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Making Soil and
Crops Pay More
By a
V-C FARMER
Who Has Made a Life’s Study of How to Get Most Out of Soils
and Crops in Various Sections of this Country
ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF V-C CROPS and PHOTOS USED
BY COURTESY OF
United States Department of Agriculture;
North Carolina, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin and
Ohio Agricultural Experiment Stations;
Dunham Co., S. L. Allen Co., Ginn and
Co., Macmillan Co., Orange, Judd Co.
Harris and Ewing, Underwood & Underwood.
PUBLISHED AND COPYRIGHTED, 1918
By CROP BOOK DEPARTMENT of
V-C Sales Offices VIRGINIA V-C Sales Offices
Winston-Salem, N.C. CARO LI NA New York City
Norfolk, Va. eye Baltimore, Md.
Alexandria, Va. V-C Fertil | 1Zers Atlanta, Ga.
Durham, N. C. , Columbia, 8. C.
Charleston, 8. C. Jacksonville, Fla.
Savannah, Ga. Cincinnati, Ohio
Columbus, Ga. Shreveport, La.
Memphis, Tenn. Fort Wayne, Ind.
Montgomery, Ala. Richmond, Va. Mt. Pleasant, Tenn.
ty ‘Transiee
MAY
er!
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Contents of Subjects
Part One
Agriculture the Foundation of Our Industrial Existence:
cebessoilus: thesMarmer’s: Workshop. ie 1 o8 os. oa oe ae ee as
Our Land Should Yield More Per Acre.—President Woodrow Wilson.
What Luther Burbank Sees in Plant Life.—Luther Burbank......
Very Foundation of our Industrial Existence Overlooked.— Hon.
DSHS GIUStON SEC OfeA GhiCULILUnee a ties aan een ete
The Man Who Discovered How Plants Feed.—Baron Justus von
LEO p Me oe See nec Aye es BAL ORO ga | Se MERIC Te T se SAU Se
Henry Ward Beecher’s Farmer’s Creed.—Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.
He Doubled the Yield of His Crops in One Season.—James J. Hill.
A Great and Necessary Institution.—Prof. C. L. Newman.......
iRroduwetivenesss With bermanency: a. -i6 one sae me oon
Farming Is a Business Demanding the Best Men and Women.—
DA fee aj RO IS ULORA A sa kctrays HORT ioe Soca ses ATs cots Coca ts Pee RO OE
Washington Preached the Value of Fertilization.—George Washington
One of the Foundation Industries of the World..................
Do Fertilizers Injure the Land.—Exr- Director Arthur Goss. ........
Will Fertilizers Wash Out of the Soil?—Ex-Director Goss. ........
Marvelous Possibilities of Soil Building.—Pres. Andrew M. Soule.
The System of Agriculture Which Will Be Most Permanently Profit-
le ——/ Dips Neinatehioal GMOH DEE oo bok Ao Soo BA Hab dnab anew eaee
The Need of Greater Agricultural Efficiency:
With Increased Production. Profits Not Wanting..............
Why the United States Is Not at the Top. ...... 2... .0.8 6. en
Belgium 243 Pounds, United States 31 Pounds...................
Goad Reason for'Greater Farm: Production... 0.0: 26.4 < conte ae es
Food Production Not Keeping Pace With Population............
30,000 New Mouths to Feed Every Week......................
Business of Farming Bound to Increase........................
Sian But Great ls the United States. .i.c.o. 062.2! I.c aro se tamton
Ww b
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Contents of Subjects—Continued
The Power and Profit of Soil Fertility:
Nomurer) Profit, Phan Mertiley Wands. sa25. 6. seen ee ete
American Farmer Produces Most Wealth......................
Soils Originally Had Plenty of Plant-Food- .........2..2..%n2 Je.
Bigger Crops at Less Cost by Fertilization......................
What Happens When Crops Were Underfed....................
Larger and Miore’ Thrifty (Crops. aoes oa see eee ote ee
Manure NotaebalancedsHentilizece perieraaee ei ceeiea tee eres
Fertilizer Experiences of Successful Corn Growers...............
Richest Agricultural County in the United States...............
The Nation’s Greatest Asset Must be Conserved:
An Investment for a Definite and Profitable Return ............
Idraoranaowlss Sroul Iheraualbiinyyy IDYVOMEMWOIN. 6 oa nee oc ooo cueseneguoocobue
Multiplyine -ProductivesCapacity (Pays... 17. enh ee eee
Aare (Snusaypliers} ye 1Sliveday MNCS. onc asco oom ocr acasacduscbucocesc
A Sound; Agricultural! ‘Policy, Needed... 2.5.5... 9.0.0022400 860 ee
Crops*Increased’‘Over vi'wo Billion=Dollars!: 23 42 eeee
$1.30 or 4 Cents Worth of Fertilizer to the Acre................
Over $1,700 Net Profit Annually on One Acre for 18 Years.......
Making the Farm an Efficient and Profitable Workshop.........
A Few Interesting Facts for Farmers:
A. Mullionaire Marmer’s* Views) .cateiet Oe oe 5 ete eee ee eee
Why $140 an Acre Profit When Others Make $1,600............
Greatest) Grime sroducerssmest ine Vion Claman eee nena
HarmerseMiusti Valves Good@Protitseemne eet ee eae
Flows Viucheliseas Sillone Doll acreage ert ete eee eee
125) Yearsico Count as billions sushelser an sete ree ere
How Plants Add to the Wealth of the World... .....000-05..00
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Contents of Subjects—Continued
Miles of Roots and Millions of Mouths:
TRUOTORUSH ON ULaVete NYG exer ws ob au cRO ER Sacer heeD ca One one NRE) Oi cen eal TE 33
Ag ewa Greate riMlcersct tes tony eae arl te Alcea sais. oar oteuencusnre salieri he 33
Meavess WithwVillonsoneVMlOuthSemes aes s.cees seco cm onisccec- 34
What Agricultural Educators and Experiment Stations have
The
Found:
General Tendency Is to Use Fertilizer in Too Small Amounts.... 35
Three Hundred Trillion Cells in One Day...................... 35
CrentaWasterOnstne Hatin ia fare te touty his eter eas oe ee 36
Piety Sillioncouse nea ders. tars oo ies eel - ahaha, Salts She Nay eyed d 36
What Constiutes(Good Parming? ooo n5 3 oes na oe ees 36
The Reliability of Commercial Fertilizers...................... 36
ProtiicaWornin oe armers Control... occ she. ieee oe ole Mees BY/
Fertile Soil and Bumper Crops for 4200 Years.................. 37
Meanimneelpple seed PAVGe2 9b ole ee Log d ae a awcise oaks 38
ncresncarvieldsweer Acre Did Die. omcv. co tte Ss,2 ae c so ee es awe 38
yw orincerestine \@OMmMpALisOMs nor ose ete cee eee 6 ee eee 39
WihysHome, Mixing ds NotiBest.. 0) a2 8 atk in Ree 8 39
indiana Parmers Bound Et Profitable: .. 5.0 ete bea cee 40
$5.00 Worth of Commercial Fertilizer Gave Greater Increase Than
MRenkeRansto ts icine mae = areca eee a We oe legs = eeteiac Oe 40
india shows (87 ber Cent Imerease. . 0 fn. 5 ce cc tet ooo tote 40
What 30) Years. Experments“Proved: 5.25... 542.0 G02. 2a oe 40
Fertilized Wheat 94 Per Cent Plump. Unfertilized Wheat 51 Per
crite liunrnpen teers SEN Cet eres pute ots eS. eee Al
The Value of a Knowledge of Farm Management Principles.—Dr.
11 ics ASSL TGR Cale Rts ete CUE Card ae dO Re pC RC RI IE RS aE 41
2,000 Boys Produce Over 200,000 Bushels of Corn.—Dr. Seaman
Ils TRAD Dinie.6-& Gi ole td did Olona cad Roce ore tos Samat OOS Once ir steric 42
Business of Farming a Banking Proposition:
Why Are Your Soil and Crops Like a Bank Account?—Mr. Oliver
Tx SSETBGIS y ASG SBS HORce OO Ie DIO IO OE IO OECD OID aDsOT 44
Soil and Crop Improvement Are More Important to the People of
the United States Than Our Gold Production.—Mr. F. C.
AST DAN AGITOTL Onn & Cpa tiche AAD pidge Cte GENO. Cea oe Cet na Oe OOS) 45
$1,000 for Fertilizers But Not for a Barn.—Mr. William Ingle... 47
The Banker and the Farmer.—John K. Ottley...........-++-++: 48
The Greatness of Our Country and Its Farming Industry........ 50
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
List of Questions and Answers
Part Two
PLANTS:
\Wiloven Aine) TEMS. 66 oc aod co oto nee Fen AE ote ar RR nn pe ft
Hows ovublantsuliviers. 3 ccnaame eee oe er ne ne ee eee
Hows Dorelantsseprodiicewem esate eee enone
How Do Seeds Germinates RL eR eee ie cet ee EE Na
W ny ‘Are There One-Seed-Leaf anid Tw aad: Leaf Plants? ae
PLANT NUTRITION:
SOIL:
Mi hat Are Or gonle and Inorganic) Substances?...40-0 444. see
How Are Depleted Sai Restor Be eee RI ee aan Mid iO hee
How Does Good Tillage Conserve and Restore Fertility?........
How Does Adding Plant-food to the Soil Conserve and Restore
How Does Leac pice Deplete Soils? RENE SOU UE ey ee Eee Seay Ate
How Does the C AEERIG of Leaching and Soil Wash Conserve and
Restore: Pertilttyie: Ree ss panes oe ne ac ete oe ees a ee oor:
WATER, AIR AND SUN:
How Does the Sun Benefit Soils and Crops) src wok ee ae
How Does Water Move in the Soil? RS ary Re A nage
How. Does Water Carry, Plant-food? yest orts sient eta rater
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
List of Questions and Answers—Continued
TREATING THE SOIL:
Are All Soils in Good Physical Conditions for Plant Growth?.... 83
Wihentshoulastandibesblawed’ a... on ook ec soe eee 84
How snould band BevPlowed 12 20-0 05.6.2 ne tae ees 85
How Does: Turning the Mand Help ft?. ©... oc ces teas ee 86
How Deep Should Land Be Plowed?.......................... 87
How Does Humus Conserve and Restore Fertility?............. 88
How Should Organic Matter Be Plowed into the Sip p Pat oe 89
When and How Should Land Be Subsoiled?................... 90
Wihen: Issubsoiline Benelicialt?. -~ stiscl san he oe ako os eee 91
Wihenvls Sabsoilimnestanmiuliieysss 06sec. oe ead oan 91
Wihy Are Deep; Mellow. Sols Best?.o 2152.02.06 es 2k ee 91
Why Should Soil Be Pulverized? 2). 2. os ba es od eae. 92
How May Soils Be Treated to Take Up and Hold More Water?.. 93
How Does Harrowing, Disking, Rolling, Ete., Help the Land?... 93
How Does the Chemical Composition of Soils ‘Affect Crop Growth? 93
How Does the Physical Condition of Soils Affect Plant Growth?. 94
How Does the Organic Content of Soils Affect Plant Growth?.. 95
PLANT FOOD:
What Does the Plant Do if It Does Not Get Enough Food?..... 95
How Shall It Be Determined What Plant Food to Use?......... 95
What Must the Farmer Do if There Is Not Enough Food in the
NSD ILS cen eas Sec te St oe OR LI a Rt? 96
What is Commercial Bertilizer?s 2.006 fo cn os eee ec eee 97
What Is a Complete er iilizenigertsge ry eee ek sees te ek 97
Are = Hillers;’ and, “Carriers” the Same? >. a4 os. 602. ss os os 97
Do High Grade Fertilizers Contain Filler?:....:............... 99
What Is Rock TEV OVOVSIO) CSTE Geen! conten g ONS AM ris ENS Geeted eareaes me ne Pe me 100
Wiha taisrAcidibhosphater<.eesnn sie se cihetie ste feces wack 100
How Does Phosphoric Acid Help the Plant?..........:........ 101
How Does Nitrogen or Ammonia Help the Plant?.............. 101
How Woes Potash Elelpithe Plantae ssa cee ace acess es. 101
FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZING, OR FEEDING CROPS
When Should Fertilizers Be Added DOU MEAS OU eat: es sates sa 101
How Should Fertilizers Be Applied to the Soil?................ 102
Is the Manner of Applying Fertilizers Important?.............. 102
May Fertilizers Be Applied Profitably to Growing Crops?....... 104
Is There More Than One Way to Apply Fertilizer?............. 105
How Is Fertilizer Applied Broadeast?..:...........2.0:.0005:. 105
How, Is Fertilizer Applied in‘the Mnill?... 2... He ee ee ees 106
ilowslssHeniilizersAppliedeantthe Hallye aaa.) a6 eee see 108
When Should Fertilizer Be Applied in the Drill or Row?........ 108
When Should Fertilizer Be Applied Broadeast?................. 108
How Is Fertilizer Applied Interculturally?..................... 109
How Is Fertilizer Applied as a Top Dresser?................... 110
What Advantage Has Top Dressing to Crops?................. 111
Do Fertilizers Make the Soil LRU KGL ONC ee ae tee URE Sei ene) annie MRSS iti!
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
List of Questions and Answers—Continued
Do Fertilizers Improve the Quality and Increase the Market Value
OL Cropste, ones Sees § Sheers Sey be eth ie eee 113
SOIL CONDITIONS:
What Soil Conditions Must Be Present If Fertilizers Are to Be
d DUCA AEN Ges ean Oe nee ey eR Eee ace OM INT EAN Oeics qetbin h o aI8 e 114
How Shall “Acid Soils: Be Corrected?) . 3 .0..¢e 0. ccc osc een ens 115
DoesiiherColononmsoileAtiect: Crop Growin erie 115
What bitects) Have Vlanuresion Cropsitensae ie eenen eter 116
Is It Important to Have a Good Seed Bed?................... 116
GOOD SEEDS:
Are Good Seeds Necessary to Produce Good Geos PRES OEE i, 117
Is It Important to Plant Only Good Varieties?................. 118
How May Crops Be Improved by Seed Selection?.............. 119
Do Fertilizers Improve the Quality, Vitality and High Repro-
ductive: Power Seedstsnac desman eee cee oe Reese ee 20
How Do Crops Cross and Become Mixed?.................... 120
What Distances Should Gaen Be Given:in the Row ti... .s+s 95. 122
Does Good Soil Preparation Make Cultivation More Effective?. . 125
What Benefits Are Derived from Cultivation?................. 123
When and How Should a Crop Be Cultivated?................ 124
With What Implements Should a Crop Be Cultivated?......... 125
WihysDo: Plantsvblave Roots! tt cntsie creck es ces gree Se 126
Why Is Cultivation So Important in Dry Seasons?............. ne
How Late Should Cultivation Be Continued?................-. 127
ROTATION OF CROPS:
Whats Rotation of Crops ic. on. <ease cenee cobeee rncen et aan 128
What Are the Benefits of Seearene iS a ae lg SAR eee 129
How Does Rotation Benefit and Rest the Land at the Same Time? 131
How; Does Rotation Benefit the! @ropien s.-e ¢ see ee oan eee 131
How Does Rotation Conserve and Restore Fertility?........... 131
What Crops Should Be Grown in Different Sections and on Dif-
PEPSI MATS Heap rors os oar eee eI ee TST ES Nee 132
Why Are Some Soils Adapted to Some Crops and Not to Others? 133
CROP ENEMIES:
PREFACE
The author of this book has endeavored to lay out a ground-
work of facts sufficiently complete to indicate the nature and
needs of soil and crops, hoping thereby to serve the farmer as
well as the student of Agriculture for thoroughly preparing
themselves to comprehend the subject of plant nutrition, and to
form some accurate idea of how and to what extent crops depend
upon the soil for the elements of their growth.
For the sake of comprising within a reasonable space that
information which may most immediately and practically serve
the agriculturist, some interesting details have necessarily been
omitted, which, however, we feel will not render this book less
practical or less valuable.
The object of this little book is to more than instruct, it is
to teach the subject of plant-food and its relation to soil and
crops so thoroughly that the reader may readily and practically
comprehend and apply the information contained herein to his
lasting benefit and profit.
Every practical man knows that we earn more only as we
learn more. May this information contained herein act as a
guide to those who desire to learn how to increase and improve
the productiveness of their soil and crops by supplying the soil
with the lacking elements of fertility, and growing thrifty fields
of crops economically and profitably.
The more the farmer knows the more he can do. The pro-
gressive Agriculturist now sees that Chemistry has opened a
splendid future for the Art that has always been and always
will be the prime support of all Nations—Agriculture.
The publishers of this book have spent large sums in ac-
quiring beneficial and practical Agricultural information for the
purpose of placing it at the disposal of those interested in better
crops and greater prosperity on our farms. It is certain
if this information is applied practically, a revolution could be
brought about on the farms of this country, which would result
in an era of prosperity such as has never been known.
Richmond, Va. The Publishers.
DR. F.B CARPENTER
HEAD OF CHEMICAL LABORATORIES
VIRGINIA: CAROLINA CHEMICAL CO
cise
i.
ae
Many thousands of Samples are analyzed each year in these Laboratories, representing many
millions of tons of V-C Fertilizers which have been used _in improving and increasing the
crops of thousands of farms throughout the United States, Porto Rico, and Cuba.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 1
Agriculture the Foundation of Our
Industrial Existence
Farming is the biggest business of America, the biggest
business of the Earth. Without farming, the trusts, the rail-
roads, the banks, all business, all industries would crumble.
It will take years, a decade probably, possibly more than a
decade, for the Agriculture of Europe to be restored to the
condition in which it was before the war. The world must
look to America, the nearest and largest depot of supply, for
food. America must not alone feed itself, it must feed Europe
now and for years to come.
- Fes ”
The Big Business of America is directly dependent upon Agriculture for her existence.
Although the farm and the city are sometimes separated by miles; their interests are identical
and without Agriculture our Commerce would crumble.
Mr. George E. Roberts, of the National City Bank of New
York, a wise and conservative observer, said: ‘‘The prosperity
of the farmer is best secured by an increase in the yield of his
fields. How to accomplish this is not alone the farmer’s problem;
it is everybody’s problem. Agriculture must find increasing
prosperity, as other industries do, in a larger output at a lower
unit of cost. We will have a Peace prosperity greater and more
satisfactory than the prosperity based on War.”
tae athe
ee | $n 89
2 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
America’s opportunity lies in mobilizing her Agricultural
energies and pushing production to the maximum. We should
all assist in adding to the material welfare of our country by
encouraging more abundant crops, for Agriculture is the foun-
dation of our industrial existence.
The Soil Is the Farmer’s Workshop
The soil is really the farmer’s factory, for it is the workshop
of his crops. Through the soil alone can the farmer influence
the amount of vegetable production, for the atmosphere, lhght
and heat of the sun are beyond his control. Hence, the product
and value of the farmer’s fields he principally in the quality of
the soil. As the soil is really a crop factory, this factory re-
quires the same sound, business-like management as any other
successful factory.
The manufacturer whose factory is well equipped with
machinery, can not successfully operate this machinery without
the necessary power. No more can the farmer operate his crop
factory successfully and profitably unless he has the necessary
power, and that power is the proper amount of the right kind of
plant-food. His soil must be full of this crop-growing power if
he wants an abundant and profitable output from his factory.
Since the soil is the source of wealth, it remains for the farmer
to co-operate with Nature in order to secure from the soil the
full benefit of its fertility, and at the same time prevent depletion.
A well cultivated and fertile soil is a storehouse of unlimited
wealth. This wealth is only obtainable through the crops
grown in the soil. As these crops grow they take from the soil
some of its fertility, hence, the soil must be supplied with fresh
stores of nourishment or plant-food after its supply has been
tapped, so that succeeding crops will find the necessary nourish-
ment for their proper growth and maturity.
The maintaining of the productiveness of the soil means that
there shall be preserved or stored within the soil sufficient quan-
tities of soluble plant-food to produce maximum crops. In
other words, the soil must be kept in good physical condition,
and the total supplies of the various elements must be main-
tained if the soil is to remain permanently fertile. A system
by which the available plant-food is indefinitely maintained is
the permanent system of Agriculture.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 3
WOODROW WILSON
President of the United States
Our Land Should Yield More Per Acre
President Wilson, that great disciple of conservation, has
always been a keen observer, and though not a farmer like
Washington and Jefferson were, he fully recognizes the needs of
the farm and the farmer. That in order to supply food to our
increasing population of the future we must see to it that we
increase the productiveness of our farms, and how this can be
done he tells us in very few words, as evidenced by the following:
“Tt is necessary that our land should yield more per acre than
it does now. Production per acre, with its coincident valuation,
increases in direct proportion to the plant-food furnished it.
“We have got to increase the product at every point where
it is susceptible of being increased. We have got to study how
to assist nature by making the most suitable use of our several
and various soils. The pine barrens of our Southern coast need
not be barren at all, that if we add.a single additional chemical
element we can make the sand blossom and produce crops, and
that if Nature is only questioned closely she will yield us her
richest products for our own assistance and for the assistance
of the rest of the World.”
1 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
What Luther Burbank Sees
In Plant Life
Ex-Governor Pardee of California said:
“Burbank, like Columbus, has shown us the
way to new continents, new forms of life,
new sources of wealth, and we, following in
his footsteps, will profit by and from his
genius.”’ Let us now see if we, too, can not
profit by what Burbank has done. This is
what he sees:
“We have in our own hands the power
of making literal ‘New Creations’ in plant
life. What has been already accomplished
is but the beginning of horticultural achieve-
ments that will surpass the most sanguine
expectations of even a decade ago. In the
hands of the plant breeder rests the future
destiny of all mankind.”
“Abundant, well balanced nourishment and thorough culture
of plants will always produce good results.”
Luther Burbank—Plant Breeder
Very Foundation of Our Industrial
Existence Overlooked
Secretary Houston, head of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture, in one of his
recent Reports to the President of the
United States, among other things, said:
‘“‘Aericulture has made marked progress
in anumber of directions, but as an Industry
it has not kept pace with the other activi-
ties of the country.
“We have been so bent on building up
ereat industrial centers; on rivaling the
nations of the world in manufacturing and
COMMENCES sadhana on that we have over-
looked the very foundation of our industrial
eXISteMees As... 245%
“The aim of Agriculture mustbe.......
Hon. D. F. Houston, Secretary to establish supremacy in the production
U. S. Department of
Agriculture for each acre.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 5
“The profits of agriculture ultimately depend on the intel-
ligent cultivation of the soil and the preservation of its fertility.”
At the present rate of progress now being made by our
Department of Agriculture and the various State Agricultural
Institutions, it will not be a long time before there will also be
a marked improvement in our Agricultural Industry.
Under the terms of the Smith-Lever Bill there will be ample
funds provided to make this possible. The funds thus available
increase from year to year until the States appropriate annually
a total of $4,500,000 and the Government a like sum. By 1923
this fund will have accumulated to the sum of $9,000,000.
The Man Who Discovered How
Plants Feed
Baron Justus von Liebig surprised the
world with the statement that crops or
plants do not derive their nourishment
from humus alone. It was this noted
scientist and chemist who established a
laboratory in Germany for the researches
in organic chemistry and the application of
chemistry to Agriculture, and in 1840 he
announced his first scientific discovery, in
which he applied the principles of chemistry
to Agriculture by a scientific method of
feeding plants.
He showed wherein crops and plants
feed from the chemicals in the soil, and if
these chemicals were not present in the soil,
available to the growing crops or plants, Benya ushus went Licbis
that there could be no crops or plants.
He clearly demonstrated and proved where and how crops
and plants get their food; how crops depleted the soil, and
how wornout soils could be restored to fertility and productive-
ness by the application of artificial or chemical fertilizers. This
great and wonderful discovery of von Liebig’s was indeed an
epoch-making discovery by which all mankind has_ benefited.
To what extent von Liebig’s discovery is today being applied by
farmers throughout the civilized world is evidence of its practi-
cability and necessity, though too many farmers in our own land
have not as yet learned the great value of same, but those who
have appreciate and value the use of Commercial Fertilizers on
their soils and crops.
6 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Henry Ward Beecher’s Farmer’s
Creed
It was Beecher who said: ‘He that
would look with contempt on the pursuits
of the farmer is not worthy of the name of
man.” Beecher’s Farmer’s Creed of many
years ago is as appropriate today as it was
then. Though Beecher was not a farmer,
the following indicates that he knew what
was good for the farm and the farmers:
“T believe that the soil likes to eat as
well as its owner, and ought, therefore, to
be liberally fed.
“T believe in large crops which leave the
land better than they found them—making
the farmer and the farm both glad at once.
“T believe that every farm should own a
good farmer.
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. “T believe in going to the bottom of
things and, therefore, in deep plowing and
enough of it.”’
‘He Doubled the Yield of His Crops in One Season”
The late James J. Hill was indeed one of
the most progressive men of the day. Be-
sides being a builder of railroads he was
also a most successful builder of prosperous
farms and farmers.
Asa boy he labored on his father’s farm.
In later years, by his unlimited and sincere
confidence in the future of farming, he
brought prosperity to many thousands of
farmers.
His belief in the possibilities of greater
farm development was expressed in his ex-
tensive work in promoting more profitable
methods of farming, to meet changing con-
ditions of soil depletion.
He proved by practical demonstration
to thousands of farmers, that there is no
surer profit than that which comes from
the development of fertile land.
James J. Hill—Farm Buildir
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 7
He builded wisely and strongly, and his works remain to bear
witness that he turned a wilderness and barren lands into pro-
ductive and prosperous farms. To what extent his methods
proved of value may be gathered from the following account of
his practical demonstrations conducted by him on some of his
own farms:
“On 150 farms Mr. Hill demonstrated that by the use of
fertilizers he could double the yield of his crops in one season.
His average production of wheat, barley, and oats was more
than double the average production of the states in which his
farms were located. ’
“His wheat showed an average gain of 11.41 bushels per
acre; barley a gain of 16.38 bushels per acre, and the crop gain
in oats was 22.17 bushels per acre.”’
Indeed, James J. Hill did much to make his great country
greater, and those in it happier, more contented and more
prosperous.
A Great and Necessary Institution
There are few men who have made a
more careful and persistent study of soils
and crops than C. L. Newman, Professor
of Agriculture at the North Carolina State
College of Agriculture and Engineering,
Raleigh, N.C. Prof. Newman isa practical
farmer who has made a life’s study of soils
and crops. He sums up the needs of plant-
food for soils and crops as follows:
“The ideal fertilizer for a crop growing
in a soil is that fertilizer which contains
plant-food elements in appropriate propor-
tions and in forms that are available to the
crop grown. Not only must the contents
of a fertilizer represent plant demands and
soil deficiencies, but be available in quan-
tities and proportions to suit the needs of
the crop as the needs develop.
“Fertilizers must fit the soil and fit the
crop, such fertilizers are the best, and no
Prof. C.L. Newman of N.C. _— others are as good. Fertilizers are not only
State College of Agriculture : : ”?
and Engineering a great institution but a necessary one.
8 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Productiveness With Permanency
A prominent member of a Western State Advisory Com-
mittee on Soil Investigations most admirably points out the
future greatness of Agricultural development in these words:
“The only way to supply an abundance of good to the in-
creasing population of the future is by increasing the productive-
ness of the land; and the only way to increase the productiveness
of the land is the application of scientific principles to the art of
Agriculture. The problem of the past was production; our
problem today is productiveness with permanency.
“Plants will not properly mature when insufficiently fed any
more than will animals when not properly nourished.
“Itisa duty to ourselves that we get as much out of the soil
as possible, that we may be better able to reach the physical
comforts and enjoyments which belong to a higher develop-
ment. But it is a greater duty to posterity that we leave these
lands richer than we found them.
“The productive power of our normal well drained and well
cultivated land depends almost wholly upon the power of the
soil to feed the crops.”
Farming Is a Business Demanding
the Best Men and Women
Prof. G. I. Christie formerly of Purdue
University, LaFayette, Ind., now an assist-
ant to the Secretary of the U. S. Dept. of
Agriculture, is one of the foremost Agricul-
tural Educators in the United States. In
a recent address, entitled: ‘‘The New
Agriculture,” he took for his text these
words of Garfield’s:
“At the head of all the Sciences and
Arts, at the head of civilization and pro-
gress, stands—not Militarism, the Science
that kills; not Commerce, the Art that
accumulates wealth—but Agriculture, the
mother of all Industry and the maintainer
of human life.’
The following statements made by
Prof. Christie are decidedly instructive, as Prof. G. I. Christie
they point the way to better Agriculture asst. to Secretary
f U. S. Dept. of
and greater prosperity: evils
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 9
“Agriculture stands as the basis of the prosperity of this
country. The development of all other resources and the big
business of our cities depend upon the food stuffs which must
come from the soil. Lessons from older countries teach us that
it is impossible to remove plant-food continually from year to
year without returning part at least.
“T believe, as the Agricultural work develops, more and more
attention will be paid to commercial plant-food. The better
farmers of the country today are the lurgest users of commercial
plant-food.
‘‘Why are we turning such unanimous and universal attention
to the subject of Agriculture? When you come to study the
problem a little and when you come to see it in its several phases,
it is readily understood. The population of this country has
been doubling practically every twenty-five years. It is in-
creasing now at the rate of about two million souls annually. To
feed these two million hungry mouths requires about seventy-five
million bushels of cereal producing food-stuffs.
“We are told by government officials that if we take in all the
land that may be irrigated, all the land in the South that some
day may be drained, we have less than 750,000 square miles of
additional land for Agricultural purposes. Last year alone,
35,000 square miles of that land was taken up, so it will be only
a short time until all the land is brought under the plow. One
of our statesmen, who has given considerable thought to the
subject, predicts that if our present rate of increase in population
continues, we will have 150,000,000 people by the year 1950.
The great question in the minds of our people today is, how are
we going to feed them?
“Production and consumption are beginning now to equalize
with the result that high prices are here and here to stay. The
day has come when we have to work to get the increase in food
supply to meet the increased demand of an increasing population.
“Up in northern Indiana there is a tract of land known as the
muck area. Our experiment station was appealed to for aid
ee In an experiment the station men put on about 300
pounds of muriate of potash per acre, and in the four years that
the experiment was running they harvested 96 bushels more of corn
where the land had beentreated than whereit had not been treated.
“Tn the soils of the southern part of Indiana it was found that
another element was lacking—phosphorus. When an applica-
tion of phosphoric acid was made it was found that the yield of
wheat, was running along 6, 7, and 8 bushels per acre, was soon
turned into a yield of 14, 16, 18 and 20 bushels per acre.
10 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
“The importance of securing an increased yield is readily
recognized. An increase of five bushels per acre on the 60,000,000
acres of wheat now grown in the United States would result at
one dollar per bushel in an increased wealth of $3800,000,000.
“Farming is not mere drudgery, but a business demanding
and paying for the best brains and efforts of the best men
and women.”’
Washington Preached the Value of
Fertilization
When Washington died, besides his
wife’s estate and the Mount Vernon pro-
perty, he possessed 51,300 acres, exclusive
of town property. He was one of the
wealthiest Americans of his time, and It is |
a question if a fortune was ever more
honestly acquired or more thoroughly
deserved.
Washington’s greatest pride was to be
thought the first farmer in America. Early
and late he preached to his overseers the
value of fertilization. During the career
of George Washington, the first President
of the United States, he acted several im-
portant parts, but in none did he find such
3 5 ; George Washington
pleasure as in farming, as evidenced by The First, President of the
: United Stat
his statement: pain:
“T think that the life of a husbandman of all others is the
most delectable. It is honorable, it is amusing, and, with
judicious management, it is profitable. Agriculture has ever
been the most favorite amusement of my life. I shall begrudge
no reasonable expense that will contribute to the improvement
and neatness of my farms; for nothing pleases me better than to
see them in good order, and everything trim, handsome, and
thriving about them. I am lead to reflect how much more
valuable to the undebauched mind is the task of making im-
provements on the earth than all the vain glory which can be
acquired by ravaging it.”
One of the Foundation Industries of the World:
The editor of the ““Manufacturers Record” points out clearly
the necessity of proper fertilization of the soil in the following:
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 11
“One of the foundation industries of the world is the manu-
facture of fertilizers, for without the proper fertilization of the
soil there would be a steady deterioration which would gradually
exhaust all soils and ultimately lead to the agricultural ruin of
any country, and that would mean the ruin of all its industries.
Of recent years we have been learning more and more about the
restoration of soil fertility and the necessity of increasing the
yield per acre in order to reduce the cost of farm products.”
Do Fertilizers Injure the Land?
Ex-Director Arthur Goss of the Purdue
University Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tion of LaFayette, Ind. answers this often
asked question as follows:
“The following table offers about the
best answer to this question obtainable.
The experiment cited is being conducted
at Rothamsted, England, and has been in
progress more than 50 years. No results
covering anything like so long a period of
time are obtainable in the country.
TABLE I
ie Continuous Wheat Experiment, Rotham-
eects, Azoultial sted, England, from 1852 to 1902
Experiment Station
Pounds of Fertilizer applied annually Average Yield Yield
Ammonia Acid Potash 1852-1902 1902
Ge onmercal Sulphate Phosphate Bushels per acre
Merttlizers. 2... . 600 lbs. 350 Ibs. 200 Ibs. 37 45
Manure... .-...14 tons annually .......:... 36 42
MME ZEG Sree 8 Stake goatee << ao g sia ck Rote wd 13 13
“By referring to the table it will be seen that the application
of a very large quantity of Fertilizer to wheat each year for 50
years has not only not injured the productiveness of this soil,
but has, in fact, actually increased the average annual yield from
13 to 37 bushels per acre. It will also be noted that the yield
on the fertilized plats the last year was 45 bushels per acre,
while the yield on the unfertilized plats the same year was only
13 bushels per acre.”
12 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Director Goss further points out in Circular No. 10 of the
Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station some in-
teresting facts concerning experiments made in this country on
Southern Indiana Soils by the Purdue University Agricultural
Experiment Station. We quote from him as follows:
“Investigations have been in progress at the Experiment
Station for a number of years past, with a view of ascertaining
the methods of fertilization best adapted to the different soils
and crops of the State. In this connection tests have been made
on practically all the important soil types, and have involved
the use of such materials as:
Dried blood Tron sulphate
Nitrate of soda
Bone
Acid phosphate
Dicalcie phosphate
Rock phosphate
Muriate of potash
Sulphate of potash
Carbonate of potash
Iron hydrate
Magnesium sulphate
Magnesium carbonate
Sodium sulphate
Copper sulphate
Carbon black
Muck
Clay
Ashes Straw manure
Slaked lime Legume crops
Ground limestone
“Tt may be saidin a general way that while occasionally soils
are found that do not respond to Fertilizers, usually some com-
bination has been found that has produced handsome profits
and not infrequently enormous returns. There is for example
no question that the application of potash in considerable quan-
tities on muck soil is very profitable in connection with the
growing of corn and other crops. It also seems certain that the
liberal use of Fertilizers on the potato crop is highly profitable,
and that Fertilizers will usually pay well on the wheat and corn
crops, if used in the proper proportions and right amounts.
The work that has been done emphasizes the fact however, that
in order to receive the best results it is necessary to understand
the needs of the particular soil and crops to be used. It is a
very easy matter to waste a large amount of money in the use
of Fertilizers through the application of unnecessary elements
and improper forms of plant-food, and the only wonder is that
such satisfactory results are secured under the present hap-
hazard system in vogue. There is not the slightest doubt that
a large and profitable increase in crop production could be
brought about in the State by a more systematic and intelligent
use of Fertilizers.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 13
Figure Two
“In Figure 2 is shown the amount of wheat recovered on
the unfertilized plats and on the plats receiving the complete
Fertilizer in the Scott County experiment. While this is perhaps
rather an extreme case, which could not be duplicated every
time, it is the result of a carefully conducted experiment, and
shows the yields actually secured on this soil.
“The Fertilizers applied to the KPN* plat consisted of 60
pounds of dried blood, 200 pounds of acid phosphate and 30
pounds of muriate of potash per acre, and cost at prices pre-
vailing at the time this experiment was conducted, $3.20 per
acre. The increase in yield due to the Fertilizers was over 26
bushels of wheat per acre.”’
Marvelous Possibilities of Soil Building:
There are few men better posted on the actual needs of the
soil and crops in the South than President Andrew M. Soule
of the Georgia State College of Agriculture. The able work
he has done in developing Agriculture and Agricultural Educa-
tion in the South is well known. To what extent he recognizes
the need of proper plant feeding is indicated by the following
when he declared:
“There were marvelous possibilities of soil building, and
that the farmer who would not feed his soil was like the man
who bought a fine horse, put it in the stable and refused to
feed and water it, and let it die.
“Tf you are going to fertilize, fertilize right. Feed the plants
liberally. Don’t compel the plants to kill themselves hunting
for and chasing after beggarly little plant-food.”’
*KPN means potash, phosphorus and nitrogen, a complete fertilizer.
14 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
The System of Agriculture Which Will
Be Most Permanently Profitable:
Few men in the United States have done
so much to improve conditions on our farms
as Dr. Bradford Knapp, Chief, Office of
Extension Work in the South, U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture. Dr. Knapp succeeded
his father, the late Dr. Seaman Knapp, as
the head of the Boys’ Club Movement
under the auspices of the U. 8. Department
of Agriculture. To what extent he recog-
nized the importance of permanent soil
fertility is shown in the following statement
made by him:
“The wise and judicious use of Fertili-
zers is an element of profitable farming.
s Such practices in the use of Fertilizers as
Of a aaford Knapp, Chief, bring the best results will in the long run
Solu, WLS. Depeanen: be followed by farmers. A complete crop-
Sa ayes ping system which aids in building up soil
fertility, coupled with the wisest and best use of Commercial
Fertilizers wul, in the end, be the svstem of Agriculture which
will last longer and be the most permanently profitable.”
The Need of Greater Agricultural Efficiency
With Increased Production Profits Not Wanting:
Are we prepared to meet the situation which confronts us by
producing enough food for our own use and also a considerable
amount for other countries? Under existing conditions it would
be unpatriotic not to fertilize when we know we can help our
country and our people by the proper use of Fertilizers. With
a net return of one to five dollars for each dollar judiciously
invested in fertilizers, the profits are certainly not wanting.
Let us see what other countries have done.
Why the U. S. Is Not At the Top:
Thirty years ago the soil of Germany and of France was, as
revealed by official crop statistics, about equally productive, but
during the three decades Germany’s crop-yield per acre has
nearly doubled while that of France has increased but a tenth.
In 1881-1886 the average yield of wheat per acre in Germany
was 19 bushels, and in France 18 bushels. This increased in
1911-13 to 33 bushels for Germany and 20 bushels for France.
:
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 15
It is interesting to note the yield of certain crops in various
countries compared with the U. 8. as shown in following.
Bushels Per Acre
Country and Year Wheat Rye Barley Oats Potatoes
Germany, 1915% ..%. 3: oo.0'- 30.4. 40.9 ~ 61.0.7. 235.4
essa. cee eee: POL” 14s) 1651) 6.2826. 121.3
RUS Get eae 0) ee a 22°33 20.2 2927 4 36.1 » 148.7
Plmnoat yen en <2 t. lSv8— 1824 © 2558 289 125.38
Mranee. COLI. ee 20:5) “1654. “2ZOT9, 3559. 14227
Ganda: 1912)... m2. 2S IGeady S120 AN ue 12 0
Umabedssrates, 1913-2... 1600 — 1622. 23827. — 29.5 90.2
Such returns as these from soil cultivated for hundreds of
years in climate inferior to ours for grain production, tell the
whole story of American Farm methods.
Let us increase our Agricultural Efficiency, as the farm is
the base of our National pyramid of wealth. We should be at
the head of this list, not way at the bottom, and—we will.
The above illustration shows a wheat field that yielded 50 bushels to the acre. This splendid
yield was secured by the liberal use of V-C Fertilizers.
Belgium 243 Pounds, U. S. 31 Pounds:
However, the Belgium farmers produce the highest yields of
wheat, and use more Commercial Fertilizer per acre than is
used in any part of the world. They use an average of
243 pounds of Fertilizer per acre on all cultivated lands not
including animal manures, and get in return an average of 3714
bushels of wheat per acre. Germany, the second highest user
16 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
of Fertilizers—where the farmers apply 149.52 pounds per acre
aside from animal manures—gets the second highest yield of
wheat; 33 bushels per acre. In the United States we average
only 31 pounds of Fertilizer per acre on our cultivated lands,
and do not average one-fourth that on our wheat lands and
get in return only 16 bushels of wheat per acre.
Good Reason for Greater Farm Production:
There is a good reason why the production on our farms
should be increased. Our urban or city population has increased
much more than the rural population. The movement of
population in the U. 8. appears in the following table:
Increase in total population, 1880-1910................ 83.3%
Increase imvaurban: population, tSS0=1910 esas 188.5%
Increase in rural. population, 1880-1910................ 39.4%
Food Production Not Keeping Pace With Population:
That our food production has not kept pace with the growth
of our population is evidenced by the following which shows
per capita production of wheat in the United States thirty
years ago in comparison with that of today:
Average Annual Annual Per
Year Population Wheat Production Capita Production
1876-1884 50,156,000 426,922,000 bu. Sorbus
1906-1914 91,972,000 712,474,000 bu. Gade
To have had the same per capita production in the last nine
years as in the earlier period would have required an annual pro-
duction of 73,600,000 bushels more than was actually produced.
30,000 New Mouths to Feed Every Week:
Some idea may be formed as to the growth of our population
when it is known that every week brings more than 30,000 new
mouths to feed, for it has been estimated that we grow in the
United States at the rate of 4433 folks a day. At this rate our
growth in a few years hence will be at the rate of 10,000 a day.
These newcomers must all be fed and clothed. Every addition
to our population adds new responsibilities and demands
upon the farmer, for it is on him most of all that civilization
depends for sustenance.
Business of Farming Bound to Increase:
America has doubled its population within the last 40 years,
and during the next like period may be obliged to meet the needs
of fully 200,000,000 people. The farmer not only feeds the
world but saves it, and to maintain the productivity of our
farms is the ultimate problem of America and the foremost
question confronting us.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 17
Small But Great is the United States:
Our country covers less than 6% of the earth’s area and
numbers about 5% of the earth’s population. It produces 76%
of all the corn grown in the world; 70% of the world’s oil; 59%
of all copper, 43% of the pig iron; 37% of the world’s coal;
35% of its tobacco; 26% of its silver; one-fourth of all its wheat;
21% of its gold; and contains more than a third of all the wealth
of the civilized world. The wealth of the United States is now
about $240,000,000,000, which is more than the combined wealth
of England, France and Germany.
ALLOTHER ALLOTHER
CORN AREA POPULATION
OF
: REST of EARTH REST °f EARTH
U.S.OIL
‘U.S.CORN PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION
ALL-OTHER
_ COPPER
U.S.COPPER
PRODUCTION
US POPULATION
ALLOTHER
ALLOTHER TOBACCO
PIG IRON
ALL-OTHER
COAL
U.S.
TOBACCO
PRODUCTION
U.S.PIG IRON
PRODUCTION
U.S.COAL
PRODUCTION
ALLOTHER
SILVER. ALL-OTHER
WEALTH
PRODUCTION PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION
Although our area and population are small in comparison with the rest of the world, the above
diagram illustrates well the greatness of our industrial and agricultural production.
“The wealth of the United States will be greater a year from
now than it is now, and still greater at the end of each suc-
ceeding year. Improvements will go on, not so fast perhaps as
in time of peace, but houses will be built, farms will be improved,
industrial equipment will be increased and savings will grow.
“The South is likely to grow more of all crops in the future,
and the work being done everywhere for a productive Agri-
culture is giving promise of valuable results. The country is
being awakened as never before to a realization of the fact that
all industries are dependent upon Agriculture.”
(Bulletin National City Bank, New York.)
18 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
The Power and Profit of Soil Fertility
No Surer Profit Than Fertile Land:
Never in the history of our country have such efforts been
made to improve conditions on the farm; never has the need
been so recognized of applying more profitable methods on the
farm; and never have our farmers recognized and appreciated
the real value of making and keeping their land fertile. As the
late James J. Hill said: ‘‘There is no surer profit than that which
comes from the development of fertile land well adapted to some
staple crop.”
America produces more than three-fourths of all the corn grown and a crop like the above is
by no means uncommon where Commercial Fertilizers are used. 500 lbs. of V-C Fertilizers
were used per acre on this field and the vield averaged more than 80 bushels to the acre.
Soil Fertility Pays.
American Farmer Produces Most Wealth:
If asked to name the most valuable minerals of the United
States, most persons would promptly suggest gold, silver, iron,
lead, zine and copper. Yet the American farmer mines more
wealth from the soil in a single year than has been taken from
the gold mines of the United States in all the years since Colum-
bus discovered America. It is literally true that our most im-
portant mineral deposits are the elements of plant-food con-
tained in our soils. The soil is the only mine known which
under proper management and liberal fertilization will not run
out. But too many farmers are yet “mining” their soil by
taking everything out and putting nothing back. A nation
built upon Agriculture will perish when the soil can no longer
yield its harvest.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 19
Soils Originally Had Plenty of Plant-Food:
Our best soils originally contained from 6,000 to 8,000 pounds
of nitrogen, from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of phosphorus, and from
30,000 to 45,000 pounds of potassium to the acre in the first
twelve inches, but continuous cultivation, heavy cropping, sur-
face washing, and leaching have reduced the store of plant-food
in most soils much below these amounts. It is evident that if
most soils are to produce heavy yields, either the food they
contain must be made available more rapidly than it is in the
average soil, or the crops must be helped with Fertilizers.
Bigger Crops at Less Cost by Fertilization:
A prominent captain of industry of the Middle West said:
“Fertilization dovetails with diversification. It is one of the
principal objects of diversification. It produces bigger yields
per acre, thereby reducing the cost of production per acre. The
problem in a nutshell is to provide a bigger profit for the producer,
and lower prices for the consumer. In what better manner can a
bigger profit be assured than through the production of bigger
crops at proportionately less cost?) That is what intelligent fer-
tilization will accomplish.”
What happens to Cotton when no Fertilizers are used is well illustrated in the above. The
insert shows the results where Fertilizers were not applied. On the other field 500 Ibs. of
V-C was applied per acre and the results speak for itself.
20 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Larger and More Thrifty Crops:
In the Bureau of Soils Bulletin No. 48, issued by the Depart-
ment of Agriculture in Washington, a most interesting and
significent fact is pointed out which should be of special interest
to the farmers of the Southern States who have neglected their
opportunity by not growing small grain on some of their land.
We quote from the above mentioned bulletin as follows:
“It is significent that the sandy soils of the Norfolk and
Portsmouth series collected from the Southern States, where
wheat is seldom grown, have produced, on an average, larger
and more thrifty wheat plants by the application of a Complete
Fertilizer and lime than have been produced by the same or
other treatment on soils of the Marshall or Miami series from
Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and New York where wheat does well.”
Therefore, why should the farmer of the Southern States not
plant more wheat and other small grain on his land? Hasn’t
he depended upon Western and Northern grain long enough and
paid a big price for doing so? The single State of Illinois grows
about 130,000,000 bushels more of oats than is grown in all the
Southern States combined.
Manure Not a Balanced Fertilizer:
The “Indiana Farmer” points out a few pertinent facts con-
cerning the value of Commercial Fertilizers and barn manure.
It is a well known fact that the West and Middle-West farmers
have an idea that by using barn manure on their soil and crops
it is all that is necessary. That this is a fallacy the ‘Indiana
Farmer” points out as follows:
“Manure alone is not a balanced Fertilizer. It is deficient
in the mineral substances which all plants demand. ‘To get the
most out of our manure we should supplement its use with
Commercial Fertilizers carrying plenty of phosphorus and
potash. All experience proves that Fertilizers are most pro-
fitable when used judiciously in connection with barn manures
and green manures. Barn manures must undergo chemical
changes in the soil before the plant-food in them can be used by
the growing plants. Commercial Fertilizers contain readily
available plant-food. This may be assimilated and used at once
by the plant to give it a good start while the manure is being
worked over in the soil to help out later on. There is no danger
in using plenty of Commercial Fertilizers providing the ground
is not allowed to run down and lose its vegetable or organic
matter.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 21
Fertilizer Experiences of Successful Corn Growers:
“The fertilized rows had larger ears and fewer soft nubbins.
The corn was drier and more solid, so that a later weighing would
show a greater difference in favor of the Fertilizer. The ferti-
lized rows yielded at the rate of 4614 bushels per acre, the un-
fertilized not quite 36 bushels, a gain of 1014 bushels due to the
Fertilizer. At only 60 cents per bushel of corn, the price at
husking time, the increased yield is worth $6.30. ‘The cost of
Fertilizer was $1.20 per acre. The judicius use of Fertilizers
practically guarantees a net return of 400%. It hardly need be
said that Fertilizers can be used to good advantage on practically
every farm in the State.”
Richest Agricultural County in the U. S.:
And where do you suppose this richest of Counties is situ-
ated? Not in California or the South where the crop growing
season is longest, neither is it the much talked of Lancaster
County in Pennsylvania, nor some of the great Counties of the
Middle West. It is a County situated at the most extreme
northeastern boundry of the United States; stuck way up into
Canada and surrounded on three sides by Canada; where the
mercury frequently goes as low as forty degrees below zero and
stays there for days and weeks at a time. A County that is
almost as large as the whole State of Massachusetts.
Aroostook County, Maine, is now said to be the richest
Agricultural County in the United States today. It produces
between 17,000,000 and 25,000,000 bushels of potatoes a year.
The great wealth produced by the farmers of Aroostook County
is simply the result of intelligent farming.
Though this County has only 14 banks, last May these banks
held deposits of more than $15,000,000. Fortunes have been
made by the farmers of Aroostook County, many farmers having
sold $40,000, $50,000 and in some cases as high as $100,000
worth of potatoes as the result of their season’s work.
The farmers of Aroostook County began buying automobiles
and electric light plants; not the cheap and small automobiles,
but the kind that range in price from $3000 to $5000 each. One
manufacturer of automobiles shipped a trainload of 53 box cars
loaded to the doors with his product to Aroostook County, and
within two weeks after arrival every automobile in the shipment
had been sold. Besides buying automobiles the farmers of
Aroostook County made heavy purchases of farm machinery.
One single manufacturer of Agricultural Implements sold 60
carloads of plows, harvesters and tractors there.
bo
i)
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
The Nation’s Greatest Asset Must Be
Conserved
An Investment for a Definite and Profitable Return:
The wise and prudent farmer not alone plans to get results
immediately from his soil, but get the maximum results, as well
as establishes a permanent soil fertility. The wise farmer knows
that soils that are not properly handled and fertilized become so
poor that they will not produce profitable crops. Whether or
not a soil contains an abundance of the essential plant foods is
not so important as whether the plant foods are available. If
they are not the soil containing them is no better than a barren
soil. No one denies that when an abundance of good fertilizer
is wisely added to a soil the returns from it are improved. It is
a simple matter of investment for a definite return to use fertil-
izers that come back to you in profitable crops.
Enormous Soil Fertility Depletion:
A noted professor of economics at the University of Berlin
aptly brought out to what extent our soil fertility is depleted by
the following statement:
“In every million bushels of wheat that we purchase from
America there are 1,575,000 pounds of phosphorus, nitrogen and
potash, worth in round numbers about $267,000, at pre-war
prices.”
Think what this means to soil fertility depletion on a wheat
crop of 1,025,801,000 bushels such as we had in 1915. A loss of
just $274 ,288,867 on the above basis. Since the nation’s greatest
asset is the soil, we must conserve it, place it on a permanent soil
fertility basis and keep it there year in and out. We must not
rob our soils of its wealth producing properties. The soil is a
better wealth producer than all the mines put together—with
proper management. So don’t rob your own bank by taking out
and putting nothing in.
Multiplying Productive Capacity Pays:
With big profits, industry expands rapidly; with small profits
it stands still; with no profits it declines. This applies to the
farmer as well as to the manufacturer.
In various lines of manufacturing, tremendous profits were
realized in the past few years. Examination shows that much
of the greater part of these profits went back into the business,
thereby increasing capacity, multiplying productive capacity.
The same method or process of multiplying productive capacity
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 23
can be applied on the farm. As the farm increases its productive
capacity, it also decreases its productive capacity in diminishing
the soil fertility, the crop producing properties. The farmer must
also put some of his profits back into the business—the soil, so
that his next crop will produce still further profits.
The Stimulus of High Prices:
In normal times every bushel of wheat contained 380 cents
worth of soil salts; these soil salts, extracted by the growing
wheat, must be replaced by fertilizers. We dare not, in fact we
can not afford to, continue to deplete our soil without restora-
tion. Our wheat growing has mined our soil in a manner that
no other nation would allow. From a yield of 40 bushels to the
acre in virgin fields, our average has dropped to 15 bushels from
the nation and 10 or 12 bushels in worn-out states. The farmer
must not only restore the soil salts extracted this year, but
restore those extracted in the last decade, if we are to meet the
agricultural demands which the world will put upon us.
The laws of chemistry, of plant growth and of agricultural
economics are inexorable. To have enough bread to stave off
famine is the all important first consideration, both for ourselves
and for the whole world, which will be dependent upon our
foodstuffs during the next years as never before. During the
last three years the world has made unprecedented demands
upon American industries. They met that demand because
they were allowed the stimulus of high prices. Should not the
industry of agriculture have an equally great or even greater
stimulus since in the next two or three years the world’s demand
is going to fall upon our agriculture as never before? For upon
the industry of farming depends the welfare and existence of all
industries and mankind.
A Sound Agricultural Policy Needed
It is high time the farmer and his interests should have that
consideration which a progressive age entitles them to. At last
it seems to be dawning upon this country that the most im-
portant thing for us at the present time is the creation and pur-
suit of a sound agricultural policy, a system of encouraging
farm production. In some way the disorganized farmers must
organize so they will have that collective strength which
has come from corporate or associated effort in other fields of
production.
24 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
In the midst of a worldwide depletion of agricultural
production, a depletion which cannot be made good within at
least five years after the close of the war. Between 40,000,000
and 60,000,000 men have already been withdrawn from agri-
cultural production and thrown into the war or into business
connected with the war and not connected with agriculture.
Millions of those men have been killed, millions more crippled,
still other millions so disused to agricultural life that they will
never return to it.
Take the matter alone of skilled agriculturists who have
perished. This place cannot be taken by men from other voca-
tions, even if these men were forced to go to the farm. Farm
life is exceedingly varied; it requires a strong physique, years of
training and practice to make a good agriculturist.
The fields of Europe have for more than three years gone
almost without fertilizers. The salt of Europe’s soil has been
mined. It will take many years to replace the fields in that old
state of fertility, even if the usual labor power of tilling them
were in existence.
Today, right now, America has an unexampled opportunity
and an unexampled obligation. If there is not to be a world-
wide famine, both now and after the war, we must step in and
prevent it. And we can step in in no better way than to estab-
lish and pursue an agricultural policy upon which the progress
of civilization in the next ten years or more will largely depend.
Progressive civilization is not possible without progressive
agriculture, and we will not have progressive agriculture unless
we establish and pursue a sounder agricultural policy than now
exists or has ever existed.
Crops Increased Over Two Billion Dollars:
The U. 8S. Census Map following page 25 clearly indicates
the expenditures for fertilizers in 1909. Each dot equals $5,000
spent for fertilizers. This indicates what a big field of possi-
bilities exists in our country for an increased consumption of
fertilizers, and how much a more liberal application of same will
mean to the future prosperity of our farms and our country.
The last U. 8. Census reports that “in the country as a whole,
only 28.7 percent of the farms bought fertilizers. Of the total of
878,798,325 acres, only 478,451,750 acres were improved.”
In ten years the farmers of the United States increased their
expenditures for fertilizers 115 percent, and in these ten years
the farmers increased their crops from an aggregate of $2,998,-
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 25
704,000 to $5,478,161,000, showing an zncreased crop value of
$2,488,457,000. The value of all crops for 1917 reached the
enormous total of $13,580,768,000.”
This increase is not due entirely to the increased use of
fertilizers, but can it not be well imagined what the increased
crop value of all farms would be if 100 percent of the farmers,
instead of only 28.7 percent, used plant-food on their soil and
crops.
In the so-called ‘Cotton States” the greatest increase in the
use of fertilizers is shown, and here the total value of crops in-
creased 112.7 percent.
This neck-high Cotton is concrete evidence that it pays to Fertilize and Fertilize well. V-C
Fertilizers applied at the rate of 1000 lbs. per acre produced two bales to the acre on this field.
$1.30 or 4 Cents Worth of Fertilizer to the Acre:
The compilers of the last United States Census made the
following discovery concerning the value of plant-food and its
resultant benefits and profits:
“The ‘worn-out’ and ‘barren’ farms of New England pro-
duce on an average more corn and wheat to the acre than is
grown in the famous corn and wheat belt States of the Middle-
West, as the following proves:”
New England States used $1.30 worth of fertilizers to the
acre on its farms.
Middle-West States used 4 cents’ worth of fertilizers to the
acre on its farms.
26 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Each dot on the above illustration means that $5000 has been spent for
Fertilizer. It will be readily seen that as yet the Farmers of the West have
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 27
EXPENDITURES OF FARMERS FOR
FERTILIZER IN 1909
| DOT = $5,000
not awakened to the worth of Fertilizing their fields. The day will come
however, when they will get increased yields per acre.
28 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
New England produced 44 bushels of corn to the acre.
Middle-West 2
New England produced 23 bushels of wheat to the acre,
Middle-West ily
Does this not prove conclusively the great value and ad-
vantage of using plant-food and an abundance of it on soil and
crops?
Over $1,700 Net Profit Annually on One Acre for 18 Years:
It used to be said that no one could support a family on less
than 100 acres, but some of the European farmers who have
settled in various parts of the West have known that this is a
long way from being true.
A notable example of their intensive methods is that of a
Belgian, who on a single acre of land in Nevada has for 18 years
made an average annual net profit of more than $1700, while
rearing and educating a family of eight children.
It is a well known fact that the farmers of Belgium use more
commercial fertilizers per acre than are used in any other part
of the world. They use an average of 243 pounds of fertilizer per
acre on all their cultivated lands, not including animal manures.
In the United States we use only about 31 pounds of fertilizers
per acre on our cultivated lands.
Well drained, well cultivated and well fertilized land will
produce maximum results per acre. The soil and crops need
good care and good nourishment if the best results are desired.
What this progressive Belgian farmer has done in Nevada can
be done elsewhere if the same methods are applied.
Making the Farm an Efficient and Profitable Workshop:
Never before has there been such a broad discussion and
consideration as to our problems of agricultural education as
now. The children destined for the farm must have in their
schools a bread training that will give them understanding of the
scientific principles as well as skill and enthusiasm for the work
itself. We will then be assured of having less soil robbery and a
greater and also better production on each acre of tilled land.
And as our standards rise on the farm, our agriculture will rise
accordingly, so that for future generations our soil fertility will
be conserved on a firm and permanent basis. We must cease
this present agricultural process of mining. We need this new
education so that the farm may become an efficient and profit-
able workshop, furnishing a field for skilled and trained labor,
intelligent management, and the profitable employment of capital.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 29
A Few Interesting Facts for Farmers
A Millionaire Farmer’s Views:
The Hon. James M. Smith, a millionaire farmer of Georgia,
who died only a short time ago, had the following to say with
reference to the use of fertilizers on farm crops:
“The use of fertilizers has become one of the most important
factors in Southern agriculture. It is a powerful agency in pro-
ducing an increased yield. ..a thing we should desire and work
for. We certainly believe in the use of commercial fertilizers,
but we also believe in the turning under of vegetable matter
the growing of legumes and the saving of all barnyard manure.
The up-to-date farmer will not consider one of these, but all
four of them, in trying to increase his farm crops.”
Why $140 an Acre Profit When Others Make $1600?
That intensive farming and liberal fertilization pays well is
best illustrated by comparing the truck farmers, methods em-
ployed abroad and in this country. The market gardeners near
Paris, who supply the city with fresh produce, average in extent
from one-half to two acres each. There are about 1200 of these
small truck farms which produce crops valued at $1600 an acre
each year, whereas the truck farmers on Long Island produce
$140 an acre. This high yield is obtained by the French gar-
deners by the wise and liberal use of fertilizers and intensive
methods of cultivation. However, simply applying fertilizers
to the soil will not make a good farmer out of a poor one. Fer-
tilizers will prove effective only in proportion to the amount of
intelligence the farmer uses with it. He must understand the
laws of the soil and plant life and the fundamental principles of
agricultural practice. Then will fertilizers prove most effective.
Greatest Grin-Producers in the World:
One of the progressive and prosperous farmers in Indiana has
discovered the great value of properly applying commercial fer-
tilizers on his farm. This is what he says:
“One of the things I do to boost my crops is to fertilize. Crops
must be fed the same as stock. Fertilizers is what I call my
“crop insurance.” By the judicious use of fertilizers,—in other
words, by feeding crops according to their needs and handling
the soil according to its deservings, you will have insurance on
the greatest grin-producers in the world—bumper crops.”
30 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
This surely is a grin-producing crop. Errickson and Patten of Freehold, New Jersey, secured
a yield of 350 bushels of American Giant Potatoes per acre. V-C Fertilizers were applied at
the rate of 1500 pounds per acre to produce this splendid crop.
How a 50-Cent an Acre Farm Made Good:
On a sandy farm in one of the Southern States, which had
been abandoned by its original owner and sold for fifty cents per
acre, a little barnyard manure and heavy applications of fer-
tilizer made another farmer rich. This farmer used $15 worth
of fertilizer per acre and raised 1,400 pounds of seed cotton per
acre. This was about a bale per acre on the entire farm. This
investment in fertilizers and good breaking and cultivation
netted the thrifty farmer more than $50 per acre when cotton
was bringing a high price. This farm can not now be bought
for 50 cents per acre.
Farmers Must Make Good Profits:
A prominent manufacturer of fertilizers in the South indi-
cates the attitude of the manufacturers to the farmers in the
following expressions:
“We feel we will help ourselves in helping others. Through
co-operation can the greatest success in any industry be achieved.
The fertilizer industry can not succeed unless the farmers who
consume the fertilizers make good profits from their use. Can
any one with good sense and judgment imagine that the industry
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 31
could survive if fertilizers did not yield a profit considerably in
excess of their cost to the farmers?”
How Much Is a Billion Dollars?
We have heard much of late years about billions of bushels
and billions of dollars. Yet how many of us stop to think what
a billion really is, it is almost beyond comprehension, for it is
such a tremendous sum. Prof. Sprague of Harvard University,
in conversation with Mr. Peter W. Goebel, President of the
American Bankers’ Association, made this very interesting
remark:
“Tf you want to bring the greatness of a billion dollars to the
attention of the average audience, tell them this: Supposing at
the birth of Christ, somebody, or some system, had started to
deposit into the treasury one dollar a minute for every minute
of the twenty-four hours of the day and continued until today,
he still would not have quite a billion.”
Multiply this seven times, and you then may form some
idea as to what a stupendous amount our Government borrowed
when on April 23, 1917, it authorized the Secretary of the
Treasury to borrow seven billions of dollars.
125 Years to Count a Billion Bushels:
We now think and talk in billions. Some one has figured it
out that it would take 102 years to count a billion silver dollars
at the rate that the expert money counters of the United States
Treasury count money. These expert money counters can
count 4,000 silver dollars an hour, or 32,000 a day. At this rate
it would take over 125 years to count the number of bushels of
wheat of a single year—1915, which consisted of 1,025,801,000
bushels, which was the largest wheat crop this country has ever
known.
What a good thing it is that the wealth of the United States
which is now about $240,000,000,000, does not have to be
counted in silver dollars. At the rate of counting 4,000 dollars
an hour it would take 24,480 years to count this enormous
wealth, if it were all in silver dollars. <A billion is certainly a
whole lot. The money value of all the crops produced by the
farmers of the United States that same year was $6,652,000,000.
Some business for that one year. Surely the men that produced
it should be entitled to a good margin of profit on it.
32 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
How Plants Add to the Wealth of the World:
The wealth of the world consists of:
Land or Soil.
Products of Mines, Quarries, etc.
Members of the Animal Kingdom.
Members of the Plant Kingdom.
The conversion of crude into finished products by the
process of manufacture, construction, etc.
cao rE
Soil tillage for the production of plants and animals employs
more people, supplies more of the world’s necessities and creates
more wealth than many other vocations combined.
The corn crop of 1914 amounted to nearly four billion
bushels. If this corn had been placed in bags two feet long with
two bushels in each bag and these bags placed in lines around
the earth at the equator they would have encircled the earth
58.5 times. The wheat crop of 1914 placed in two bushel bags
two feet long would have encircled the earth very nearly 64
times and the oat crop 22 times. The world annually produces
more than 1,000 billion pounds of the six most important cereals
—wheat, corn, oats, rice, rye and barley. This is 500 million
tons. If these grains were loaded into freight cars of average
capacity they would encircle the earth at the equator 7.75 times.
If one crop of potatoes, beans, peas, sugar, fruits and vegetables
was all loaded into freight cars of average capacity more cars
would be required than for the six great cereals. If all the cot-
ton grown in the world in 1914 had been packed into 500 pound
bales five feet long they would have if placed in line at the
equator just about reached around the earth, making a line of
bales 25,000 miles long and the bales touching. If the market
value of these crops was set down in figures showing the millions
of dollars of wealth they represent, the human mind could not
grasp them. No one can fully realize the vast value of the crops
of the world. Should all crops fail for one year more people
would die of starvation than have been killed in all the wars of
a thousand years. The population of the earth is increasing
annually by millions of souls that must be clothed and fed, and
the great economic problem of the future will be where with all
shall the people of the world get their food and raiment. This
problem must be solved by the farmer and the solution will be
reached through ‘“‘How to Make Soil and Crops Pay More.”
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 33
How Plants Supply Food, Clothing, Building
Material, Medicine, Etc.:
But few people realize the extent to which plants add to the
necessities, comforts and pleasures of man. Every part of every
plant that grows may serve some useful purpose to man. The
variety of uses to which plants are put and may be put is almost
inconceivable. They contain every element of nutriment for the
best sustenance of man or beast and in cheap, palatable, nutritious
and appropriate forms of food. Root, stem, bark, leaf, flower,
seed furnish more than three-fourths of the sustenance of man
and practically all that sustains man’s domestic animals. Prac-
tically all the clothing used by man is either directly of plant
origin or indirectly, coming from the animals sustained by
plants. The medicines in their infinite variety and marvelous
curative power come from plants far more than from all other
sources. The books and newspapers are made from plants and
the ink with which they are printed. More than all other things
do plants contribute to man’s necessities. Should plants for one
short year fail to give their bounty famine would do more the
following year to destroy civilization than all agencies combined
for two thousand years have done to establish it. Is it not then
our duty to minister to these God-given plants that they may
better serve the purpose God intended them to serve?
Miles of Roots and Millions of Mouths
Roots by the Mile:
It will no doubt be a surprise to many to learn to what extent
roots of plants grow. The roots of a corn or sunflower plant
fill a cubie yard of soil with tiny rootlets. The roots produced
in a season by a wheat plant, if placed end to end, would extend
a third of a mile. A pumpkin vine may produce 15 miles of
roots in one season. Alfalfa roots have been known to go down
into the soil 30 feet. Grapevine roots have been found 22 feet
below the surface. The total length of all the roots of a water
plant was found to be about 268 feet, of a rye plant 385 feet,
and one corn plant had a total length of 1452 feet of roots. And
if these roots find no plant-food to feed them, what happens to
the plants? They die of starvation.
A Few Great Drinkers:
In more than half the area of the United States there is not
enough water available in the average season for a maximum
Stomata or leaf mouths as seen through a : :
powerful microscope. These stomata are on tree, in which the number runs as
the underside of the leaf, and it is through
these openings that the plant breathes.
34 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
yield of crops. In the central part of the United States agri-
cultural plants, on the average, take about 450 pounds of water
from the soil for every pound of dry matter produced. By care-
ful experiment the pounds of water which under ordinary con-
ditions are drawn from the soil for every pound of dry matter
manufactured by certain plants has been ascertained to be as
follows:
Pounds Pounds
Al Pall Parl Sewn pte ae eae 1068 Wheaten oe. 507
Canada Field Peas...... 800 Popatogs as oe eee 488
RViCPe Alea ee are 724 Sugar’ Beets: 2-5. sees 377
SweetiClover eo. see 709 Cora: ve: et eee eee 369
Oster ee ere teens 614 Sorghums-/ yee soe 306
Wine: Bee ee eee 275
Alfalfa, by reason of its deep rooting habit, feeds through a
greater area than other plants, and is therefore among the last
to suffer. The large amount of water used by alfalfa explains
why crops that follow alfalfa, such as corn, often suffer for lack
of sufficient moisture. In poor soil plants manufacture little or
nothing for long periods, although the water passes from their
bodies all of the time. High fertility, therefore, means more
rapid production and consequently cheaper farming. Plants
must be rushed at their work.
Leaves with Millions of Mouths:
In the surface layer, or epider-
mis, of the leaves of plants there
are many small pores through
which the water passes to the out-
side air. These pores are known
as stomata (stoma, singular, mean-
ing mouth). The stomata opening
is surrounded by a pair of surface
cells, known as guard cells. In dry
weather the guard cells are usually
affected so as to close the opening,
and in damp weather, so as to
leave it open. The number of
stomata on the leaves varies on
an average from about 24,000
to 180,000 a square inch, although
there are plants, such as the olive
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 35
high as 375,000 a square inch, and in rape the enormous number
of 429,000 a square inch is reached. It is said that an average
leaf of rape contains as many as 11,000,000 stomata, and that a
large sunflower leaf has 13,000,000. Itis estimated that if all the
water given off by the plants of a wheat field in the growing sea-
son could be put back on the land again, it would cover the ground
to a depth of about four and a half inches, while that given off
from the plants of a field of oats would cover the ground to a
depth of five inches. This shows that a wide margin of
safety exists for a farmer who handles his land so as to
conserve the water.
What Agricultural Educators and Experiment
Stations Have Found
General Tendency Is to Use Fertilizers in too Small Amounts:
Prof. Lucius L. Van Slyke of the New York Agricultural
Experiment Station, in his valuable book entitled ‘‘Fertilizers
and Crops,” among other facts of interest, points out the value
of soil fertility and plant-food. We quote in part as follows:
“The general tendency among not a few farmers is to use
fertilizers, if they use them at all, in too small amounts. While
the usual purpose in using fertilizers is to supplement the soil’s
supply of plant-food, there are two points of view in mind: (1)
helping crops to start, and (2) helping them throughout their
entire period of growth.
‘“An ideal soil for raising good crops should possess qualities
such as an abundance of plant-food, good physical condition,
abundance of organic matter and calcium carbonate and good
drainage. On soils which are more or less deficient in qualities
characteristic of fertile soils, the use of fertilizers will generally
be necessary from the start to insure good yield and quality.”
Three Hundred Trillion Cells in One Day:
“We may regard an ordinary living plant as a chemical
laboratory or factory, containing immense numbers of small
rooms, which we call plant-cells, each of which contains every-
thing essential for its work of production, and in which there is
at one time or another intense industrial activity.
“In some cases, one cell divides into two cells every 30
minutes; that is, passes through its cycle of life from birth to
reproduction; if such a rate were kept up for 24 hours the one
cell would multiply into more than three hundred trillions
(800,000,000,000,000).
36 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Great Waste on the Farm:
“The methods pursued by the American farmer in drawing
upon the readily available plant-food supplies deposited for
their use by the accumulations of long ages have been wasteful
if not yet exhaustive.
“One-third of the plant-food value of the manure produced
by the different kinds of farm animals in the United States is
lost by carelessness, a loss equivalent to $700,000,000 a year.”
“The conditions of soils that are recognized as best suited to
crop production are the one which best furnish available plant-
food.
“The agricultural value of a fertilizer is measured by its
crop-producing power from the standpoint of the farmer.
Eight Billion on Pinhead:
“It is only within recent years that the science of the micro-
scopic life of the soil has developed. Those tiny forms of life
are found in great abundance in the soil. Scientists have dis-
covered that some of the bacteria are so small that 8,000,000,000
of them could be placed on the head of an ordinary pin.”
What Constitutes Good Farming:
Director Edward B. Voorhees, of the New Jersey Agri-
cultural Experiment Station and Professor of Agriculture at
Rutgers College, clearly points out the value of soil fertility as
follows:
The Reliability of Commercial Fertilizers
“Commercial fertilizers are widely distributed, are easily
obtained, and can be purchased in any desired amount and at
any convenient time. There is an advantage in being able to
obtain the same mixture from year to year, when it best suits
one’s needs, and to feel assured of having the same kinds of
plant-food materials in the same proportions. Generally speak-
ing, the same brand of fertilizer, especially in case of the large
manufacturers, has been found very uniform from year to year.
It is possible for manufacturers to prepare fertilizers so that they
are evenly and thoroughly mixed, finely ground, dry, and in
condition for convenient use. The manufacture of commercial
fertilizers today is, on the whole, more carefully managed, and
the products more reliable in uniformity, than at any previous
time.
“There is no question of greater importance to the practical
farmer than that of soil fertility. To produce profitable crops
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 37
and at the same time to maintain and even increase the produc-
tive capacity of the soil may rightly be termed ‘good farming.’
“The agricultural value of any of the fertilizer constituents is
measured by the value of the crop increase which its use may be
expected to produce. ‘The fertilizer when used in connection
with a crop possessing a greater market value may prove highly
profitable, since the monetary return secured from the crop
increase is much greater than the cost of the fertilizer.”
Profits Within Farmers’ Control:
“The profit from the use of fertilizers is measured to a large
degree by the perfection of soil conditions which are entirely
within the power of the farmer to control. The production
possible from a definite amount of plant-food can be secured
only when the conditions are such as permit its proper solution,
distribution, and retention in the soil.
“It should be the aim in the use of commercial fertilizers to
supplement the plant-food derived from the soil itself in such
a manner as to make possible the most profitable returns. Farm-
ing will thus be more successful, because profitable crops are
secured, while fertility of the soil is at the same time increased.
“Commercial fertilizers are mainly valuable because they
furnish the elements—nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash—
which serve as food, not as stimulants. A definite system or
plan should be adopted in the use of fertilizers; ‘hit or miss’
methods are seldom satisfactory, and frequently very expensive.”
Fertile Soil and Bumper Crops for 4200 Years:
The late Prof. F. H. King, D. Sc., formerly Professor of
Agricultural Physics at the University of Wisconsin, and Chief
of Division of Soil Management U. 8. Dept. of Agriculture, in
his interesting history of ‘“‘Farmers of Forty Centuries,” points
out how the farmers of the Orient have successfully applied
plant-foods, good tillage and crop rotation to their intensive
methods of farming.
Prof. King relates how for hundreds of centuries these
Oriental soils have been tilled to the limit and produced ex-
ceptional crops. For 4200 years the fertility of these soils has
not decreased but increased, and today are producing crops four
and five times as much as we produce on our own soils here in
the United States. These Oriental farmers never ‘‘mine”’ their
soils, but year after year see to it that the fertility of the soil is
regularly maintained and increased, not robbed as is done so
much in this country.
38 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Feeding Apple Trees Pays:
Some interesting experiments were conducted by the Massa-
chusetts Experiment Station in determining the value of fer-
tilizers on an apple orchard. The cost of fertilizers was about
$12.00 per acre per annum. Between the trees hay was grown
for four years which was worth $270, which in itself more than
paid for the cost of fertilizer. The total yield of these trees for
20 years was as follows:
Barrels per Acre
Fertilized Unfertilized
Gravensteim etc tere en ee oe 267.5 89.2
Balohwitt: ee ee cee ee 819.1 50.4
ISSCUS cee eo Sai eee ere BA mee ee 566.2 14:
Greening sist, one cee He ee OS 96.9
Fertilizer Results on an Ohio Orchard. _ The two rows of 12 trees each are of the same variety,
received the same treatment in mulching and spraying, yet note the difference in the yield.
The row on the left was fertilized and yielded 30 barrels. The row on the right, unfertilized,
produced 3 barrels of apples. The difference of 27 barrels of apples was due to Fertilizer
which was applied at the rate of 10 pounds per tree.
Increased Yields Per Acre Did It:
Dean Homer C. Price, College of Agriculture, Ohio State
University, Columbus, writing on “Increasing the Food Supply
of the Nation,’’ as published in the Scientific American, says:
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 39
““A nation’s food supply may be increased either by increasing
the area cultivated or by increasing the yield per acre. In
America we have been using the former method, and in Germany
the latter method has been used. Within twenty years the cul-
tivated area of grain in Germany has not increased over 5 per-
cent, but within this time the total product has increased over
60 percent, due to the increased yield per acre. This increase
has been due to the application of science to the practice of
agriculture, and has resulted from a better cultivation and
handling of the soil, from the more abundant and intelligent use
of stable manures and commercial fertilizers, and from the se-
lection and breeding of more productive varieties of crops.”
Two Interesting Comparisons:
It will be of interest to compare the increase of five principal
crops in the United States with Germany’s increase. Official
records for 20 years in Germany and 18 years in the U. 8. show
the following:
Increase in Yield in Five Crops of Germany in 20 years,
and Same in U. S. in 18 Years:
Germany United States
U0 22) | a. a eo a 47.8% increase LoS increase
of
Pee ieee tae «
SCE ee eve ee Re AL ee Brs% oS
SU AIEMES tag ee al Sg ec ies TIMGo5e 9 B28 one
Commenting on this showing Dean Price further says: ‘‘The
German is more careful in the selection of his seed, and his stand
of the crop on the ground is more perfect. He has also learned
how to feed his crops with fertilizers.”
Why Home Mixing Is Not Best:
In Bulletin No. 167 of the Texas Agricultural Experiment
Station is clearly pointed out the advantage of having fertilizers
well mixed, and why the manufacturer of fertilizers can do this
best. We quote as follows:
“The fertilizer manufacturer has the advantage of purchasing
his materials in large quantities at wholesale prices. He also
has the advantage of possessing the necessary machinery and
appliances for mixing at a lower cost per ton than the home
mixer.”’
40 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Indiana Farmers Found It Profitable:
Purdue University Agricultural Experiment Station in its
Circular No. 49 emphatically points out to what extent com-
mercial fertilizers have helped the Indiana farmers in increasing
their crops and profits. We quote as follows:
“At the present time there is no Agricultural subject in
which there is more general interest than that of soil fertility.
The farmers of Indiana have found it profitable to spend $3,-
400,000 a year for commercial plant-foods among the 215,485
farms.
$5.00 Worth of Commercial Fertilizer Gave Greater Increase
Than Ten Tons of Manure
“One application of 207 pounds of muriate of potash to the
acre on muck soil gave an increase of 82 bushels of corn in four
years, while an application of 10 tons of barnyard manure to the
acre only increased the yield 51 bushels during the same period.
In this experiment an application of potash costing $5.00 gave
a greater increase in crop than an application of 10 tons of
manure. Contrary to the general opinion, farm manures are not
well balanced fertilizers for most soils.”
Indiana Shows 187 Percent Increase:
In Bulletin No. 174 of the Purdue University Agricultural
Experiment Station, we learn to what extent the Indiana farmers
have increased the use of commercial fertilizers on their soil and
crops in recent years, as follows:
“Total amount of fertilizers sold in Indiana in 1913 was
193,899 tons, having a retail value of $4,516,404.81. The sale
in the spring amounted to 84,769 tons, valued at $2,068,649.13,
and in the fall of 109,130 tons valued at $2,447,755.68. Com-
pared with the 67,672 tons sold in 1904, ten years previous,
shows an increase of 126,277 tons, equivalent to 187 per cent.”’
What 30 Years’ Experiments Proved:
The Pennsylvania State College of Agriculture has made
some very interesting and conclusive experiments on various
crops with the use of fertilizers. After 30 years of experiments
it found that the judicious use of fertilizers increased the yield
per acre on four crops as follows:
Wheat made a gain of 74 percent in yield per acre.
Hay “ “ “ “ 54 “ “ “ “ “
Corn “ “ “ “ 36 “ “ “ “ “
Oats “ “ “ “ 33)] “ “ “ “ “
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 41
Fertilized Wheat 94 Percent Plump, Unfertilized Wheat 51
Percent Plump:
The Ohio Experiment Station made some interesting experi-
ments on wheat. It reports that where the wheat was grown on
soil which was not fertilized, the sample of grain showed 49
percent shriveled wheat and 51 percent plumb wheat. Whereas,
the wheat which received a judicious amount of the correct
plant-food, the sample of grain analyzed 6 percent shriveled and
94 percent plump. Is this not conclusive evidence as to the
value of proper fertilization?
The Value of a Knowledge of Farm Manaége-
ment Principles:
Many American farmers are getting
less from their labor than they are entitled
to because they fail to recognize certain
fundamental principles which underlie suc-
cessful farm management.
One of the important lessons we have
learned from the science of farm manage-
ment is that the great majority of Ameri-
can farmers must make their living from
the production of ordinary field crops and
standard live stock products. It has also
taught us that in order that the farmer
may be duly rewarded for his time and
energy he must work a considerable acreage
of land. The ideal American farm is of a
size that will give the average farm family
an opportunity to utilize their full earning
power at all seasons of the year.
One of the worst faults of American Chief of the Office of Farm
farming, and particularly of farming in the eee
cotton belt, is the fact that the system followed leaves much of
the year either wholly idle or poorly occupied. A man’s time is not
worth a great deal when he is following one six-hundred-pound
mule down a cotton row. The cotton farmer should at least
produce on his own farm all the feed and food needed by those
who live on the farm, and where there is a good local market for
food and feed products it is a good plan to produce a surplus of
these for sale.
42 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Another very important lesson which the science of farm
management has taught us is that yield per acre is one of the
largest factors in the farmer’s profits. A farmer whose yields are
low can add more to his income by giving attention to building up
soul fertility than he can in any other way.
Another important fact developed in farm management
studies is that farm land, because of the remarkable security it
offers as an investment, is usually held at a price that causes the
income from it to represent a very low percentage of its value.
On the other hand, when money is invested in work stock,
implements and the like, it brings a very high rate of income
under average conditions. It is not uncommon for landlords to
obtain an income of 4 percent or less on their real estate while
their tenants make an income of 15 percent to 30 percent on
their working capital.
The important lesson from this is that the young man starting
out with very small capital can make more as a tenant on a
farm of considerable size than he can as an owner on a small
patch of land. Yet the advantages of ownership are so great
that just as soon as the tenant is able to save enough to make a
first payment on a good sized farm it is important that he be-
come an owner.
2,000 Boys Produce Over 200,000 Bushels
of Corn:
One of the most revolutionary and
evolutionary pieces of work ever accom-
plished in the United States is that which
was done through the Boys’ Corn Clubs.
This work was organized some years ago by
the late Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, and Dr.
Knapp’s conception of the work marked a
new era in crop production in the South.
Dr. Knapp’s idea was to Make Soil and
Crops Pay More, and to have boys demon-
strate how this could be done. How well
the demonstrations were carried out is
shown by the records of more than 25 boys
who produced more than 200 bushels of
corn per acre and more than 2,000 boys who
Dr. Seaman A. Knapp have produced more than 100 bushels of
Late head of the Boy’s Club movement :
of the U. S. Department of Agriculture COrN per acre.
In 1916 the average yield of corn (U. 8. Census) in the
fifteen Southern States was 20.91 bushels per acre. In the same
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 43
year the average yield per acre by all of the several thousand
members of the Boys’ Corn Clubs was 46.94 bushels per acre,
26.03 bushels per acre in favor of the boys. The average yields
per acre by the Boys’ Corn Club members was 124 per cent
more than the average yield of all the 15 Southern States.
The boys acres averaged five bushels more than twice as much
as the average per acre for the 15 Southern States. If the men
farmers of the South follow the lead of the Boy’s Corn Club
members the South will more than double its yield of corn.
By following scientific instructions the Corn Club Boys in
fifteen states have shown that the yield of corn may be more
than doubled by giving timely attention to good soil prepara-
tion, good seed, appropriate feeding and frequent shallow
cultivation. Had the farmers in these states done as well as
the boys the total yield of corn in 1917 would have been about
2,000,000,000 bushels instead of a little over 900,000,000
bushels.
Total Annual Production
in Bushels
Average Yield in
Bushels in 1916
eet By Boys’ | By Whol
y Boys y Whole
Corn Club State ae Ni
Alabama........ 36.25 30,696,000 77,200,000
Arkansas... ..-. 37.02 37,610,000 67,200,000
[Mori 4 ae one 42.00 7,024,000 13,875,000
Geareianese ae: 41.60 39,375,000 72,000,000
Kentucky....... 65.10 83,348,000 122,850,000
Louisiana....... 46.00 26,010,000 42,246,000
Maryland....... 62.10 17,924,000 28,080,000
Mississippl...... 42.47 28,429,000 84,050,000
North Carolina. . 54.80 34,063,000 60,000,000
Oklahoma....... 35.87 94,283,000 33,150,000
South Carolina. . 42.60 20,872,000 43,947,000
Tennessee....... 51.57 67,682,000 111,150,000
ANES Fe a sao ate 36.60 75,499,000 77,825,000
Virginia. . Bs 54.09 38,295,000 72,275,000
West Virginia. . see 56.10 17,119,000 25,020,000
46.94 618,229,000 930,868,000
Taeteane ic Boys
46.94 bushels per acre.
20.91 bushels per acre.
26.03 bushels per acre.
The above states produced 312,639,000 bushels more corn
in 1917 than in 1909.
41 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
The Business of Farming a Reus
Proposition
It is a well known fact that no matter
what crops may be grown, every crop con-
sumes plant-food from the soil, and this
plant-food supply is no more inexhaustible
than your bank account. Every pros-
perous and successful farmer has learned
this great truth and fundamental principle.
The reliability and strength of a bank
is measured by its deposits and invest-
ments, as well as good management. In
this respect a farm is like a bank, for it too
must have good management, and when
the farmer realizes that his land is meas-
ured by the reliability and quality of its
deposits—available plant-food properly ap-
plied, he will awaken to the fact that his ae
soil and crops are as much a money-making Mr. Oliver J. Sands,
factor as a bank, if not moreso, for is it mot) F*s\toee ct ake Manone Naas
true that if the farmer stopped producing anit
crops the banks would have to close and go out of business?
Hence the farmer can make his business more prosperous by
making his soil and crops pay more; by making his land and what
it produces more productive; by increasing and improving his
yields per acre; and by making his soil permanently fertile. If
he does that he will have the best bank account he could possibly
possess.
We will now let a few prominent and successful bankers
give us their views on the relationship between banking and
farming, and the necessity of soil and crop improvement. Every
farmer will be interested in the answer Mr. Oliver J. Sands,
President of the American National Bank of Richmond, Va.,
gives to the question:
Why Are Your Soil and Crops Like a Bank Account?
“Because both will be useless if not properly fed. The
bank account is an ever present help in time of need, but it must
be constantly nourished by deposits of cash to replace that
which has been withdrawn, and the greater deposits the greater
the bank account.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 45
“Just so with your soil. You can not continue to draw on
it forever without depleting it of those qualities which are
necessary for it to have if it is to meet the demands which you
have a right to expect of it.
“Again the bank account grows from the intelligent use of
money, the practicing of well recognized rules of thrift in the
handling of one’s affairs. So it is with the intelligent use of
proper methods in building up the soil, for when properly fed it
will yield greater returns and its value will increase.
“The soil is the basis of all wealth, for when it is made to
yield a proper return all business prospers.”’
“Soil and Crop Improvement Are More
Important to the People of the United
States Than Our Gold Production’’
The above statement was made by the
representative of the largest banking in-
stitution of the United States, Mr. F. C.
Schwedtmann of the National City Bank
of New York City, in his address before
the National Fertilizer Association at Hot
Springs, Va., July 10th, 1916. The fol-
lowing extracts from this able address can
not help but be of interest and value to all
the farmers and bankers of this land:
“To double the crops of the United
States would add tremendously to the
wealth and contentment of our people.
There is a possibility of not only doubling
them, but quadrupling them. Secretary
Houston states that only 40 percent of the
tillable land of the United States is under
cultivation, and this 40 percent is not Mr. F. C. Schwedtmann, National
bringing the return it should. The average “"'¥ Pant: New York City
yield per acre of wheat in this country was 15! bushels for 1912
and 1913, as compared with 34 bushels in Great Britain and 35
bushels in Germany. During the same period potatoes yielded
100 bushels to the acre in the United States as compared with
235 to 500 bushels in Germany. Other crops follow more or less
the ratio of these two. Increasing the yield 100 percent per acre
would still leave us considerably below the best performance of
46 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
European soils—some of which have been cultivated intensively
for centuries without signs of exhaustion.
“The money value of all the crops for the United States in
1915 was $6,652,000,000. Doubling the tillable soil and doubling
the yield per acre would bring this value to $26,608,000,000
annually. The value of the gold production in the United States
during 1915 was approximately $99,000,000, and of the whole
world for 1914 approximately $456,000,000. Compare these
figures and you will find that the value of our crops is about 67
times the value of our annual gold production and about 15
times the value of the gold production of the whole world, and
that by proper effort we can increase the crop value to 260 times
the value of our own gold production and 60 times the value of
the gold production of the whole world. It is evident, therefore,
that soil and crop improvement are far more important to the people
of the United States than our gold production.
“There are indications of crop improvement in our country.
The average yield of wheat per acre has been increased from 1314
to 151% bushels, or 20 percent in ten years, but during the same
period wheat production in Germany has increased from 24144
bushels per acre to 35, or 39 percent.
“We have much to learn in the rotation of crops and in the
proper chemical preparation of the soil—this, too, in spite of the
excellent work of education and demonstration carried on by
you and the various experimental stations. The study of the
chemistry of the soil which you gentlemen have adopted as your
profession is, in my opinion, destined to become one of the most
important callings of the day and age.
“The census figures of the fertilizer industry in the United
States show the value of the products of all the fertilizer manu-
facturing establishments of the United States for which figures
are available from 1870 down to date. The total value of the
output recorded by the census of:
1870 was $ 5,851,118,
1880 was 23,650,795,
1890 was 39,080,844,
1900 was 44,657,385,
1910 was 111,871,481,
1915 was 168,388,405 (approximately).
This very rapid increase in production, especially in recent
years, demonstrates the increasing recognition by the farmers
of the United States of the need of a proper care of our soils.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 47
The total output of this line of manufacture increased over 130
percent in the decade of 1900-1910, while the value of all manu-
facturers in that period increased only about 80 percent.
“There is a particular reason why governmental departments,
State and Federal, should give a helping hand to the further
upbuilding of this industry; for the increase of foodstuffs in the
United States is not keeping step, by a long way, with the in-
crease in population. Those countries have succeeded best in
the intense cultivation of the soil, in which Government, manu-
facturers and bankers have worked in constructive harmonious
co-operation with the agriculturists and with each other.”
$1,000 for Fertilizers But NOT for a Barn
Few men understand the relationship
between banker and farmer better than
Mr. William Ingle, who when Chairman of
the Board, Federal Reserve Bank of Rich-
mond, Va., said:
“The farmer, or rather his labor, is the
source of the greater part of our wealth.
Nearest related after the land itself, possi-
bly, is the fertilizer manufacturer.
“With the passage by Congress of ef-
fective Rural Credit laws, the farmers will
have at their command an agency which
in its use will permit them as readily to
finance their essential operations as mer-
chants are now able to do with comfort in
availing themselves, through their banks,
of the provisions of the Reserve Act.
“The farmer is essentially a manu-
z _ Mr. William Ingle,
facturer, but one who, as commonly is the President Baltimore Trust Co.,
case, in having practically all of his assets Baltimore, Me:
tied up in his land is without the means to purchase his fer-
tilizers and other supplies on a cash basis. Carrying costs under
the old system, that is, the difference between a spot cash price
and the figure actually paid in settlement of supply bills at the
end of the season, is probably as much as 20 percent of the cash
price of the material used. If this could be saved to the farmer,
he could afford either to be more liberal to his land under treat
ment or to add to his acreage.
“We can not lend the farmer a dollar on paper made to
build a barn, but we can lend him $1,000 with which to pay his
fertilizer bill.
48 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
“We must have the assurance when we take a farmer’s note,
the banker must tell us in effect, that that loan is not made to
build a barn, but to pay a fertilizer bill.”
Is this not ample proof to what extent the bankers value
fertilizers? There is safety and security in fertilizers, and the
banker will help the farmer who needs money for fertilizers, so
his soil and crops will pay more.
The Banker and the Farmer
By Mr.John K. Ottley—Vice President
Fourth National Bank, Atlanta, Ga.:
“The soil is the basis of all wealth.
Therefore the relation between the farmer,
whose business is handling the soil, and
the banker, whose business is handling the
money, is vitally important.
“The farmer who is not making a profit
is not a good credit risk. The farmer who
is operating on diminishing crops and too
high costs is in the hazardous class so far
as credit goes. When the farmer prospers,
everybody else prospers with him. What-
ever affects him unfavorably is bad for
general business.
“Two elements enter into the question
of the farmer’s profits, viz.:
(a) The cost of crop production.
5 Mr. John K. Ottley,
(b) The yield per acre. Vice-President Fourth National
Yield per acre is the factor that con- Bank eae
trols the cost per unit of every crop the farmer plants. The
greater the yield per acre, the smaller the cost per pound or per
bushel of producing the crop. Profits depend upon the amount
of money received for the crop over and above its cost to pro-
duce and to market. This is elementary to the economist, but
it is the A B C that the farmer needs to learn by heart.
“The farmer’s big task, then, is to make the land yield him
the very utmost that it is capable of yielding.
“This brings us to our much-admired, but little-practiced,
theory of cultivation. I regret to say that it is little practiced;
but the figures show that notwithstanding all the eloquence that
has been expended on the subject, the true meaning and import
of ¢ntensive cultivation has not yet dawned upon large sections
of our agricultural territory.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 49
“The human machine must be ‘fed up’ with its proper nu-
trients. Body proteins and minerals and carbohydrates and
fats require severally their fuel of like elements to maintain
health, to build tissue, muscle, bone and brawn. Precisely so,
to repair the waste, must the land be supplied with the restora-
tive and nutritive elements that will keep it in condition and
up to standard. The most efficient body is the best-nourished,
that is to say, the most scientifically nourished body. If the
soil is to yield the best of which it is capable, it too must be
supplied with such food as will challenge it to its utmost per-
formance. Research in the laboratories of the chemist has re-
vealed the secrets of this food. We have men today who can
tell us what elements must be supplied to certain soils to make
them do certain things. The government, the colleges, the banks
are endeavoring to connect the farmer with these golden secrets.
Here and there, he is waking to the magical possibilities of his
business. Fertilizer experts are demonstrating the value of in-
tensively cultivated and well-fed land. Figures that are pitiless
in their statements of facts show an amazing total of money that
might be saved this country if our farmers were alive to the
necessity of getting out of their land all that it ought to yield.
I am tempted to cite one example:
“The average potato crop of the United States for the seasons
of 1910, 1911, 1912, was 367,526,000 bushels, grown on 3,666,285
acres. At the German average yield of 220 bushels per acre this
crop would have been produced on 1,670,574 acres. The average
cost of production for the United States, exclusive of the cost
of fertilizers, was $25.75 per acre. Multiplying the difference in
acreage, of 1,995,711 acres, by $25.75, we arrive at $51,389,558,
which the American farmer might have saved had he used the
intensive method of the German farmer. On potatoes, wheat
and oats, the total saving would have been $504,143,833, which
at an average price of $25.00 a ton would have bought 20,165,753
tons of fertilizers—a heavy application to equal German results
—and still leave a splendid profit to the American farmer.
“The best thing the banker can do for the farmer, as I see it,
is to encourage him in every possible manner to get most out of
his land and thus to depress the cost of production so that profits
may be greater and credit correspondingly stronger.”
When the farmer gets it into his mind that his calling demands
the admixture of real business methods with the usual processes
of his specialty, then he will begin to take his place among the
independent producers of the world’s wealth. But so long as he
50 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
clings to the tradition that the earth will yield her increase
without any particular encouragement on his part beyond the
old-time plowing and planting and cultivating methods, he is
losing potential riches for himself and for his Nation.
The Greatness of Our Country and Its
Farming Industry
When we realize that the United States covers considerably
less that one-sixth of the earth’s surface, and contains only about
five percent of the earth’s population, the following will give us
some idea of the greatness of our own country.
The value of our principal farm crops in 1917 reached the
enormous total of thirteen and one-half billions of dollars, exceed-
ing by almost four and a half billions of dollars the value of the
1916 crop, which was the previous banner value year in the crop
history of the country.
Corn: In the Department of Agriculture’s December, 1917,
Crop Report it bases value on December prices on corn as
follows:
Production of 3,159,494,000 bushels is worth $4,053;672,000,
the largest and most valuable crop ever grown in this country.
It exceeded the crop of 1916, which was the largest previous
value crop by more than $1,700,000,000. In only one other year
has the corn crop been over 3,000,000,000 bushels, and that in
1912, when it was 3,124,746,000 bushels.
It is interesting and no doubt valuable for the farmers to
know that the corn crop was especially short and of poor quality
in the area including Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and
North Dakota, where the farmers have not as yet learned to
know the necessity and great value of plant-food, as the Southern
farmers have long ago learned and profited by. On the other
hand, in the Southern States, where fertilizers are used exten-
sively, the corn crop showed an increase.
Wheat: The 1917 wheat crop was also a record-breaker and
was valued at $1,307,418,000, which is $287,450,000 more than
the 1916 crop.
Oats: . Another bumper crop in both production and value,
representing 1,587,286,000 bushels, over 300,000,000 bushels
better than 1916. Its value is estimated at $1,061,427,000, or
$400,000,000 more than the 1916 crop, which was the former
record value crop.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 51
Other crops such as potatoes, tobacco, rye, buckwheat, rice,
hay, cotton and barley were also record crops.
The approximate value of the principal crops in 1917, accord-
ing to the U. 8. Department of Agriculture, follow in the order
of their respective value:
Gomer ae eh 055672:000 IN DOMES 5 a cone cooa net ZABYMOs/(0N0)
Wowhonneys «sata 1,517,558,000 TITS eae eee ees 121,842,000
ETc Pree aac eeies Beers 1,359,491,000 IReamutseers Sacra ten: 105,950,000
AYA CEES\ Fiat ae weet ee ep 1,307,481,000 BEA SAA reenter 102,426,000
DHEA Oe hates Sat oe 1,061,427,000 IR Viet ern vere tce en ae 100,025,000
IRGUAUOES feats ecco. 543,865,000 Sweet Potatoes...... 96,121,000
BROWACCO. Feo ae. 297,442,000 RCC re rescence 68,717,000
Barley, 3. .25....... 204;539}000 Peschesmyarn tac won 61,245,000
The following table will give you a good idea as to how the
American farmer is doing his bit toward feeding the world. The
figures in the first two columns represent the 1917 and 1916
acreage. The third and last columns show the 1917 and 1916
production respectively. The figures are those of the U. 8.
Department of Agriculture as published in December, 1917.
ACREAGE PRODUCTION
CROP 1917 1916 1917 1916
Cormpbusss.-L rato as 119,755,000 105,296,000 3,159,494,000 2,566,927,000
Wheat, bus.......... 45,941,000 52,316,000 650,828,000 636,318,000
Oats DUS. sae cena a: 43,572,000 41,527,000 1,251,837,000 1,251,837,000
Barleya DUS. «se... 56 8,835,000 7,757,000 208,975,000 182,309,000
RVC MOUS Pin criaes eco 4,102,000 3,213,000 60,145,000 48,862,000
Buckwheat, bus...... 1,006,000 828,000 17,460,000 11,662,000
Rice, bus... axe 964,100 869,000 36,278,000 40,861,000
Potatoes (Round), bus. 4,390,000 3,565,000 442,536,000 286,953,000
Potatoes (Sweet), bus. 953,000 774,000 87,141,000 70,955,000
Hay (Tame), tons.... 53,516,000 55,721,000 79,528,000 91,192,000
Tobacco, lbs......... 1,446,600 1,413,400 1,196,451,000 1,153,278,000
Cotton, bales........ 33,634,000 34,985,000 10,949,000 ~~ —-11,449,930
Beans (6 States), bus. 1,832,000 1,107,000 15,701,000 10,715,000
Peanuts, bss. ..2...- 2,084,400 1,076,350 60,222,000 35,324,500
JGSfOuES}a0L Oe) ee ge RA ae Meee rad ARE ky eos aN 58,203,000 68,194,000
Reaches OCS cay netted testa Noite 45,066,000 37,505,000
With such crop production is it any wonder that America
today contains more than a third of all the wealth in the world?
Yet how much greater will be our wealth when the farmers of
our country learn the real value of applying an abundance of
plant food on their soils and crops and to what extent Permanent
Soil Fertility will aid in increasing prosperity on their miilions
of acres of cultivated lands. And not until the farmers of
America realize this will our prosperity be as great as it might be.
Making Soil and Crops Pay More
Part Two
Ouestions & Answers
Which Will Help Every
Farmer to Make His Soil
and Crops Pay More
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 55
Answers to Questions Which Will Help
Every Farmer Make His Soil
and Crops Pay More
Question: WHAT ARE PLANTS?
Answer: Because plants are not noisy as animals are, few
people realize that plants are living things, full of life. Plants
do not roam about like animals do, nor shout, nor bellow on the
fields as animals do, but, nevertheless, they eat, sleep, drink,
breathe and breed, and do other things that we are accustomed
to associate with animals.
Plants are organized structures, the more common forms of
which have roots, root hairs, root bark; stem, branches and bark;
leaves, blossoms and seeds (fruit). A plant belonging to the
lower forms may consist of but one cell, but higher forms are
composed of billions of cells. Plant cells vary in size and shape
and contain protoplasm, a substance which may be said to be
the “physical basis of life.” It is through these cells and through
the cell walls that plant-food enters and passes to the various
parts of the plant aided by protoplasmic functions.
Question: HOW DO PLANTS LIVE?
Answer: Because plants are alive they must have food, air
and water, and the right place to grow in. Under-feeding or
improper feeding is as harmful to plants as it is to animals or
human beings. A robust, healthy, vigorous plant needs nour-
ishing food and plenty of it, also good water and good light and
air. If you doubt this, take any plant, place it in a dark, poorly
ventilated room without nourishment and sunshine, and _ it
will not live under such conditions any more than you would,
or your dog, horse or cow.
Then too, plants are really more particular what they eat
than most people or animals are. We know that an animal is
alive when we see it breathe, eat, grow and move. Just so with
plants, for they too breathe, eat, grow and move. ‘The plant
is never a lazy worker, for it works in all its parts, the roots, the
stem and the leaves.
Since plants, unlike animals, are usually fixed and rooted in
one spot, it is impossible for them to go in search of food, hence
the food must be brought to them where they can readily assimi-
56 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
late it and nourish themselves. The roots of plants immediately
start to fix themselves in the soil for the purpose of obtaining
nourishment to enable them to grow abundantly, and when
these roots fail to find the necessary food they simply die for
lack of proper nourishment, for they can not roam about like
animals can and forage for food.
Question: HOW DO PLANTS REPRODUCE?
Answer: The means by which plants naturally reproduce their
kinds are seeds, spores, tubers, roots, bulbs, corms, root-stocks,
stolons, suckers, ete. Nature provides means for the perpetuation
of all species of plants, and many of them vary very widely. The
most common means of reproduction is by seeds. Many plants,
however, will not reproduce their kinds by seeds and Nature
has provided other means for their increase, and man has be-
come expert in the employment of various natural and artificial
means of the different kinds best adapted to the multiplication
of our many crops. Thus corn, wheat, cotton and tobacco are
grown from seeds; grapes from cuttings or layers; Irish potatoes
from tubers; sweet potatoes from roots; apples from grafts;
peaches from buds; strawberries from runners; and mushrooms
from spores. Many of our crops do not come true from seeds.
Seeds develop from the exercise of sexual functions, and crossing
or hybridization is very common with many of our crops. If
pollen, which is the male part of plants, fertilizes the pistil or
female part of another kind of plant, the resulting seeds will be
crossed and many of them will produce plants different from
either parent. Hence, no matter how a plant is brought to life
or in what form it is placed in the soil, all plants need plant-food
—nourishment.
Question: HOW DO SEEDS GERMINATE?
Answer: Seeds are living things which have the power of
reproducing the plants from which they came. Stored in each
seed are the inherited potentialities which enable them to
become links connecting thousands upon thousands of genera-
tions of plants created so-that the earth may be made fit for man.
That seeds may germinate they must have moisture, heat
and air in appropriate supplies. Water is absorbed, the seed
swells, starch and fat become soluble, sugar is formed, new
tissues and cells are formed, and the rootlets push through the
seed coat and start downward into the soil; the stem and leaves
start upward to air and sunlight, and a new plant has sprung into
being. Enough food is stored in the seeds to support the young
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
plant until its leaves feed from the air,
and its rcots feed from the soil. Some
seeds will germinate at a temperature a
few degrees above freezing, while others
require 60 or more degrees Fahrenheit.
Highty degrees is about the temperature
most favorable for the germination of
most seeds. The oxygen of the air is
necessary for the germination of all seeds.
A well prepared seed-bed gives the best
conditions for germination by aiding in
securing the right quantity of air and water
and the desired degree of temperature.
Question: HOW DO PLANTS GROW?
Answer: The first sign of life a plant will
make when the seed sprouts is to spread
its roots into the soil and starts downward
for its store-house of food supply; then
comes the stalk and leaf part which starts
upward towards light and air, for it must
eat and drink and breathe just as all living
things do.
Plants grow by forming new cells.
sizes and shape make up the structure of all plants.
a7
These young corn plants must push
their way through the soil to the air and
sunlight and the roots must multiply
and spread in all directions seeking
nourishment. That the plant may best
do this the soil must be fine throughout
the depth to which it has been plowed.
A well prepared seed bed insures prompt
germination and healthy plants, in-
creases the soils capacity for holding
water and gives the growing crop easy
access to the plant food in the soil.
Plant cells of various
New cells
Photo. Micrograph of cell structure of Potato Vine, greatly en-
larged. The various cell shapes and forms can be clearly seen.
are formed by division
of older ones, and by the
plant extending its stem,
branches, leaves and roots,
the plant grows. To do
this it must be supplied
with food, water and air.
The food must contain the
material of which the plant
is made, and in quantities
and proportions in which
they are to be used by the
plant. The carbon, hydro-
gen, oxygen, nitrogen, sul-
phur, phosphorus, potas-
sium, calcium, magnesium
and iron which are found
in all plants must be in the
58 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
right forms or combinations for the plant, and must be where
the plant can get them or it will not grow. All of them must
be present and usable, since the absence of any one of them
will prevent the plant from growing, and the smallest quantity
available of any one of these elements will be a controlling
factor in the growth of the plant. When the plants in a field
or in a part of a field are not growing well, either the conditions
and materials necessary to good growth are not supplied or the
materials are not in suitable form.
Question: WHAT MUST A PLANT HAVE IN ORDER TO
LIVE?
Answer: That plants may live they must have:
Temperature that is neither too high nor too low, Changes
of temperatures that are sudden seriously interfere with their
growth. Some plants thrive best in low and some in high tem-
peratures.
Water, which by weight com- The Atmosphere
poses the bulk of all growing plants, oe
must be constantly and abundantly Oe Ne aes
supplied while plants are growing. eal Qs
Either too little or too much water a ys Wcarbon dioxide
is disastrous to nearly all economic § ”"°" #**"" Wee
plants, though many of them by sttssse>7e@fhees
nature grow in water. Drainage ¢ GPP RO
and irrigation are the means em- EY TRS
ployed by the farmer to get rid of Ka \ <
excess of water and to secure the Hae The Soil
proper supply when there is a The soil atmosphere-aR ©
deficiency. AT} &
Food builds the plant. Plant- Ahly Woter
food is taken from both the air ANY.
and the soil, entering the leaves
from the air and the roots from the
soil. The food which comes from
the soil must be in solution or dis-
solved in water before the plant A clover plant, showing its parts in relation
: ; to the soil and atmosphere. From the at-
ean take it up. Water is the mosphere and water the plant derives oxy-
: ; 5 gen, carbon, and hydrogen. From the soil
vehicle which conveys the soil-food _ the’mineral’ plant-food elements are taken.
into the plant and is the distribu-
ting agent which takes it to such parts of the plants as need food.
Air is the medium in which the above-ground parts of the
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 59
plant live, just as the soil is the medium in which the under-
ground parts of the plant live.
Carbon, next to water, is the most abundant material of the
many which enter the plant. Carbon comes from the air and
passes into the plant through the pores of the leaves. Carbon
Dioxide of the air is decomposed when it enters the plant with
the air, the carbon remaining and the oxygen going back into
the air. Thus plants take carbon out of the air and liberate
oxygen, while animals take oxygen from the air and liberate
carbon.
Soil Conditions that are congenial to plants are important
factors in the lives of plants. There are many conditions of the
soil that are favorable, and many that are unfavorable, and a
knowledge of these conditions will enable the farmer to plant
certain crops where certain conditions most favorable to them
are present and avoid unfavorable conditions. Drainage, plow-
ing, cultivation, organic matter, lime, air, water, temperature,
sunshine, bacteria, insects, manures and fertilizers change soil
conditions, and enable plants to live or interfere with their
growth, as the case may be.
Insects and Diseases of many kinds and in vast numbers
are ever laying in wait for their attack upon plants, and the
farmer must be alert at all times so that he may avoid or destroy
them.
Nature supplies the necessities of plants only in part, and by
Divine command man is responsible for the good care and
abundant feeding of the crops he grows. Man must protect his
crops from their enemies, and supply them with their needs if
his crops are to give abundant harvests.
Each plant is endowed with life, with its own peculiar ana-
tomical structure, and performs in its own way its nature-given
physiological functions. In living its life, each plant employs
natural laws and sciences from the germination of the seed on
through to the final goal of reproduction; and solution, absorp-
tion, capillarity, osmosis, diffusion, adhesion, cohesion each
performs its necessary functions in enabling plants to live and
grow, toreproduce and ripen. The growing of plants is intimately
associated with nature’s benign mysteries, and man has much
to learn from them. By the slow processes of evolution, the
more rapid processes of breeding, and the employment of arti-
ficial nutriment, plants have made the world a better place to
live in. And still better will the world be when the farmer
60 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
knows his soil and knows his crops so that he may best treat his
soil and best feed his crops, which in a great measure is the
mission we hope to fulfill with this little book.
It was the great scientist Darwin who likened the roots of
plants to the brain of animals on account of their great dis-
crimination and ingenuity. Their tiny finger-like rootlets go
feeling their way into the soil for nourishment as well as to fix
the plant which is to sprout from its roots perfectly secure in its
abiding place.
Question: WHY ARE THERE ONE-SEED-LEAF AND
TWO-SEED-LEAF PLANTS?
Answer: All of the important farm crops fall under two clas-
sifications and their separation into these two groups naturally
follows the differences in their habits of growth and their struc-
ture. One-seed-leaf plants germinate from their seeds by send-
ing up one leaf first, while two-seed-leaf plants send up two
leaves. Corn, wheat, grasses, etc., are samples of the one-seed-
leaf class, and cotton, beans, cabbage, etc., are examples of the
two-seed-leaf plants. One-seed-leaf plants grow from the in-
The germination of Corn (one-seed-leaf plant) and Bean (two-seed-leaf plant) showing
progressive stages from germination to mature plant.
side, have no bark, their leaf veins are parallel and they have no
tap root. Two-seed-leaf plants grow by additions to the out-
side, have a distinct bark, their leaf veins are netted, and they
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 61
have a distinct tap root. The difference in the root systems
affects the manner of growing of these two classes of plants,
since the tap rooted crops feed deep and the fibrous root crops
feed shallow. The rotation of these two classes aids the farmer
in his efforts to conserve his soil’s fertility and produce each
crop more economically and more profitably.
Plant Nutrition
Question: WHAT ARE THE ORGANIC AND INORGANIC
SUBSTANCES?
Answer: The several materials or substances which the plant
takes into its structure are of two classes; inorganic or mineral;
and organic, or vegetable and animal.
The inorganic portion of the food of plants is in all soils in
varying quantities and varying proportions and varying com-
binations. They are silica, iron, aluminum, soda, magnesia,
lime, potash, phosphoric acid and sulphur. We know that all
of these substances are plant-foods since they are found in the
ashes of all plants when the ashes are analyzed. If only one
of the elements essential to plant growth is not present, plants
will not grow. Most of them are present in all soils and in
quantities sufficient for the needs of large crops. Since, how-
ever, all of them are necessary to plant growth the absence
of one or even the presence of a too small amount of one will
proportionally limit the growth of a crop. To correct these
defects it becomes necessary to apply to the soil the elements
that are deficient or wanting. This is done by applying good
commercial fertilizers—plant-foods.
The organic portion of the food of plants is also found in all
soils and most of them in quantities sufficient for the needs of
the largest yields of crops. The organic elements are oxygen,
hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. The first three are always
available for the fullest development of any plant, but only
occasionally is there enough nitrogen present.
These inorganic and organic substances are plant-foods, but
all of them must be present in abundance and in a form available
to the plant to be grown, otherwise the plant cannot grow.
Question: WHAT IS PLANT-FOOD?
Answer: Plant-food is the materials taken from the soil and
air by means of roots and leaves, and is transformed within the
62 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
plant into cellular structures which make the many parts of the
plant. Plant-food is the material of which plants are made,
entering the plant either dissolved in water or as a gas. Dif-
ferent parts of plants and different products of plants vary
widely in composition. An onion, a sugar beet, a tomato and a
pepper plant may each be growing in a tobacco field under
identical conditions, living upon the same food, yet each will
develop its characteristic size, shape, color, flavor, odor and
composition. The superlative value of plants comes from the
fact that they can take from the soil and air the same raw ma-
terials, manufacturing a variety of products not equalled any-
where else in Nature. Each plant in its own way is a chemical
laboratory where a certain class of products is manufactured,
and every genus, every species of plant has its own proprietary
products manufactured from the. same raw materials. These
raw materials are plant-food. How necessary it is that these
raw materials, in both kind and quantity, be within reach of
each plant in a field so that all may best serve man as Nature
intended they should.
Question: WHERE DO PLANTS GET THEIR FOOD?
Answer: Plants get their food partly from the soil in which
they grow and partly from the air surrounding them. The
young roots push their way through the soil and form many
root branches. The tip of each root is armed with strong cells
Cross-Section of a Single Root Hair
so clustered as to make the tip sharp-pointed. As the cells
multiply and enlarge behind the tip it is pushed forward into
the soil. Just back of these tips the surface cells of the young
roots develop a multitude of very minute thread-like projections
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 63
called root-hairs. These act as mouths, through which the food
enters the plant. Other plant-foods come from the air, entering
the plant through openings in the leaves.
Plants are prolific feeders or eaters, for they eat constantly,
not only three times a day as you and Ido. Hence, as they take
food from the soil’s larder we must replenish this larder so that
the plants will not starve.
Question: SHOULD THE HOME OF PLANTS BEA
CONGENIAL ONE?
Answer: Animals may move from place to place in search of
food, but plants must depend upon the limited area of the soil
in which they live for all they get for their growth. Conse-
quently the soil is the home of the plant, and if we expect a
good crop we must make the homes of the plants which make
up a crop congenial homes. Plants, like animals, if not satisfied
with their surroundings will show by their growth and other
behavior that conditions are not favorable to their full develop-
ment.
A congenial soil is one that is deep, well pulverized, through
which water circulates in every direction freely and uniformly,
in which there is a good amount of organic matter undergoing
decomposition, and in which there are always present the plant-
food constituents necessary for the development of the plant.
In addition to the natural conditions of the soil, favorable to
plant growth, there are changes which must be made by plow-
ing, harrowing, cultivating, drainage, and other means, all of
which aid in making the soil a congenial home for the plant.
The farmer must know what natural and artificial conditions the
soil must possess, and he must see that these conditions are
present. No plant will find the soil a congenial home if there is
not an abundant supply of plant-food in the proper form
demanded by the plant and available for its use.
Soil
Question: WHAT IS SOIL?
Answer: Soil is made from the disintegration of the earth’s
surface, and to be soil proper in the agricultural sense, it must
contain in addition to air, water and scluble mineral elements,
a good supply of organic matter undergoing decomposition. No
soil is a good soil without decomposing organic matter or humus
64 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
for it modifies extreme conditions which might affect the plant;
makes the soil friable and loose, and enables it to hold more
moisture. It also supplies plant-food in its best form for the
best growth of the crop.
Soils are divided into two broad
classes. One controlled by the chemical
composition of the soil, the other by its
physical properties. There are hundreds
of different kinds of soil, each varying
in characters and composition. Thus, £
a soil may be a sandy soil, a clay soil, ¢
or a lime soil, depending upon which of
these materials predominates; or, it may
be a coarse soil, a fine soil, or a gravelly
soil. Again, soils may be classified into
light soils, if they are easily worked,
heavy soils, if they are worked with
: : : ; : Section of soil showing Soil Particles
difficulty. Either extreme is objection- and Air Spaces.
able, and the addition of an abundance
of organic matter in the form of farm manures or plants plowed
into the soil will make a heavy soil lighter and light soil heavier.
Question: WHAT IS SUBSOIL?
Answer: Soil proper is the thin surface which represents the
depth to which a field has been plowed and the depth into
which organic matter has been incorporated. Just under this
strata lies the subsoil, in the position it was left when formed
from the original rock from which it came. The subsoil is a
great storehouse for mineral plant-food, and it may be formed
into new soil by bringing it to the surface a little at a time, so
that water, air, temperature, and the dissolving influences of
organic matter undergoing decomposition may crumble it and
liberate the plant-food it contains. Many fields produce poor
crops on account of the soil being too shallow. This may in
part, at least, be remedied by deeper plowing, so that the depth
of the soil may be increased and the crop have ample room for
the spread of its roots in search of food and water.
Question: ARE THERE MANY KINDS OF SOILS?
Answer: There are two larger groups of soils, and these are:
sedentary and transported. The first lies over the rock from
which it was formed or has not been moved, and the second has
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 65
been moved by water, glacier, wind or gravity. Soils may be
residual, cumulos, alluvial, glacial, aeolian-loess or colluvial,
ac cording to their origin. The kind of rock from which soils are
formed make different soils, and if these are mixed their classi-
fication becomes complex. Each of the above may be further
classified accordingly to the size of the soil particles. Clay soils
are composed of the finest particles, clay loam next, and then
silt loam, loam, fine sandy loam, sandy loam, fine sand, sand,
coarse sand, gravelly loam and gravel. Each of these have their
peculiar properties, varying in character and composition.
Knowledge of soils is important, since such knowledge aids
greatly in determining what crops will grow best on the soil of a
farm and how the different soils should be cultivated. A knowl-
edge of the character, composition and condition of a soil aids
greatly in determining how each should be treated and what
fertilizers will give the best results when applied to them.
Question: HOW ARE SOILS FORMED?
Answer: The natural processes of soil formation have been
going on since the beginning of the world. The presence and
activities of plants and animals have contributed a great deal to
soil formation. There are many agencies at work in making
soil. Every root and every insect or other animal that enters the
soil aids in the admission of air and water. Air and water are
The soil as shown in the bottom of illustration has been formed by the disintegration of the
rock above. This process of disintegration is continuous and is caused mainly ‘by the action
of air, water, and temperature.
66 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
the two great altering influences operating to change the inert
surface of the earth into soil possessing conditions suitable to
plant growth. Every drop of water and every breath of air
entering the soil have the power of changing it so that it may be
more suitable to plant growth. Change of temperature, espe-
cially freezing and thawing, crush and loosen soil particles,
thus exposing new surfaces for the action of air and water.
This process has been going on since the beginning of time and
will continue until the end of time. Accessory to these influences
we have the action of animals and plants in their various ways,
all of which tend to aid in the formation of soils. Even the dead
bodies of animals and plants give out juices or chemicals which
have dissolving power, and assist, still further, in reducing the
inert and dead soil so as to make it better and better each year
for supplying food to plants and through plants to animals.
Question: DO CROPS FIND ENOUGH PLANT-FOOD IN
TAR SOME’
Answer: Soils are formed from rocks which are broken up or
disintegrated by several natural agencies. The resulting soils
contain the materials of which the rocks were formed, and since
there are many kinds of rocks of extremely variable composi-
tion, the compositions of soils vary with the compositions of the
materials forming them. It follows that many soils are deficient
in some of the necessary plant-food elements. Soils are also
subject to erosion by rain-water, and portions of plant-foods are
washed away and other portions are dissolved by water and lost.
When crops are grown they take from the soil varying quantities
of plant-foods and these foods are removed in the crop. The
yield of a crop is a measure of the plant-food available in the
soil in which the crop grows. If there is an abundant supply of
plant-food the crop will be a good one. If the plant-food is
deficient the crop will be poor in proportion to the deficiency.
Question: WHAT IS A FERTILE SOIL?
Answer: A fertile soil is a congenial home for plants to live
and grow in. It must be deep, well pulverized, contain a great
variety of soil particles, have an ample supply of organic matter,
permit air to pass into it and circulate through it, and permit
water to pass into it and circulate freely without stagnating.
Above all a fertile soil is one that in addition to the possession
of desirable physical qualities contains an ample supply of all
the plant food necessary to plants for their growth.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 67
Question: WHAT IS A POOR SOIL?
Answer: There are many things that may be responsible for a
soil being poor or infertile. Some soils naturally are hard,
harsh and uncongenial to crops and may contain insufficient
quantities of plant-food. Such soils must be appropriately
treated to develop a good physical condition, and must have
plant-food added if they are to produce profitable crops. Soils
may be deficient in phosphoric acid, nitrogen or potash; they
may be deficient in one or in two of these elements or they may
The upper field, without fertilizer, yielded but 8 bushels of potatoes and 6 bushels of corn
per acre. The lower field, treated with fertilizer, produced two fine clover crops, the second
crop being turned under and furnishing fertility for an 87 bushel per acre crop of potatoes
and a 57 bushel per acre yield of corn.
be deficient in all three. The element of plant-food present in
the smallest quantity becomes a limiting factor. Some soils
become poor through unwise or neglectful management. This
may result from surface washing, shallow plowing and absence
of a sufficient amount of organic matter in the soil to keep it in a
wholesome condition. Such soils may be restored to a high
degree of fertility by judicious plowing, thorough pulverization,
the addition of organic matter and proper plant-food. No soil
can be fertile if it is supplied with any one of these three ele-
ments in an amount insufficient to supply the demands of the
crops to be grown on it,
68 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Fertility
Question: HOW MAY SOILS BE MADE FERTILE?
Answer: Since physical condition and chemical composition
are responsible for soils being fertile or infertile, it naturally
follows that making a soil fertile must be preceded by a knowl-
edge of it present condition. Soils may be made fertile by in-
creasing their depth, by pulverizing their particles, by increasing
their power to hold water, by controlling leaching and _ soil
wash, by the addition of organic matter, by rotation of crops,
and by judicious and appropriate application of available plant-
food.
Corn to which no fertilizer has been applied. Compare this crop with that on page 69 and see
what a difference the application of Complete Fertilizer makes in a crop.
Question: HOW ARE SOILS DEPLETED?
Answer: Soils are depleted of fertility or made poor by tillage,
by leaching, by washing, by the removal of plant-food in the
crops taken from the land, and by the failure of the farmer to
keep up the supply of humus and plant-food found in the soil
when it was in its virgin state.
Question: HOW DOES TILLAGE DEPLETE SOILS?
Answer: The virgin soils in forests or prairie contain the
maximum amounts of plant-food and an abundant and annually-
added-to supply of humus making materials. When brought
into cultivation not only is this annual supply of organic matter
stopped, but the accumulations of many years decomposes and
is leached or washed away. Thus tillage or growing crops
depletes the soi] of fertility or makes it poor by dissipating or
destroying its good physical properties and by loss of plant food.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 69
Question: HOW DOES CONTINUOUS CROPPING
DEPLETE SOILS?
Answer: The continuous cropping of a field in one crop or
closely related crops, and especially if the crop or crops demand
clean culture will rapidly deplete a soil of its fertility. Some
crops draw heavily upon the soil’s supply of phosphorus,
others draw heavily upon the supply of nitrogen and others upon
the supply of potash. This exhausts most soils. Continuous
croppings subject a soil to the same treatment year after year
and untoward excesses and abuses follow, diseases and insects
accumulate and the soil becomes depleted of its plant-food
supply, it loses its good physical properties and becomes poor.
This corn has had the necessary plant-food elements supplied by an application of Complete
Fertilizer. Corn such as this will bring big returns.
Question: HOW DOES THE REMOVAL OF CROPS FROM
THE SOIL DEPLETE IT?
Answer: The growing of crops and their removal from the
land to a high degree impoverishes soils, since each pound,
bushel or ton of crops taken from the soil carries from it a definite
quantity of all the elements of fertility. The quantity of plant
food removed from the soil is proportionate to the yield or
quantity of crop removed. If an acre of land produces 30
bushels of corn that acre loses 30 pounds of nitrogen, 5.1 pounds
of phosphorus, and 5.7 pounds of potash. If the acre was
made to grow ten crops of corn there would be removed from it
70 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
300 pounds of nitrogen, 51 pounds of phosphorus and 57 pounds
of potash. The Missouri Experiment Station grew corn alone
on the same land for seventeen years and at the end of that
time the yield had been reduced to 11.8 bushels per acre. The
same station, with corn in a rotation with legumes and with the
addition of plant-food, secured 77.8 bushels of corn at the end
of the seventeen year period.
This potato patch on farm of Mr. Dell Ross, Rural Point, Va., was not fertilized and as a result
the crop was very poor. j
Soils may in many ways become depleted of their fertility
but the two main causes of soil poverty are due to soil wash and
the removal of plant-food in the crops taken from the land.
A fertile soil is a soil maintained in a good physical condition
and containing an ample supply of plant-food for the crops
that it is expected to produce. If a soil is not maintained in a
good physical condition and does not contain, or is not given,
the plant food necessary for profitable crops it is a poor soil.
Question: HOW ARE DEPLETED SOILS RESTORED?
Answer: Soils should not be allowed to lose their fertility.
When a soil becomes poor something is wrong with its owner or
with those who have been responsible for its care. The time
may come when there are no poor soils. Something is lacking
when a soil is poor. In China lands that have been cultivated
for forty centuries are now maintained at a high degree of fer-
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE ral
tility. In Europe lands that have been cultivated for hundreds
of years are now producing twice to four times as much as the
comparatively new lands of many of our American States. It
should be a crime to wear out soil. Not only the present gen-
eration, but all future generations own it. We of the present
generation are but keepers of this “divine heritage,” the soil.
If we neglect or abuse it we are not only exercising poor citizen-
ship and wasting our talents and sustenance but we are recreant
to a divine trust.
This is the same field on Mr. Ross’ farm. Note the fine appearance of this Potato Field.
This crop followed the one shown on page 70 the same season. Mr. Ross fertilized the second
crop liberally with V-C Fertilizers and as a result has a fine Potato crop. V-C points the way
to greater Soil Fertility and Increased Yielding per acre.
Question: HOW DOES GOOD TILLAGE CONSERVE AND
RESTORE FERTILITY?
Answer: Good tillage that conserves the qualities and com-
position of soils will aid in the restoration and maintenance of
fertility. Deep plowing done at the right time and in the right
way and thorough pulverization of the soil are the foundations
upon which productive soils rest and accompany or precede
other means by which depleted soils are restored and maintained.
Question: HOW DOES ADDING PLANT-FOOD TO THE
SOIL CONSERVE AND RESTORE FERTILITY?
Answer: Depleted or poor soils are restored or made fertile by
restoring the elements of plant-food that have been lost or re-
72 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
moved. These elements are phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash
and one of the greatest triumphs of science is the discovery of
means and methods by which these indispensable plant-foods
conveyed by fertilizers may be returned to the soil and not only
restore its lost power of production but make it more fertile
than when it was in its virgin state.
Clover on right was fertilized with manure, limestone and rock phosphate, that on left with
manure alone. The two patches received the same seeding. Manure alone is not a balanced
Fertilizer, as the above clearly shows.
Though we may practice the best systems of farming, only a
small part of the plant-food taken from the soil in crops can be
returned to it. Railroads groan under the loads of farm products
that daily leave the farms. There is a shortage the world over
in ships for carrying abroad the products of farms. Every
pound of these millions of tons of farm products carry from the
farm its precious plant-food and year after year this drain
increases.
“Any system of farming that does not provide for the return
to the soil of as much plant-food as is removed by the crops will
deplete the fertility of the soil.” H. J. Waters.
A bale of cotton with its accompanying seed contains 33
pounds of nitrogen, 13.1 pounds of phosphoric acid and 13.9
pounds of potash.
Twenty-five bushels of corn with its accompanying stover
contains 40.5 pounds of nitrogen, 16.5 pounds of phosphoric
acid and 27 pounds of potash.
To restore the plant-food removed by a bale of cotton and
its accompanying seed will require 200 pounds of nitrate of
soda, 82 pounds of 16% acid phosphate, and 110 pounds of
kainit; total 392 pounds of fertilizer.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 73
To restore the plant-food removed by 25 bushels of corn
and its accompanying stover will require 250 pounds of nitrate
of soda, 104 pounds of 16% acid phosphate, and 211 pounds of
kainit; total 565 pounds of fertilizer.
To restore the 93 pounds of nitrogen, 19 pounds of phos-
phorus and 63 pounds of potash contained in two tons of
cowpea hay would require 581 pounds of 16% nitrate of soda,
120 pounds of acid phosphate and 504 pounds of. kainit; total
1205 pounds of fertilizer.
The same data may be worked out for all crops and nothing
is more evident, in the premises, than that continued taking from,
without giving to the soil will deplete it; and, that restoring
the removed plant-food together with good farm practices will
maintain the soil’s fertility indefinitely.
Question: WHY IS IT MORE PROFITABLE TO OWN AND
CULTIVATE FERTILE FIELDS?
Answer: It requires as much preparation, cultivation and
other care for growing a crop that will produce say 15 bushels
of corn to the acre as it does for the production of 30 bushels per
acre. In the first case the crop merely pays for itself, and in the
second it gives 100 per cent profit over the cost of production.
It costs a certain proportion or per cent of each crop to bring it
to maturity, and the yield in excess of the cost of production is
profit. In addition to this great advantage which fertile soils
have over poor soils is the fact that quantity and quality of
crops grown on poor soils is greatly reduced and the opportunity
of the farmer is materially limited. Fertile fields not only help
to increase yields per acre but also increase the quality of crops,
as well as assuring an earlier maturity of crops, which is often
so essential and profitable.
Drainage
Question: IS GOOD DRAINAGE ESSENTIAL TO GOOD
CROPS?
Answer: Too much water standing for any considerable
length of time on or near the surface of a soil destroys ordinary
farm crops. - While water is of prime necessity to plants, never-
theless they may drown in too much water. Man must have
water if he is to live, but he too may drown in water. Many
millions of dollars are annually lost by farmers who attempt to
cultivate land that is too wet, and millions of acres of the best
74 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
cultivated lands in the United States were once too wet to
cultivate, and there are millions more of the best land in need
of drainage which will be unproductive until drained. Drainage
removes surplus water, deepens the soil, prevents too great
dilution of plant-food; improves the quality and texture of soils
by making them porous and friable; admits air with its food-
making and purifying oxygen; enables plants to stand drouth
better, to send their roots deeper; it warms the soil and extends
the period of plant growth; it checks winter killing of crops;
crops start growing earlier in the spring and continue longer in
growth in the fall; it aids in the healthful development of bene-
ficial bacteria; seeds will germinate better in drained land; crops
rot less and are more easily gathered from drained land than
from land in need of drainage; and good drainage also improves
the health of the community as well as the crops.
y he acct - :
Undrained land showing standing water, which makes crop production impossible. This
condition is common in many sections of the country.
Question: WHAT ARE THE INDICATIONS OF THE
NEED OF DRAINAGE?
Answer: The need of drainage is often very evident, while in
many cases it is not so evident. Not knowing that a field or a
part of a field needs drainage, farmers often cultivate it for years
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 75
at a loss, while proper drainage would enable them to reap rich
profits. The need of drainage is indicated by water standing
on the land after rains, by the cracking of the surface when it
dries, by clods and harsh soil texture when plowed, by the growth
of plants commonly found in wet places, by the water table
being near the surface of the soil, etc. After a wet season irregu-
lar areas in fields often show their need of drainage by the slow
growth and poor color of growing crops, because the plant-food
has been washed away. Lands showing any of the above indi-
cations of an excess of water, though they be shown for but a
short while, are in need of proper drainage.
The | same iad as on Satine page, after tile drainage. Cowpeas and Corn are now grown
with excellent results as the illustration shows.
Question: HOW MAY WET LANDS BE DRAINED?
Answer: The drainage of wet lands is an old practice and
like other old practices was at its beginning primitive. There
are various ways in which land may be drained so that it may be
free of surplus water. Open ditches and underground drains
are for the removal of water. If large quantities of water ac-
cumulate on the surface or are brought from adjacent areas,
open ditches may be best employed, but wherever they can be
replaced with tile this should be done. The open ditch is always
changing its course, filling in places, taking up land which should
grow crops and divides fields; they are unsightly and grow up
with weeds and bushes that harbor insects, noxious weeds and
plant diseases. They require constant attention and are ex-
pensive to maintain. Other materials like stone, poles, plank,
etc., may sometimes be used in its place, but nothing is so de-
sirable, effective and durable as drain tile made of burnt clay.
Any one with ordinary intelligence will find no difficulty in
following instructions for locating ditches for tile, digging them
and laying the tile, and instructions may be had of any of the
State Experiment Stations or of the National Department of
Agriculture. Tile may be put down at seasons of the year
76 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
when there is not much work to be done on the farm and when
crops are not on the land.
Question: HOW DOES SOIL WASH DEPLETE SOILS?
Answer: One may find encrmous areas of abandoned land
almost anywhere through the upper coastal plain or the Pied-
mont section of the Southern States, through many sections of
the Middle and New England States and even in the Middle and
Far West. This is particularly noticeable in the upper portions
of the Southern States where the land is rough and rolling.
Fields scarred with gullies and bare from neglect are too common in many States. The
criminal neglect of land has been called “‘the crime of gullying.’”’? It is an inexcusable neglect
and a criminal waste. Had this land been wisely cared for, this picture could not have been
made. Good farming will prevent such waste of land. The time has come when the whole
world needs the bountiful fruitfulness of every acre and these wasted areas should be put
towork. They are wasted, poor and starving, they need good care and abundant nourishment.
This wholesale impoverishment is very largely due to a lack of
control of rain water. When rain falls faster than the soil can
take it up it will accumulate on the surface after the soil has
become saturated. Then, if the land is not level, this water
will flow in the line of least resistance to some stream. When
soil is saturated with water the weight of the particles of soil is
greatly reduced or the particles are buoyed and nearly float;
the water which surrounds them lubricates them, and with a
slight fall to the land the surplus water washes soil, plant-food,
organic matter, and fertilizers into the streams below. The
natural agencies previously spoken of are constantly operating in
making soil, and if the surface washing carries soil away as fast
as it is made the land necessarily becomes poorer and poorer.
Not only will its good physical properties be destroyed but
the plant-food which it contains will also be carried away.
VARIOUS STEPS IN TILE DRAINAGE.
1—Trenching machine. Man in rear laying tiles by hand. 2—Testing grade of trench by use of grading
line and rod. 3—A pile of drain tiles and tools used in laying tile. 4—Levelling cross bar to support
grading line in making drain trench level. 5—Finishing grade with tile scoop. The scoop levels the
bottom of trench so the tiles will lay properly. 6—Laying tile by hand. 7—Open drain ditch for tile
outlet. 8—The use of tile hook in laying tiles. This is one of the best methods.
78 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
The greatest cause of soil depletion is erosion or soil wash.
Especially is this true on soils that are rolling or soils of rough
topography and when clean-culture crops are grown. Many
soils in the South lose more fertility by the washing away of the
soil than by all other causes contributing to the loss of fertility.
Question: HOW DOES LEACHING DEPLETE SOILS?
Answer: When plant-food leaches from the soil it is carried
away by its being dissolved in water, the water having passed
to a depth beyond the reach of the roots of crops. The shallow
soils which are so common in many sections of the country, and
the worn soils and the over-cropped soils are all more subject to
leaching than are better soils. Deep, well-pulverized soils, and
especially soils that are filled with humus, are less affected by
leaching than soils in a poor condition. In the better soils the
water is retained and utilized to a greater extent, consequently
more plant-food is taken up and plant-food which would have
been leached is held in the soil, partly in new combinations and
partly stored in the crop. A soil that is subjected to leaching
loses each year a part of the plant-food which it contains,
thereby becoming poorer and poorer. ‘To restore a soil that has
been impoverished by leaching is often a slow process, but can
be accomplished by deep, thorough preparation, good drainage,
the addition of humus to the soil, by appropriate rotations, by
adding Commercial Fertilizers and manures, and by protecting
the surface from washing.
Question: HOW DOES THE CHECKING OF LEACHING
AND SOIL WASH CONSERVE AND RESTORE
FERTILITY?
Answer: Leaching of plant-food and the washing away of the
soil itself are prevented or at least reduced to a minimum by
the control and utilization of rain water. Deep plowing, thor-
ough pulverization of the soil, abundant organic matter in the
soil and growing crops all tend to cause increased quantities of
water from heavy rains to enter the soil and be held by it. Leach-
ing and washing are best prevented by treating the soil by every
means possible that will induce it to take up and hold the
greatest amount of water. Nothing is more necessary to plant
growth than water and often the available water supply is the
limiting factor in crop production. Water, the most necessary
thing for the utilization of plant-food by the crop, may be the
cause of the loss of more plant-food than all other losses from
all other causes and the first and most necessary means for the
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 79
restoration of a soil depleted of fertility is water control. A
field deeply plowed, finely pulverized and well filled with humus
will hold many times more water than a field with a shallow,
hard, compact soil with little humus in it. Thus, depth of soil,
fineness of its particles and a high humus content checks leaching
and washing and restores lost fertility.
Some fields are so steep or have such a fall that all of the
water falling during a heavy rain cannot be taken up by the
soil. In such eases it is all the more necessary that these fields
be maintained in crops that cover the ground well and fill the
soil with their roots and thus check both washing and leaching.
A bare soil suffers more from washing and leaching than a soil
covered with a crop. Another highly efficient and often neces-
sary means for controlling the run-off of heavy rains is the
terrace. Terraces are banks thrown up with a depression above
A Magnum Terrace in North Carolina. Terraces such as the above control the flow of rain
water and prevent fields from washing and leaching.
them for holding surplus water. The terraces are made at
intervals and preferably should have a fall that will enable the
surplus water to slowly pass away. The more slowly it drains
away the greater the quantity that will soak into the ground;
and that which does flow from the field is in such decreased
quantity and goes off at so reduced a velocity that but little
damage can be done. King estimates the soil materials an-
nually carried by the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico
to be so great that it would cover seventy-two sections of land
to a depth of four feet. The erosion of fields in cultivation east
and south of the Appalachian mountains is enormous. In the
80 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
South where cotton and tobacco are important crops the most
momentous farm management problem is soil wash and a more
rational system of farming will restore hundreds of thousands
of depleted acres to a fertility they have never known.
Surface washing may best be prevented by so checking the
flow of water which passes off over the surface so as to rob it of
its power to do harm. This may be done by the following
means: deep plowing and subsoiling which will open, loosen,
and pulverize the soil so that it will take up and hold more
water; the addition of organic matter in the form of stable
manure or plants plowed down; the sowing of broadcast crops,
especially those which occupy the ground for a year or more,
by judicious rotation, and by mechanical means such as ter-
races and hillside ditches which collect the water at intervals and
earry it off slowly in broken quantities rather than allowing it
to pass rapidly in large volumes.
Crops requiring cultivation such as cotton, tobacco, corn
and many others, especially when these crops are cultivated on
beds or ridges are responsible for a very large portion of the loss
of fertility by soil wash. This is especially true when these
intertilled crops are for two or more years in succession grown
on the same land. The avoidance of such practice and the
following of a wise system of rotation with appropriate fertili-
zation will check soil wash and conserve soil and plant-food.
Sun, Air and Water
Question: HOW DOES THE SUN BENEFIT SOILS AND
CROPS?
Answer: The sun is both a vitalizer and a disinfector. Its
heat and light makes the earth habitable. The sun is the giver
of rain and dew, and causes the air to move. The sun as a
direct source of energy stores carbon in plants, and when their
carbon is taken into the animal system as food it supplies the
animal with heat and energy. Growing plants draw their food
and water from the soil, which passes on to the leaves where,
with the combined action of the green principle (chlorophyll) of
plants and of sunshine, the food materials become digested food
and returns to the various parts of the plant to become leaf,
branch, bark, root, flower or fruit. If the sun is to do its work
well plants must have an abundance of plant-food at their base
or in their storehouse.
The soil gets its heat from the sun. Without sunshine soils
become uncongenial to plants. Crops will not thrive without
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 81
sunshine. Too much direct sunshine may temporarily injure
soils that are plowed wet and left in a cloddy condition. The sun
aids the oxygen of the air while this most active of all elements
is doing its duty in the soil or in the plant. Starches and sugars
would not be formed were it not for the glorious sunshine, nor
would flowers have their color and fragrance, nor fruit its blush
and flavor.
Question: HOW DOES AIR BENEFIT SOILS AND CROPS?
Answer: The atmosphere or air is composed of about four
parts of free nitrogen to one part of free oxygen. Nitrogen is
the most expensive element that plants are composed of, and
oxygen probably is the least expensive. Oxygen is the most
active, the most important and one of the most abundant sub-
stances in nature. It is found in combination with nearly every
other element. It is actively engaged in the development or
growth of living tissues, and is largely responsible for the break-
ing down by decay or burning of all tissues. It is the most active
and hardest worked element in nature. Air also contains car-
bonic acid gas diffused through it, and this enters the plants
through their leaves, and, by the action of the sunlight and the
green parts of the leaves the oxygen is separated and goes back
into the air. The carbon becomes a part of the plant, the main
part, since live plants contain more carbon than any other one
thing except water, while dry plants are often half carbon.
The nitrogen of the air through the instrumentality of bacteria
inhabiting the roots of legumes, enters into combinations in the
legume and nourishes it.
Question: HOW DOES WATER MOVE IN THE SOIL?
Answer: When rain-water falls it continues to soak into the
ground until all the spaces between the soil particles are filled.
If, after the soil becomes filled with water, rain continues to fall
faster than it sinks deeper into the ground, the surplus water
will flow off. The water in the soil will continue to sink deeper
and deeper until it has drained out from between the surface
soil particles down to where water stands permanently in the
soil. The depth down to this permanent water measured from
the surface represents the distance of the water table from the
surface. This water table rises when considerable rain falls and
becomes lower in dry weather. Water is constantly travelling,
one might say, from the water table upward to the surface
where is passes into the air or is evaporated. Water moves by
82 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
crawling over the surface of the particles of soil, consequently,
the amount of water that moves and the rapidity with which it
moves depends to a great extent upon the number of particles
composing the soil and the nearness of these particles to each
other. Roots of plants penetrate the soil passing between its
particles, and the movement of water keeps them supplied with
this important part of their food.
20 FEET ‘oh Ae a
“WATER TABLE: —
=STORED WATER
30 FEET —
The above diagram shows how water moves in the soil. Water goes into the soil by gravity,
and circulates throughout the soil by the capillary action of the soil particles. A parc of the
water in the soil returns to the air by evaporation.
Question: HOW DOES WATER CARRY PLANT-FOOD?
Answer: The food that plants take out of the soil enters the
plant in solution or dissolved in water. If you will place a tea-
spoonful of sugar or of salt in a glass of water and stir it the
sugar or salt will be dissolved or passes into solution. Since
water forms the function of both dissolving or taking into
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 83
solution plant-food and of carrying plant-food, one can appre-
ciate better the importance of an abundance of water for sup-
plying readily the roots of plants with all the food that they are
capable of taking up. Plant-foods in solution occupy equally
all parts of the liquid in which they dissolve, thus giving every
tiny rootlet an opportunity to choose in quality and quantity
the plant-food it needs.
Treating the Soil
Question: ARE ALL SOILS IN GOOD PHYSICAL CON-
DITION FOR PLANT GROWTH?
Answer: They are not, and no soil in poor physical condition
can produce the best crops. A fertile soil may be in poor physi-
cal condition and produce only poor crops, while an infertile
soil in good physical condition will produce good and profitable
crops with proper treatment and liberal fertilization. Some
soils are naturally harsh, hard, tenacious and cloddy. Water
does not circulate in them well, they do not pulverize well when
Poorly drained soils puddle in wet weather and crack open as their surfaces become dry.
Either may cause the winter killing of small grain. Compacting the soil in early spring with
roller will be very beneficial to the crop. The roots loosened by the winter’s freezes will be
pressed into the soil and evaporation of water from the soil will be checked.
84 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
plowed or cultivated, nor do they respond to commercial fer-
tilizers. Roots of plants do not penetrate them well, and the
plant-food in them is not in a readily available form. The de-
fects of such soils may be corrected by drainage, fall plowing
and subsequent freezing, the addition of organic matter, appli-
cations of lime, harrowing and rolling when they are neither too
wet nor too dry. The physical properties of clay and clay loam
soils are often seriously injured by being plowed when they are
too wet. The addition of organic matter or lime, or both, and
their being plowed rough late in the fall and exposed to the
freezing effects of winter will add greatly to the physical and
other good qualities of soils.
The modern method of plowing. The tractor today is a mighty factor in America’s Agri-
cultural Program, and the need of them is Bowe daily. If America is to feed the world
her farmers must produce more per acre. V-C Fertilizers will make your Soil and Crops
Pay More.
Question: WHEN SHOULD LAND BE PLOWED?
Answer: It is out of the question to attempt to give any iron-
clad rules that might be followed in determining when land
should be plowed. On the other hand, under special condition
it is not difficult to know the best time for plowing land. Land
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 85
as a rule should be plowed long enough before the crop is planted
so as to give an opportunity for its thorough discing, harrowing,
and other means for pulverizing and crushing, and that it may
settle through the influences of rain-water falling between the
plowing and the time the seed are sown. If a considerable
quantity of stable manure, pea-vines, clover or other green
manuring crops are to be plowed down, or if stubble or other
crop residue covers the surface, it is a decided advantage to
plow such lands far enough in advance of the preparation of the
seed bed to allow these materials plowed down to g0 through at
least a partial decomposition.
Land should not be plowed when too wet. If plowed at
such times, especially if it contains a considerable amount of
clay, great injury will result. Neither should land be plowed
when it is too dry since such soils will be broken with great
difficulty, and the large clods that are left will seriously inter-
fere with good crop production. Land plowed in the fall so that
the newly brought up soil may be exposed to the freezing effects
of winter will receive greater benefit from plowing than land
plowed at any other time.
Question: HOW SHOULD LAND BE PLOWED?
Answer: This question is one susceptible to so many answers
and subject to so many exceptions that it can only briefly be
discussed here. In the first place the plow used should be one
Turning under the sod in the fall. The ee ae up soil will be ees to the freezing
effects of winter and the sod turned under will form organic matter, which every soil needs
in abundance so that the plant-food in the soil will be avialable for the use of the crop grown.
86 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
that is especially adapted to doing the kind of work you wish
done in the soil to be plowed. The object of plowing is to break,
partly turn over, and pulverize a certain depth from the sur-
face. In different soils, at different seasons of the year and for
different crops the depths to which a soil should be plowed will
vary. Again, the character of the soil, the amount of organic
matter it may contain, and the depth to which it has been pre-
viously plowed will all have an important bearing upon the
manner of plowing that should be done in each case.
wo foe £ Sod at ERENCE
Another view of plowing with a tractor. On the vast fields of America the tractor is gradually
taking the place of the horse, and is daily doing work that was impossible with the horse,
Question: HOW DOES TURNING THE LAND HELP IT?
Answer: The surface of the soil is constantly exposed to drying
influences, to the effects of the sun, and the changes of tem-
perature; it is upon the surface of the soil that organic matter
naturally accumulates, so it naturally follows that it is on the
surface of soil where the most sudden, the most extreme, and the
most important changes take place. It is the surface of the
soil that suffers most from washing, and is benefited most by the
action of air, temperature, and other natural soil-making
agencies. It is also well understood that a uniform and homo-
geneous soil is best adapted to plant growth. If soils are not
turned there will be a wide variation between the characters and
conditions of the surface and the characters and conditions at a
depth of a few inches. Further, there is a gradual sifting of the
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 87
small particles of the soil downwards, and it is at the bottom of
the plowed area where these small particles stop and accumulate,
stupping up the pores or capillary tubes which establish com-
munication between soil and subsoil and permit air, water, and
roots of plants to penetrate readily. When the land is turned
there is an opportunity for the mixing of the lower and upper
parts of the soil area turned.
The manner of plowing will vary as the quantity of organic
matter to be plowed down increases or decreases, and with the
depth to which the soil has been previously plowed, as well as
with the character of the subsoil and the degree of differences or
changes which take place as one goes down. If a considerable
amount of organic matter of any character is to be plowed into
the soil the organic matter should be pulverized and well mixed
with the surface of the soil to a depth of two, three, or more
inches before the plowing is done. This will give a better dis-
tribution of the material plowed down, help the soil very much
in developing its ability to take up and hold water, and to dis-
tribute that water uniformly throughout the soil.
Depending upon several circumstances land may be turned
completely over, or the plow slice may be turned on edge. The
deeper the plowing the more necessary it is to leave the plow
slice on edge. When land is plowed in this manner it gives a
more thorough mixing of the bottom and top soils, thus making
them better absorbers and holders of water and in other ways
more congenial to plant growth.
Question: HOW DEEP SHOULD LAND BE PLOWED?
Answer: This question is susceptible to a great many answers.
The depth to which a soil has been previously plowed, the
character of the soil, and the amount of organic matter it con-
tains, all these have a bearing upon the proper depth to which
any given soil should be plowed. The aim, however, should be
to gradually deepen all soils until a sufficient depth of good soil
has been made for the full exercise of the functions of the plant
for the attainment of its full growth. A soil that is 8 inches
deep will hold twice as much plant-food and twice as much
water as a soil 4 inches deep. A deep soil withstands extreme
cold and extreme heat very much better than a shallow soil.
The best way to increase the depth of the soil is to plow a
little deeper each time it is broken until the desired depth has
been reached. Care should be taken, however, to increase the
amount of organic matter added to the soil in proportion to the
88 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
increase in soil depth. Merely plowing deep and bringing to
the surface the subsoil will not make soil of it. Soil is made
through the combined action of heat, cold, and organic matter,
all three of which act together in bringing ‘about the changes In
the character and composition of soils which best adapt them
to an abundant plant growth. When a soil is made deeper it is a
great advantage that the plowing which increases its depth be
done in the fall or early winter. When done at this time opportu-
nity is given for the breaking up and crumbling effects of freezes.
If the deepening is done in late spring or summer the direct effect
of the sun and wind often produces such a cloddy condition that
a year or more will pass before it becomes thoroughly congenial
to soe growth.
A soil in good physical condition for plant growth. The roots of a plant can easily penetrate
a soil such as this, and obtain plant food. If V-C is the plant food applied the farmer can be
assured of a bountiful crop.
A deep soil suffers very much less from surface washing than
a shallow soil, and in the deepening of the soil we find one of the
best means for a conservation of plant-food. Fertilizers applied
to a shallow soil are more apt to be leached from them and lost
than when applied to a deep soil.
Question: HOW DOES HUMUS CONSERVE AND
RESTORE FERTILITY?
Answer: Humus is the life of a soil and humus always main-
tained in good supply in a soil that is wisely and well tilled pre-
pares the way for the development and perpetuation of a per-
manent fertility—the goal for which all who till the soil should
strive. Humus is organic matter decaying in the soil and is
supplied to the soil by plowing down crops grown for soil im-
provement, by the residues of crops and by the addition of
manures.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 89
Question: HOW SHOULD ORGANIC MATTER BE
PLOWED INTO THE SOIL?
Answer: When organic matter is added to the soil for the
purpose of improving its condition, its effects will be much more
marked if the material plowed into the soil is thoroughly in-
corporated with it. When stubble, clover, pea-vines, sod, stable
manure and other such materials are to be plowed in, the land
should be thoroughly disced to a depth of not less than 4 to 6
inches before these materials are plowed down with a turning
plow. This not only mixes these materials well with the surface
of the soil but enables one to plow to the bottom of the furrow,
thoroughly pulverizes soil mixed with organic matter, thus
Discing is one of the most approved methods of plowing down organic matter which by discing
is well mixed with surface of the soil. In many cases plowing will give better results if
preceded by discing.
giving a distribution from surface to subsoil of the organic matter
and insuring thorough pulverization of the soil throughout its
area by surface treatment with disc and harrow after the organic
material and pulverized surface has been plowed down. This
is a very important consideration when the materials mentioned
above are added to the soil, and will often more than double the
good effect that should be expected of them. Should this ma-
90 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
terial be plowed down in mass and the plow slice inverted there
would be a strata of plant residue between the soil and subsoil.
This would very seriously intercept the rise of moisture from
below, and often in practise will cause the dying of the crop
should dry weather prevail.
Question: WHEN AND HOW SHOULD LAND BE
SUBSOILED?
Answer: The fall of the year is considered the most ideal
time for subsoiling, though farther South there is more oppor-
tunity for midwinter plowing, and very often the work of the
farm is better adjusted to subsoiling in late November, Decem-
ber and January than in the fall. Subsoiling should be done
early enough, however, to allow the subsoiled land to be sub-
A popular type of subsoil plow. This subsoil plow follows in the furrow made by the turning
plow, and reaches the soil the turning plow does not reach. New soil is thus incorporated
with the old soil, giving greater soil depth.
jected to several hard freezes before spring. Subsoiling does not
necessarily mean that the lower strata of soil is to be brought to
the surface. More properly speaking the term applies to break-
ing the subsoil a few inches deeper than it is habitually broken
by the use of the turning plow. The act of subsoiling is simple
in performance. The subsoil plow is drawn by a team which
follows in the furrow made by the turning plow. The foot of the
subsoil plow penetrates and pulverizes the soil in and beneath
the open furrow. It is usually considered safe, however, to bring
that quantity of subsoil to the surface which is about equal to
one-fourth the quantity of soil proper. The soil recently brought
to the surface should be thoroughly mixed with the surface soil,
both of which should be well pulverized.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 91
Question: WHEN IS SUBSOILING BENEFICIAL?
Answer: If the soil proper has under it a hard, close, or ten-
acious subsoil the breaking of the sub strata will be of great
benefit in permitting rain-water to descend and soil water to
rise; in giving the roots of plants an opportunity to penetrate
deep and secure their allotted supply of food and water. It will
avoid extremes of temperature, extreme wet and extreme dry
conditions.
Question: WHEN IS SUBSOILING HARMFUL?
Answer: If subsoiling is done when the ground is too wet it
will cause a running together of the particles or “baking” and
the locking up of plant-food. At the same time the power of
the soil to hold water will be decreased. If too much of the sub-
soil is brought to the surface it will so dilute the productive sur-
face soil that its evil effects may be shown for a year or more.
If the subsoil is already loose and pulverized, and offers no re-
sistance to the descent of water or the entrance of roots, it will
be a useless operation, and may to some extent be harmful to
subsoil it, though such soils may to advantage be plowed deeper.
Question: WHY ARE DEEP MELLOW SOILS BEST?
Answer: A brief answer to this question is that there is more
soil if the soil is deep, and better soil if it is mellow. Deep and
mellow soils will hold more plant-food and more water. They
will give opportunity for the penetration of more roots, and
thus with an abundance of food and drink and great numbers of
roots, the plant has ample opportunity of supplying itself with
VAIS
A deep mellow soil allows the roots to penetrate in every way in search of food with which
to nourish the plant. If the necessary plant food elements are present the plant will be
robust, healthy and strong.
92 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
all the nourishment necessary for the best growth and the most
abundant growth. Fertilizers applied to deep and mellow soils
will give from two to four times the beneficial results as would be
given by the same fertilizers applied to shallow, harsh soils.
Question: WHY SHOULD SOIL BE PULVERIZED?
Answer: Soil should be pulverized so that the surface area of
the soil may be increased, increased quantities of plant-food
liberated, and the water-holding power increased. Pulverizing
soil gives more soil and better soil. The importance of water in
crop production is universally recognized, and a simple illus-
tration will show how reducing the size of soil particles will
increase the power of that soil to hold
water. Remembering that the water is
held in the soil by clinging to the surface
of the soil particles we will find that should
a cubic inch of stone be dipped in water
the 6 sides of the stone when removed from
the water would each hold a square inch
of film water. Should this stone be cut in
two 10 times in the direction of one of its
dimensions, 20 more square inches of sur-
face would be exposed. Should it be cut
again 10 times in another of its dimensions,
another 20 square inches of surface would
be exposed. Should the cutting be repeated
through the third dimensions, still another
20 square inches of surface would be ex-
posed, giving 66 square inches of surface
where there were only 6 before. In addi-
tion there would be the same increase in
the exposure of the stone to the various
agencies which act upon it, break it up
and liberate its plant-food. A pulverized
soil holds more water and holds it longer,
holds more plant-food and holds it longer,
liberates more plant-food from the particles
which compose the soil, permits roots to
grow wider, deeper and in increased num-
bers and gives greatly increased and more
profitable returns from fertilizing mater-
ials added to the soil.
Amounts of water absorbed by
equal quantities of course and fine
soils. The smaller the soil particles
the greater amount of water it
will hold.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 93
Question: HOW MAY SOILS BE TREATED TO TAKE
UP AND HOLD MORE WATER?
Answer: The amount of water available for plant growth is
one of the most commonly effective factors in crop production.
It naturally follows that anything we may do to the soil which
will enable it to take up and hold more water will be a direct and
important step towards more profitable farming. There are a
number of ways in which this desirable result may be obtained.
Deepening the soil, pulverizing its particles, adding organic
matter and frequent stirring of the surface are simple and easy
means for increasing the power of the soil to hold water. The
amount of water that a soil can hold is in direct proportion to
the number and size of the particles that compose the soil.
Every time a particle of soil is broken in two, two new surfaces
are exposed, and when a particles of the soil is broken in two
twice we have twice the area of surface for holding water, since
the soil holds its water on the surface of its particles. Alterna-
tion in temperature and especially freezing are potent factors in
crumbling the soil so that it may hold more water. The most
effective treatment that soils may be given so that they may
hold more water is found in pulverizing and adding organic
matter.
Question: HOW DOES HARROWING, DISCING,
ROLLING, ETC., HELP THE LAND?
Answer: Implements are devised for the express purpose of
crushing, pulverizing and stirring the soil surface so as to mix
well all materials which compose the soil, thus making it uni-
form and homogeneous in texture. The crushing, pulverizing
and stirring reduces clods, and leaves the soil in smaller particles,
exposing more surface for holding of water and for the liberation
of plant-food.
Question: HOW DOES THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
OF=SOLMS. AFEECT. CROP GROW LHe
Answer: The materials that a soil contains are determined by
chemical analysis, consequently the chemical composition of a
soil is nothing more or less than the many elements and com-
pounds found in a soil. It has been shown that certain elements
and certain compounds are essential to crops—that crops cannot
live or grow without them. If there is one essential element of
plant growth wanting in a soil plants cannot grow on or in that
soil. If one element is present in insufficient quantity for the
full development of a plant or a crop the plant or crop may grow
94 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
as long as the supply lasts, but no longer, and, while growing
will make but poor progress, since the supply is insufficient. The
essential element that is present in the smallest quantity limits
the growth of crops. Fertilizers are employed for correcting
this serious defect, since fertilizers are for the purpose of supply-
ing soil deficiencies.
Harrowing a field for corn. Harrowing levels the surface, pulverizes the clods, covers the
seeds, and aids in destroying weeds. A harrow is especially desirable where fertilizers have
been applied as it mixes the soil well.
Question: HOW DOES THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF
SOILS AFFECT PLANT GROWTH?
Answer: Physics is the science which deals with solids, liquids
and gases—their properties, their actions and their relations
to each other. Since crops live in and feed upon solids,
liquids and gases, the laws which govern these three forms of
matter must also govern plant growth. The physical properties
of soils and plants involved in the relationship between the
two are: porocity, tenacity, hardness, cohesion, adhesion, capil-
larity, solution, diffusion, osmose, and in an infinite number and
variety of ways these physical principles make a soil a good one
or a poor one for the support of plant life. If the physical prop-
erties of a soil are poor, crops will not grow profitably. It is very
necessary that the physics of soils be understood if the farmer
expects to make his soils and crops pay. Knowledge of soil
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 95
physics will enable him to correct poor physical conditions and
make the soil a congenial one, one that will readily supply crops
with food and drink. See that your soil is in good physical
condition if you want the application of fertilizers to produce
the best results.
Question: HOW DOES THE ORGANIC CONTENT OF
SOILS PROMOTE PLANT GROWTH?
Answer: One of the many beneficial effects upon the soil is the
addition of organic matter. If the soil is too porous or not
porous enough, if it is too tenacious or not as tenacious as it
should be, if it is too hard or too soft, if it is lacking in capillarity,
if it does not promote solution and diffusion, the addition of
organic matter will help it to better do these things or possess
these properties. Organic matter makes humus, and has the
additional good effects of enabling the soil to take up and hold
more water, permit easier and more extended penetration of the
roots of crops, warms the soil, enables it to be more easily cul-
tivated, dissolves plant-food from soil particles, increases the
profit from fertilizers by preventing them from leaching away,
and organic matter supplies soil conditions that enable the crops
to make better use of plant-food applied to and found in the
soil.
Plant Food
Question: WHAT DOES THE PLANT DO IF IT DOES
NOT GET ENOUGH FOOD?
Answer: If a pig or a steer is confined in a pen without enough
food to sustain them neither will produce profitable growth. If
plants do not get sufficient food their growth also will be poor and
unprofitable. Feed the pig and the steer an abundance of an
appropriate ration, and they will produce profitable pork or
beef. Feed the plant an abundance of an appropriate ration,
and a profitable crop will be harvested.
Question: HOW SHALL IT BE DETERMINED WHAT
PLANT-FOOD TO USE?
Answer: First, by knowing in what element the soil is deficient;
second, by knowing from experimental tests what each crop
needs, and then correcting both defects. Commercial fertilizers
are manufactured for each and every crop grown. The appro-
priate fertilizer can always be secured, and when applied
properly an abundant yield follows and the fertility of the soil is
96 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
maintained. The prudent farmer will never buy or use any-
thing but fertilizers made by reliable and trustworthy manu-
facturers. Buy your fertilizers as you buy your seed—nothing
but the best.
Question: WHAT MUST THE FARMERS DO IF THERE
IS NOT ENOUGH FOOD IN THE SOIL?
Answer: The quantity or amount of yield that any crop will
produce on a given area of soil is controlled by the amounts of
plant-foods present and available for supplying the needs of the
particular crop grown. To produce 60 bushels of corn on an
acre and the 5000 pounds of stalk, leaves, roots, etc., that goes
with the 60 bushels of corn, requires 32 pounds of phosphoric
acid, 84 pounds of nitrogen and 34 pounds of potash; to grow
A combination Fertilizer Distributor and Planter. This implement marks off the next row,
opens up the furrow for the Fertilizer, applies it, and covers it up. The furrow is again
opened up, and the seed is planted, covered up, and finally the soil is pressed firmly around
seeds by means of a roller.
1600 pounds of tobacco with its 1400 pounds of stems requires
16 pounds of phosphoric acid, 76 pounds of nitrogen and 200
pounds of potash; and to produce 30 tons of cabbage per acre
requires 70 pounds of phosphoric acid, 200 pounds of nitrogen
and 270 pounds of potash. If these quantities of plant-foods are
not present and available these yields will not be secured. If
there is not enough plant-food in the soil to produce the yields
desired, the thing to do is to add the necessary plant-food. Fer-
tilizers are made and sold for just this purpose,
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 97
Question: WHAT IS COMMERCIAL FERTILIZER?
Answer: The elements that compose food products and the
sources from which derived are just as well known as the multi-
plication tables. There is no more doubt about one than the
other. That plants must be fed is an absolute and indisputable
scientific fact; the manner of their feeding is determined by the
Science of Chemistry, and the amount of their feeding by the
Science of Mathematics. A soil that needs nitrogen must have
nitrogen; a soil that needs phosphorus and potash must have
both, and if it does not get them it remains a poor soil. All
plants need these elements. The principal elements of plant-
foods commonly deficient in the soil and without which no plant
or crop can grow are phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash, and
a high grade commercial fertilizer contains these, the principal
plant-food elements. A commercial fertilizer that fits the soil and
fits the crop is the best, and no other is as good. The ideal
fertilizer for soil and crops is that fertilizer which contains plant-
food elements in appropriate proportions for and in forms that
are available to the crop grown. Hence, a commercial fertilizer
is a compound of plant-foods that crops must have if they are to
grow. It is a soil builder which if properly applied will not only
maintain soil fertility but increase it. Besides it will give the
soil the power to be fruitful and multiply crop yields and give
forth in increased quantity and in improved quality of the
fruits of the earth.
Question: WHAT IS A “COMPLETE” FERTILIZER?
Answer: Of the ten or a dozen elements necessary to plant
growth, three—phosphorus, nitrogen and potash—are very often
found in the soil in quantities too small to supply the needs of
crops. In some soils only one, in others two, but in a large
majority of soils all three of these elements are so deficient crops
can not produce full yields until their deficiencies are supplied by
adding to them the missing elements of plant food. To meet
the requirements of this majority of soils fertilizers containing
nitrogen (ammonia), phosphoric acid and potash must be added.
Such a fertilizer is a complete fertilizer, since it contains all of the
needed elements of plant food and, so far as supplying the plant-
food requirements of soils is concerned, completely supplies
these requirements
Question: ARE “FILLERS” AND “CARRIERS” THE
SAME?
Answer: No fertilizing material is all plant-food. It is im-
98 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
possible for this to be since nitrogen is a gas and in its pure
form is not a plant-food, while phosphorus and potassium are
minerals and are not found in nature in their pure forms. Neither
phosphorus nor potash are plant-foods in their pure forms but
must be chemically combined with other substances before the
plant can use them. Materials used for making fertilizers and
containing one or more of these three plant-food elements are
called carriers of phosphorus, of nitrogen or of potash, as the
case may be. These carriers may contain their plant foods in
low or in high percentages according to the nature and the
quality of the materials, and they must be combined or mixed
in quantities that will give in the mixed fertilizer the analysis
desired or guaranteed. Analyses are expressed in percent, and
2000 pounds or a ton is the commercial unit.
There is a common belief among many farmers that all mixed
fertilizers contain a large amount of bulky material, without
plant-food value, put in them to increase their weight. They
believe that everything in a bag of fertilizer, besides the three
actual plant-food elements, is what is commonly called ‘‘ filler,”
and they believe that all of a fertilizer should be plant-food and
all available. It is impossible for this to be since no fertilizing
material is all plant-food. The plant-foods that fertilizers con-
tain are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and the value of all
fertilizers is based upon the amounts of these three elements the
fertilizer contains in available forms.
These three essential elements of plant-food cannot be used
by plants in their pure forms. Pure Nitrogen is a colorless,
tasteless and odorless gas and composes about three-fourths of
the air we breathe. Neither animals nor plants can use it in its
pure forms. Pure Phosphorus and pure Potassium are minerals
and are not found in nature in their pure forms. If pure phos-
phorus or pure potassium were applied to live plants they
would kill the plants.
These essential elements are found in nature combined with
many other substances and exist in a wide range of proportions
in these various combinations. This is in accordance with
nature’s laws—laws ordained by the “Creator of all things
visible and invisible.’”’ Nature has distributed the plant-foods
throughout the world for man’s use and they are found on or in
the earth and are mined, they are taken from the sea and from
the air, from plants and from animals and prepared and com-
bined in the cheapest and best plant-food forms.
The materials with which these plant-foods are combined by
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 99
nature are not ‘‘fillers,”’ but “carriers” of plant-foods, and with-
out these carriers there would be no fertilizers or manures that
the farmer could use. If the elements of plant-foods were sep-
arated from their carriers they would not then be in forms that
the plant or crop could use. This is in accordance with the laws
of nature.
If a farmer wished to use fifteen pounds of nitrogen on a
certain piece of land he could not apply it in a pure form since
nitrogen is a gas. Besides there are many tons of nitrogen in
the air resting over each acre of land, but it is not in a usable
form. To overcome this, and to have the nitrogen in a form
that will be available and suitable for plant-food, nature com-
bines the nitrogen with other materials and thus gives us this
valuable plant-food in a diluted and usable form, as in the case
of nitrate of soda which contains 15 pounds of nitrogen in one
hundred pounds of bulk—nature’s proportion or formula for
nitrate of soda.
Nature does not confine the application of this law to plant-
foods and fertilizer materials but to human and animal foods and
feeds also. Very few of the animal feeds are composed of as
much as half of available food. Only a small part of many of
the dishes served thrice daily on our tables is really used or even
usable as human food, yet we must use the whole bulk to get
the nutriment in it. The greater part of our foods are wnavail-
able and are conveyed by ‘‘carriers,” as the plant-foods in fer-
tilizers. Fruits, potatoes, cabbage, beets, etc., are composed of
more water than any other one substance. We do not complain
of the “carrier”? materials in our stable and barn-lot manures,
yet the average ton of such manures contain rarely more than
30 pounds of plant-food, the remainder, 1970 pounds being
“carrier”? or accompanying bulk put there by nature.
Question: DO HIGH GRADE FERTILIZERS CONTAIN
FILLER?
Answer: No. Filler increases the bulk of a fertilizer and is
added for the purpose of balancing the analysis, insuring the
fulfillment of the guarantee and conforming to the fertilizer
inspection laws of the various states. The purchaser of a fer-
tilizer should remember that he is paying for the pounds of
plant-food the fertilizers contain. Some one has said and ap-
propriately that filler in a fertilizer is ballast. Hence, it will
be seen that low-grade fertilizers are, as a rule, more expen-
sive than high grade fertilizers, since a pound of plant-food
100 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
in the latter costs less than a pound of plant-food in the former.
Three tons of 8-2-2 fertilizer contains 720 pounds of plant-food
and two tons of 12-3-3 fertilizer contain exactly the same num-
ber of pounds of plant-food. If the 8-2-2 goods retails at $24.00
per ton, three tons will cost $72.00. If the 12-3-3 goods retails
at $32.00 per ton the two tons will cost $64.00, or $8.00 less
than the same amount of plant-food in the 8-2-2 goods. Thus
he who purchases 720 pounds of plant-food in three tons of
8-2-2 fertilizer has an extra ton to pay freight on, to haul, to
apply to the soil, and must pay $8.00 more than he who purchases
two tons of 12-3-3 fertilizer, yet each purchaser gets exactly the
same amount of plant-food or 720 pounds. High grade fertilizer
is cheaper and better.
Should the V-C Company add filler to its fertilizers what
wouldit gain? The price of a fertilizer is determined by the num-
ber of units of plant-food it contains. However, worthless as
filler might be as a plant-food it would cost a small fortune to
purchase, ship, dry, grind, screen and mix thousands of tons of
such materials annually. All of this would be an absolute loss
to the company since its fertilizers are valued only for its plant
food units, or the pounds of plant-food in a ton of fertilizer. In
a high grade fertilizer there is no room for a filler.
Question: WHAT IS ROCK PHOSPHATE?
Answer: Many thousands of years ago enormous quantities of
bones of animals became fossilized—turned to stone—and are
now found in great deposits in South Carolina, Florida, Ten-
nessee and other places. These rocks are mined and ground to a
fine powder called ‘‘floats’? or ground phosphate rock. This
rock contains the equivalent of from 26 to 32 percent of phos-
phorie acid which in this form is but slightly soluble in water and
consequently but little of it is available for the use of crops as
plant-food.
Question: WHAT IS ACID PHOSPHATE?
Answer: Acid phosphate is the standard carrier of phosphoric
acid and is made by treating ground phosphate rock with about
an equal weight of sulphuric acid. The sulphuric acid changes
the phosphorus in the rock phosphate to a soluble form. Thus
100 pounds of phosphate rock analyzing 32 percent of znsoluble
phosphoric acid becomes 200 pounds of acid phosphate analyzing
16 percent of soluble phosphoric acid. The phosphate rock after
being treated with sulphuric acid becomes acid phosphate and the
phosphorus it contains becomes phosphoric acid. Acid phos-
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 101
phate and phosphoric acid must not be confused—ac?zd phos-
phate is the whole material while the phosphoric acid is the 16
percent and is actual plant-food. Thus a 200 pound sack of
acid phosphate contains 32 pounds of phosphoric acid, or 16
percent.
Question: HOW DOES PHOSPHORIC ACID HELP THE
PLANT?
Answer: If plants cannot get phosphoric acid they will die be-
fore reaching maturity. It is highly necessary to the develop-
ment and maturity of the seeds of all plants, and increases their
fruitfulness. Phosphoric acid also aids in making soluble and
transferring to the seeds the nitrogen compounds so essential
to the full development of the seeds.
Question: HOW DOES NITROGEN OR AMMONIA HELP
THE PLANT?
Answer: Nitrogen or ammonia exercises a great influence in
the development of the vegetative functions of plants. An
excess of nitrogen retards fruitfulness, but with an abundance
of phosphoric acid and potash present aids in producing a heavy
yield of well balanced composition. Seeds and leaves are rich
in nitrogen, consequently full seed and leaf development re-
quires a full supply of nitrogen.
Question: HOW DOES POTASH HELP THE PLANT?
Answer: Potash helps to make the stalks, stems, branches and
leaf-stems of plants. It is essential to the formation and trans-
ference of starch; it aids in the manufacture of starch in the
ieaves and in its transference to the fruits. Potash is essential
to the growth and maturity of the stems or woody parts of
plants and the fleshy parts of vegetables, grains and fruits.
Feeding Crops
Question: WHEN SHOULD FERTILIZER BE ADDED TO
THE SOIL?
Answer: Fertilizers should be applied when the crop is not
developing and producing as it should, when heavier yields of
better quality and when greater profits are desired. There is a
deficiency in the soil if crops do not grow well and fertilizers are
made for the purpose of supplying deficient food materials for
the use of the plant. The time to apply fertilizers is when the
land is being prepared for the crop, while the crop is growing
and whenever it needs to be fed so that it may do the duty
expected of it.
102 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Question: HOW SHOULD FERTILIZERS BE APPLIED
TO THE SOIL?
Answer: Fertilizers are added or applied to the soil to make it
richer. The richest soils have the plant-food elements which
they contain evenly distributed through them. The best results
come from fertilizers when they are well mixed with the soil.
The soil receives the best benefits when fertilizers are applied
broadcast, spread evenly and well mixed into the soil. Crops
grown in rows more than two feet apart are fertilized in the
This is a type of Fertilizer Distributor commonly used for cotton, corn, and other crops
cultivated in the row. The row is marked, opened and the Fertilizer put down, and then
mixed with the soil by the solid wooden wheel which follows in the furrow.
drill, and later additional applications are made between the
rows. In some cases only one application need be made, in others
two applications, and others three applications. Implements
are in common use for putting the fertilizer on or into the soil.
Question: IS THE MANNER OF APPLYING FERTIL-
IZERS IMPORTANT?
Answer: How to apply fertilizers to growing crops is a matter
of more consequence than might appear at first glance. In the
first place the applied materials should be finely pulverized
since lumps or clods are far more objectionable in fertilizers than
lumps and clods in a field. This is particularly true regarding
late applications of fertilizer. They should be well pulverized
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 103
and evenly distributed. The fertilizer may be distributed be-
tween the rows of growing crops more cheaply by the use of
that valuable implement known as a combination cultivator
and fertilizer distributor. When second or late applications are
made to growing crops the roots of the crops have almost always
spread far into the “middles” or the spaces between the rows.
This wide spreading of the root system must be taken into con-
sideration both as regards the depth of cultivation given the crop
and as regards the place the fertilizer is put down. It is not at all
necessary that it be near the point where the plant comes out
of the ground. As a matter of fact, it is better that it be away
from rather than near the base of the plant. When a crop has
reached that stage of its development that calls for intercul-
tural applications of fertilizer the feeding parts of its roots are
not near the main stem of the plant, but spread far out in all
directions. It is the tips of the roots and rootlets that take up
the plant-food while those parts of the root system connecting
the root tips with the plant are merely conveyors of plant-food
—the pipe line system, so to speak—and do not take plant-food
from the soil. The root tips with their root hairs alone perform
the function of absorbing food from the earth. Consequently
an even distribution of late applications of fertilizer over all the
soil in which the roots are operating is necessary for the best use
of the fertilizer applied by the crop.
Not only the distribution, but also the incorporation of the
fertilizer with the soil is necessary. This incorporation or mixing
of the fertilizer with the soil is often a very necessary act. When
the combination fertilizer distributor is used in making the
application it is of course mixed with the soil and for this reason
the use of such an implement is urged. On the other hand, if
the fertilizer is left on the surface of the soil it may remain there
until rain falls and in the meantime be of no benefit to the crop.
If rain does not fall for a week or two and no cultivation is given
the crop its development may have passed that stage at which
a late application would have been of benefit and the office of
the fertilizer and increased yields it should have induced are
lost. The farmers who have become prejudiced against late
applications of fertilizer have developed their error in the When
and the How of making the application. He who puts down
his late applications of fertilizers at the right time in the right
manner and uses the right fertilizer in the right condition for a
crop in need of late fertilization will have his wisdom and in-
dustry rewarded by bountiful yields of high quality.
104 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Question: MAY FERTILIZERS BE APPLIED PROFIT-
ABLY TO GROWING CROPS?
Answer: Second or intercultural applications of fertilizer are
each year more commonly practiced and many of the best
farmers are now making a third application. For cotton, to-
bacco, corn and many truck and other crops planted in rows
the later application of fertilizer is an established practice and
a profitable one. Many farmers apply half of the quantity
decided upon for a crop before or at the time of planting and
A Fertilizer Distributor and Planter. The fertilizer is applied first and then the planter
puts down the seed. Good seed and fertilizer will increase your yields per acre.
the remainder at some period of growth when experience teaches
it is most beneficial. This will vary of course with different
crops and on different soils. It may be assumed that the origi-
nal or first application is for the purpose of developing the plant
and the second (and third, if three applications are made) to
develop the fruit, seed or the part of the plant to be used. The
fruit of some crops, like wheat or corn all ripens practically at
one time (if the strain of seed is a well bred one), while crops like
cotton or tomatoes develop and ripen their fruits through sixty
or more days. It naturally follows that the right time for mak-
ing a late application of fertilizer for crops like wheat and corn
is of brief duration while with crops like cotton and tomatoes the
right time may be extended over a number of days or weeks.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 105
The safest rule to follow in deciding when to make the second
application is to apply just before or at the time the crop is
beginning to fruit or when the crop demands the largest amount
of available plant-food for its best development. With corn and
wheat and other crops which ripen all their seed about the same
time, the second application should be made when the plants
show their first signs of tasseling or heading, or just before.
With crops like cotton, tomatoes, etc., which continue to blos-
som and make fruit through many days the late application may
be given when the first blossoms open or a little before. With
this class of plants a third application may profitably be made
between fifteen and thirty days after the second.
Intercultural applications of fertilizers are very profitably
applied to crops grown for their leaves, such as tobacco, cab-
bage, lettuce and many others. Applications to be of greatest
benefit to these ercps must be made long before the blossoms
begin to appear so that the fertilizer may supply the crop with
plant food while the crop is beginning to make the final growth
expected of it. A short time before a crop begins its heaviest
growth—when it has the greatest demand for plant food—is the
proper time for late applications of fertilizers. If the crop will
for some time continue to make a heavy growth or through
many days develop fruit a third application should be made,
since the object of late or intercultural applications of fertilizer
is to supply the demands of the crop and enable it to do its duty.
The more appropriately this demand is met in time of appli-
cation, character, quality, composition and quantity of plant-
foods carried by the fertilizer the better will be the character,
quality, composition and quantity of crop produced.
Question: IS THERE MORE THAN ONE WAY TO APPLY
FERTILIZERS?
Answer: Fertilizers may be applied in five general ways:
(1) Broadeast; (2) in the drill; (3) in hills; (4) interculturally
(side applications); and (5) as top-dressing.
Question: HOW IS FERTILIZER APPLIED BROADCAST?
Answer: Broadcast application of fertilizer is obviously ap-
vropriate for crops that are seeded broadcast, like the small
grains, grasses, clovers, etc. Broadcast applications are made
with drills, planters, seeders, etc., that have attachments for
distributing fertilizers, or with implements especially con-
structed for the purpose. Broadcasting of fertilizers under the
above conditions is more effective when the distribution is uni-
106 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
form over all the surface of the land and when the fertilizer is
thoroughly incorporated with the upper stratum of the soil
from one to four inches deep.
Fertilizers should be used not only for supplying plant-food
The above view shows a method of Broadcasting Fertilizer which has met with the general
approval of the farmers who are Making Their Soil and Crops Pay More.
to the current crop but also for the permanent enrichment of
the soil. When they are applied with these two objects in view,
broadcasting is more effective than any other mode of applica-
tion and not only so for broadcast crops but for crops grown in
rows also. Fertilizers should be of benefit not only to the crop
for which they are directly applied, but also for future crops.
The best farmers and truckers apply more fertilizer than the
one crop needs, so that the surplus may act as a permanent
enricher of the soil and the second crop be benefited by the
residual effects of preceding applications. The cumulative
effects of heavy broadcast applications are among the best means
for preventing soils from losing their fertility and a sure means
by which soils will become richer and richer each year.
Question: HOW IS FERTILIZER APPLIED IN THE
DRILL?
Answer: Fertilizers are applied in the drill or row by the use
of fertilizer distributors designed for this purpose. There is a
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 107
large variety of these distributors in use and they vary widely in
merit and adaptation to different crops and different methods
of culture. These distributors may be adjusted so as to regulate
between their maximum and minimum capacities, the quantity
of fertilizer put down per acre. While gauges or indices point to
the quantity per acre with the distributor definitely adjusted,
care must be taken to insure the application desired when the
distance between rows varies. If the distributor is geared to
apply 300 pounds per acre with rows three feet apart, more than
300 pounds will be applied if the rows are 21% feet wide, and less
A closer view from the rear of the combination Fertilizer Distributor and Planter as shown
on page 96. _Here is easily seen the roller which packs the soil over the seed, and the
appliance which indicates the next row, and the fertilizer and seed containers.
if the rows are 4 feet wide. The reason for this is obvious.
Assuming that an acre is 70 yards square there would be 3640
feet of rows to the acre if the rows were 4 feet apart, and 4900
feet of rows to the acre if the rows were 3 feet apart, and 5880
feet of rows if the rows were 2% feet apart. If the distributor’s
feed is not adjusted to the number of feet of rows in an acre
there is no certainty that the desired quantity per acre is being
applied.
Fertilizers applied in the row should not be placed too deep
nor too near the surface of the soil; they should be uniformly
distributed so that every foot of row will receive as near as
108 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
possible the same amount of fertilizer given every other foot;
the fertilizer should be well mixed with the soil; and, no con-
siderable quantity of fertilizer should be allowed to come in
direct contact with the seed.
Question: HOW IS FERTILIZER APPLIED IN THE HILL?
Answer: Applications of fertilizers to crops grown in hills like
melons, squash, cucumbers, etc., is more commonly made in the
individual hills and this often is advisable, if it is properly done.
In applying fertilizers in hills it is a mistaken idea that the fer-
tilizer should be placed in a mass directly in or under the hill.
It should be applied zn and around the hill and well mixed with
the soil over a space at least two feet square—the center of the
square being the center of the hill.
The various kinds of fruit trees and vines especially when
young may more economically and appropriately be fertilized
individually rather than by the row or broadcast. This need not
apply, however, when crops are grown in the young orchard or
vineyard and these crops are well fertilized. In such cases the
crops may be fertilized by broadcasting the whole area and
thus feed both the orchard or vineyard and the crop at one
application.
Question: WHEN SHOULD FERTILIZER BE APPLIED
IN THE DRILL OR ROW?
Answer: This method of fertilizer application is practiced gen-
erally with such crops as are commonly grown in drills or rows,
like corn, cotton, tobacco, potatoes, many truck crops, etc.; and,
the time of application should be a comparatively short while
before the seed are sown or at the time of sowing. The latter
should be preferred since it is more economical, inasmuch as one
implement may be used for both putting down the fertilizer and
sowing the seed and both be done at one time. If, however,
heavy applications are made in the drill they may sometimes be
put down five or ten days before the seed are sown. ‘The fer-
tilizer should be well mixed with the soil so that no considerable
quantity of it will be in contact with the seed.
Question: WHEN SHOULD FERTILIZER BE APPLIED
BROADCAST?
Answer: Broadcast applications of fertilizer may be made (1)
when the soil is being fitted for the seed, (2) when the seed are
sown, (3) or after the seed are sown.
(1) Applications made after the land has been broken and
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 109
then worked well into the soil with disk and harrow will give a
most ideal distribution of the fertilizer throughout the soil pre-
pared and aid materially in developing a seed bed most congenial
to the crop.
(2) If the application is made when the seed are sown and a
combination fertilizer and seed drill is employed much time and
labor is saved. This is the most common method employed for
broadcast distribution of fertilizers and is the most economical
for small or medium heavy applications. If heavy applications
are made all, or a part at least, should be put down a few days
before the seed are sown.
(3) Applications made after the seed are sown should be
made with a broadcast distributor (or by hand) before the seed
germinate and the land lightly harrowed or rolled. If rolled the
harrow or weeder should at once follow the roller. Such appli-
cations are recommended only in cases of emergency and for
small seeds that are covered very lightly.
Question: HOW IS FERTILIZER APPLIED INTERCUL-
TURALLY?
Answer: Intercultural and side applications of fertilizers
usually refer to the fertilization of crops cultivated in rows and
the fertilizer applied after the crop has begun growth. Such
applications may be made with the distributors used for fer-
tilizing rowed crops before planting, but are best made with an
implement known as a combination cultivator and fertilizer dis-
tributor. As the name implies, such an implement puts down
the fertilizer for the growing crop while the crop is being cul-
tivated and works it into the soil. It really does two very
important and profitable things at one and the same time and
may operate only on one side of a row at a time, on both sides;
or, it may cultivate the crop and apply the fertilizer to two rows
at a time—depending upon the construction of this valuable
implement.
Intercultural or side applications of fertilizer has become an
established custom very widely adopted in comparatively recent
years, and on account of its profitableness is practiced more and
more each year for increasing yields of practically all field, truck
and orchard crops and for adding to their quality. While the
application of the fertilizer may be and often is made by hand
this method is slow and expensive and every farmer is urged to
possess one or more of the implements made especially for this
110 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
purpose that he may not only make the application more econ-
omically but much better and reap through the efforts of one
operation the benefits of needed plant-food (applied when the
crop demands it) and needed cultivation.
A modern two row fertilizer distributor and cultivator. — This method of cultivating destroys
weeds, applies fertilizer and also keeps the soil in a good physical condition.
Question: HOW IS FERTILIZER APPLIED AS A TOP
DRESSING?
Answer: Top dressing has the same object as intercultural
or side applications of fertilizers and differs from it in no ma-
terial way except in manner of application, and, that top dress-
ings are most commonly made to broadcast -grown crops
However, some interpret ‘‘top dressing” to mean the application
of fertilizers to growing crops and construe it to mean “side
application,’ “late application,” and ‘intercultural applica-
tion.” This interpretation is immaterial since the principle
underlying all is the same and the only difference is the manner
of application. Top dressing is the “‘finishing off” process in the
production of good crops. It is the application of plant-food at
the “pyschological moment’’—when fertilization gives best re-
sults. When ‘all the fertilizer intended for a crop is applied
before the seed are sown there is a constantly decreasing quantity
of plant-food in the soil and constantly increasing size or volume
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 111
of crop to be supported. When the crop begins to develop its
fruit or seeds a top dressing of appropriate composition is of
greatest benefit and increases the yield and quality of the crop
often to a remarkable extent.
Applications of top dresser to broadcast-grown crops may be
made by hand or by broadcast fertilizer distributors to the
crop while it is growing. If the condition of the soil and the
habit of the crop will permit the application should be followed
by a harrow, weeder, or some surface stirring implement. This
will incorporate the fertilizer with the soil and it will become
available to the crop as soon as the soil moisture dissolves it.
If the soil surface is dry when the top dresser is applied it can
not be dissolved or reach the roots of the crop before rain falls
unless it is worked in with a harrow, weeder, or some similar
implement and thus come in contact with moist soil.
Question: WHAT ADVANTAGE HAS TOP DRESSING TO
CROPS?
Answer: A comparatively new practice in the use of fertilizers
and one which is bringing heavier yields and greater profits is
top dressing with commercial fertilizers. This practice embraces
both conservation and preparedness since an application made
just when the growing crop needs increased quantities of food,
the food is taken up then and it is not washed or leached away
as may be the case if all the fertilizer was applied at one time
and before the crop even begins to grow. Top dressers applied,
two, three or four times as cotton, corn, tobacco, truck crops,
ete., are being cultivated and worked into the ground (or, sown
broadcast, for broadcasted crops like small grain, meadows,
etc.), is a practice by which needed plant-food is applied when
most needed. A top dresser of composition appropriate to the
crop to which it is applied and supplying the soil’s deficiency in
plant-food is a most logical practice since it is a means to an
end and the end is attained.
Question: DO FERTILIZERS MAKE THE SOIL RICH?
Answer: A poor soil is one which does not contain enough
plant-food to supply the needs of a big crop. Fertilizers are
plant-food. If the right kind of high grade fertilizers and enough
of them are applied, the soil is made rich. If it is to remain rich
and fertile the food supply must be maintained.
112 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
Part of a 475 acre field of cotton on land which has been in cultivation for over 100 years,
on plantation of Mr. F. W. Taylor, near Greenwood, La. Mr. Taylor is an enthusiastic
user of V-C Fertilizers.
Question: DO FERTILIZERS SAVE LABOR?
Answer: The heaviest item of expense in growing crops is
labor. With many crops the cost of labor for producing a low
yield is almost as great as the cost of labor for producing a high
yield. The labor cost of preparing the land, planting and cul-
tivating an acre that produces 25 bushels of corn is practically
the same as that required to produce 50 or even 100 bushels per
acre. It costs practically the same (and often more) to cultivate
a poor or infertile acre of land as it costs to cultivate a rich or
fertile acre. Poor or infertile land is poor because it contains an
inadequate supply of plant-food and the judicious use of com-
mercial fertilizer is the chief means by which it may be made
rich and yield, without additional labor, heavier crops of better
quality and at a lower cost of production. When labor is diffi-
cult to get and when it is high in price crop production may not
only be maintained but increased by the use of increased quan-
tities of fertilizer. This is strongly illustrated in a bulletin
written by Dr. B. W. Kilgore, Director of the North Carolina
Experiment Station. Dr. Kilgore’s report is based on a number
of experiments the object of which was to ascertain the profits
accruing from the use of varying amounts of fertilizer applied to
cotton. The tabulated results given below are based upon the
normal cost of both labor and fertilizers.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 113
Fertilizers Save Labor
Lbs. of Jost of Fer- Cost of Value of Lint] N’t Pr’fit p
int ilizer Use abor Total Cost | per cre at |Acre No el
Acre Bee ee ‘per Acre. oe hoe os se 2be ee Saari wateae ee
1 105 | “ver"tsea | $35.00 | $35.00 | $ 21.00 | -$14.00
2 PANS $ 3.00 35.00 | 38.00 43.00 | + 5.00
3 430 7.00 30.00: | 42.00 86.00 | +44.00
4 500 10.00 35.00 | 45.00 100.00 | +55.00
The value of the lint from Acre No. 1 on which no fertilizer
was used was $14.00 less than the cost of production. Three
dollars invested in fertilizer for Acre No. 2 resulted in a profit
of $5.00, a narrow margin of profit. On the other hand, when
$7.00 and $10.00 worth of fertilizer, respectively, were used on
plots Nos. 3 and 4 the profit above the cost of labor was $44.00
and $55.00. It would have required eleven acres receiving only
$3.00 worth of fertilizer to have made the profit one acre made
when $10.00 worth of fertilizer was used and eleven times the
labor would have had to be employed. While this may be an
exceptionally wide margin it has been duplicated and exceeded
thousands of times with high priced crops such as tobacco, cot-
ton, truck crops, etc. It is a striking example of how farmers
may serve their country and themselves in trying times and when
an abundance of cheaply produced crops becomes an economic
and patriotic duty.
Question: DO FERTILIZERS IMPROVE THE QUALITY
AND INCREASE THE MARKET VALUE OF
CROPS?
Answer: In addition to the profits reaped from increased pro-
duction and reduced cost of production which comes from the
judicious and liberal use of fertilizer there are other important
and often overlooked benefits derived from fertilizers. Since
fertilizers are scientific and practical plant foods it is to be ex-
pected that crops which are liberally fed the foods they are in
need of will develop higher qualities as well as produce higher
yields. This is universally proven in practice and, in recognition
of the better qualities, the market will and does pay a higher
price for well fed, well developed, healthy and wholesome prod-
ucts. No one expects a half starved cow to give good milk, or a
half fed hog to make rapid gains of high price pork, or a half fed
horse to do a full day’s work. Food produces quantity and
quality of milk, pork and work in these three kinds of animals
and food—plant-food—does the same thing for plants. It makes
114 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
more plants, better plants and plants worth more since there are
more products to use or to sell and the products are more val-
uable and sell at a higher price. High qualities are always
sought and always command a higher price. One cannot make
a “silk purse out of a sow’s ear” nor can one make higher priced
truck, orchard and farm products from underfed plants and crops.
Soil Conditions
Question: WHAT SOIL CONDITIONS MUST BE PRESENT
IF FERTILIZERS ARE TO BE EFFECTIVE?
Answer: That a crop may be able to make the best use of the
plant-food already in the soil and the plant-food in fertilizers
Thorough cultivation is essential to good plant growth after the soil has been well
supplied with Plant Food.
applied to the soil, the soil itself must be in such condition as
will supply all the demands of the crop. The soil must be deep
and fine. Depth of soil is obtained by deep plowing and sub-
soiling, and a fine soil is secured from thoroughly plowing,
followed by the best use of such implements as the disc, smooth-
ing harrow and other harrows, and a roller if clods make the
use of a roller necessary. Clods allowed to remain in or on a soil
are not entered by the roots of crops. Clods seriously check the
growth of plants by withdrawing plant-food from their reach.
and reducing the water-holding power of the soil. The soil
must be well drained to a depth not less than three feet if the
full benefit is to come from fertilizers and from the plant-food
found in the soil.
Humus enables the soil to hold more water and hold it
longer, and loosens the soil by preventing it from baking or
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 115
running together into clods. Lime aids in pulverizing the soil
and, if acid, makes it sweet. Deep, pulverized, well drained
soils with a good supply of humus, if not acid, are congenial to
crops, supplying their physical needs and enabling them to
enjoy good health and make good and profitable use of fer-
tilizers. Good soil conditions make healthy crops. Sick animals
and sick plants cannot make good use of foods.
Question: HOW SHALL ACID SOILS BE CORRECTED?
Answer: Lime is a “digestor”’ of plant-food. It corrects acid
soils, making them sweet and habitable to plants. It aids in
making potash a better food and enters into the structure of all
plants. Lime is especially beneficial to legumes, such as clover,
cowpeas, alfalfa, beans, peanuts, ete.
oe Ree wi ee
Method now extensively used in the application of lime.
Question: DOES THE COLOR OF SOIL AFFECT CROP
GROWTH?
Answer: Soils may be brown, red, yellow, gray and black.
While the kind and color of rocks from which soils are disinte-
grated partly control their color, it is controlled more by the
amount of organic matter and by the form of the iron in the
soil. The more organic matter a soil contains the blacker and
more fertile it is. Red and yellow soils become brown and darker
if organic matter is added. Black or dark soils absorb the sun’s
heat more than lighter soils, and if well drained will produce
better crops earlier. Radiation of heat from the soil is also
affected by color. Dark soils may be worked earlier in the spring
and later in the fall, and on account of their higher tempera-
116 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
tures more plant-food becomes available, and the length of time
plants may continue in best growth is extended. However, any
soil may wear out, no matter what its color may be. Even a
very black soil may be an infertile one, such as shale soils which
are at times actually barren.
Question: WHAT EFFECTS HAVE MANURES ON CROPS?
Answer: A ton of manure contains about five pounds of phos-
phoric acid, seven pounds of nitrogen and eight or nine pounds
of potash, which is not so much plant-food as is contained in a
200-lb. sack of complete commercial fertilizer. It is evident
that manures can only in a limited way compensate for the
absence of commercial fertilizers. On the other hand, a liberal
application of manures enables the farmer to get better and
more profitable returns from commercial fertilizers, since manures
in several ways act beneficially upon the soil, especially so in
improving their physical condition and water holding power.
Manures also increase the bacterial population of the soil, for
beneficial bacteria are great promoters of fertility and plant
growth. Manures affect beneficially the color of soils, aid in
making unavailable plant-food available, make the soil warmer,
looser, more easily worked, and check leaching and soil wash.
Fertilizers may nearly always be more profitable applied to
soils filled with humus than to soils deficient in humus. The
greatest benefit to soils from manures comes from the increased
quantities of humus that result from applications of manures.
Care should always be exercised in the use of stable manure
since it is liable to cause the spread of insects, fungus and bac-
terial diseases, and the introduction of weed seeds.
Question: IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE A GOOD SEED-
BED?
Answer: A good beginning is very helpful to a good ending,
and good preparation for many crops is more necessary than any
other one thing the farmer can do. A good seed-bed is secured
by thorough breaking to a depth appropriate for the particular
soil under treatment and for the crop to be grown, a thorough
pulverization of the soil, especially for small seeds, and a com-
pacting of the soil to at least a moderate degree so that the seeds
may come into intimate contact with the soil particles and
promptly absorb moisture for quick and uniform germination.
A well prepared seed-bed better controls the soil water, presents
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 117
conditions for the ready delivery of plant-food to the plant roots,
and enables the young roots to spread and to penetrate further
as they seek water and food. The seed-bed is the home of the
young plant in which it not only lives but from which it gets its
food and water, and the more nearly its home is a congenial one
the more sturdy and rapid will be germination and growth of
Preparation of seed bed. The caterpillar tractor is here shown using the three types of
harrows,—the disc, cutaway dise and spike tooth harrow.
the plants, and the more profitable will the crop be. Good seeds
and good seed-beds mean a good stand.
Good Seeds
Question: ARE GOOD SEEDS NECESSARY TO PRODUCE
GOOD CROPS?
Answer: A farmer may have the best soil, the best climate,
and the best fertilizers, yet without good seeds he cannot pro-
duce the best crops. The seed makes the plant and plants make
the crop. Good seeds are true to name, sound, strong in vi-
tality and free from weed seeds, adulterants and mixtures.
Without good seed the farmer is not assured of a good stand, or
a crop of good yield and high quality. Like begets like. If the
118 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
stand of corn on an acre is ten percent less than a perfect one
there will be a loss of ten percent in the failure to utilize all the
land, ten percent of the cultivation and of the fertilizers will be
lost, and the yield will be ten percent short. Good seeds will
often yield twice as much as poor seeds. By purchasing inferior,
Making a germination test of corn seeds. The seed samples that do not produce strong
vigorous shoots should be noted, and the ears from which they were taken should be disearded.
cheap seeds the farmer is often subjected not only to the above
losses but introduces many weeds that for years to come may
annually increase his labors and reduce his crop yields.
Question: IS IT IMPORTANT TO PLANT ONLY GOOD
VARIETIES?
Answer: The selection of good varieties is equally as important
as the planting of good seeds. Varieties of a crop like different
crops vary widely in their adaption to soil, climate and uses.
A poor variety of apples may have no sale value, yet the trees
occupy the same area that the trees of a good variety occupy.
A poor variety of cotton may yield only a fourth of a bale of
lint to the acre, while a good variety would yield a bale on the
same land, though both be given the same care, treatment and
fertilization. Certain varieties of the various crops are well
adapted to some localities, and certain varieties poorly adapted,
and large profits will come to the farmer who seeks, finds and
grows the best variety for his farm. Likewise great loss will
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 119
result if a poor or even an average variety is grown in the place
of one of the best. Each farmer should choose only the best
varieties, improving these by careful selection from each kind
every time the new crop is harvested.
Rack used for the storing of seed corn.
Question: HOW MAY CROPS BE IMPROVED BY SEED
SELECTION?
Answer: Within recent years science has thrown a strong
light upon the laws of heredity, and applied to seed selection
in crops these laws have been the means of developing the art of
selection so that the average farmer may practice it with great
profit. Very profitable increases in yield, quality and other
properties of plants may easily be secured by any one who will
go to the trouble of becoming familiar with the simple practice
of the art. Plants vary widely within families and varieties, and
the selection from those which transmit the tendencies to vary
in desirable directions will establish a strain of superior ability
to give heavy yield, large size, better color, or superior quality
of any kind. The same principle of selection has long been
120 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
practiced with domestic animals by many breeders. In any
collection of plants will be found some that are poor, some that
are very superior, and many that are between the two extremes.
The selection of only the best for seed, and always the best each
year, and those that came from the best the year before will soon
develop a strain superior in yield and quality.
Question: DO FERTILIZERS IMPROVE THE QUALITY,
VITALEVY. AND” HIGH REPRODUCTIVE
POWER OF SEEDS?
Answer: Every one knows and appreciates the value of good
seeds and every one should know that no matter how carefully
seeds may be grown, selected and kept they will not and cannot
reproduce high qualities and abundant yields unless they are
sown in well prepared, enriched soils and otherwise given that
treatment necessary for their best development. A healthy,
strong and fully developed plant will produce the best seeds and
if not well fed it cannot do this. Like produces like in successive
generations of plants when each generation is given full oppor-
tunity for the best development. Plant-food when utilized by
the growing crop makes the crop through the transformation of
the air and earth food materials into plant tissue. If the plant
or crop is not adequately supplied with the food materials nec-
essary for it to most perfectly perform its divine mission—the
reproduction of its kind—it cannot do this. An undeveloped
plant or one weakened and dwarfed by being underfed cannot
fully perform its “divine mission,” nor reward the husbandman
by bringing forth the “best of its kind.” The best seeds are
produced by the best plants and the best plants are those which
are fed best.
Question: HOW DO CROPS CROSS AND BECOME
MIXED?
Answer: A very large proportion of our important crops are
propagated from seeds, and seeds are produced from pollen, the
male organ of plants, and the pistil, the female organ. The
pollen which is found in the anther, which is the top of the fila-
ment, is carried by the wind, insects, etc., and coming in con-
tact with the stigma, the enlarged top of the pistil, extends
downward through the style and fertilizes the ovules, and these
develop into the seed. Without pollen and pistils’ plants cannot
form seeds. The pollen from closely allied plants have the
power of fertilizing or pollinating each other, and it is by this
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 121
cross-fertilization that hybrids or crosses are developed. If one
kind of corn or one kind of cotton develops seeds from the pollen
of other kinds of corn or of cotton the seeds that result will be
crossed, and may partake of the character of either parent, or
both, or may develop new characters, which may be or may not
Male and female flower of the Watermelon plant. The female or pistillate flower is to the
right, and the staminate or male to the left.
be desirable. Some plants cross very readily, like corn, and some
cross but slightly like wheat.
Plants that produce seed are of three classes, their classi-
fication being controlled by the relative positions of their male
and female parts. Some plants have both male and female
parts in one blossom, like tobacco, legumes, cotton, wheat,
peaches, etc. Some have two kinds of flowers, one male and one
female, like melons, corn, oaks, pines, etc., and some have all
their female parts on one plant and all their male parts on
another, like persimmon and juniper. The ease with which
pollen may be blown by the wind and carried by bees and other
insects is responsible for the crossing of many crops. Indis-
criminate crossing is largely responsible for the “running out”
or deterioration of some crops, and it is often necessary to plant
only one variety of a crop in a field if the seed are to be kept
pure. The precautions that must be taken in order to keep seed
122 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
pure and make them better vary with different crops, and the
farmer should become familiar with the practices necessary
for keeping his seed pure, and should know how to grow good
seed and make them better by selecting the best from each crop;
or better still, grow a seed patch and have it separated from other
crops that would cause crossing. Some crops produce better
from seeds fertilized with pollen from the same plant that pro-
duce the seeds, like tobacco and cotton, while corn should be
fertilized with pollen from other plants than those from which
the seed are saved, but the pollen should come from plants of the
same variety of corn.
Planting and Cultivating
Question: WHAT DISTANCES SHOULD CROPS BE
GIVEN IN THE ROW?
Answer: If crops habitually grown in rows are given too much
distance between the rows and between the plants in the row
the yield will be reduced, and the same undesirable result will
follow if the rows or the plants in the rows are too close. The
habit of growth and the manner of fruiting, the preparation of
the soil, its natural fertility and the quantity of fertilizers applied
and the season, all these affect the distance or the “stand” that
crops should have. Only good judgment and experience are
safe guides. Examples
of wide variation in the
numbers of plants that
will give the best re-
turns on a given area
are found in a compari-
son of the best dis-
tances to plant cotton
and corn. Corn should
be planted thickly on
rich land, and further
apart on poor land;
cotton should be grown
thinner on rich land so
that each stalk may
spread and produce
more bolls, and thicker
on poor land so that
space will not be lost
between the plants.
A cultivator in common use on shallow cultivated
crops such as corn.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 123
Question: DOES GOOD SOIL PREPARATION MAKE
CULTIVATION MORE EFFECTIVE?
Answer: If the soil is not well prepared before the seeds are
planted or the plants set out, as the case may be, the lack of
preparation will not only affect the germination of the seed and
the growing off of the crop by having an uncongenial home for
the plants, but the subsequent cultivation of the crop cannot
be as effective nor can it take the place of good preparation.
A poorly prepared field like this one will not grow good crops. Moisture cannot circulate well
in the soil and the large number of clods prevents a goodly portion of the best of the soil from
being used by the crop. Had these clods been crushed and the field then harrowed a good
seed-bed would have been prepared and a good crop would result.
Good preparation pulverizes surface and undersurface soil,
enables the soil to take up more water on account of its greater
fineness and increased porosity. Preparation starts the soil off
in a good condition. Poor preparation leaves the soil cloddy,
harsh and often there is too much thrashy material on the sur-
face, all of which interferes with cultivation and makes it less
effective, more difficult and more expensive. Good preparation
brings about conditions favorable to a greater supply and a well
maintained supply of water, makes plant-food more available
and enables the roots of the crops to penetrate further and have
an extended feeding area, admits air and warmth, etc., while
cultivation maintains these desirable conditions.
Question: WHAT BENEFITS ARE DERIVED FROM
CULTIVATION?
Answer: If, after a field of cotton, corn, tobacco, cabbage or
potatoes, has been planted, no further cultivation should be
given these crops, the failure would be marked. The main
124 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
objects of cultivation are the keeping of the soil in good condi-
tion while the crop is growing, and the destruction of weeds.
Cultivation pulverizes and loosens the surface, prevents the
formation of a crust, checks the evaporation of water from the
soil, prevents wide fluctuations in the moisture in the soil,
modifies the extremes of temperature, kills weeds which would
shade the ground and rob the soil of plant-food and water, and
increases the effects of manures and commercial fertilizers by
maintaining conditions in the soil which enable the crops to
better utilize both the natural and applied food, and prevents
the loss of plant-food and moisture that would be used by weeds
if allowed to grow.
Dip one end of a lump of sugar in coffee and the coffee will rapidly rise through the lump.
The grains of sugar which compose the lump are very small but have been closely pressed
together and the coffee e: asily passes from one particle to another and the whole lump becomes
wet with coffee. Soil-water will spread quickly through finely pulverized and compacted
soil in the same way.
Question: WHEN AND HOW SHOULD A CROP BE CUL-
TIVATED?
Answer: Since the object of cultivation is to keep the surface
of the soil in good condition and to destroy and prevent weeds,
it is evident that frequent cultivation at the right time with the
right implements will prevent the surface from getting in a poor
condition and prevent the growth of weeds. If the soil is not
allowed to get in poor condition, and weeds are not allowed to
grow, the soil is continuously in good condition, and weeds can-
not do harm if not allowed to grow. If the field is not in the
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 125
best condition when a crop is planted cultivation should begin
with a light harrow or weeder before the seeds are up. Light
and thorough cultivation at this time hastens the germination
by breaking the clods, admitting air and conserving water, and
the plants come up promptly and strong. Cultivation should
begin after each rain as soon as the soil is dry enough, and should
be done with that implement which will most quickly, cheaply
and thoroughly stir all the soil surface and pulverize it to the
proper depth for the soil and crop.
Cover another lump of sugar with finely pulverized sugar and dip the lump in coffee. The
coffee will rise rapidly through the lump of sugar but very slowly through the loose sugar on
top of the lump. This illustrates the value of a pulverized and compacted soil upon which
an earth mulch has been made. The mulch holds the moisture in the soil.
Question: WITH WHAT IMPLEMENTS SHOULD A CROP
BE CULTIVATED?
Answer: Great ingenuity has been displayed by modern imple-
ment inventors in devising cultivators for every class of soil,
every kind of crop and every variation in the methods employed
for the preparation of the soil for different crops. Some crops
_ are sown broadcast, some in continuous drills or rows, some at
- various intervals in drills or rows, and some in squares, triangles,
etc. Implements are in use for the cultivation of all these. The
best implement with which to cultivate a crop is one that will
best work the spaces between the rows or between the plants in
the rows or both. A cultivator should stir all the soil and stir it
well, leave a fine earth mulch on the surface, prevent weed
126 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
growth before it begins, and destroy all weeds that have begun
to grow. Weeders and harrows will cover a wide surface if em-
ployed as soon after a rain as the soil is dry enough and give the
best soil condition, incidentally destroying weeds as they are
germinating. Later on cultivators with fewer and larger work-
ing points must be used so that they may enter the soil which is
harder, and cut the roots of weeds that have begun to grow.
Another type of two row cultivatorin common use. Fertile, well prepared and well cultivated
soil will produce abundant crops.
Question: WHY DO PLANTS HAVE ROOTS ?
Answer: Roots anchor or fix plants in the soil and supply them
with food and water. The roots are the mouths of plants, and
the active parts of them are covered with minute root hairs
through which the food and water enter. The larger roots are
the throats of the plants through which food and water are
carried into the plants and then to the leaves which act as both
stomachs and lungs for the growing plants. Crops cannot grow
without roots, and the more roots each plant has the more food
it is capable of taking. It is evident then that cutting or bruis-
ing of roots by cultivation is injurious. A very large proportion
of the roots of crops is found in the prepared soil near the sur-
face. If cultivation is deep the roots are broken and the plant
suffers. If cultivation is frequent and shallow the roots are not
only unmolested but the stirring of the soil above them holds
water where the roots are, admits air and develops conditions
favorable to root and plant growth and to the exercise of root
and plant functions.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 127
Question: WHY IS CULTIVATION SO IMPORTANT IN
DRY SEASONS?
Answer: When rain falls upon the earth it soaks into the soil
until the surface is full and any additional rain will run off. As
soon as rain ceases to fall moisture begins to evaporate back
into the air. Evaporation takes place at the surface of the soil,
and the water evaporated comes from down in the soil through
the little holes or capillary tubes it descended through. Culti-
vation in dry weather breaks up and covers over these tubes
so that the water that rises is intercepted below the surface and
is there held by the soil particles just where the greatest number
of feeding roots are found. Thus it is seen that cultivation in
dry weather not only prevents large quantities of water from
evaporating but holds the decreasing supply where it is most
accessible to the roots of the crop.
The soil in the bottom of this foot print is not only compacted but the clods are crushed. The
darker appearance of the bottom of the foot print is due to the moisture that has risen to the
surface of the soil. The roller and other surface compacting implements produce this effect.
If the surface soil remains as it appears in the foot print or is left by the roller the moisture
will rapidly evaporate into the air. A thorough stirring of the soil surface will form a loose
earth mulch and trap or retard the passage of the water into the air thus maintaining a supply
for the crop.
Question: HOW LATE SHOULD CULTIVATION BE
CONTINUED?
Answer: Many farmers make the great mistake of having a
certain date in a certain month for ceasing to cultivate their
different crops. This is a mistake more often than otherwise,
since it is a common practice to “lay by” or stop the cultivation
of a crop at just the time when cultivation will do it great if not
128 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORF
the greatest good. Cultivation is for the purpose of making the
soil a better place for the crop to live and grow in. It is more
proper to say that the soil is cultivated, not the crop. From the
time a crop is in full blossom on until the seeds or fruits are
developed is when the crop uses the greatest quantity of plant-
food and water, and uses them in the briefest time, consequently
Three horse common plank drag. An excellent tool for crushing clods and compacting the soil,
which insures perfect capillarity, allowing the seed to come into direct contact with the
moist soil.
shallow cultivation should be continued for the benefit of both
soil and crop. Late cultivation not only benefits the growing
crop but leaves the soil in better condition for the next crops,
and destroys weeds that would injure the growing crop at its
fruiting time, and that would mature seeds that would make
other weeds and injure the next crop on that land.
Rotation of Crops
Question: WHAT IS ROTATION OF CROPS?
Answer: The amounts of plant-food removed by different crops
varies widely. Grain crops remove phosphorus in excess;
tobacco and root crops take large quantities of nitrogen. If one
crop is grown on the same land for a period of years the ele-
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 129
ments of plant-food used by that crop in the largest amount
will be unduly reduced, while elements not used largely will un-
duly increase. If another crop follows the first one, and this
second crop has little demand for the element most in demand
by the first, and a greater demand for the element the first crop
consumed the least of, the growing of these two crops alternately
would conserve the soil’s fertility. While this could not be said
to represent a system of rotation, yet it illustrates one of the
most important effects of the rotation of crops.
Some crops feed heavily upon the subsoil, get their food deep
down in the soil and raise it to the surface. Their deeply pene-
trating roots open the way for the descent and rise of water and
for the better penetration of the roots of future crops. Air is
more freely admitted and performs its invaluable functions.
Other crops feed near the surface and rapidly consume the
plant-food within their reach. The system of rotation which
employs these kinds of crops will enable the farmer to make
better and more profitable use of the plant-food in the soil, and
will not exhaust it.
Some crops are sown broadcast like hay crops, small grain,
etc., while some are sown in drills and cultivated. The treat-
ment of these two classes varies widely. If crops sown in rows
are grown continuously in the same field there will be a loss of
humus and water holding power of the soil, washing will be
more severe, the surface will become harsh and uncongenial and
more difficult to work.
“Rotation of Crops”? does not merely mean the change of
crops grown on a given field nor is diversification synonymous
with rotation. Rotation of crops means the establishment of a
cropping system by which the several crops grown on a farm
may systematically rotate from field to field in such order as
to balance and distribute the draft upon the resources of the
farm, economize in the utilization of fertilizers and at the same
time make them more profitable, avoid the toxic effects of some
crops, destroy weeds, Jessen the injurious attacks of diseases and
insects, regulate, control and conserve the water supply, in-
crease the humus supply in the soil, facilitate diversification,
distribute and economize labor and at the same time supply the
home need and produce money crops for the financial needs of
the farm.
Question: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ROTATION?
Answer: Rotation aids in rapidly freeing the land of noxious
weeds; drives away or starves out injurious insects; gets rid of
130 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
fungus and bacterial diseases; admits of the introduction of a
variety of crops and promotes diversified farming; enables the
farmer to use cover crops and catch crops to greater advantage;
distributes the labor required for preparation, cultivating, har-
vesting and marketing through the year; avoids an undue rush
of work at one season and idleness at another; and enables the
farmer to use fertilizers more wisely and to get greater profits
from them, thereby making his soil and crops pay more.
Suggested Rotations:
i 2:
First Year. First Year.
Corn with Cowpeas. Wheat and Red Clover.
Second Year. Second Year.
Wheat, oats or rye followed Red Clover.
by Soy Beans. Third Year.
Third Year. Corn and Cowpeas.
Crimson or Bur Clover. 4,
Cotton. First Year.
Be Tobacco followed by Clover
First Year. and Grass Mixture.
Cotton followed by a Second Year.
Legume or Small Grain. Clover and Grass.
Second Year. Third Year.
Small Grain followed by Clover and Grass.
Cowpeas or Soy Beans. Fourth Year.
Third Year. Corn and Peas.
Crimson Clover plowed Fifth Year.
down for Corn with Cow- Wheat or Oats cut for Hay
peas in the Corn. and followed by Tobacco.
BR
RED CLOVER CRIMSON CLOVER SOY BEAN
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 131
Question: HOW DOES ROTATION BENEFIT AND REST
THE LAND AT THE SAME TIME?
Answer: While rotation rests the land, at the same time it also
produces a crop, conserves plant-food and moisture, adds
organic matter to the soil, enables the soil to resist drouth,
avoids the robbery of plant-food by noxious weeds, deepens the
soil, enables the soil to more judiciously and profitably respond
to applications of fertilizers, gives surer crops and heavier yields,
distributes labor through the year, enables the farmer to get the
most out of his land with the least soil exhaustion, to diversify
and make greater profits with less expense and thus keeps the
soil so fresh, well fed, healthy and vigorous that the growing of
one crop leaves the land strong and ready for the next.
Question: HOW DOES ROTATION BENEFIT THE CROP?
Answer: Rotation balances the plant-food supply in the soil
and a greater variety of crops may be grown; it supplies the
different crops with greater quantities of the kinds of food that
each crop needs most; it protects the crop from drouth, insects,
diseases and weeds; makes the home of the crop more congenial;
gives better opportunity to prepare the soil best for each crop;
gives each crop the best chance; and, larger, better and more
profitable crops are produced at a minimum cost, with the least
injury to the land, and there is less danger of crop failures.
ES x —
eb y ? i if
A, ‘
AY
RY \
wN
MELILOTUS(SWEET CLOVER)
Question: HOW DOES ROTATION CONSERVE AND
RESTORE FERTILITY?
Answer: Rotation aids in maintaining good soil conditions and
conserves fertility in addition to aiding in checking the damage
done by weeds, insects and diseases. Growing the same crop on
132 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
an area of land continuously unfits the land for the crop grown
or for crops of similar character or habits and requiring the same
cultural treatment. If a legume crop is grown continuously for
several years on the same land and the crop harvested there
will be an accumulation of nitrogen in the soil and diminished
supply of phosphorus, potash and lime. If clean culture crops
like cotton and tobacco are grown continuously the nitrogen
supply in the soil will be seriously decreased. Clean culture
crops tend to decrease the humus supply of the soil and the
soil becomes poor on account of the loss of humus and the con-
sequent deterioration in the physical properties. It is obvious
that a system of rotation planned for the purpose of (1) checking
weeds, insects and diseases and cleansing the land; (2) of resting
and restoring the land by leaving it in sod or growing legumes;
and (3) growing a money crop will not only check the loss of
fertility but actually make the land more and more fertile and
at the same time use the plant-food in the soil rationally.
Question: WHAT CROPS SHOULD BE GROWN IN
DIFFERENT SECTIONS AND ON DIFFERENT
FARMS?
Answer: Successful farming in any section of any country and
on individual farms is primarily controlled by the selection of
such crops for each farm as are best adapted to the climate of
that section, adapted to the soil and to the seasonal distribution
Kentucky tobacco field of Mr. D. W. Myers, Horse Cave, Ky. Mr. Myers is an enthu-
siastic user of V-C Fertilizer and says, ‘*V- C has given me perfect satisfaction from start
to finish.”’
of rainfall. A Wisconsin farmer would not attempt to grow
cotton, nor would a New England farmer attempt to grow
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 133
oranges. There is quite a number of distinct crop sections scat-
tered throughout the United States, and it is a business problem
to grow most extensively only the crops that succeed best in
the various sections. Sugar cane in Louisiana, cotton in South
Carolina, alfalfa in Colorado, rice in Texas, wheat in Kansas,
tobacco in Kentucky, corn in Illinois, red clover in Indiana,
timothy in New York are examples of special adaption of crops.
A number of crops are usually adapted to any one section, and
the owner of one individual farm should not only choose crops
adapted to his soil and climate but also those for which there is
the greatest demand, those that he knows enough about to
successfully grow and market, and those that give the highest
net profit.
Question: WHY ARE SOME SOILS ADAPTED TO SOME
CROPS AND NOT TO OTHERS?
Answer: While temperature and rainfall are controlling in-
fluences affecting the profitable culture of all crops, yet with
both these present there are special soil conditions and com-
positions necessary to the profitable cultivation of many soils.
Corn probably is the most widely adapted important crop grown
in the United States, and tobacco the most specifically exacting
crop. The quality of corn only to a slight extent is affected by
soil types, while the quality of tobacco is controlled by soil types.
The size of the particles which make a soil, the compositions of
a soil, a soil’s ability to permit water to be freely distributed in
it, and the forms and proportions of the elements of plant-food
found in a soil may make it suited or unsuited to a crop or
several crops. While the unsuitableness of some soils may to
some extent be overcome by soil treatment that will alter soil
conditions, and soil feeding that will improve its composition,
the highest degree of success will come from the selection of the
crops in each locality which are best adapted to existing soil
conditions.
Crop Enemies
Question: ARE PLANTS ATTACKED, INJURED AND
KILLED BY DISEASES?
Answer: Every plant grown is subject to disease. The dis-
eases which affect them are nearly all fungi, such as rust and
smut, or bacteria, like wilt and blight. Fungi and bacteria
live as parasites within the tissues of plants, and always injure
and often destroy whole fields. Their destruction of crops
134 MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE
amounts to millions of dollars in losses each year, a large pro-
portion of which could be avoided if the proper precautions were
taken to avoid, prevent or destroy the diseases. Losses from
diseases may be checked by rotation of crops, by growing re-
sistent varieties, and by combating them by the use of sprays.
Vegetables, and especially fruits, are often sprayed with great
success, and the investment of a dollar in spraying often gives a
profit of ten or more dollars, and may save a crop from total
destruction. Knowledge of the life history of plant diseases and
of the remedial methods best adapted for combating them is
necessary to the profitable growing of many crops, and the
farmer who is not prepared to successfully fight them runs the
risk of losing a part or all of his crops.
Question: ARE INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CROPS?
Answer: Insects are not all injurious for many are of great
benefit to crops and to man. Many plants depend largely upon
insects for pollination, and many other insects do no harm.
There are also many insects which live upon and destroy those
This illustration shows the life history of the Boll Weevil, from the egg to the mature insect.
This insect annually destroys over $20,000,000.00 worth of cotton in our Southern states.
MAKING SOIL AND CROPS PAY MORE 135
that are harmful. More than $200,000,000 worth of silk is an-
nually produced by the silk worm, and in the United States
alone the honey bee produces nearly $25,000,000 worth of honey
annually.
Insects may attack every part of every plant. Large areas
of forests are annually destroyed by insects, and millions of
dollars of damage is done to standing timber. It is safe to place
the loss to our various crops from the ravages of insects at ten
percent per annum. It is estimated that the loss from the codling
moth alone amounts to an annual sum of $12,000,000. The boll
weevil annually destroys $20,000,000 worth of cotton, and the
chinch bug destroys $40,000,000 worth of grain each year. This
is a $72,000,000 loss annually from three insects alone and it is
probable that there are half a million different kinds of insects,
many of which are destructive to crops. A knowledge of the
means effective in the control of insect pests should be possessed
by every farmer, orchardist, trucker and livestock man. Control
of insects often doubles the income from a crop, while uncon-
trolled they may destroy whole crops and always do them great
damage.
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