farmer Publishing Company
Pittsburgh, Pa.

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The Essentials of
Soil Fertility |

BY
ALVA AGEE

2X

“The Fertility of Our Soil Is
the Salvation of Our Country”’

Published by
The Stockman-Farmer Publishing Company

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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FOREWORD

HIS little book has been printed for practical
people. It seeks to present the facts about

soil fertility in such a plain and concise way that
any reader may know the essential needs of his soil
and the rational way of supplying those needs. It
packs together into small space the teachings of
The National Stockman and Farmer on soil fertility.

ALVA AGEE

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
September 1, 1910

FOURTH EDITION, MARCH, 1913

The Essentials of Soil Fertility

CHAPTER I

A PLAIN FARMER’S CREED
BY Sermon on the experts can take the plain

“Sermon on the Mount” and write so learnedly
and so much that a plain citizen can’t tell right
from wrong in the simplest matters. Scientists can go
so deep into problems of soil fertility that their results
mean nothing at all to the man who has a living to
make from land. Turning aside from the cart-loads
of figures that are drawn out of experimental fields
and laboratories each year, and from the theories of
highly refined scientific minds, we know that the prac-
tical means of making land productive are simple and
easily understood.
There are only four essential things to consider in
converting all the thin fields between the Mississippe
rwer and the Atlantic seaboard into productive land.

DRAINAGE

The first thing is drainage. Much of our land has
natural drainage, and this problem does not enter.
Other land is wet—water-soaked. We know what
that means. Air cannot enter to help make the inert
plant food available. Friendly bacteria cannot work
for us. Plant roots: will not penetrate into the stag-

7

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

nant soil. We cannot plant in season nor cultivate
as we should. The soil is water-sealed when we want
it to be active. Such land must have drainage.

Usually we should under-drain, and tile is the best
material. But each man may solve his problem in his
own way. If surface ditches will secure the end, well
and good. If a deep-running plow will break up a
hard-pan that prevents escape of water, that is fine.
If stone drains are preferred, they can be used. Ifa
profitable crop can be found which thrives in a rather
wet soil, that is another solution to the problem.
Most plants want a well-drained soil. If they are to
be grown, and the land has an excess of moisture,
drainage of some sort is essential. It is one of the
four considerations when there is unproductive land
to be put into profitable condition.

DESTRUCTION OF ACIDS

The second plain requirement is that the soil be
sweet. Very much land is acid. The area grows
greater year by year. The acid condition is unfavor-
able to many kinds of plants, and notably so in the
ease of the clovers. Low wet land or high sandy land
may be sour. Infertile land usually is sour in the
eastern half of this country. Don’t waste time argu-
ing the point with men whose land does not need lime.
Let them believe as they may: no harm can result,
because their soil is sweet. But lime your own land
if it is acid, and do it quickly. This is the second
essential, and there is no way of getting around an
essential,

—

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY
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ORGANIC MATTER

The third factor is vegetable matter in the soil.
Nature recognizes this by constant effort to produce
vegetation for itself. It is the thing nature does for
its old, thin, abandoned lands. Rotting vegetation
helps to release inert mineral plant food in a soi), \It
helps physical condition, and that is iraportant. It’ en-
ables land to hold moisture, and that is a vital matter.
It is plant food for another crop. Stable manure, the
clovers, grass, weeds—all these supply organic matter,
and this is the third essential. Anything that grows
and rots helps, but some things are much better than
others. Most thin fields are woefully deficient in or-
ganic matter.

AVAILABLE PLANT FOOD

We may have drainage, sweetness of soil, and or-
ganic matter, and yet lack some available plant food;
and a plant must be fed just as surely as an animal
must be fed. Commercial fertilizers supply this need.
Some soils have no needs of any kind. Thin soils al-
ways need some available plant food—some nitrogen,
phosphoric acid or potash, and usually all three until
improvement is well under way. When the clovers
are well established, or manure is freely used, we may
be able to drop the use of commercial nitrogen. Ex-
perience will tell its own story about this.

THE RIGHT ORDER

The first matter is drainage. The next one is cer-
tainty that no acids are crippling our efforts and the
efforts of the soil to help itself. The next thing is to

9

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

supply stable manure or decaying plant roots and
stubble—heavy sods or other growth of vegetation.
Then we can have good physical condition and ability
to hold moisture during drought. The rotting vegeta-
tion makes available a part of the old, inert stores of
material in what was a worthless soil. Then we only
supplement the supply of fertility, as needed, by the
use of commercial fertilizers.

THE DIFFERENCE

Of course good tillage is needed—that goes with-
out saying. So is good seed, and many other things.
But the difference between the hundreds of thou-
sands of acres of poor land and the good land is one
embracing only the four essentials mentioned, and
often only three or two of them. The land can be
taken out of the nearly worthless class and put into
the productive class by intelligent supply of the one,
two, three or four things that chance to be needed.
The problem is not an intricate one. Thousands of
men have solved it for themselves, and they did it in
this way, because it is the one way. When a soil has
a need, it can not be fooled into believing all is well
till the need has been supplied.

THE BIG PROBLEM

Some scientists may say, with a fine conservatism,
that we do not know that there is any soil acidity,
any actual soil exhaustion, any direct need of the
plant food in a fertilizer. What of it! The owner of
land has a living to make, and all he has to do is to
brush aside the cobwebs of the ultra-scientific soul

10

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL- FERTILITY
ee ee

and make the soil productive. The factors are four
in number, and he may have to supply all, or only
one, two, or three. The land must have drainage,
freedom from acids, organic matter and plenty of
available plant food. Then it will produce, despite all
theories.

The big problem is to do what is needed in the
most profitable way. What will pay? That is the
question. If land must be cropped, it will pay to
provide the four essentials, if all four are lacking. Is
it drainage? How much and in what way shall we
drain? Is it soil acidity? When and how heavily
shall we lime? Is it organic matter? How can we
get it to best advantage? That involves crop rota-
tions, the making of manure, the use of sods and
green manures, etc., etc. Is it available plant food
that we must have? What proportion and what
amounts of the elements of plant food will pay best ?
The problem is one of best means, but we know what
we are after: drainage, sweet soil conditions, organic
matter and plant food.

it

CHAPTER Il

THE FIRST ESSENTIAL
DRAINAGE OF WET LAND

Wet land cannot earn the money needed for
investment in its own improvement. <A soil having
natural drainage may be thin, but under good man-
agement it can grow better, helping the owner to the
means for its betterment. Wet land is helpless. The
money to put it into paying condition must come
from the outside. There is the difficulty—the big
obstacle. I don’t like to urge under drainage as
insistently as I would urge the growing of vegetable
matter for thin soils; because the drainage, on any
large scale, means a new investment, often equal to
half the selling price of the land.’ It means debt to
the man whose income has been solely from a wet
farm. ‘Thorough under-drainage is a big proposition.

I know the cost of under-drainage, because I have
put miles of it in land so heavy and wet that laterals
could not be placed farther apart than 32 to 40 feet.
Equally I know the profit on such investment, the
drainage changing Jand that could not earn any net |
profit into land that could earn the entire cost of
drainage m a single season. In two or three fields it
did more than this. An investment of twenty to
thirty dollars an acre for improvement cannot be
made on some land with safety, and it seems prohibi-
tive to most owners of wet farms, but there is a

lz

Oats and Peas—A Good Forage That Enriches the Soil
13

It Pays to Provide the Proper Fertilizer for Hay
14

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

rational way of attacking this problem of drainage
that most men can adopt with safety and profit.

BEGINNING TO DRAIN

Any farmer could and would invest a small sum
in drainage if he knew the cost would be repaid
quickly. If he has a fairly productive field contain-
ing a few wet acres that delay plowing and planting
of the whole field each year, and that cut down the
yield of the whole field, there is the place to make
the first investment. Make that wet part of the field
the driest part and the most productive part by
means of drainage, and see how quickly the money
returns. The experiment gives practical experience
in under-drainage, cash returns and plenty of faith to
push the work of continued under-drainage. Be con-
tent to try the matter out on a few acres and know
for yourself what drainage can do in increasing yields
per acre. Then you will begin to drain more land
because you know you can not afford to let it remain
wet.

THE FIRST THING TO DO

Many farms remain wet and unproductive because
their owners do not know anything about drain tile
and the right way to do the work. The whole matter
looks difficult. But it is not. Plain common sense
dictates everything that is necessary to do in under-
draining land. The first thing is to learn how good
drain tile can be delivered to the farm for the least
money. Write to manufacturers and dealers. <Ac-
quaint yourself with prices at the factories for the

15

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

various sizes. [earn about freight rates in car lots. A
few letters will let you know the best price on each
size that may be used, and a measuring tape will let
you know how much tile you propose using in this
first undertaking. Lack of this kind of knowledge
stands in the way of many a beginning that would end
in much net profit.

THE OUTLET

Water wants to run down hill. The outlet is the
first point to locate. If the land is flat, use a sur-
veyor’s level. Don’t trust the eye nor any present im-
pression that the water can be carried in one direction
as easily as in another. A level usually surprises one
about the fall. ‘Try for an outlet that will never give
any trouble. Under-drainage should remain about as
permanent and enduring as the land itself, and that
means an outlet which attends to its work. But it
is better to drain into a ditch that requires watching
than not to under-drain at all.

The outlet must be lower than any point in the
drain. Water from above will force itself through a
depression in a drain for a time, but soon the depres-
sion fills with silt, and the drain is clogged. Every
foot of pipe must have ability to send the water on
toward the outlet.

THE’ GRADE

If the land is flat, have the grade established by an
engineer’s level. Don’t trust a mason’s level and your
eye. They may be all right when there is a lot of fall
—a foot or more to each one hundred feet—but worth-

16

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

less when the fall is slight. Drive a stake flush with
surface of ground at each one hundred foot station in
the lines of the proposed main.drain and all the lat-
erals. Get the levels of these stations. Then you can
know the depth of cut at each station to give the gradc
wanted. A fall of three inches to each one hundred
feet is excellent. I like it all the better when the fall
is more, but have laid much tile where the fall is less.
One big main went in with a fall of less than an inch
to the hundred feet. The only requirement for endur-
ing work is that the tile between stations goes in on
a practically perfect grade, and that is not difficult if
a system of cross strings is used to test each foot of
the drain between stations.

DEPTH OF UNDER-DRAINAGE

We under-drain to lower the level of the dead water
“n the ground. Plant roots cannot develop where the
pores of the soil are filled with stagnant water. The
soil is the feeding-ground of plants, and air is an
absolute requirement. The water which best serves
plants is held in films around the tiny particles of soil,
and drainage must be provided for naturally wet land
to remove anysurplus. The depth at which under-drains
work cffectively determines the amount of soil in
which plants may feed to best advantage. Ifthe ground
is of such character that it will become reasonably po-
rous after under-drainage, it is desirable that the drains
be at least three feet under the surface. Experience
has shown that much heavy land will not permit the
water from trenches to descend sufficiently rapidly to
drains three feet deep, and the owner of such land is

17

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL. FERTILITY

cautioned on this point. A depth of 30 inches is
safer for all land of close texture, and there are rela-
tively small areas of very plastic soils in which drain
tile should not be buried more than 24 to 28 inches.

LAYING THE TILE

Have the main a few inches lower than all laterals,
so that the water from the laterals will be drawn into
the main. You can buy tile with holes cut for con-
nection with laterals. ‘Take pains to have the connec-
tion close. Don’t leave any places for water to enter
freely from the soil above the connection. This
applies equally to every joint in the drain. When
laying tile, turn the piece around until it fits snugly
at the top. We want all the water to settle in the
soil and rise into the tile. That reduces the amount
of silt entering the drain.. Don’t fear the joint will be
too close. Pressure will send the water through the
closest joint that can be made. Fill the trench with
earth. The water will find the tile without aid of
straw, sods or stone placed over the tile. In most
soils, they may do harm and not good. The only
exception to this rule is a very plastic clay that will
remain nearly impervious to water. In ‘such a case, it
is best to keep the soil above the drain open by
means of foreign material.

SIZE OF TILE

As size of tile increases, cost runs up fast. We do
not want to waste money, and, on the other hand, a
main that will not carry off the water in time to save
a crop is worthless. A main should be leree enough

18

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

to carry all the water that the owner may ever want
to bring to it by extension of his system of drainage.
The area to be drained, the thoroughness of the drain-
age, and the amount of surface water coming from
higher land that is undrained, determine the size of
the main. The fall also is a factor. Ordinarily,
should expect a six-inch main to carry all the water
from a twelve-acre field, or a five-inch main to carry
the water from an eight-acre field, if no surface water
from other land ran down upon it. I should not use
tile less than five inches for a main if there were
many laterals to be joined to it.

The laterals should be small. They cost much less
and do the work perfectly when put into position in
a workmanlike manner. Many factories now make
nothing less than three inches in diameter. This
indicates that people do not like to trust a smaller
size. Formerly they used two-inch, and carelessness
in laying, causing depressions that finally filled with
silt, brought this size into disrepute. I have seldom
used anything larger than two-and-a-half inch tile for
laterals. Certainly the three-inch is abundantly large.

CHAPTER Ill

THE SECOND ESSENTIAL
THE RIGHT USE OF LIME

Lime may be applied to the soil to improve its
physical condition, and there are instances in which
it is needed as actual plant food; but I am chiefly
interested in lime as a means of keeping a soil
friendly to plant life through correction of acidity.
The tendency of all soils is to lose some of their stock
of available lime, and, when a lime deficiency comes
about, acids accumulate in the soil that make condi-
tions unfriendly to bacterial life and to our tultivated
plants. A large portion of the land outside of lime-
stone belts has parted with its available lime to a
point where a lime deficiency now exists, and this
condition is limiting the production of clover and
other crops. More than this, within our limestone
belts there is a rapidly 1 increasing area of soil which
has.a lime deficiency. I live in a limestone valley at
State College, Pennsylvania, and our scientists find
that much of the land on the College farm does not
now contain enough lime in available form to keep
the soil sweet. The land is becoming acid, and
requires applications of lime to correct acidity just as
truly as does very much of the land outside of the
limestone areas. When we first began to turn new
land with a breaking-plow, doubtless a diminution of

the supplies of available lime occurred, and, as the sou
: 20

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

was kept loose by means of tillage and crops were
taken from the land, the store of lime was gradually
reduced by leaching and by removal and by chemical
change as acids formed, and it appears now that it is
only a matter of time when practically all soil will
reach a point where a lack of: available lime will
become apparent. Some of you have land that pro-
duced good clover twenty years ago and is now
beginning to refuse to graw clover. Others of you
have land that is producing good clover today, but
will probably reach the point of lime deficiency and
impaired power to grow clover a generation hence.
The point which I would emphasize is that the lime
in our soil which is so essential to healthful plant
conditions tends to grow less in amount as the years
go by. Within our own life-time, we have seen a
large proportion of our tillable lands reach the point
where there is not enough lime to take care of harm-
ful soil acids, and as the years come the area of such
land will grow greater. This is not a pleasing situa-
tion to contemplate, but it is a condition that must
be met. ‘There is only one cure for soil acidity, and
that is to apply something to correct it and to give
to the plants friendly soil conditions.

SWEETEN THE SOIL

The vital question before tens of thousands of
practical farmers today is, what shall be done to
restore their soils to a condition friendly to clovers.
Many say that lime costs too much ,and that its
application is unpleasant, and -they are not fully con-
vinced that it would be profitable. I want to urge

21

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

that if the soil is becoming acid, and if the organic
matter is deficient because heavy sods cannot be
grown and plowed down, there is no way to bring
the land up to high-cropping ‘power except to apply
the one natural element for the correction of these
bad soil conditions, and that is lime. Men who
abused the use of lime years ago applied one hundred
to two hundred bushels per acre. It is not such a
liming that we are urging today. I am not even urg-
ing lime to benefit the physical condition of your
land, although oftentimes applications for this pur-
pose would pay well; but I am urging that soils be
kept sweet, and that means the presence of sufficient
available lime to take care of all the harmful acids
that tend continually to accumulate in land that -is
deficient in hme.

HOW MUCH LIME?

The only way to tell how much lime should be ap-
plied is try out the matter through experiment. If
your land today refuses to grow clover, the chances
are that you will see a wonderful difference in the
growth if only a thousand pounds of lime per acre be
applied. I know land that has greatly increased its
clover production by the application of only five hun-
dred pounds per acre. In a general way, if clovers are
refusing to grow or if general conditions are unfavor-
able to other sods, one should apply a thousand pounds
per acre. If the land is decidedly acid, and lime not
excessively high in price, he will do well to use one
ton of lime per acre. I mean one ton of lump lime er
its equivalent in slaked lime or pulverized limestone.

22

Small Fruits for the Farm Home
23

Rape Is a Succulent Forage

24

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

WHAT FORM?

Many farmers are asking what form of lime they
should use. The correct answer depends upon the cost
of the material. Pulverized lime, which is limestone
burned into lime, and then made mechanically fine in
order.that it may be distributed with ease, contains
the greatest possible amount of material for correcting
soil acidity. When lime has been slaked with water,
its weight has been increased, while its ability to correct
acidity has not been increased. One ton of lump lime
will correct about as much acidity, roughly speaking.
as two tons of finely pulverized limestone. If the
limestone could be made as fine as flour, so that every
particle were available in the soil, two tons of the lime-
stone would correct somewhat more acidity than one
ton of lime, but, as we find the pulverized limestone on
the market, it is safe to say that it is not fine enough
to permit two tons to be as effective as one ton of the
pulverized lime. The so-called “new process” lime on
the market is a lime which has been slaked by steam,
and therefore has had its weight increased without any
addition of ability to correct acidity. One ton of this
“new-process” lime cannot correct as much soil acidity
as one ton of pulverized lime. On the other hand, the
ease of application is a great consideration. ‘“New-pro-
cess” lime is easy to handle, and on that account may
be worth as much to the farmer as the pulverized lime
which is unslaked and must be drilled into the ground
before it slakes, unless one is willing to be troubled by
burst packages.

Pulverized limestone can be handled with compara-

25

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

tive ease; but the buyer must remember that he is
paying for the transportation of a large amount of
waste material in the pulverized limestone, as nearly
one-half of it is worthless so far as correction of acidity
is concerned. It is a mere matter of arithmetic to de-
termine how much soil acidity can be corrected with
the least amount of money, the first cost of material
and the transportation and the ease of application be-
ing considered.

HOW SHOULD LIME BE APPLIED?

When the general need. of lime is more fully ap-
preciated, there will be a greater demand for lime
spreaders. Several firms are making spreaders that
handle lime in smiall quantities per acre. Where lime
is Inexpensive and the farmer can afford to apply forty
or fifty bushels per acre, he will find that the manure
spreader will do fairly even work; but when lime is
costly and only one thousand pounds per acre should
be applied, the manure spreader is not satisfactory.
The Ohio Experiment Station had a lime spreader
made ata local blacksmith shop at a total cost of
seventeen dollars. A V-shaped box was used with an
axle passing through the box and furnishing a fairly
good force feed. Old mower wheels were used for this
spreader, and it gave good satisfaction. Some grain
drills with fertilizer attachments are capable of apply-
ing five hundred to one thousand pounds of lime
per acre, but I think most men: fail to get such
results from their drills, and the thing to do is to
purchase lime spreaders that will apply any amount
from a few hundred pounds to a ton or two per acre.

26

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

The easiest way to make lime applications is none
too good.
DO NOT PLOW DOWN

Lime should not be plowed down. The old way
was to apply one to two hundred bushels of lime per
acre on the sod and to let it lie for months and then
plow it down. Inthe case of such heavy applications,
the more waste the better for the land ; but when lime
costs several dollars a ton the right way is to get the
greatest possible effectiveness out of it, and that means
working the lime into the surface of the soil after the
land has been broken for the crop. The tendency of
lime always is downward. Do not plow lime down,
but bring it into contact with the free acid in the top
soil. Let it become mixed with the top soil and make
it sweet.

HOW TO VIEW LIMING

We often are asked whether lime will increase
the yield of corn and wheat and other crops. If land
is sour, containing harmful acid, the sweetening of
that land with lime will result in increased yield of
almost any staple product, but we do not urge any
one to apply lime for the sake of increase in yield of
corn, wheat and similar crops. We wish the farmer
to take a different view-point. If his land is in an
unhealthy state and lime will put: it into a condition
friendly to plants, the thing to do is to correct that
soil with’ lime. and, when that has been done, he
should have in mind first the production of a heavy
clover sod. The increase in yield of wheat or corn is
incidental. The vital thing is to make the land

27

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

friendly to all plants, especially clover, because in
most farm crop rotations clover is fundamental, and
continued productiveness of the soil depends largely
upon it. As clover usually is seeded either with oats
or wheat, the lime may be drilled into the ground
while preparing the seed bed for oats or for wheat.
If the farmer prefers, he can drill the lime into the
ground when preparing land for corn, although I am
sure that a larger amount per acre will be necessary
than when applying the lime immediately previous
to the seeding to clover.

I have tried to impress these facts: The tendency
of soils is toward lime deficiency. Limestone soils
themselves gradually lose some available lime. Maxi-
mum crops can be obtained only from neutral or alka-
line soils. As lands grow old, we shall be compelled to
apply more and more lime to keep the soil sweet, and
we can get that lime out of stone lime, pulverized or
slaked lime or finely pulverized limestone. The day
will come when we will realize that the Creator
placed beds of limestone in our lands for the benefit
of humanity, just as He placed the coal beds. Just
as the coal is an accumulation of material for the
benefit of the human race, so is our limestone an
accumulation of material to satisfy deficiencies that
will continue more and more to occur in our tillable
soils as long as the earth stands. If there were no
supplies of lime, we probably could look forward only
to the day when our soils would be rank with poison-
ous acids and wholly unfriendly to plant life.

28

CHAPTER IV

THE THIRD ESSENTIAL
ORGANIC MATTER
When land has been robbed through the greed of

its owner and has been abandoned, nature imme-
diately begins the work of: restoration. All land
which once was in productive condition contains
large stores of inert plant food, and an unproductive
condition has resulted in part from the removal of all
vegetable matter. Nature’s first effort is to produce
some vegetation through whose growth and decay
comes about some increase in the availability of the
natural stores of fertility. A growth of weeds and
briars and bushes is made the first season, and when
the leaves and stalks and roots decay there is ability
in the soil to produce a larger growth of vegetation
the next year. Handicapped as is the abandoned soil
by the greed of man, and helpless with respect to
selection of the best possible plants to renew the sup-
ply of humus, the soil makes use of whatever variety
of plants is possible to it and in time there is a return
to better productive condition. Organic matter is the
life of the soil, and the means of supplying it is the
vital consideration after we have been assured of
drainage and freedom from acidity.

STABLE MANURE

There is a limit to the amount of stable manure
that may be made, because there is a limit to the

29

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

amount of soil products that should be furnished the
human race in the form of animal products. The man
who advises that all of the soil products of a farm
be fed to animals, and that other feeding stuffs
be purchased to make good any loss of fertility
resulting from feeding and sale of live-stock, has no
solution of the soil-fertility problem for the world.
The human race must be supplied with other food
than meat and milk, and the scheme of creation must
have provided for the maintenance of soil fertility,
while land furnished bread and vegetables and fruit
to those who would not be farmers.

If there were an abundance of manure on all farms,
the factor of organic matter in soils would need little
consideration. When the manure rotted in the soil, it
would improve the texture of the ground, assist in
holding moisture and add plant food. But there is
not enough manure to keep all the land supplied with
organic matter, and dependence must be placed upon
plants. We may get the material from their roots
and stubble, as is usual in the case of the clovers and
grasses, or from the entire plant. When the supply of
manure is light, it pays best to use it to grow a heavy
sod for plowing down. It can be made to supply more
organic matter indirectly than it does directly. The
owner of thin land who has a limited supply of manure
should accept the thought that in his case the chief
function of manure is to produce heavy sods which
will supply vegetable matter. In his case enough of
the farm supply of manure will be kept in the surface
soil to furnish the most favorable conditions to young
clover and grass plants when starting life. He will

30

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

plow manure deeply only after he has used a sufficient
part of the farm supply as a top-dressing to insure
sods.

CLOVERS

Immense importance attaches to the care and use
of the manure now made. Present wastes are enor-
mous. The supplies, however, should be supplemented
by the legumes. There would hardly be a limit to the
supply of organic matter from the clovers if we would
meet the conditions for successful clover growing. On
two-thirds of the land from the Mississippi river to
the seaboard there has been a tendency to accept
the idea that the clovers cannot be made to grow
successfully.

In the northern states the varieties in common use
are medium red, mammoth and alsike. They have
been failing more and more, and land has grown
deficient in organic matter and less productive. There
are limited areas in which disease has caused failure,
but in the vast majority of cases the inability to grow
clover can be overcome. Drained land, made sweet
with lime and given proper applications of fertilizer,.
can be brought to the production of heavy clover sods.
Some who read this will doubt the statement, but
within the last few years the certainty of it has been
established by thousands of men on all kinds of soils:
We can get the clover, and it does not pay to doubt
the fact.

CHOICE OF VARIETY

Medium red clover is a great soil builder when
given a chance. It produces two crops and we can

31

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

harvest one of the two without any great injury to
the soil. This may be the first crop, the second crop
being plowed down. Or, we may clip the first crop,
making a rich mulch, and then take off a crop of
seed. When we take both crops we rob the land
of organic matter unless manure comes back to it.
Medium red clover also makes a big growth of roots.
When a soil is not water-logged, and has been sweet-
ened with lime, medium red has no superior in ability
to build up fertility.

Where drainage is less good, and where there is
some deficiency in lime, the alsike is surer. It does
not equal medium red or the mammoth as a soil
builder, nor does it make as much hay per acre,
but it is excellent, nevertheless, and a good plan
is to mix alsike and red when seeding doubtful
ground. The alsike seed is small, and a mixture
of one bushel of alsike to five bushels of medium
ted is good.

The mammoth makes only one crop. It makes
coarse hay, and falls badly when seeded alone. It is
a good mixture with timothy, ripening later than the
medium red. The latter is the better for fertility if
its second crop is left on the ground.

It would be great if crimson clover could be
grown throughout the northern states. It is a winter
annual, like wheat. Crimson clover can not be sown
with success in the spring. The outcome would be
much as in the case of winter wheat sown in the
spring. If it were a hardy plant, our northern states
would have the best possible winter cover crop. If
people inoculated the soil for it, as they do for alfalfa,

32

The Large Roots of an Alsike Clover Plant

33

Fruit and Truck Farm Kept in a High State of Fertility

A Market-Garden on Soil That Has Been Made Rich

a 34

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

the day would come when much larger areas in the
North would grow this clover with success.

GRASS SODS

The grasses can furnish a large amount of organic
matter to land, and would be soil builders if used
aright. The chief trouble is that we do not fertilize
grass sods so that they will be heavy, and do not
plow them down when heavy. We use them to skin
the soil rather than to build it up. A heavy grass
sod, turned under with some aftermath, adds largely
to the soil’s supply of vegetable matter, and therefore
to productive power. We are learning tnat it pays
better to fertilize a sod than to fertilize the crop fol-_
lowing the grass. The investment makes double
returns.

OTHER SOURCES OF ORGANIC MATTER

When land is not growing a crop to be harvested,
it should be producing organic matter for itself.
Soils produce plants on account of their hunger for
vegetable matter that may rot and thereby increase
their productivity. A part of that which the soil
produces belongs to it by natural right, and when any
man’s scheme of farming provides for the removal
of a greater part of the soil’s production than right-
fully belongs to him, the land is on the road toward
infertility. Many of our best farmers find it possible
to give to the land its share of that which is pro-
duced by making free use of catch crops. They may
be grown after the removal of the regular crop in
the rotation, or they may be grown with some of

385

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

these crops. Frequently they may take the place of
some crop whose failure was inevitable on account of
conditions that could not be controlled. In warm
latitudes, the southern field pea and crimson clover
are peculiarly valuable because they add large stores
of nitrogen while supplying organic matter. Farther
north, the Soy bean takes the place occupied by the
southern field pea in the south. It will thrive in
any good corn soil. Winter vetch is another valuable
legume. Rye is the surest winter cover crop for
northern latitudes and has considerable value. Any
plant that adds organic matter to the ground adds
productive power, provided there is lime’ in the soil
to unite with the acids produced by the rotting
plant.

36

CHAPTER V

THE FOURTH ESSENTIAL
AVAILABLE PLANT FOOD

When we consider our soil-fertility problem simply
and broadly, there are those who accept the statement
that drainage, soil sweetness and organic matter are
essentials, but they believe that these three are the
only essentials; and that I am all wrong in naming a
fourth—commercial fertilizers. Again there are those
who accept the fourth, but don’t see anything simple
about proper selection of commercial fertilizers, while
they do know how to drain, to sweeten a soil, and to
work out the best way of getting plenty of organic
~natter.

THE NEED

The first class may have a soil well filled with
available fertility. There is such land. The day will
come when its supply of mineral plant food will run
too low for maximum production. Then will be the
time to replenish it. Nature stored up great deposits
for this purpose. But many farmers on naturally rich
land, or land receiving stable manure, are failing to get
the best yields of grain, potatoes, etc., because they
do not supply some phosphoric acid and potash—
especially the former. The clover and the manure
supply nitrogen which makes a rank growth of stalk
and leaf, but the yield of grain is not in proportion,
because phosphoric acid is lacking.

37

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

WHAT “FO APELY

It is easier to find out that certain quantities of
certain elements will bring some net profit than it is
to learn what application will bring’ the most net
profit. It is the best net profit that one wants, and. I
reckon that few ever do hit the mark exactly. But
there are some broad lines between which we can
work. We can make far more intelligent guesses than ©
some of us are doing, and then we can learn by each
year’s experience.

UNPRODUCTIVE LAND

Most land has a lot of fertility in it that is not
available. It is like ore before it is mined. It consti-
tutes the “natural strength” of the soil. This ma-
terial becomes unlocked gradually by means of good
tillage and the action of rotting vegetable matter.
When we undertake to improve a poor field, it usu-
ally pays to supply nitrogen, phosphoric acid and
potash—a high-grade complete fertilizer—until we
can get a supply of organic matter at work for us in
the soil. ‘The complete fertilizer helps to make a
heavy sod for plowing down, or a growth to be
plowed under. The. soil is nearly helpless until the
humus-making material is supplied.

Vhen land has been hard-run, and is unproduc-
tive, it needs the three elements in a complete fer-
tilizer, but such ‘land, when sweetened with lime,
should grow clover if the phosphoric acid and potash
are supplied liberally. The clover, with some stable
manure on the farm, should supply the greater part

38

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A Rich Soil Grows Big Wheat

Soy Beans Make Rich Soil

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7
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Extensive Lettuce Growing

40

Limestone on Sweet Clover at Ohio Experiment Station. The Large Growth is Limed

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41

112M 40M APYL OG OYM asOYT, 0} PUIOD JF] JO SeaNsBatg 24

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

of the nitrogen for all staple crops. We can tell
whether it is doing so by the appearance of the
growing plants. This is simple enough. If corn
makes a heavy stalk, with broad, dark leaves; if
timothy grows rank; if potato vines are heavy—quit
buying nitrogen. If plants are pale in color and
small, buy nitrogen until the clovers and manure do
supply the need. If it will not pay to feed plants
according to their need, it will not pay to farm the
land. |

THE MINERAL ELEMENTS

We should learn from others. It is the experi-
ence of nearly all experiment stations and land-
owners, from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic
seaboard, that phosphoric acid is the limiting element
in our soils. That is to say, if a soil lacks anything
phosphoric acid will be found to be deficient. Other
plant food may be lacking also—probably is, if the
soil is poor—but most of all is the need of phos-
phorus. Hence we learn to supply it, and our usual
failure is to supply it liberally. The chances always
are that we should use steamed bone, basic slag or
acid phosphate, or a mixed fertilizer running high in

phosphorus.

THE COMPLETE FERTILIZER

There are immense beds of material containing
phosphorus, and there is a nearly universal hunger for
that element in our soils. When we supply enough,
together with potash where needed, to produce good
clover, we have land brought up toa good state of

43

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

productiveness. We get crops yielding profit. After
the marked deficiency has been met in this way, fur-
ther increase in yield of cereals, grasses. and most
vegetables comes from the use of a fertilizer supply-
ing all three elements. First use freely the carriers of
phosphorus on land that will grow clover well, and
let the organic matter help to free plant food. Then,
usually. on such land a complete fertilizer helps to
still greater profit.

Thin land is helpless. We supply everything to
get clover started. Later, with the clover, we depend
heavily upon phosphorus for profitable, productive
condition. Then, with the chief hunger of the soil
met, when we go after increased yields, we find the
complete fertilizer pays. In some soils the need of
potash is as marked as that of phosphorus.

RATIONAL FARMING

Our country is comparatively new. It was cleared
and cropped. The need of’ drainage in many sections
has increased as the subsoil became packed and the
top soil lost its humus. The lime has washed out or
been used up. The organic matter has been con-
sumed, and the stores of soil strength have been
locked up. The steps toward improvement are not
difficult to understand. We have learned much
about methods of draining. We have learned the
imperative need of lime, and what and how to apply
to make a: soil sweet and friendly to clover. We
have learned to plan so that the soil’s natural share
of vegetable matter may go back to it in sods, catch
crops and manure. We have learned something

44

THE ESSENTIALS OF SOIL FERTILITY

about supplying a soil’s hunger for mineral ele-
ments.

We have an immense deal yet to learn about
methods, so as to meet the land’s need, and at the
same time get the most net profit, but we know the
general direction of the road we must travel. The
amount of stuff we should feed on the farm, the rota-
tion and kind of crops, the amount of tillage, the
place to use fertilizers and the amount—an endless
mass of things puzzle every thinking farmer, and will
continue to puzzle us because circumstances vary;
but we do find the fundamental principles simple,
and know what we are trying to do. The farming of
the next fifty years will be far more intelligent than
that of the past, and land will grow better and not

worse, —

45

“Common Sense Treat-

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do the methods of applying different treat-
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tions without the book. Price 50 cents.

Copyrighted and Published by

The National Stockman and Farmer

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