 Chapter 10 of Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Alva A.G. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand. Chapter 10, The Cow Pea. A Southern Legume The soils of the cold north are protected from leaching during the winter by the action of frost. The plant food is locked up safely for another year when nature ceases her work of production for the year. Farther south, in the center of the corn belt, there are leaching periods in fall and spring and often times during the winter. But winter wheat thrives and, in ordinary crop rotations, covers much of the land that might otherwise lose plant food. As we pass from the northern to the southern states, the preservation of soil fertility grows more difficult and at the same time the restoration of humus becomes easier. The heat makes easy the change of organic matter to soluble forms and the rains cause waste, but the climate favors plants that replace rapidly what is lost. In the work of supplying land with fertility, directly and indirectly, the southern cowpea has an important place. It is to the south what red clover is to the north and it overlaps part of the red clover belt, having a rightful place as far north as the Ohio Valley and portions of Pennsylvania. Characteristics The cowpea is closely related to the bean and is very unlike the Canada pea, which is a true pea, thriving only in a cool climate. The cowpea has been grown in the southern states over 100 years and the acreage is large, but it never has come into the full use it deserves. Being a legume, it stores up nitrogen taken from the air and unlike red clover, it makes its full growth within a short period of time. It can grow on land too infertile for most kinds of valuable plants and on better land. The vines can crowd out nearly all varieties of weeds. The roots go to a good depth and are thickly covered with the nodules of nitrogen-gathering bacteria. Varieties There are many varieties of the cowpea and confusion of names prevails, although some stations have done good service in identification of individuals carrying a number of names. The very quick maturing varieties adapted to northern conditions do not make as much foliage as the rank-growing ones that require a relatively long season, but some of them are heavy producers of seed. There are varieties requiring six months of southern heat to bring them to maturity and some failures attending the introduction of the cowpea into more northern latitudes have been due to bad selection. A few varieties reach maturity within two months of hot weather. The trailing habit is affected by the soil, the bunch varieties tending to trail when grown on fertile land. When the crop is wanted for seed, the peas that do not trail heavily will prove more satisfactory. The selection of variety is a matter of latitude and purpose exactly as it is with corn. Fertilizing value A heavy growth of the cowpea is worth as much to the soil as a good crop of red clover. When the equivalent of two tons of hay is produced, the roots and vines contain nearly as much plant food as the roots and first crop of medium red clover that makes two tons of hay. Some analyses show a higher percentage of protein in cowpea hay than in clover hay, and the experience of many stockmen indicates that such is the case. The roots and stubble have somewhat less fertilizing power than in the case of the clover, and all thin soils should have the entire plant or the manure from the hay saved without loss. Comparison is made on the basis of equal adaptability of soil and climate to clover and the cowpea. Going southward, the cowpea has the advantage, and northward the clover gains. It is in the overlapping belt that both should be freely used. The cowpea has distinct advantage over the clover in its ability to supply nitrogen and organic matter within a few months and in its adaptation to very poor soils where clover would not make much growth. As a catch crop, it has great value. Affecting physical condition The cowpea has market influence upon the physical condition of heavy soils even when the vines are not plowed down. This is due in some degree to the roots and probably more to the mulching effect of the vines during their growth. Heavy soils are made much more mellow by the cowpea, and when the crop is removed for hay, the stubble land is easily prepared for a seeding to grass or small grain. When the growth is plowed down, the soil may be made too loose for seeding to small grain, but is put into prime condition for a tilled crop. Planting The land should be fitted as it is for corn. Light, sandy soils require little preparation, and too often the seeding is made in a woefully careless manner, the chief dependence being placed upon sufficiently deep covering to ensure germination. The ground should be fitted as well as it is for a cash crop being made fine and smooth. A grain drill makes the seeding in a satisfactory manner, and the seed may be drilled solid or in rows for cultivation. When the crop is grown as a fertilizer or for hay, solid drilling is good, and about five pecks of seed gives a good stand of plants if peas are sound. Much cowpea seed is low in germination power, and the buyer should exercise caution. When a seed crop is wanted, two to three pecks of seed per acre, placed in drills 28 to 32 inches apart, make an excellent seeding, as cultivation can be given. The amount of seed varies with the variety. In northern latitudes, a warm soil is to be desired, and cultivation gives better results when a seeding to wheat will be made on the pea stubble. There is evidence that the cowpea can make a heavy growth in soils too deficient in lime for red clover, and it gained its first prominence in southern Ohio on land that was failing to grow clover. It is the plant of adversity as well as prosperity, adding rich organic matter to thin soils, but making its full returns under better conditions. Lime applications on acid soils give increase in yields. Its one absolute requirement is heat, and in a cold summer, its northern limit is markedly depressed. Inoculation The inoculation of the soil with cowpea bacteria is necessary to best results in most regions new to the plant. Self inoculation is quicker in the cowpea than in alfalfa, because the vines carry some soil on them, and thus the dust in the seed crop may be rich in bacteria. However, most new seedings of the cowpea do not show a large number of nodules on the plant roots, and inoculation pays. In some case it makes the difference between failure and success. Two hundred pounds of soil from an old field should be well harrowed into each acre of land when preparing for a cowpea seeding in a new region. The soils of the southern states contain the bacteria just as the states in the clover belt are supplied with clover bacteria. Fertilizers The light soils of Maryland, New Jersey, and the southern states are not naturally rich in phosphoric acid or potash. The cowpea can draw its nitrogen from the air, but on all thin land it pays to use two hundred to three hundred pounds of acid phosphate and fifty pounds of myriad of potash per acre for this crop, which should have a luxuriant growth for the soil's benefit. Such use of fertilizers is more profitable than their use on the crop which follows. Harvesting with livestock When the cowpea is made into hay, there is always danger that most of the plant food contained in it never will get back to the soil on account of a careless handling of the manure. The practice of pasturing with cows and hogs is excellent. The feed is rich and the manure is left on the ground. There is a saving of labor. If the full fertilizing value is wanted for the soil, the crop should be plowed down. The trailing varieties form a tangled mass that cannot be handled by an ordinary breaking plow, but a stalk cutter run in the direction the plow will follow makes plowing possible. Pasturing with cattle and hogs sufficiently to reduce the growth so that a plow can be used is good practice. The cowpea for hay The hay is one of our most palatable feeding stuffs. Livestock may reject it the first time it is put into the manger, but a taste for it is quickly acquired and soon it is eaten greedily. The high content of protein makes it exceptionally valuable for young animals and milk cows, and the manure contains a high percentage of nitrogen. The difficulty in making the hay is a drawback, but this is overrated. When rain discolors the vines and makes them unattractive in appearance, the hay remains more palatable and nutritious than good Timothy if the leaves are not lost in curing. When the first pods turn yellow, the crop should be harvested. The vines can be left in the swath until the top leaves begin to burn and then be put into windrows with a sulky hay rake. The windrows should be small, the rake merely serving to invert half the vines upon the other half, bringing new service to the sun. After another day of curing, the windrows should be broken up into bunches no larger than can be pitched upon the wagon by a workman, thus saving the trouble of disentangling the vines. If rain comes, the bunches should be inverted the following day. In dry hot weather, the curing proceeds rapidly, while in cooler latitudes or cloudy weather the curing may require a week. The chief point is to prevent undue exposure of the leaves to the sun, and this is accomplished by the turning. The hay will mold in the mow, if not thoroughly well cured, unless placed in a large body in a deep, close mow that excludes the air. Some farmers use the latter methods successfully, but the experimenter with the cowpea usually will fail, and should prefer thorough field curing at the risk of some damage from rain and sun. The leaves are the most nutritious part of the plant, excepting the seed. As a catch crop. A leading use of the cowpea is that of a catch crop, either between other crops or in a growing crop, such as corn. Early maturing varieties can be brought in between main crops of the rotation in warm latitudes. Growth prevents the leaching of plant food, shades the ground, adds nitrogen to the soil, smothers weeds, and produces material that is valuable as feed for livestock, or an addition of organic matter to the soil. When the time that can be devoted to the crop is short, an early variety should be selected because its vines are far more valuable to the soil than an equal volume of a rank-growing variety that is not near maturity. If this legume were used whenever opportunity afforded along the southern border of our northern states and throughout the south, the faded color of soils resulting from leaching rains would be replaced by the darker colors that mark the presence of rich organic matter. It is one of nature's best allies in the maintenance of soil fertility. End of Chapter 10. Chapter 11 of Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Alpha AG. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand. Chapter 11. Other Legumes and Serial Catch Crops. The soybean. The soybean is gaining a place among the valuable legumes of the United States, and the acreage is increasing as its merits become known to all. Its northern limits of profitable production are much farther north than those of the cowpea, and approach those of the corn. In the south it is gaining friends. Some of the advantages of the soybean over the cowpea as found by the Tennessee station may be stated as follows. One, greater seed production in case of fertile soils. Two, less sensitiveness to cold in spring and fall. Three, greater feeding value of the seed. On the other hand, a stand of cowpea plants is sureer in the case of soils that crust and germination runs higher. Its climbing habit makes it better suited for growing with corn for forage. A less amount of leaves is lost in curing. Fertility value. There are so many varieties of the soybean and the cowpea, and adaptation to soil and climate varies so widely that a fair comparison is difficult to make. In cool latitudes, the soybean is recognized as distinctly more profitable, making larger yields of vines and of seed. Where adaptation is equal, the cowpea makes a slightly larger growth of vines for hay, but the soybean gives a much richer lot of seed for use as grain. When soil fertility is the chief consideration, the adaptation of climate and soil should decide our choice between these two legumes. There's no serious difference where conditions for each are equally good. In cool latitudes, the soybean should be chosen. In the Ohio Valley, it is usually to be preferred. The greater part of the organic matter in the plant food is stored in the vines and seed. Feeding value. The soybean makes a rich hay, surpassing clover, but it is coarse and its unattractive appearance has caused many farmers to condemn it without trial. Livestock eat it greedily, and it is one of our richest coarse feeds. The curing is more difficult than in the case of the cowpea because the leaves drop early and the plants must be harvested before they approach maturity. Probably the large yield of rich seed is the most important feature of the soybean crop. A ton of the seed contains as much protein as a ton of old process oil meal and three-fourths as much as a ton of cotton seed meal. A good crop of the soybean will yield 18 to 20 bushels of seed, and as the nitrogen may be obtained chiefly from the air, the protein from this crop will come to be a leading substitute for purchased protein feeds. Varieties. There are many varieties of the soybean and their characteristics are modified by climactic conditions. Each region will find the varieties best suited to its purposes by tests. When hay is wanted, the variety should have fine stems and a leafy habit of growth. It may not be a good producer of seed or able to hold the seed unshattered. The harvesting should be done when some lower leaves turn brown and before the pods are half filled. This stage of maturity should be reached early enough in the fall to ensure some hot days for making the hay and to permit harvesting in time for seeding to wheat. The preparation for wheat is made with a harrow and roller or plank drag. When the soybean is grown for seed, the variety should hold the peas without undue shattering and an erect grower is more easily handled without loss of the crop. Varieties for regions will vary as do varieties of corn according to climate. The planting. Early varieties of the soybean in the south can be planted as late as mid-summer, but farther north a profitable crop requires nearly all of the summer heat. The planting may be made soon after the usual time of planting corn or whenever the ground has become warm. The preparation of the soil should be more thorough than that often given the cowpea. Solid drilling of five pecks of seed per acre is satisfactory when the crop is for fertilizing purposes only and gives an excellent hay on land free of weeds. When the crop is wanted for hay, however, wheat usually will follow and it is much better to plant in rows and to give two or three cultivation so that the ground may be easily prepared for the wheat. A seed crop should be grown in rows. Three pecks of seed in rows 28 inches apart is the usual amount. The soybean does not come up through a crusted surface as well as most other plants and planting should not be made immediately before a rain. The plants are tender and easily injured by use of a weeder. The fertilizer requirement is like that of the cowpea. An application of 200 pounds of acid phosphate per acre should be given and the addition of 50 pounds of myriad of potash often pays. Harvesting. The soybean is not an easy crop to handle without loss. When grown for seed, the tendency of the pods to split and to drop the seeds compels early cutting and that makes curing more difficult. The mower is the only practical harvester on most farms and the swath must be turned out of the way of the horses to save trampling. A side delivery attachment can do the work. This is the best practice when cut for hay. When used for mixing with corn in a silo, the self binder is satisfactory. The hay and seed crop must have thorough field curing in windrow and bunches and the harvest comes in a season when cold rains may prevail. This disadvantage of one of our most valuable crops is to be taken into account but it will not prevent rapid increase in acreage as the merit of the soybean becomes known. The Canada Pea. Among field peas there are many varieties but the one chiefly grown in the United States under the general name of the Canada Pea is the Golden Vine. It makes a green forage or hay that is rich in protein. Usually it is grown with oats giving a hay nearly as nutritious as that of clover. The crop is adapted to cold latitudes and the planting should be made as early in the spring as possible. Fall plowing of the land is to be advised on this account. A good method of seeding is to drill in six pecks of the pea seed to a depth of four inches and then to drill in six pecks of oats. The crop should be cut for hay when the oats are in the milk stage. At this time the peas are forming pods. The hay is not easily made but is especially valuable for dairy cows. There is no profitable place for the Canada Pea in crop rotations farther south than the true oat crop belt except as a green forage crop. The soybean and red clover have greater usefulness in the center of the corn belt. Vetch. A variety of vetch known as winter, sand or hairy vetch is coming integrate usefulness as a catch crop. It is a winter annual and being a legume it has special value as a fertilizing crop. It is more hearty than crimson clover and is grown as far north as winter wheat. The seeding is made in August in the north and when grown for hay or seed it needs rye or wheat to hold it up. Rye and vetch make a rich and early green forage crop and the proportion in which they are seeded varies widely in the practice. Six pecks of rye and fifteen pounds of vetch make an excellent seeding per acre. When grown for seed one to two pecks of rye and twenty to thirty pounds of vetch may be used. The rye can be fairly well separated from the vetch by use of a fanning mill or an endless belt of felt so inclined that the round vetch seed will roll down while the rye sticks to the felt and is carried over. Vetch is excellent as a fertilizing crop adding a great amount of nitrogen to the soil when plowed down in May. If the seed were cheap its use would become much more common. Thirty pounds should be used when seeding alone after summer crops or in corn. Farmers should produce the seed for their farms and use it freely. When sown for seeds September 1st is a good date for the north. The seed matures in June. As vetch matures with wheat it may easily become a weed on farms devoted largely to small grain but it is not to be feared where tilled crops and sods are the chief consideration. Inoculation is needed for best results as in the case with other legumes new to a region. Sweet clover. Much interest has been aroused within recent years in sweet clover, a legume that formerly was regarded as a more or less pernicious weed. Its friends regard it as a promising forage crop but too little is definitely known to permit its advocacy here except as a soil builder in the case of poor land that is not too deficient in lime to permit good growth. Experiments have shown that a taste for this bitter plant can be acquired by livestock and it is nearly as nutritious as alfalfa when cut before it becomes coarse and woody. It is a strong grower sending its roots well down into the subsoil and its great ability to secure nitrogen from the air enables it to make a very heavy growth of top. The yield and forage usually exceeds that of the clovers. Its most peculiar characteristic is its ability to thrive in a poor compact soil that contains little humus. It may be seen in thrifty condition on road sides and in waste places that seemingly would not support other plants. Laying aside all consideration of its possibilities as a forage crop, it will come into greater popularity as a soil builder on thin land. It is found usually on land of limestone formation and shares with other legumes a liking for lime but it has grown successfully in regions that are known to have a lime deficiency. There are two biennial varieties and one annual. The biennial having white blossoms is the one most commonly seen but the smaller variety with yellow blossoms is more leafy and palatable. The larger variety is the better fertilizer. The seed does not germinate readily and 20 to 30 pounds is used per acre. The soil should be compact and the seeding can be made in the spring with a cover crop or in August by itself. Inoculation is necessary if the right bacteria are not present. Soil from an alfalfa field will serve for inoculation. An effort should be made to grow sweet clover on all infertile hillsides that are lying bare. It stops washing and paves the way for a sod of nutritious grasses. Rye as a cover crop. As has been stated elsewhere, the plant that stores nitrogen in its organic matter is most desirable but the greater part of the soil's stock of humus did not come through legumes. Among the good cover crops is rye, both on account of its ability to grow under adverse conditions and because it produces a large amount of material for the soil. When seeded in the early fall, its roots fill the soil the following spring and the tops furnish all the material that can be plowed down with safety. In northern latitudes it is the most dependable of all winter cover crops, making some growth in poorly prepared seed beds and on thin land. The most valuable is obtained from early seedings thus securing a good fall growth. Two bushels of seed are sufficient in good ground seeded 10 weeks before winter begins but two or three pecs should be added to this amount if the rye can be given only a few weeks of growth before frost locks up the soil. Rye can grow in warm spells of winter and starts early in the spring. It uses up some available fertility that might otherwise be lost and releases it when it rots in the ground. When to plow down. If rye has made a good growth before spring, the roots run deeper than the plow goes and holds the soil much like a grass sod. In such a case the plowing may be made early in the spring without regard to the rye, though organic matter increases rapidly day by day if the rye is permitted to grow. As a rule it is safest to plow down before the plants are 18 inches high. They dry land out rapidly and any mass of matter in the bottom of the furrow interferes with the rise of water from the subsoil. When the land is wanted for oats or corn, a jointer should be used on the plow to ensure bearing all the crop. Buckwheat. An excellent crop for green manuring is buckwheat. It has such unusual ability to grow in a poor soil that the farmer who makes free use of it as a grain crop never boasts of acreage planted, assuming that his land will not be highly regarded if known to be devoted chiefly to buckwheat. It does not withstand heat well, especially from period of blossoming to maturity and therefore is restricted to cool latitudes. When grown for grain it usually is not planted until July and matures a crop in a shorter period than any other grain. It is sensitive to frost but may be planted as soon as the ground is warm and will give a good body of matter for plowing down within eight weeks. The root growth is not extensive but the crop leaves naturally heavy soils more mellow and it is an excellent cleansing crop for wheat infested fields. It makes a less heavy growth than rye but can be used at a time of the year that rye would fail. There is time in a single season to grow two crops of buckwheat for green manuring, turning the first crop down when the blossoms appear. Oats. When a fall growth is wanted for the soil and it is preferred that the plants be dead in the spring, oats make a good catch crop. Thin land, which is wanted for seeding to wheat and grass in the fall or for timothy and clover seeding in August, may use oats as a spring cover crop. A large amount of humus-making material may be gained by this means. The only danger lies in the effect upon soil moisture. The oats crop uses up the water freely in its growth and when permitted to form heads before being plowed down, the massive material in the bottom of the furrow does not rot quickly enough to induce the rise of water from the subsoil. The land should be plowed early enough to permit a solid seedbed to be made. End of Chapter 11 Chapter 12 of Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Alva AG This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand Chapter 12, Stable Maneur Livestock Farming The fertility of the soil is most safely guarded in regions devoted to livestock farming. Selling everything off the farm is a practice associated in the public mind with soil poverty. It is a rule with few exceptions that the absence of livestock on the farm is an index of gradual reduction in the productive power of the land. Generally speaking, the farmers who feed the most of their crops on the farm are maintaining fertility, and those who do not feed their crops on the farm have been making drafts upon the soil's stores of available plant food that are evidenced in a reduction of yields. These statements will have the ascent of all careful observers. The inference has been that the maintenance of fertility requires the return to the land of all the manure that would result from feeding its crops on the farm. We know that by such feeding we can return to the fields at least four-fifths of all the plant's food taken out by the crops, and we loosely reason that such a scheme is demanded by nature. The maintenance of fertility involves good arithmetic, and a plant must have certain weights of mineral elements at command before it can grow. But it is not true that the productive power of land is chiefly dependent upon the return to it in manure of all the fertility removed by its crops. If this were true, meat and other animal products would be the sole food supply of the world's markets. The Place for Cattle There are general trends in human practice that cannot be changed by man. A change in human diet that makes the percentage of meat lower will not come through propaganda, but there are forces at work that will restrict the consumption of meat by the individual. The increase in population makes heavier demand for food. Armsby has shown that the fattening steer returns to man for food only three percent of the energy value of the corn consumed by it, and in pork production this percentage scarcely rises to sixteen. This is the reason meat-making animals give way before increase in population in congested countries. Their office becomes, more and more, the conversion of products inedible to man to edible products. In our country their number will increase doubtless for a long period of time, finding their places more surely on eastern farms rather than on western ranches. They must find the cheaper land and that is no longer confined to the west. They must be where coarse materials inedible to man are found and that is on eastern as well as on western farms. Their office will not be the conversion of crops into manure, but the conversion of coarse materials into human food in the form of meat or milk. This is the trend and while the consummation may happily be far in the future, its consideration helps us to an appreciation of the facts regarding nature's provision for maintaining the productiveness of the soil. Sales off the farm. The day is now here when the major portion of human food must be provided in grain and vegetables and fruit and the demand for hay and grain for animals off the farm is very large. Fiber products likewise must be supplied. The draft upon the soil is heavy, but it must be good farm practice to supply bread and vegetables and fruit to the 70% of our population that is not on farms. The great majority of farmers do not feed all their crops to livestock and the amount of foodstuffs for human beings and animals that is now going off the farms is none too great. Many farmers who inclined to believe that they are safely guarding fertility by feeding the most of their crops are not returning to the field one third of the plant food that their crops remove. There is no virtue in feeding when the manure is permitted to waste away. The losses in stable and barnyard, the waste from bad distribution by animals and the sales from the farm of some crops, animals and milk lead to the estimate that one half of the farms on which livestock is kept do not give to the fields in the form of manure over 30% of the fertility taken out of them by crops. This estimate, for which no accurate data is possible, probably is too high. The sales of food for man and animal are a necessity and the scheme of farming involves such sales is right provided the farmer makes use of other supplies of fertility. The area devoted to such sales will grow greater because human needs are imperative. Livestock will become more and more a means of working over the material that man cannot eat. The grass, hay, stalks, byproducts in manufacture and coarse grains. The demand for meat and milk will lead to careful conversion of material into this form of food and the animals on eastern farms will increase in number for a time while sales of grain and vegetables grow greater. The draft upon soil fertility through sales must increase because every pound of material sold from the farm carries plants food in it. The value of manure It is not possible to put a commercial valuation upon farm manures that may be a sure guide to any farmer. The value depends upon what the individual can get out of it in crops and improved soil conditions. It is rather idle to say that the annual product of a horse in the form of manure is $30 more or less even when an analysis shows that the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash contained in it are worth that sum when valued at the market prices of those plant constituents. If the total amount of fertility found in the voidings of all animals of the farm were provided in a pile of commercial fertilizer containing the same amount of each plant constituent, it's worth to the farmer would depend upon his ability to convert all that fertility into crops at a profit. There are farmers so situated in respect to soils, crops and markets that they can make a good profit from an investment of $30 in the total liquid and solid voidings of a horse for a year. On the other hand, there are many who would fail. The values usually given are relative and suggestive. They are eight informing judgment. Actual value on the farm depends much on the man. The content of manure When the crops of a farm are fed, the manure contains nearly all the plant food that went originally into the crops. In the case of idle workhorses on a maintenance ration, the manure contains practically all the plant food. Cows giving milk remove some fertility and a growing calf or colt may take out 30%. There is some waste beyond control, but when manure is made on tight floors with good bedding and is drawn to the field fast as made, on the average it carries back to the soil fully four fifths of the plant food that existed in the feed. Disregarding all cash valuations for the moment, here is an index of value that should be sufficient in itself to encourage the feeding of crops on the farm and the careful saving of the manure. When one can market his crops to animals on the farm at their cash value, and at the same time retain for his fields four fifths of all the fertility, he is like a manufacturer who can use much of his raw material over and over again. The value is in the manure and full appreciation is lacking only because a majority of farms do not provide full saving of its valuable constituents. Relative values. The plant food content of manure is determined chiefly by the feed. The animals add nothing, they subtract. The kind of animals consuming the feed does not affect materially the value of the manure made from it if the animals are mature and not giving milk. The manures from the various kinds of animals differ in value per ton because the feeds differ in character and the manure varies in percentage of water. On an average however the total annual product of manure from farm animals per 1,000 pounds of live weight does not vary widely in value. The rich protein feeds given the cow and the heavy feeding more than make amends for the fertility that goes into the milk and her annual product per 1,000 pounds of live weight may exceed in value that of the horse by 25%. This is likewise true of the pig figured on the 1,000 pound basis while in the case of sheep the value per 1,000 pounds of live weight is near that of the horse. These variations are not wide enough to have great importance to the livestock farmer. The manure represents to him four-fifths of all the fertility that was contained by the feed he gave the various animals. They added no plant food and they took away only a fraction that was not large. They converted the crops into a form of plant food that either is available or can grow quickly enough and in addition to the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash that would have a high valuation in a commercial fertilizer there is a body of organic matter that affects the physical condition of the soil favorably. The manure also promotes the multiplication of friendly soil bacteria. Its possibilities are so great that the inference of many farmers that no successful agriculture can be maintained without it is very natural. But the amount of manure that may be made from feed can be determined by multiplying the total weight of dry matter in the feed by three. This assumes that bedding will be used in sufficient amount to absorb the urine and that will require material containing one-fourth as much dry matter as there is in the feed. When the amount of hay and grain is known and the dry matter in all succulent feed is estimated, the total product of manure in tons can be arrived at with fair accuracy. Analysis of manure has been stated that content of manure must depend chiefly upon the character of the feed. We are accustomed to combine feeding stuffs and differing proportions for horses, cows, pigs, and sheep. Vance Light names the following approximate percentages of plant food constituents in fresh excrements of farm animals the solid and liquid being mixed. Animal Horse Percent Nitrogen 0.70 Percent Phosphoric Acid 0.25 Percent Potash 0.55 Cow Percent Nitrogen 0.6 Percent Phosphoric Acid 0.15 Percent Potash 0.45 Pig Percent Nitrogen 0.5 Percent Phosphoric Acid 0.35 Percent Potash 0.40 Sheep Percent Nitrogen 0.95 Percent Phosphoric Acid 0.35 Percent Potash 1.00 Hen Percent Nitrogen 1.00 Percent Phosphoric Acid 0.80 Percent Potash 0.40 He estimates that one ton of averaged mixed stable manure, inclusive of absorbance contains approximately 10 pounds of Nitrogen, 5 pounds of Phosphoric Acid, and 10 pounds of Potash. Chapter 12 Chapter 13 of Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Alva A. G. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand Chapter 13, Care of Stable Maneur Common Source of Losses When we bear in mind that four-fifths of all the fertility removed from the land in the grains and coarse stuffs fed on the farm may be recovered from the animals and returned to the soil, we appreciate the consideration that the care of manure should have on every farm. The careless methods that prevail in most sections of the country are in inheritance from the day when soils were new and full of fertility. These methods continue partly through a lack of confidence in the statements that the liquid portion of animal excrements in average mixed stable manure has nearly as great value as the solid portion. If this fact were accepted many of the losses would be stopped. Another reason for continuance of careless methods is failure to appreciate that the soluble portion of manure is the highly valuable part and that leaching in the barnyard carries away value more rapidly than decrease in volume of manure indicates. The widely demonstrated facts do not have effective acceptance and enormous loss continues. Thorne found that manure placed in flat piles in the barnyard in January and allowed to lie until April lost one third of its value. Under the conditions prevailing on many farms the loss suffered by exposure of manure is far greater. Caring for liquid manure If all manure were in solids one great difficulty in caring for it would not exist. The nitrogen is the most valuable element in manure and two fifths of all of it in horse manure is found in the liquid. In the case of cow manure over one half of the nitrogen is found in the liquid. More than this the nitrogen in the liquid has greater value than a pound in the solid because of its nearly immediate availability. There is only one good way of caring for the liquids and that is by the use of absorbance on tight floors or in tight gutters. American farmers find cisterns and similar devices nuisances. The first consideration is to make the floor water tight and clay will not do this. The virtues of puddle to clay have had many advocates say floors after use will show that valuable constituents of the manure have been escaping. The soils of the country cannot afford the loss and careful farm management requires acceptance of the truth that a tight floor is as necessary to the stable as to the granary. The difficulty in supplying a sufficient amount of absorbance on tight floors only emphasizes the loss where floors are not watertight. Use of preservatives The use of land plaster in stables helps to prevent loss of the nitrogen content through fermentation. Its value does not like chiefly in physical action as an absorbent but the beneficial results come through chemical action. The volatile part of the manure is changed into a more stable form. In recent years this preservative has fallen somewhat into disuse as acid phosphate contains like material and also supplies phosphoric acid to the manure. The phosphoric acid content of stable manure is too low for all soils and the reinforcement by means of acid phosphate would be good practice even if there were no preservative effect. The use of 50 pounds of acid phosphate to each ton of manure will assist materially in preserving the nitrogen and the gain in phosphoric acid will repay all the cost. It should be used daily on the moist manure as made in the stable and preferably just before bedding is added so that the phosphate will not come into direct contact with the feet of the animals. Some stock men prefer the use of acid phosphate and crane it mixed half and half. The latter is a carrier of potash and is a preservative of nitrogen. The use of ground rock phosphate in stables is coming into use in some localities chiefly through the recommendation that it be mixed with manure to secure availability of its own plant food. It is not a preservative except insofar as it acts physically as an absorbent. It should not displace acid phosphate in stables. The preservation of nitrogen in the manure being the vital matter. Spreading as made. When farm conditions make it feasible to draw and spread manure fast as made, the danger of heavy loss in storing is escaped. There is evidence that no appreciable escape of fertility occurs when manure is spread on land that is not covered with ice. The phosphoric acid and potash are minerals and leech into the soil. The nitrogen does not change into a gas in any appreciable amount when spread over the surface and it likewise leaches into the soil. There are soils in which the decay of the organic matter would have a more beneficial effect than the rotting upon the surface. It may be, but the mulching effect of the manure is valuable. There should be no doubt that the loss from manure is kept to a minimum when it goes directly to the soil. In some latitudes the snow and ice often times make spreading or make it inadvisable, and in many farm schemes it is desirable to hold manure for special fields and crops. Some means of storing manure must be provided in these instances. The Covered Yard If the possible value of manure were realized, provision for its care would be made as promptly and surely as provision for the care of a harvested crop. There are only three conditions that must be provided in order that manure may be preserved without much loss. The manure must be protected from leaching rains, it must be kept moist, and air must be excluded. The exposure of stable manure to the process of fermentation and leaching produces a waste that is believed to amount to several hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States annually. The day will come when no farmer will be willing to share heavily in a loss from this source, but will either spread manure fast as made or provide a roof for the stored manure. An absolutely tight floor is not so great a necessity as it is in the stable, because the amount of moisture is under control, but many farmers prefer to make concrete floors for the manure shed and thus to guard against any loss from leaching. The chief cost may be confined to the roof. A better plan is to enclose three sides, making them so tight that all drafts will be prevented and to use the shed as a place of exercise for cows or other livestock. We have learned within recent years that such closure is more helpful and comfortable for cattle than stalls in an enclosed building, no matter how cold the weather may be. The fresh air without any drafts and the liberty of movement are needed. This shed should be connected to the stable and on its floor the manure from the stables may be spread daily. It should be scattered evenly over the surface and the mass can be kept firm by the tramping of the animals. It may be necessary to add some water at intervals to keep the mass sufficiently moist. The water excludes air and assists in holding harmful fermentation in check. Harmless fermentation. There is a kind of fermentation in manure that goes on in the absence of air. It is due to bacteria that break up the organic matter, producing rotted manure. This is not attended by much loss and proceeds beneath the surface of the moist and packed mass. Maneuver properly controlled under a roof goes into prime condition for spreading later in the season. The only danger is neglect and especially when the livestock is removed to the pasture field in the spring. If no water is added from time to time, hot fermentation replaces the harmless kind because air can penetrate through the bed of manure. Compactness and moisture can save the plant food with small loss throughout the summer and a body of good manure is available when needed for top dressing the land in summer. Rotted manure. Mixed stable manure contains in a ton of potash as it does of nitrogen and yet we speak of it as a highly nitrogenous fertilizer. When fresh manure has suffered no loss of the liquid part, much of its nitrogen is almost immediately available. The nitrogen in the urine is in soluble forms and fermentation quickly occurs. When manure is used on grass it cannot be too fresh as the immediate action of the nitrogen is desirable. Vegetable growers often prefer a slower and more continuous action and the rotting manure under right conditions changes the liquid nitrogen into compounds that act more slowly. The solid material in horse manure contains less water than that of the cow and this absence of water permits quick fermentation when air is present. The use of large quantities of such manure per acre is not liked by vegetable growers. Rotting under control in a covered barnyard has a beneficial effect for this reason when a hot manure is not wanted. The covered shed costs some money and there is a loss estimated at 10% under the best conditions but when manure cannot be drawn fast as made, there is compensation in improved condition for certain soils and crops. Composts. The compost involving the handling of manure and soil has no rightful place on the average farm. The gardener or trucker using great quantities of manure per acre must let some of the fermentation occur before he incorporates it with the soil or harm will result. He wants reduction in volume and such change in character that it will add to the retentive character of the soil respecting moisture instead of drying the soil out. He can afford all the labor of piling the manure with layers of sods or other material and the turning to secure mixing. It is his business to watch it so that loss will not occur. The farmer uses manure in smaller quantities per acre. Probably all his fields need the full action of the organic matter in its rotting. The percentage of humus making material is low. The place for fresh manure is on the land when this is feasible. The covered shed is a device for holding manure with least possible loss when the spreading cannot be done, where a supply must be carried over for land in the summer. The gaining condition is only incidental and an advantage chiefly to vegetables. The composting of manure by gardeners is not a practice to be copied on most farms. Poultry manure. Poultry manure often is overestimated. Its content of plant food is one half greater than that of horse manure ton for ton. The availability of the nitrogen is so great that returns from applications are immediate and give the impression of greater strength than is possessed. Its availability makes it excellent for plants that need forcing. For such use it needs reinforcing only with acid phosphate, but as a general manure it should have the addition of potash. Acid phosphate should be used in the poultry house to prevent loss of nitrogen which escapes quickly on account of rapid fermentation and to supply phosphoric acid. 30 pounds of acid phosphate to each 100 pounds of the manure gives a mixture containing 1 pound of nitrogen, 3 pounds of phosphoric acid and 2 fifths of a pound of potash. The addition of 4 pounds of myriad of potash makes the mixture a well balanced and effective fertilizer when used at the rate of 500 to 1000 pounds per acre. Dry muck or loam should be mixed with it to serve as an absorbent and to give good physical condition. End of Chapter 13 Chapter 14 of Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Alva AG This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand Chapter 14. The Use of Stable Maneur Controlling Factors The farm supply of stable manure is a carrier of plant food returning to the soil 4 fifths of all the fertility removed in the crops fed but it is much more than this. Land which receives only plant food as may be the case when fertility is supplied in commercial fertilizers loses good physical condition. Organic matter is needed for maintenance of physical condition, the retention of soil moisture, the freeing of inert minerals in the land and the promotion of bacterial life in the soil. No small share of the value of a ton of manure is due to its organic matter. This is a factor in the problem when deciding what disposition of the manure will pay best. One field may be in condition to respond fully to the use of commercial fertilizers while another is too deficient in humus for best results. Some crops are more insistent upon supplies of organic matter in the fields. Again, the disposition of the manure depends upon the supply. If most crops are fed on the farm the manure is a leading source of fertility for all fields and crops and may be used once or twice in the crop rotation on every field. If the manure is in small amount due to a scheme of farming involving the growing of crops for market the function of the manure may be only to encourage the starting of sods in which legumes are a leading factor. Direct use for corn. The practice of spreading manure on grassland for corn is based upon much good experience. The custom is nearly universal in regions where corn is an important part of a four, five or six years rotation and all of the corn and hay is fed on the farm. This disposition of the manure permits the handling at times when other work does not rush. The supply carried over from the spring is put on in late summer and the manure made in the early winter can be drawn to the field fast as made. Maneuver spread immediately before the sod is broken is less effective as no leaching of soluble elements into the surface soil occurs before the coarse material is buried in the bottom of the furrow. The use of fresh manures for corn is rational because corn is a gross feeder and requires much nitrogen. All plants having heavy foliage can use nitrogen in large amounts. It is possible to apply manure in excessive amount of cereal, the growth of stock becoming out of proportion to the ear but the instances are relatively few. Ordinarily, corn suffers from lack of nitrogen. When the farm manure is in large amounts, its direct use for corn is good practice. Effect upon moisture coarse manures should not be plowed down late in the spring as they increase the ill effects of drought. Decayed vegetation, well mixed with the soil increases the soil's water holding capacity but undecayed material in the bottom of the furrow is harmful. Fresh strawy manure made immediately before the time for breaking a sod is preferably carried over in a covered shed until a later season of the year. When manure has been spread upon a sod in the fall or early winter it decays quickly after the plowing and aids in resistance to drought. When it is plowed down the ground is kept more porous and the presence of plant food and moisture at or near the depth of plowing encourages deeper rooting of plants and thus indirectly assists them to withstand dry weather. If the plowing is good in character leaving the furrow slice partly on edge and permitting the harrow to mix part of the turf in the manure with the remainder of the soil, the best conditions respecting moisture are secured. Manure on grass When the crop rotation embraces two or more years of grass or one of clover followed by only one of grass it is better practice to use the manure to thicken the sod. The object in view is the largest possible amount of crops and the maximum amount of organic matter for the soil. Grass is a heavy feeder like corn and makes good use of nitrogen. Its roots fill the soil so that no loss attends the use of manure. When the supply is given the grass after the harvest of the second crop of clover and during the winter the timothy can make a rank growth. The part of the plant above ground has corresponding development below ground. Not only does a large increase in the hay crop results but the heavy mass of grass roots, the aftermath and the remains of the manure provide a great amount of fertility for the corn which follows. The increase in hay permits a corresponding increase in the manure supply the next year if it is fed and if it is sold on account of a market price greater than its value for feed and manure it adds to income materially and that is one reason for farming. Maneuver on potatoes. There are excellent cash crops that may get more than their fair share of the farm supply of fertility and against the interest of fields in the farm not adapted to cash crops. The justification is found in the farm ledger. In some regions potatoes are the best crop in point of net income per acre where the acreage is kept restricted so that there may be plenty of organic matter to help in conserving moisture. It is not good practice to use fresh manure and especially that from horse stables for potatoes. A heavy application makes an excessive growth of vine and the yield of tubers suffers. A stronger deterrent is the effect that fresh manure has on the development of the spores that produce the disease known as potato scab. Rotted manure is less dangerous and few crops repay its use in higher degree than the potato. Some growers prefer to make heavy application of fresh manure to grass for corn and follow with potatoes so that they can profit by the rotted organic matter that remains. In this way the physical condition is made excellent, moisture is well held in a dry season and commercial fertilizers can supplement the plant food left in the manure. When to plow down. Excellent farmers differ regarding the relative efficiencies of manure plowed down and that mixed with the topsoil. Both classes may be right for their individual instances. Plowing down of manure helps to deepen the soil and that always is desirable. It causes plants to root deeply and that is a distinct benefit in a drought season and always desirable. When a soil is in such tilt that the breaking plow always brings fertile soil to the surface, the plowing down of manure gives excellent results though it should be permitted to leach at the surface for a few weeks before being turned under. When the land is being prepared for a seeding clover, the supply of manure should not be plowed down wherever the breaking plow brings soil to the surface that is deficient in humus. In the latter case the manure always should be used as a top dressing and should be evenly spread and well mixed with the surface soil. It is needed there far more than it can be needed further down. The surface soil always should have a high content of organic matter. Heavy Applications When the farm supply of manure is small, applications should be light. The manure should not be the dependence for plant food on a part of a field or a single field of the farm under such circumstances. It is more profitable to give a light dressing to a larger area. The manure is needed to make a fertilizing crop grow and a very few tons per acre can assist greatly when rightly used. The manure is needed to furnish bacteria to the soil and a small amount per acre is useful for this purpose. Always there is temptation to use all the manure on a field convenient to the barn and to concentrate it on a sufficiently small area to make a good yield sure. The loss to the farm in this method is heavy. The thin spots and the thin fields have first right to the manure as a top dressing and 6 tons per acre will bring larger returns per ton than 12 tons per acre. At the Pennsylvania Experiment Station the land receiving 10 tons of manure per acre in the common acre year's rotation of corn, oats, wheat and mixed clover and grass gives added returns of $1.63 a ton while an application of 8 tons pays $1.85 a ton and a 6 ton application brings the value per ton up to $2.41. These applications are made twice in the four years. Reinforcement with Minerals A ton of mixed manure in the stable contains about 10 pounds of nitrogen, 5 pounds of phosphoric acid and 10 pounds of potash. This makes the percentage of nitrogen and potash the same while the percentage of phosphoric acid is only half as high. A commercial fertilizer of such percentages would be esteemed a badly balanced one. Certainly the phosphoric acid should be relatively high as this constituent of plant food runs low in the soil. If 50 pounds of 14% acid phosphate were added to each of manure while it is being made in the stable, 7 pounds of phosphoric acid would be added, making the percentage in the manure a little higher than that of the nitrogen and the potash. A better balance is given to the fertility. There cannot be any loss in this purchased plant food if this stable floor is tight. Fermentation cannot drive it off and when applied to the soil it is tightly held. Practically no phosphoric acid is found in drainage waters. 8 tons of manure thus reinforced would contain the same amount of plant food as a ton of fertilizer having 4% nitrogen, 5% phosphoric acid, and 4% potash. The addition of the 50 pounds of acid phosphate per ton does not bring the phosphoric acid content up as high relatively as in most commercial fertilizers, but it helps. The total amount in the 8 tons manure may be sufficient and the greater part of the total has sufficiently immediate availability while the manure must undergo decomposition and some of the nitrogen and potash does not become available within the year. Durability of manure. Tests of the durability of manure in the soil involve some uncertain factors but we are interested only in the effects of applications. These effects may continue for a long term of years and an example will illustrate. Land may be too infertile to make a good clover sod. If the soil is to be given half the land affording proper conditions for making a sod, the result will be a heavy growth of clover while the seeding on the unmaneuvered half will be nearly a failure. If no manure or fertilizer be used in the crop rotation, the probability is the manure portion of the field will again make a fairly good sod. How much this success may be due to the remains of the manure and how much is attributable to the effect of the clover and to better bacterial knows. Probably the greater part of the benefit comes only indirectly from the manure applied three or four years previously. Half of the field may thus be lifted out of a helpless state and remain out of it for a long term of years while the other half grows only poorer. A probable illustration of this lasting indirect effect may be seen in one of the plots in the soil fertility experiments on the Pennsylvania Experiment Station Farm. Experiments at the Rotham-Stead Station, England, show some lasting results from applications of manure. Director Hall cites the case of one plot of grassland which was highly manureed each year from 1856 to 1863 and has since been left unmaneuvered. In 1864 this plot gave double the yield of an adjoining plot which had been left unmaneuvered during the eight years. In 1865 the plot, last manureed in 1863, gave over double the yield of the unmaneuvered. In the following ten years its yield was a half more than that of the unmaneuvered. In the next ten years the yield was a quarter more. In the next ten years it fell to 6% more than the plot that had received no manure in the beginning of the experiment. In the following ten years it rose to 15%. Here is a lasting effect of manure for over 40 years where grass was grown continuously. End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 of Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Al-Va-Aji This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand Chapter 15 Crop Rotations The Farm Scheme Notwithstanding some of the theorizing that does not commend itself to the practical man, farm management is taking on the form of a science. It involves the organization of a farm for best results and in the scheme that should be worked out for any particular farm, the most important feature is the crop rotation. The selection of crops is controlled by so many local considerations including the personal likes and dislikes of the farmer, that very rightly the kinds of rotation are innumerable. The order in which crops may be grown with most profit is less variable and yet even here local conditions may quickly derange the scheme of a theorist. There is however such right relation of facts to each other that we are getting a working philosophy and the individual farmer can bend to practice his own liking in considerable degree and yet not compel plants to do their part at a disadvantage. He has much liberty in the order of their growing without endangering profits materially. Theoretically this is not true and the factors of production on any farm are such that the largest return is obtainable in only one scheme of farming. Practically there is rather wide liberty. Value of Rotation Experience has shown the benefit of variety in crops grown on land. Among the advantage of crop rotation are the following 1. It enables the farmer to maintain the supply of organic matter in his soil. The roots and stubble of a grain crop are insufficient for this purpose and the introduction of a sod or a cover crop is helpful. 2. It permits the use of legumes to secure cheap supplies of nitrogen. 3. Some plants feed near the surface of the ground and the use of other plants which send roots deeper adds to the production. 4. Some crops leave the soil in bad physical condition and the use of other crops in the rotation serves as a corrective. 5. The keeping of livestock is made more feasible and profitable and this leads to increase in farm manures. 6. In a proper succession of crops the soil is covered with living plants nearly all the time and thus is prevented from washing or leaching. 7. In addition to these influences upon soil fertility crop rotation assists in control of insect and fungus, foes, and weeds. It permits such distribution of labor on the farm that the largest total production may be secured by its employment and it saves the farmer from sole dependence upon a single crop. 7. Selection The natural inclination of the farmer is a consideration that cannot be ignored. If a man does not like certain kinds of animals or crops his farm or market must possess an unusual advantage to counterbalance. Illustration of this truth may be seen in every farming community. As a rule the crops should be those that are well adapted to the particular soils upon which they are grown. It is uphill work to compete with producers whose soils have far better adaptation unless the local markets equalize conditions. The crop should follow each other in such succession that each crop naturally paves the way for the next one in the succession where at least does not place its successor at a disadvantage. When it is feasible a rather large proportion of the entire produce of the rotation should be feeding stuff for livestock as soil fertility is most easily guarded by livestock farming. This is desirable when consistent with profit but as we have seen it is not an absolute essential. An old succession of crops. In the corn belt of the northern states some time honored crop rotations have been formed by corn, oats, wheat, clover, and Timothy. The number of years devoted to the grain and to the sod has varied with the soil and the desire of its owner. A common succession is corn one year, oats one year, wheat one year, clover and Timothy one year, Timothy one year. A five years rotation that has much substantial success behind it. Such a rotation is wholly reasonable and in accord with the nature of things. Every year furnishes some organic matter for the soil in roots and stubble and all the produce of four years out of the five may be fed on the farm. There is one cash crop or two if the price of the clear Timothy hay justifies sale. The manure may be hauled upon the sod when other work does not pass and it goes where the crop is one that prefers fresh manure. Be that the grass or the corn. There is plenty of time after the corn to prepare for oats and after the oats to prepare for wheat. The preparation for the wheat is sufficient for the clover and Timothy. The seedings come only in the spring and fall when rainfall is more abundant and effective than in mid-summer. The danger of failure in case of this rotation is relatively small. Corn two years Hunch says that the prosperity of the east as a whole would be greatly increased if the rotations of crops were so modified as to increase the corn acreage. He suggests the four rotations given in the table below which is taken from bulletin 116 of the Pennsylvania Experiment Station. The fertilizers recommended should maintain fertility. Corn and crop rotations. Seventh year one acre corn six to ten loads of manure and 25 pounds of phosphoric acid. Third year one acre fourth year one acre fifth year one acre seventh year two acres corn six to ten loads of manure and 25 pounds of phosphoric acid. Fourth year two acres fifth year two acres seventh year three acres oats no fertilizer. Third year two acres fourth year three acres fifth year three acres seventh year four acres wheat 50 pounds each of phosphoric acid and potash. Third year three acres fourth year four acres fifth year four acres seventh year five acres clover and timothy no fertilizer. Fifth year five acres seventh year six acres timothy 25 pounds each of nitrogen phosphoric acid and potash. Seventh year seven acres timothy 25 pounds each of nitrogen phosphoric acid and potash. The oat crop in the northern part of the corn belt the oat crop is profitable in the southern half of Ohio and regions of like temperature the oat crop rarely pays. The heat when the oat is in the milk usually is too great. The tendency there is to eliminate this crop. Where silage is wanted the stubble land can be seeded directly to wheat with good results. A common practice is to seed to wheat between the shocked corn and the wheat does poorly unless the soil is quite fertile. Two crops of wheat A common practice has been to grow two crops of wheat seeding first in the corn stubble land and plowing the ground for the second wheat crop making a smooth surface for mowing. This method ceased to pay well when wheat became low in price. It has the advantage of giving two cash crops to the rotation. Where winter wheat does not thrive in the north it is dropped out and the seeding to clover and grass is with the oat crop. There is the compensation of a large oat yield where the climate is too cold for a good crop of wheat. The clover and timothy and clover sod is made inexpensively so far as labor is concerned. The first crop of hay is chiefly clover and the soil is enriched by the roots and stubble while the hay is converted to manure. The second year the hay is nearly clear timothy. The sod should not be left until it becomes thin but should be turned under while heavy no matter if this must be after one season's harvest or two. A sod stands three or four years for harvest on some farms and without heavy fertilization there is decrease in fertility. Two legumes in the rotation. If all the crops of this five years rotation accepting wheat were fed on the farm and if all the manure were saved and rightly applied there would be little or no difficulty in maintaining fertility provided the soil were friendly to clover. The fact is that much such land has grown poorer and it is known that another legume is needed in the rotation. The substitution of the soybean or cow pee before the oat crop gives excellent results. It makes a large supply of rich hay and it fits the soil nicely for winter grain. The use of the breaking plow is escaped. The surface of the land is in good tilth especially if the legume was planted in rows so that cultivation could be given. A cutaway harrow, run shallow and a roller make the seed bed. Near the southern edge of the oat belt this substitution gives more value in the crop following corn and at the same time conserves soil fertility. Where land is thin a four years rotation of corn, soybeans or cowpeas, wheat and clover is one of the best because it contains two leguminous crops and because one of them favors the wheat which follows and the clover seeded in the wheat. Potatoes after corn. When potatoes are grown in the corn belt a five years rotation of corn, potatoes oats, wheat and clover or corn potatoes wheat, clover and timothy is one of the best. When a late potato crop is grown there is not time for seeding to wheat in cool latitudes and the oat crop or the soybean fits in best. Farther south where the oat crop is less profitable there usually is time to go directly to wheat. The advantage in this rotation is that the fresh manure can be used on the sod for the corn and the potato thrives in the rotted remains of the sod and manure. Corn leaves the soil in good physical condition for the potato. Commercial fertilizer is used freely for the potato which repays fertilization in higher degree than most other staple crops. The land can be prepared for seeding to wheat and grass with a minimum amount of labor. The rotation is excellent where there is enough fertility for the potato which usually can be by far the most profitable crop in the entire rotation. A three years rotation. Farm conditions may require that certain fields in the farm undergo a crop rotation covering three years. In the winter wheat belt this may be clover corn and wheat or clover potatoes and wheat. It is an excellent rotation when early planted potatoes or silage corn follows the sod favoring the wheat in which the clover again is seeded. The ground is plowed only once in three years. The clover furnaces hay for the farm and organic matter with nitrogen for the land. There are two cash crops in the rotation when potatoes are grown and that makes a heavy draft upon fertility. Experiences demonstrated that commercial fertilizers or manure become necessary as a supplement to clover and a three years rotation embracing potatoes. This rotation gives good control of most weeds and insect enemies. Where wheat is unprofitable the oat crop is used in its stead. If mixed hay is wanted Timothy is sewn with a clover. This is poor practice from the standpoint of soil fertility because the draft upon humus is heavy in a close rotation embracing a tilled crop and small grain. The sod should be chiefly clover or manure should be used in connection with commercial fertilizer. Grain and clover. In the case of some soils it is possible to grow a wheat or corn crop each year clover being grown as a catch crop. In the long run this practice will fail because the clover will cease to make a thrifty growth when grown so nearly continuously. It succeeds best on fertile land. Potatoes and crimson clover. In some potato producing sections in warm latitudes it is a not uncommon practice to grow potatoes year after year on the same land seeding to crimson clover after the removal of the crop in August and plowing the clover down early in the spring. Rye has been similarly used farther north. In each instance available plant food must be freely supplied. The practice is a temporary expedient of value but probably cannot be pursued indefinitely with profit. This is likewise true of similar close rotations. End of chapter 15 Chapter 16 of crops and methods for soil improvement by Alva A.G. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand. Chapter 16 the need of commercial fertilizers. The process of plant food. The soil is composed chiefly of material that never will enter into the structure of plants but that serves us by affording a congenial place for plant roots. It anchors the plants, holds moisture for them, and offers opportunity for all the processes necessary to the preparation of plant food and to its use. In this material are the abundant supplies of such plant food as silica, but as has been their very abundance leads us rightly to disregard them in our thinking. Our interest is only in the very small percentage of material that is composed of the four constituents which may be lacking in available form in the soil. Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, and lime. We believe that the only consideration that now need be given lime is as a soil corrective and when there is no acidity we may assume that there is plenty of lime present. When yields of crops tend to decrease the only plant foods with which we are concerned are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. The materials were stored in all agricultural land and much of the supply is in inert forms. They help to make what we call the natural strength of the land. The rotting of organic matter, tillage and many other agencies bring about some availability. The removal of crops, leaching, etc. reduce the supply. The right use of commercial fertilizers involves the addition of some plant food when the available supply in a particular soil is inadequate. Prejudice against commercial fertilizers The owner of land that was made very fertile by nature and that has not been cropped long enough to reduce the supply of available fertility to the danger point rarely fails to entertain a prejudice against commercial fertilizers. It is the rule that he refuses to consider their use until the decrease in crop yields becomes so serious that necessity drives. If his land is not contributing its fair share of grain, vegetables, etc. to the markets but has all its products converted into meat or milk, the supply of available plant food may remain sufficient for so long a time that the matter cannot have any interest for him. If the land is producing some crops for market, there is reduction in its mineral store. It is the rule that the boundary of profitable use of commercial fertilizers pushes westward from the older and naturally poorer seaboard states about one generation after need shows in the crop yields. Lack of knowledge, the association of the use of commercial fertilizers with poor land and some observation of the unwise use of fertilizers combine to create a lively prejudice. They are viewed as stimulants only and costly ones at that. Are fertilizers stimulants? Some words carry with them their own popular condemnation. We are accustomed to draw a sharp line between foods and stimulants and to condemn the latter. To stimulate is to rouse to activity. Tillage does not add one pound of plant food to the soil and its office is to enable plants to draw material out of the soil. It makes activities possible that convert soil material into crops. Fertilizers add plant food directly to the soil and it is also to their credit that their judicious use favors increased availability in some of the compounds already in the soil. The greater part of the labor put on land is designed to make plant food available either by providing moisture or ease of penetration of plant roots or activity of bacteria or other means that will permit plants to remove what they need for growth. Fertilizers supply fertility directly and indirectly but it is their direct service in meeting a deficiency in plant food and provided justification for their use by practical farmers. Referring to the 30 years soil fertility experiments of the Pennsylvania Station Hunt says that they show that there is nothing injurious about commercial fertilizers. For 30 years certain plots in this experiment have received no stable manures. No organic matter has been added to the soil except that which was furnished by the roots and stubble of plants grown. They have yielded and continued to yield as good crops as adjacent plots which have received yard manure every two years in place of commercial fertilizer. Soil analysis There is wide misconception regarding the value of chemical analysis of the soil as an aid in making choice of a fertilizer. Analysis has shown that some soil types are relatively richer in plant constituents than are others and it has shown abnormal deficiency in some types of limited area. It has given us more knowledge of soils, but as a guide to fertilization in particular instances it usually has no value. The samples used by an analyst are so small that the inaccuracy in his determination may easily be greater than the total amount of plant food in a very heavy application of commercial fertilizer. A field that has been reduced to temporarily low productive power by heavy cropping or bad farming methods may show a greater content of plant food than another field that is in a highly productive condition. This is a fact difficult of acceptance by some who want the aid of science, but such are the present limitations. The weight of a fertilizer application is so small in comparison with the weight of the surface part of an acre of land that the use of a ton of fertilizer may not be detected in the analyst's determinations, and moreover his determinations of actual availability in the soil's supplies are not serviceable in the selection of a fertilizer for any particular field and crop. Physical analysis Chemical analysis is costly and unsatisfactory as a guide to fertilization. Physical analysis by a competent man may have distinct value, and especially to one lacking experience with his soil. The mapping of soils by national and state authorities has given pretty accurate knowledge of hundreds of soil types, their location and characteristics, when a soil expert obtains a sample of soil in the history of its past treatment, he can assign to it its type and give to its owner dependable advice regarding its crop adaptation and probable fertilizer requirements. The use of nitrogen There is no fully satisfactory way of determining the kind and amount of fertilizer that should be used at any particular time for any one crop. Perfection in this respect is no easier entertainment than in other matters. There are however means of arriving at conclusions that are a valuable guide. In a general way, nitrogen is in scant supply in all worn soils. Wherever the cropping has been hard and manure has not gone back to the land, the growth in stalk and leaves of the plant is deficient. The color is light, inability of a soil to produce a strong growth of corn, a large amount of straw, or a heavy hay crop is indicative of lack of nitrogen in nearly every instance. The legumes such as clover and the stable manures are rich in nitrogen, and when the scheme of farming involves their use on all the land of the farm, no need of purchased nitrogen may arise in the production of staple crops. In the black corn soils, the nitrogen content originally was high. Lands that naturally are not very fertile rarely have enough available nitrogen. Where Timothy is a leading crop, the demand for nitrogen is heavy. A cold spring or summer, checking nature's processes in the soil may cause a temporary deficiency in available nitrogen in land that usually has a sufficient supply. Associating a rank, growth of stalk and a leaf with an abundance of nitrogen, the experienced man can form a pretty safe opinion regarding the probable profitableness of an investment in this element. It costs nearly four times as much per pound as either two other constituents of a fertilizer and so far as is feasible it should be obtained through legumes and stable manure. Phosphoric acid requirements. Soil analyses show that the content of phosphoric acid in most soils of this country is relatively small. The results of experiments with various constituents of fertilizers are in accord with this fact. Fertilizer experiments at the various stations on farms are nearly a unit in showing that if any need in plant food exists, phosphoric acid is deficient. When crop producing power decreases and the farmer begins to seek a commercial fertilizer to repair the loss he finds that bone dust or acid phosphate is serviceable. The resulting increase in yield often leads to such sole dependence upon this fertilizer that clover and manure are disregarded the percentage of humus is allowed to drop and finally the fertilizer is brought into disrepute. The need of phosphoric acid is so common that it is the sole plant food in much fertilizer in the dominant element in practically all the remainder on the market. The need of potash. Land which is deficient in organic matter ordinarily is lacking in available potash and responds with profit to applications provided the nitrogen and phosphoric acid requirements have been met. Clay soils contain far more potash than sandy soils and in a farming scheme for them that permits the use of manure and clover it may not become necessary to buy much potash. The liberal use of straw in the stables and the saving of all the liquid manure are helps. Farms from which the hay and straw have been sold for a long period of time develop an urgent need of potash. Much muck land is very deficient in this constituent. Fertilizer tests. Every farmer should conduct some fertilizer tests for himself. It is only the soil itself that can make an adequate reply to a question regarding its needs. The test should be made under conditions furnishing evenness in the soil and it should be continued for years. There is pleasure to an intelligent farmer in such questioning of his soil and only in this way can assurance be obtained that the investment in fertilizers is the wisest that can be planned for the farm. There are only three plant constituents to be tested but they must be used in combination as well as singly. A soil that is deficient in the three may not give any return for potash alone and usually does not, although it may give a market increase from use of phosphoric acid alone. The plots may be eight rods long and one rod wide containing each one twentieth of an acre and having strips two feet wide separating them. The following chart suggests quantities of fertilizers to be used on the one twentieth acre plots ten in number. Plat one nothing. Plat two five pounds nitrate of soda. Plat three eighteen pounds fourteen percent acid phosphate. Plat four four pounds myriad of potash. Plat five nothing. Plat six five pounds nitrate of soda. Eighteen pounds fourteen percent acid phosphate. Plat seven five pounds nitrate of soda. Four pounds myriad of potash. Plat eight eighteen pounds fourteen percent acid phosphate. Four pounds myriad of potash. Plat nine five pounds nitrate of soda. Eighteen pounds fourteen percent acid phosphate. Four pounds myriad of potash. Plat ten nothing. Variation in soil. The difficulty in determining the character of fertilizer for a field due in variation in the soil is overestimated. Very often a land owner says I have a dozen kinds of soil in every field. This is true in a way. It may be. But if all the field has had the same treatment in the past, the probability is that the fertilizer which is best for one part of the field will be quite good for the other parts. The likeness in characteristics that permits the land to be cropped as one field gives some assurance of likeness in plant food needs, even where the proportion of clay and sand varies and the color is not the same. There may be wide variation in the productive power of the fields of a farm due to the treatments they have received. The land that grows heavy clover in a close rotation or receives all the stable manure may need neither nitrogen nor potash while another field hard run by Timothy and corn may need a complete fertilizer. When a careful fertilizer test on land of only average productive power has been made, the owner has some definite knowledge of his soil that enables him to give more intelligent treatment to all his fields than was possible before the test has been made. He observes the appearance and yield of plants where the plant food requirement was fully met and makes allowance in other fields for gains or losses in the soil due to different treatment. It is out of the question to become discouraged before a beginning has been made. If fields are limited by absence of plant food, fertilizers must be used. If money must be expended for fertilizers, it is only good business to know that the money is expended to the best advantage. End of Chapter 16 Chapter 17 of Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Alve A.G. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Kay Hand. Chapter 17 Commercial Sources of Plant Food. Acquaintance with Terms The hesitation of many users of commercial fertilizer to master the few technical terms used in analyses of the goods for which over $100 million annually are expended in this country is to be deplored. The number of the materials available for any large use as sources of plant food in a commercial fertilizer is small, and something of their characteristics should be known. Every farmer should have a working knowledge of these materials, their sources, the percentage of plant food carried by them, and their probable availability. He should know in a general way their advantages and disadvantages in comparison with each other. Nitrate of Soda One of the best carriers of nitrogen is nitrate of soda which is imported from Chile, South America, where great beds exist. The most of the impurities are removed and the nitrate of soda comes to us in bags holding 200 pounds and looks much like discolored salt. It is easily soluble in water and usually contains a little over 15% of nitrogen, which is in a very available form. Its immediate availability brings it into use by gardeners and truckers, and it is an excellent source of nitrogen for grass fertilizers to be used in the early spring. It was formerly advised that nitrate of soda should not form part of a fertilizer for use before plant roots had filled the ground. Its high availability being supposed to lead to heavy loss by leaching. The Pennsylvania Experiment Station uses it as its sole source of nitrogen in fertilizers for staple crops on its 900 acres of farmland. It is effective in fertilizers for corn, wheat, potatoes and grass, as well as for special crops. The warnings regarding loss by leaching should not be disregarded, however. If the price of nitrogen in an organic form or as low as it has been in nitrate of soda, and if the soils of the Pennsylvania Station farms were sandy, the use of nitrate of soda as the sole carrier of nitrogen would be inadvisable. The only fact of consequence is that the danger of loss has been overstated, turning some farmers away from the use of a good and relatively cheap carrier of nitrogen. Sulfate of ammonia This is a byproduct in the manufacture of coke and also of illuminating gas. Hunt estimates that the amount of nitrogen lost annually in Pennsylvania's coke industry would be sufficient if recovered by proper type of ovens to furnish every acre of land under cultivation in the state with fourth fifths of all the nitrogen needed to keep it in a maximum state of fertility. Sulfate of ammonia contains about 20% of nitrogen, which is in a quite available form. It has a tendency to exhaust the lime in the soil, producing an acid condition. Some plots in the fertilizer experiment at the Pennsylvania Station have received their nitrogen in the form of sulfate of ammonia for 30 years and are now in such acid condition that no crops thrive upon them. The corrective of course is lime and if ammonium sulfate were somewhat lower in price its use would be profitable, justifying cost of correction of acidity if it should occur. It is used by manufacturers of commercial fertilizers and is well adapted to mixtures on account of its physical condition. Dried Blood There is no more satisfactory source of organic nitrogen than dried blood of high grade. The best blood, red in color, contains nearly as much nitrogen as nitrate of soda running from 13 to 15%. The nitrogen is not as quickly available as that in the nitrate, but is more so than in any other form of organic nitrogen. One would rarely go amiss in the purchase of dried blood as a carrier of nitrogen if the price were relatively as low as in the case of nitrate of sodia. But he should not let any prejudice in favor of animal origin of fertilizers lead him to pay an excessive price per pound for the nitrogen contained in it. Such a prejudice has caused the nitrogen in a good red blood to sell for one half more per pound than in nitrate of soda, and it is not a good purchase on that basis. The lower grades of dried blood on the market contain as low as 6% of nitrogen, and the animal refuse put into it gives it a content of a few percent of phosphoric acid. This black blood is very variable in composition and should always be accompanied by a guaranteed analysis. Tankage. The waste from the slaughter of animals goes into a product called tankage. The refuse is cooked for removal of the fat and then ground. It may run high in nitrogen on account of the amount of meat in the mixture, and it may be low in nitrogen and very high in phosphoric acid by reason of the large amount of bone in the mixture. Only a guarantee of analysis affords safety to the buyer. It is a relatively slow and good fertilizer, and is used usually in connection with forms of plant food that are more quickly available. Fish. Near the Atlantic coast a large quantity of ground fish, after the extraction of oil is used as a fertilizer, but the cost of the nitrogen and phosphoric acid in this carrier is relatively too high to justify its free use. Like dried blood, its organic character gains for it a popularity that does not have full justification in fact. Animal bone. The original source of phosphoric acid as a fertilizer was animal bone, just as hardwood unleashed ashes were the source of potash. The organic character of the animal bone made it appear more truly a manure than could any rock or other in organic substance. There is no more satisfactory source of phosphoric acid than animal bone, and if it were in full supply for the needs of soils, there would be little occasion to discuss the merits of rock, phosphate, and other similar materials. The supply is a small fraction of the need. If all animal bone were carefully saved and returned to the land that produced all of our animals, it would return to the soil only what those animals carried away in their bones. We see a small fraction of all the draft our crops make upon the soil supply of this one substance. Some of the best animal bone goes into the manufacture of articles that never contribute anything to the soil, and there are other sources of loss. The supply of phosphoric acid from bone is too small when compared with the land's need to deserve more than a small fraction of the consideration it receives by users of commercial fertilizers. The peculiar situation respecting animal bone has come about through a form of deceit. The demand for bone existed and there was no legal restraint in the matter of branding phosphatic rock as bone, bone, phosphate, etc. In the past nearly all forms of rock phosphates have carried the word bone on the bag to quiet the apprehension of those who entertained a prejudice against anything other than animal bone. Nearly all the phosphoric acid has come from rock and its use has been necessary and profitable, but the misrepresentation fostered the old time prejudice. Within recent years some manufacturers have tired of the seeming deceit that served no purpose with many customers and have placed acid phosphate and mixed goods upon the market without the intimation that the phosphoric acid was derived from animal bone. The demand for bone makes prices high for the very limited amount upon the market when availability is taken into account, and the advice that such goods be used would be valueless if it had any general acceptance. Prices would go higher and the amount in the world would remain wholly inadequate. Raw bone Stable manure lasts several years in the soil because decay is slow. Raw bone has appealed to many because its action is likewise necessarily slow. The fat in it prevents fine grinding and protects the coarse particles from decay. It is known as bone meal or coarse ground bone. A good quality of raw bone may contain 4% of nitrogen while the phosphoric acid content is 20 to 25%. The bones of old animals is less rich in nitrogen. The age of the animals and the sorting for manufacturers of various kinds cause variation in quality, and the purchase of raw bone should be made on guaranteed analysis just as surely as the purchase of bone that has been treated in any way for removal of various substances in it. Steamed bone When animal bone is boiled or steamed under pressure for removal of the fat and the cartilage, the content of nitrogen is reduced and the percentage of phosphoric acid is increased by this removal of fat and nitrogenous substance. The nitrogen in steamed bone may run as low as 1% and the phosphoric acid may go up to 30%. The composition of steamed bone is so widely variable that the name means little and purchase should be made only on guaranteed analysis. Some grades run very low both in nitrogen and phosphoric acid due probably to adulteration. The boiling or steaming of bone makes fine grinding possible and the fineness and absence of fat permit quick decay in the soil. Steamed bone is an excellent source of phosphoric acid. The availability is less immediate than that of acid phosphate, but much greater than that of raw bone. Rock Phosphate While the greater part of our soils contain relatively scant stores of phosphoric acid, the deposits of this plant constituent in combination with lime are immense. The rock now chiefly used in this country is found in South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. It varies greatly in content of phosphoric acid. When pulverized for direct use on land without treatment with sulfuric acid to make the plant food available, a grade running 28% phosphoric acid or less usually is selected, the higher grades being reserved for treatment with acid for export. This untreated rock pulverized exceedingly fine often is known as floats. The value of a pound of phosphoric acid in floats as compared with that of a pound in the treated rock known as acid phosphate is a matter upon which scientists differ widely. Only a small percentage of the plant food is immediately available and the question of why is it used hinges upon the degree of availability gained later and the time required. The large amount of experimental work that has been done affords data that causes the following opinion to be stated here. Rock phosphate known as floats is not a profitable source of plant food for soils deficient in organic matter when compared with acid phosphate. It is more nearly profitable in an acid soil than in one that has no lime deficiency. It gives more satisfactory results when mixed intimately with stable manure than when used upon land that remains deficient in organic matter. Application should be in large amount per acre, 500 to 1,000 pounds in order that the amount of readily available phosphoric acid may meet the immediate needs of plants. Dependence should be placed upon the readily available acid phosphate in all instances until experiment on the farm shows that the rock phosphate is a cheaper source of plant food than the acid phosphate. Acid phosphate. When animal bone is treated with sulfuric acid the result is acid phosphate, but treated animal bone is so rare on the market that it may be ignored. The acid phosphate on the market is rock phosphate treated with sulfuric acid to render its plant food available. The content of phosphoric acid varies because the original rock phosphate varies, but the most common grade on the market is guaranteed to contain 14% available phosphoric acid and 1 to 2% insoluble. Some acid phosphate is guaranteed to contain 16% available phosphoric acid and some runs down to 10% available. An acid phosphate contains quickly available plant food. A prejudice exists against it on account of its source and it has been a common practice to label the bags bone phosphate or dissolved bone or such other designation as would imply an organic source, but the acid phosphate is made out of rock phosphate regardless of the name given. The prejudice against the rock as a source of plant food is giving way. It is our chief and cheapest source of supply. The combination of sulfuric acid with rock phosphate in the production of acid phosphate produces sulfate of lime known as gypsum or land plaster. The amount of gypsum in a ton of acid phosphate varies, but may be roughly estimated by the buyer as 2 thirds of the total weight of the acid phosphate. The tendency of gypsum is in the long run to make a soil acid and its use really hastens rather than retards the day when a lime deficiency will occur. The influence in this direction is not great enough to be a very material factor in deciding upon a carrier of phosphoric acid. If a soil has little lime in it, a state of acidity soon will come anyway, and the increase in amount of required lime will be small. The cheapness of acid phosphate as compared with animal bone is the decisive factor. The ill effects usually attributed to acid phosphate are not due in any great degree directly to the sulfuric acid used in its making, but to the bad farming methods that so often attended to use. When the need of commercial fertilizers is first recognized, acid phosphate seems to meet the need. The soil's store of available phosphoric acid gives out first, and this fertilizer brings a new supply. If the available potash is in scant amount, the acid phosphate helps in this direction by freeing some potash. Phosphoric acid has peculiar ability in giving impetus to the growth of a young plant, and that enables it to send its roots out and obtain more nitrogen than it otherwise would do. The farmer thus may come to regard it as a means of securing a crop, and there is neglect of manure and clover. If a field is thin and fails to make a sod, there is no immediate compulsion to use manure or to grow a catch crop to get organic matter, but the field is cropped again with grain. Soon the supply of humus is exhausted, soil lies lifeless, and the stores of available nitrogen and potash are in a worse depleted state than formerly. The fault lies with the method. The phosphoric acid in the acid phosphate was needed. Profit from its use was legitimate, but the necessity of supplying organic matter became even greater than it would have been otherwise. Tens of thousands of our most successful farmers use heavy applications of acid phosphate, but they keep their soils in good physical condition by the use of potash and nitrogen when needed. The clover is assured by using lime wherever it is in too limited supply, and that is the case in most instances regardless of the use of any kind of commercial fertilizer. Basic slag When iron ores contain much phosphorus, its extraction by use of lime gives a byproduct in the making of steel that has agricultural value. The ores of the United States usually do not give a slag sufficiently to be valuable. Nearly all the basic slag used as a fertilizer is imported from Germany, and usually contain 17 to 18% of phosphoric acid. The availability of the plant food in this fertilizer has been the subject of much discussion. The chemist's test, which is fair for acid phosphate, is admittedly not fair when used for basic slag. Field tests at experiment stations and on farms are our best sources of knowledge. When the soil is slightly over 1% of phosphoric acid in the slag appears to be about as valuable as each 1% of the available phosphoric acid in an acid phosphate. Some of the effectiveness may be due to the lime, although very little of it is in forms regarded as valuable for the correction of soil acidity. There is evidence that basic slag favors clover. It has not been found feasible to ship this material many hundreds of miles inland from the seaboard to compete with acid phosphate, but it is an excellent source of phosphoric acid for soils that are not rich in lime. Muriate of potash. The mines of Stassfurt, Germany contain an inexhaustible supply of potash in various compounds. Muriate of pollutash is prepared from the crude salts and the commercial product in our markets has the appearance of a coarse and discolored salt. It is handled in large bags and inclines to become moist by absorption of water from the air. It contains some common salt. The content of actual potash is about 50%. The potash is readily available, but the loss from leaching out of the soil is very small. Muriate of potash is our cheapest source of potash and should be used for all staple crops except tobacco, sugar beets, and possibly the potato. Tests even on heavy soils fail to show any injury to the quality of the potato and on light soil the muriate may always be used. Sulfate of potash. Some sulfate of potash is imported into this country. Its content of potash may vary one or two percent below or above 50. Its physical condition favors mixing more than does the muriate. It usually costs several dollars a ton more than the muriate and the fact that it is known to favor quality in tobacco and is popularly supposed to do so in the potato creates demand at the higher price. It is soluble in water and quickly available. As a rule it has no higher agricultural value than the muriate. Canot. Unlike muriate and sulfate of potash, canot is a crude product of the German minds having received no treatment to remove impurities. It contains 12 to 13 percent of potash and is rated as a sulfate but one third of it is common salt and in effect upon quality it should be classed with muriate and not sulfate. Is low content of plant food should confine its use to regions relatively near the seaboard? When shipped far inland the price becomes too high to give a reasonably cheap pound of potash. Wood ashes. Wood ashes contain lime and potash with a small percentage of phosphoric acid. The market price is above agricultural value and any needed potash should be obtained from the German potash salts. Other fertilizers. Manufacturers of commercial fertilizer make use of other materials some of which like manufactured nitrogen are excellent and others are low in quality and slow in action. The sources of plant food that have been described form the great bulk of all fertilizers on the market and from them may be selected all the materials a farmer needs to use on his land either singly or whole mixed. In most instances the selection will embrace only four or five of these fertilizing materials. Salt. Salt is not a direct fertilizer and its use is not to be advised unless it can be secured at a very low price per ton. Some soils have been made more productive by the application of 200 to 300 pounds per acre and chiefly in each case the salt was mixed well with the soil when the seedbed was made. The practice of using salt as a top dressing on wheat in the spring gives less effectiveness it is believed. Salt frees potash in the soil and may have some practical effect upon soil moisture. As a soil amendment salt has had more reputation than its performance justifies. If land is infertile it is better to have a rule to apply actual plant food. Coal Ashes There is no plant food of value in coal ashes. The physical condition of heavy soils is improved by an application and their use may be quite profitable in this way if cost of application is small. When used as a mulch ashes can serve moisture. Muck. The use of muck pays in stables as it is a good absorbent and contains some nitrogen which gains in availability by moisture with manure. Its direct application to land as a fertilizer does not pay the labor bill under ordinary circumstances. Sawdust As a fertilizer sawdust does not have much value but serves as an excellent absorbent in stables. Its presence in manure need not cause fear of injury to the soil. When fresh sawdust is applied in large quantity to a sandy soil the effect upon physical condition is bad increasing droughtiness. End of chapter 17 Chapter 18 of crops and methods for soil improvement by Alva AG. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kay Hand. Chapter 18 Purchasing Plant Food Necessity of purchase The necessity of buying plant food in the form of commercial fertilizers is a mooted question in any naturally fertile agricultural region just so long as crop yields do not drop to a serious extent. The natural strength of the land and the skill that enters into the farming are important factors in determining the profitableness of recourse to purchased plant food. The free use of organic matter to maintain the supply of humus defers the time when commercial fertilizers should be used. Good tillage frees the potential plant food of the soil and delays the day of necessary purchase. The farm is situated that it can have all its products fed upon it is longer independent of outside help. The profitable use of feeding stuffs from other farms is a safe way of escaping the direct purchase of fertilizers although it is a transfer of fertility to the farm as surely as the employment of fertilizers and is not a method that may have general adoption. The organic sources of fertility such as slaughterhouse refuse are containers of plant food as surely as is stable manure. The inorganic sources such as acid phosphate and myriad potash are containers of plant food as surely as is animal bone or blood. There is no line that may be drawn to debar any substance that supplies plant food profitably and contains no compound harmful to the soil. The purchase of plant food should begin whenever profit is offered by it and in connection to its use there should be good tillage, organic matter, and healthful plant conditions in every respect. The use of a fertilizer pays best when the conditions are such that the plants can avail themselves of it in the fullest degree. Good farming and the heavy use of commercial fertilizers go consistently hand in hand. Fertilizer control The dreams of the patent medicine vendor never pictured more favoring conditions for his activity than were found by fertilizer manufacturers and agents before state laws provided for inspection and control. Men who wanted to do a legitimate business welcomed protection from the unscrupulous competition that dishonest men employed. The memory of some of the frauds perpetrated lingers and causes a questioning today that is unnecessary. All fertilizer control laws afford a good degree of legal protection to the buyer although in most states they do not demand a clearness and fullness in statements of analyses that would be helpful to many. And they fail to require that sources of plant food be given. Some fertilizers are sold for more than they are worth and some are bought for soils and crops that need other kinds of plant food but this is due to lack of knowledge on the part of the buyer than he can acquire. The law does its part in the work of protection better than many buyers do their part. It has driven fraudulent brands off the market, compelled carefulness in factory mixing and given to the intelligent buyer a knowledge of the kinds and amounts of plant food in the bag or ton. The sampling is done by disinterested men and the analyses are made by competent chemists. There need be little distrust of the analysis as printed on the bag unless a failure of the manufacturer to keep his goods up to the standard has been made public in the state's fertilizer bulletin. Brand names. Notwithstanding all that has been done by the state to acquaint the buying public with the composition of fertilizers, many purchasers are guided in selection by the brand name and that usually is fanciful in character, no matter whether it be farmer's friend or Jones's potato fertilizer. In either case it may be far from friendly to soil or pocket book and widely at variance with the needs of the soil for which it is purchased. The pretence of making a fertilizer peculiarly adapted to the potato or to wheat or to corn would not attract a single buyer if the public would compare the analyses of these special crop fertilizers offered by manufacturers and note their dissimilarity of composition. Any kind of mixture may be given any kind of name. It is the composition that counts. The farmer is in the market for nitrogen and phosphoric acid and potash, singly or combined and all he wants is to know the number of pounds he is getting its availability and its price per pound and he added detail not required by law is an impertinence. Statement of analysis it would be well if the law refused to the manufacturer the privilege of printing unnecessary detail in the statement of analysis that must be placed upon the fertilizer bag. It is added to confuse the buyer and mislead him regarding actual value. The following statement is an example of this practice. Analysis nitrogen 0.82 to 1% equal to ammonia 1 to 2% soluble phosphoric acid 6 to 7% reverted 2 to 3% available 8 to 10% insoluble 1 to 2% total 9 to 12% potash actual 1 to 2% equal to sulfate of potash 2 to 3% as the row of larger figures is not guaranteed percentages it has no value. The buyer is not concerned regarding the amount of ammonia to which the nitrogen is equal and so the second line is a needless repetition. The fifth line gives the sum of the third and fourth the available being the total of the soluble and reverted. Therefore the third and fourth lines may be ignored. The sixth line gives the percentage of unavailable phosphoric acid in the rock and should be ignored by the purchaser who wants available plant food. The seventh gives the sum of the available and insoluble and should be ignored. The ninth is a restatement of the eighth line. There then remains the following guarantee. Nitrogen 0.82% Available phosphoric acid 8% Potash 1% This is a low grade fertilizer whose cheap character becomes apparent when the unnecessary statements and restatement are erased. A ton of it contains only 16 pounds of nitrogen, 160 pounds of phosphoric acid and 20 pounds of potash. Valuation of fertilizers. The manufacturer of a mixed fertilizer must make use of the unmixed materials he finds upon the market. The prices of the various plant constituents in the different unmixed materials can be determined by averaging quotations in leading markets for a given length of time. The fair retail price is obtained by adding about 20% to the available sale cash price. The retail cash price per pound of the plant constituents in leading market is thus determined for their various forms and carriers. A pound of nitrogen in dried blood may have its valuation fixed at a figure 50% higher than that of a pound of nitrogen in nitrate of soda simply because the dried blood sells at a price per ton that makes that difference. It is true commercial value that is sought and that may be very different from agricultural value. The mixed fertilizer of the manufacturer has its contents of plant food known by analysis. Its number of pounds of the various constituents in a ton is known and the retail price per pound of these substances has been fixed. The commercial value per ton can then be determined provided a proper allowance is made for cost of mixing and bagging. The individual must pay in addition the freight and usually a considerable sum for unnecessarily costly methods of distribution and collection. A bit of arithmetic. This paragraph is intended to serve the man who is willing to be reasonably near right if he cannot be wholly so. A ton is 2,000 pounds and 1% is 20 pounds. In dealing with fertilizers it is the practice to call 20 pounds or 1% of a ton a unit and to base the price of the nitrogen and phosphoric acid and potash on the unit. This is done for convenience. If five cents is a fair price for a pound of available phosphoric acid in one's locality, as it would be if a ton of 14% acid phosphate cost $14, a unit of 20 pounds is worth $1. Each 1% guaranteed is thus worth a dollar and the phosphoric acid in the fertilizer is easily valued. If a pound of potash in a ton of myriad is worth five cents in one's locality, as it would be if a ton of myriad cost $50, the myriad being one half actual potash, a unit of 20 pounds of potash is worth $1. Each 1% of guaranteed potash is thus worth $1 and the entire content of potash is easily valued. If a pound of nitrogen in nitrate of sodia is worth 17 and 1 half cents, a pound in one's locality, as it would be if a ton of nitrate of sodia cost $54, a unit or 1% is worth $3.50 and the content of nitrogen is easily valued. The price is named would seem high to good cash buyers near the seaboard and they are too low for some other regions where freight are very high. They are only illustrative. The consumer can get his own basis for an estimate by obtaining the best possible cash quotations from city dealers. Some interesting critic may point out that nitrate of sodia should not be the sole source of nitrogen in a fertilizer on account of its immediate availability. Some consumers use some sulfate of ammonia and a pound of nitrogen in it has had practically the same market price as that in nitrate of sodia. Tankage may be used in part and in it the nitrogen costs very little more per pound. It may be said that the potash in the fertilizer is in form of sulfate. Usually that profits the user nothing and often the claim is baseless but if it is a sulfate the cost of the potash should have only 20% added to the valuation which usually will not add $1 to the total cost of the ton of mixed fertilizer. Basing the valuations on the pounds of plant food in the mixed fertilizer on the value per pound in unmixed materials delivered to one's locality there must be taken into account the added expense of mixing. High grade fertilizers A high grade fertilizer is not necessarily a high priced one. What we want in fertilizer is a high content of the plant food needed together with a desirable availability. If only phosphoric acid is wanted a 14% or 16% acid phosphate is high grade because it contains as many pounds of available phosphoric acid in a ton as the public can buy in a large way. A 10% acid phosphate is low grade. The effort is to escape paying freight and other cost of handling on waste materials as far as possible. Generally speaking the higher the percentages of plant food in a fertilizer the cheaper per pound is the plant food. A low grade fertilizer rarely fails to be an expensive one because the expensive handling adds unduly to the price per pound of the small content of plant food. End of Chapter 18