Class __^S_b 0_l 
 
 Rook ■ .VL4-^ 
 Copyright N"_ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
PRACTICAL FARMING 
 
PRACTICAL FARMING 
 
 A PLAIN BOOK ON TREATMENT OF THE 
 SOIL AND CROP PRODUCTION ; ESPECIALLY 
 DESIGNED FOR THE EVERYDAY USE OF 
 FARMERS AND AGRICULTURAL STUDENTS 
 
 BY 
 
 W. F. MASSEY 
 
 Author of "Crop Grozving and Crop Feeding^'' 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 MCMVII 
 
LIBRARY of CQNGKE9Sf 
 Two codIm Kt)ct>i>/u-:) 
 
 DEC 2 .907 
 
 Co!)yrti;ni tnjiry 
 CLhSS 4- ^^t- «y 
 
 
 Copyrighted, 1907, by 
 THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
PREFACE 
 
 OF late It appears to be the fashion with authors 
 I to call their Preface a ''Foreword," but I am so 
 old-fashioned that I prefer to call it by the old 
 name, Preface. 
 
 You may ask, "Why a new. book on Agriculture?" 
 Simply because in the numerous books for farmers that 
 have appeared of late years I know of none that appeals 
 directly to the man behind the plow in all sections of the 
 country, and tries in the plain language of the farm to 
 explain many of the things which the investigations of 
 scientists have discovered in regard to the treatment of 
 the soil and the production of crops. 
 
 To this effort to explain scientific matters in plain 
 language I have drawn in addition from the experience 
 of a long life spent in the practical work of cultivating 
 the soil, and have endeavored to make this a farmers' 
 book on farming, nothing more, nothing less. 
 
 Perhaps to keep up with the phraseology of the day, I 
 should call it a treatise on Agronomy. But my old- 
 fashioned notions come in again, and I call it "Practical 
 Farming." Agronomy would sound more scientific, but 
 I have not written the book for scientists, and therefore 
 call it by a name that the plain tiller of the soil will under- 
 stand. 
 
 If he likes it and finds that it is helpful I shall be satis- 
 fied. The day when all that pertains to farm life can be 
 
vi Prejace 
 
 trt'ak'd in one small volume is past, nnd 1 have endeav- 
 ored to stick to my text and write a book on cropping 
 solely. It has been prepared in the intervals of a very 
 busy life, and 1 hope it will help the men for whom it is 
 inlt'nded. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., 
 March 5, 1907. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface . 
 
 I The Soil ....... 
 
 !! The Physical Character of Soils . 
 
 III The Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 
 
 IV The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 
 V Plant Food in the Soil .... 
 
 VI Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 
 
 VII Life in the Soil 
 
 VIII Tillage and its Purposes 
 
 I X The Washing of Soils and Methods of Prevent 
 
 iNG This Loss 
 
 X Crop Rotation — its Purpose and Practice 
 
 XI Crops and Cropping 
 
 XII The Indian Corn Crop 
 
 XIII The Wheat Crop 
 
 XIV The Oats Crop 
 XV The Cotton Crop . 
 
 XVI The Tobacco Crop . 
 
 XVII The Irish Potato Crop 
 
 XVIII The Hay Crop 
 
 XIX How THE' Legumes Aid Us 
 
 XX The Grasses . 
 
 XXI Commercial Fertilizers for Various Crops 
 
 XXII Useful Tables for Constant Reference 
 
 PAGE 
 
 V 
 
 I 
 
 22 
 4' 
 
 59 
 
 79 
 
 97 
 
 "9 
 
 '34 
 
 •43 
 148 
 167 
 172 
 186 
 198 
 202 
 217 
 
 235 
 247 
 268 
 274 
 295 
 304 
 
PRACTICAL FARMING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SOIL 
 
 A GRICULTURE, or fanning, is an art that in- 
 / % eludes the character and formation of the soil as 
 -i- JL well as its proper tillage to make it productive 
 in the crops needed by mankind. When we look around 
 us and see the great variety of conditions as to soils and 
 climates, and the composition and origin of the cultivated 
 soil, as well as the conformation of the surface and the 
 great variety of plant growth which arises under these 
 varied conditions, we realize that the art of farming is a 
 very complex one. 
 
 Its complexity is such that we have to call in the aid of 
 a number of sciences to assist us in understanding agri- 
 cultural conditions. Geology tells us something of the 
 origin, formation and conformation of soils; chemistry 
 tells us of the elements that enter into their composition; 
 botany teaches us the nature of the plants that make up 
 our crops, and meteorology helps us to understand the 
 conditions of weather and climate, and their influences 
 in modifying land surfaces and in the promotion of plant 
 growth. 
 
Practical Farming 
 
 Modern agriculture is largely the child of chemistry, 
 and its future development must always depend to a 
 great extent on the investigations of the chemist. But 
 closely aUied to this science is the science that takes in 
 the study of life, and helps us to understand the life of 
 the low forms of i)lant life that make diseases on our 
 crops, and tcaclies us how to combat these and the insect 
 enemies that annoy us. The science, then, of biology 
 becomes a very essential aid to the farmer. 
 
 Our work is mainly the study of the soil and its treat- 
 ment in the production of crops. 
 
 The science of geology treats of the for- 
 
 TheGeologi- ^-^tion and <j;rowth of the outer crust of the 
 cal Origin ., . " . , . . . , 
 
 of Soils globe. It mvestigates the composition ot the 
 
 crust, the processes which have contributed 
 to its growth through the long untold ages since the earth 
 was a molten mass, and the elemental influences that have 
 helped to bring the earth into its present form. This 
 science takes into consideration the elevation and depres- 
 sion of the land, the formation of rocks of various sorts 
 under and above waters, and the decay and wasting of 
 the rocks that make the foundation of the soils that cover 
 the outer surface. 
 
 Geologists have found that the crust of the earth has 
 been formed in successive layers kno\Mi as strata. It is 
 evident that as these layers have been placed one above 
 another by various causes, the uppermost layer must be 
 the youngest, unless by some cataclysm of nature the rocks 
 ha\e been pressed together and thrust one under the 
 other. This is always evident from the foldings and 
 faults, so called. Where upheavals through volcanic 
 
The Soil 3 
 
 action have thrust rocks from below through the mass 
 above, forming traps or dikes, the nature of the rock 
 itself demonstrates its origin. 
 
 If we dig a well we come first to what we 
 
 Formations ^^^^ ^°^^* '^^^^ ^^ darkened in color by the 
 decay of vegetation. Then we find a bed of 
 clay, and below this sand. It is evident that the sand 
 was there first, owing to its superior weight, and that 
 the clay and soil were afterward deposited on top of it. 
 Then, if we find another bed of clay under which is a 
 bed of sand, we can easily determine that there were 
 successive deposits elevating the land. In a similar way 
 geologists have studied the growth of the layers or strata 
 that make up the thousands of feet accumulated on the 
 surface of the original earth crust. If the geologist bores 
 into a bed of sandstone and below that finds a bed of 
 coal, formed from the decay of vegetation, it is evident 
 that this vegetation must have grown on the original 
 surface, and that the sandstone was of later formation. 
 When under the coal he finds a bed of clay loam with 
 the roots of the old forest penetrating, he is strengthened 
 in his belief as to the formation of the coal. 
 
 Again he finds a bed of Umestone filled with the fossil 
 remains of shellfish and coral — the plainest evidence that 
 living creatures formed these shells and coral before the 
 soil was formed and before trees grew from which the soil 
 was formed, and that the Umestone formed from their 
 remains must be older than the coal formation above 
 them. When under this limestone there is found a differ- 
 ent rock that further on projects into the surface of the 
 hills, he would argue that this rock, being under the 
 
Practical Farming 
 
 limestone, is the oldest, though in the hills it comes to the 
 surface. He would be convinced that in the valley there 
 had been agents at work forming the later accumulation 
 on top of this older rock. 
 
 When the earth was a molten mass, glow- 
 Agencies at jj^ ^.ji^i^ intense heat, the waters that after- 
 Work in Sou ^ , ^ , , ' , 
 Formation ward formed the great deep were a dense 
 
 vapor, lighted only by the glowing globe. 
 Gradually, through long ages, the surface cooled and God 
 said, "Let the waters be gathered together unto one place, 
 and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. The cooling 
 of the surface allowed the condensation of the vapors,* 
 and the waters naturally filled the depressions in the sur- 
 face. Thus seas were formed. The dry land was the 
 hard rock crust crystallized. 
 
 Then came the action of the various agencies to which 
 we owe the formation of what we to-day call soil. This 
 condensation opened up the surface of the earth to the 
 light and action of the sun. We must understand that 
 light, sunlight, is one of the phenomena of motion; and 
 that one of its rays travels through space at the rate of 
 186,000 miles in a second of time, a rate utterly incon- 
 ceivable to us. The energy of the sunshine awakes in 
 nature energy of a different sort, resulting in what we call 
 heat. The rays of the sun excite motion in the molecules 
 of the soil and water, causing them to be pushed apart; 
 and by the radiation of heat set the atmosphere in motion, 
 causing wind. Much of the heat formed goes back to the 
 air through this radiation, especially during the nights. 
 In the long nights of the arctic regions more goes back 
 than in the tropics, and differences of climate are largely 
 
The Soil 5 
 
 due to this. Even in the temperate regions, when the 
 nights grow much longer than the days, we find that we 
 approach the arctic conditions; and when the days grow 
 longer and the nights are shorter, we approach the con- 
 ditions of the tropics, where days and nights are even 
 throughout the year. 
 
 It is thus clear that the heat produced by 
 of Sunshine ^^^ action of the sunshine on land and water 
 becomes the great agency in producing plant 
 life on the earth. We must realize that the rays of the sun 
 move through a vast space of intense cold, and that heat 
 is a transformation of the motion made here on earth, 
 and its intensity depends largely on the conformation of 
 the earth itself. Down about the sea level, where the pres- 
 sure, and consequently the density, of the atmosphere is 
 greatest, the radiation is slower and heat is retained longer, 
 while on the mountain top the lesser atmospheric density 
 permits of a more rapid radiation; so that on the more 
 lofty mountains we have arctic conditions of eternal snow 
 and ice. On the surface of the sea the rays of the sun set 
 up a rapid motion in the molecules of the water, making 
 them warmer until they are changed into a condition of 
 vapor and fly off to form clouds, which distribute the rain 
 on the earth. 
 
 We can now see how the disintegrating effect of the heat 
 produced through motion from the sun affected the rocky 
 surface of the earth, and the coming of the clouds from 
 the ocean washed to the lower levels the loosened particles 
 and started the first formation of soil. 
 
 Then came the work of the atmosphere itself. At 
 the sea surface the pressure is about fifteen pounds to 
 
6 Practical Farming 
 
 each square inch, and each acre of land bears a pressure 
 
 of 46,200 tons. The decreased pressure of the air causes 
 
 a decided change of feehng as we ascend 
 
 The Work ixora. the sea level to the summit of a high 
 of the .,,,„,., 
 
 Atmosphere mountam, though we hardly reahze the pres- 
 sure at the sea level, and when it is removed 
 do not directly think of this change as causing our new and 
 strange sensation. Pure air is composed of oxygen and 
 nitrogen, two gases mixed together but not chemically 
 combined. The nitrogen exists as a diluent to enable us 
 to breathe the oxygen, for it comprises a much larger per- 
 centage than the oxygen — 79.051 per cent, of nitrogen to 
 20.949 per cent, of oxygen. Exactly how deep is the 
 ocean of air, at the bottom of which we live, cannot be 
 known; but it is usually estimated at about forty-five 
 miles. While the air is composed primarily of these two 
 elements, oxygen and nitrogen, it also carries with it other 
 matter useful to the farmer. A small percentage of car- 
 bon dioxide, commonly known as carbonic acid, which in 
 large quantities is deadly to animal life, is essential to 
 vegetation. Plants get their carbon from this combina- 
 tion, as will be explained later. The air also contains 
 some nitrogen in combination, in the form of ammonia, 
 as well as the free nitrogen gas and a minute portion of 
 oxidized nitrogen or nitric acid. Still another constituent 
 is that extremely active part of oxygen known as ozone, 
 which is esteemed of great value to animal life. From 
 this air and the matters it contains plants get more than 
 97 per cent, of their material for building the tissues, and 
 less than 3 per cent, from the soil. But for the air and its 
 constant pressure there would be no heat retained on the 
 
The Soil 7 
 
 earth, as we have sho\\Ti by the case of the high moun- 
 tain where the decreased pressure allows rapid radiation. 
 
 Professor King, in his book on the soil, quotes the work 
 of Professor Langley, who, "after making a long and very 
 careful experimental study of this property of our atmos- 
 phere, at the base and summit of Mt. Whitney, in Cali- 
 fornia, reached the conclusion that, had our earth no 
 atmosphere, its surface temperature, even at the equator 
 at noon, would be 200 degrees C. below freezing, or 
 —328 F." The radiation of heat from the earth is always 
 greater in cloudless weather, and on bright moonlight 
 nights in spring we are apt to have killing frosts, not 
 because of the moon, but because of the clear atmos- 
 phere at such times. 
 
 One of the most active agents in the trans- 
 Soil Builder formation of the original rocks into soil is 
 water. We can to-day study its continual 
 work by merely examining the hills and roadsides after a 
 heavy rain and noting the transportation of the soil from 
 higher to lower levels. In connection with water the 
 frost has been one of the most efficient agents in breaking 
 down the rocks. Water getting into the small crevices of 
 the rocks freezes, and by its expansive force breaks off 
 the particles which the rain washes down. In this way 
 every exposed rock is still made to contribute slowly to 
 the soil below. 
 
 When life began upon the earth there evidently must 
 have been vegetation of some sort, since vegetation is 
 essential to animal life. We find that even in the oldest 
 rocks now known, rocks that have been transformed by 
 heat, and which hence contain no animal or vegetable 
 
Practical Farming 
 
 remains, there is a great store of carbon in the form of 
 
 graphite or black lead, the material from which our lead 
 
 pencils are made. Now, as we know of no source from 
 
 which this carbon could come but from the carbon dioxide 
 
 in the air, and the only way in which this can become 
 
 fixed as carbon is through the action of plants, taking the 
 
 carbon through their leaf-green, it is assumed that there 
 
 must have been a vast amount of vegetation burned up in 
 
 the metamorphosis of what are now the oldest rocks 
 
 visible on the earth. Then in later ages, as the action of 
 
 the heat, water, and air gave to plants some soluble food, 
 
 there began a growth of vegetation. 
 
 The evidence of geology is that the only part 
 
 The First ^j ^y^q American continent above the seas in 
 
 American ,1. . , ^ . 
 
 Land ^^^ earher ages consisted of a strip across the 
 
 continent in Canada known as theLaurentian 
 formation, from which extended a strip down where the 
 Appalachian system of mountains was formed. All the 
 great interior was occupied by a vast inland sea, extending 
 from what is now the Gulf of Mexico to the arctic regions. 
 There was a slow elevation of this interior, and the inland 
 sea became a series of swampy flats to which the vegeta- 
 tion gradually added by its decay. The remains of this 
 vegetation show that there was a climate of great warmth 
 extending far northward, and intense moisture in the at- 
 mosphere. Plants that are now of a very lowly form, 
 such as our mosses and ferns, then grew to an immense, 
 tree-like stature, since plants of that character are better 
 fitted to use large quantities of carbon dioxide than the 
 plants of modem times, and the atmosphere was too full 
 of this poison to animal life to permit their existence in 
 
The Soil 9 
 
 the higher forms. The great moss trees were the means 
 used by the Ahnighty to remove the excess of carbon 
 dioxide from the air, and thus gradually fit it for the use of 
 higher and higher developed animals. Age after age the 
 old moss trees grew and fell, and on their remains other 
 vegetation flourished entirely unlike the trees and plants 
 of to-day. After a while the earth again settled, and the 
 sand and earth covered the great accumulation of vegeta- 
 ble matter and formed the sandstone roof over the coal 
 deposits. The active energy of the sunlight through un- 
 numbered ages was then located in the great coal deposits 
 to await the coming of man for its transformation into 
 active energy by means of the steam engine and other 
 devices. We know that the climate was of a tropical 
 nature at this time by the evidence of the plants that then 
 grew and whose carbonized forms we now find in the 
 coal. 
 
 Even in ice-covered Greenland are found the remains 
 of trees similar to the sequoias, or big trees, now known 
 only in California. Later on, the earth in the eastern 
 part of the country was crumpled into mountains, and the 
 coal was pressed and its bituminous matter burned out, 
 till the hard anthracite coal of the Pennsylvania hills was 
 made; while westward, undisturbed by the upheaval, it 
 remained bituminous. The Rocky Mountains of the 
 West were a later upheaval than the Blue Ridge, and in 
 the rocks thousands of feet above the sea level are found 
 the perfectly fossilized remains of fish similar to our her- 
 ring, showing how great was the upheaval. 
 
 With the elevation of the mountains the work of the 
 water at once began. The rains descended and the 
 
10 Practical Farming 
 
 floods came, and nature began washing dovm the moun- 
 tains to form the soil of the lower levels. On this soil 
 and in a purer atmosphere, other forms of vegetation 
 appeared, and by their decay added to the mineral soil. 
 
 Later on there came a great accumulation 
 Gl "ers ^^ ^^^ ^^^ snow at the North Pole, which 
 
 gradually extended southward and by its 
 weight so shifted the earth that a great change came in the 
 climate. Plants of warm climates retreated southward. 
 Fossil palm leaves of immense size have been dug up on 
 the elevated Laramie plains, and give evidence of the 
 climate that once prevailed there. As the great ice pack 
 moved south, carrying with it the rocks and vegetation 
 and grinding the rocks over which it passed, it finally 
 made great deposits as its lower edge reached a warmer 
 chmate, and left through its whole course the evidence of 
 its passage in the grooves plowed in the solid rocks. The 
 glaciers not only deposited their burden of rocks and soil 
 at their termination, which can now be traced by the range 
 of hills thus formed across the country from southern 
 Pennsylvania westward, but deposited dams in the valleys 
 which caused the formation of lakes in all the sections of 
 the country exposed to the glacial action. Of all the 
 agencies in reducing the mineral elements of the rocks to 
 soil, the glaciers were probably the greatest. But, like all 
 other ages in the growth of the earth, the glacial period 
 came to an end, and the melting ice carried the ground-up 
 soil southward and covered the rocks with the clays of 
 to-day. In the sand and clays in the track of the glaciers 
 the rock bowlders were dropped after being pounded and 
 shaped by their journey. Thus are found in the clays of 
 
The Soil 11 
 
 the northern part of the continent transported rocks 
 totally different from the fast rocks of the neighborhood. 
 With the deposit of the earthy matter which the glaciers 
 had prepared and the restoring warmth of the climate, 
 vegetation again started northward, and through its 
 growth and decay contributed to the formation of what 
 we to-day know as soil, in distinction from the original 
 clay we call subsoil. But the action of the elements still 
 continued to disintegrate the rocks and to transport the 
 particles to lower levels. The limestone was formed 
 from the lime washed into the lakes and from the remains 
 of shellfish and vegetable decay, until by degrees the lake 
 was filled and the deep soil of the limestone valleys was 
 deposited. This soil, not being formed from the disin- 
 tegration of the rock below, is often more deficient in lime 
 than soils that are formed from the decay of the rocks on 
 which they rest; hence it is often found that soils nomi- 
 nally limestone need applications of lime in cultivation 
 more than some soils on a very different rock formation. 
 Through all the long ages the work of the 
 Land water has gone on. The rivers, which were 
 
 , ^. * immense floods following the glacial age, 
 
 and Rains gradually shrunk in volume as they drained 
 away the great accumulation of water. The 
 result is seen to-day in all the river valleys where the 
 different heights of the water are shovm by the terraces 
 back from the present river bottom lands commonly 
 known as second and third bottoms. But the soil is still 
 being continually washed from the mountains and hills, 
 and the formation of bottom soils along the river is con- 
 tinually going on with every overflow. Great rivers, like 
 
12 Practical Farming 
 
 the Mississippi, carry clear to the sea vast amounts of soil 
 and gradually build up deltas, which are tiaally elevated 
 into cultivable lands. The Mississippi in times of flood 
 has cut new channels, leaving the old bends as lakes back 
 from the main current. The first effect of a change of 
 location of the land along the river is the formation of a 
 sand bar. On this vegetation grows, and finally a forest 
 of cottonwoods, and above the sand a deep layer of vege- 
 table soil is formed, often to be again undermined by a 
 freak of the current in flood time. In all low bottom 
 lands we commonly find that the water first drops the 
 sand; as the current abates the brick clay in its finely 
 comminuted state is deposited, and on this again the vege- 
 table remains for the cultivated soil. In warm climates 
 the formation of soil where lakes existed goes on rapidly 
 through the accumulation of vegetation. This gradually 
 fills the lake with its decay and deposits its component 
 parts, till finally the lake is soil of great fertility, and the 
 vegetation may have made great mineral deposits from 
 the iron it contains. We find these immense deposits of 
 iron now being utihzcd in the ancient lake beds of Minne- 
 sota, while in the warmer climate of California soils of 
 immense fertihty are thus made. 
 
 Study the face of a rocky cliff and note 
 The Action what a great accumulation of broken and 
 P J^?^ pulverized rock forms the sloping talus at 
 
 Formation its base. All of this came from the action 
 of water and frost on the surface of the cliff, 
 which is constantly forcing off particles, and now and then 
 a big portion of rock. Then a river at the base of this cliff 
 rises and the finer particles are washed along with the cur- 
 
The Soil 13 
 
 rent to be deposited elsewhere in the level bottom lands. 
 In every rock quarry a large part of this decomposed rock 
 must be removed to get at the solid rock below, and thus 
 more and more accumulation is made. After every hard 
 winter's frost a fresh accumulation can be found at the 
 base of the cliffs, and the summer rains wash a fresh sur- 
 face for the winter to act upon. Thus the rivers eat into 
 the cliffs as the frost on the rock aids them. The result 
 is mineral soils for the lower country or deltas at the 
 mouth of the river. Even the summer rains have some 
 disintegrating power on the rocks, for the rain carries 
 with it the great decomposing agent of nature, carbon 
 dioxide. It has formed the calcium carbonate of the low 
 levels, the so-called limestone which was carried there by 
 water. Then when the rain falls on a vegetable soil the 
 water is impregnated with vegetable acids, which act read- 
 ily on Hmestone rocks and iron formations. In the great 
 swamps that line our Atlantic coast we find this process 
 of soil-making going on. The vegetable acids dissolve the 
 iron that plants have taken up, and bog iron ore is thus 
 deposited. This was utilized before the great accumula- 
 tions of iron ore were brought into use by the railroads. 
 Another force has acted on the land in 
 
 The Influence ^j^^ formation of soil. This is the great sea 
 
 of the Sea on . , 
 
 the Land itself. In far distant ages the sea water 
 
 was more dense with the carbonate of lime 
 than now, and there were immense accumulations of 
 shellfish which used this lime in the construction of their 
 shells. These grew one generation upon the other, gradu- 
 ally burying the shells below till a deep deposit of lime- 
 stone was formed from their remains. 
 
II Practical Farming 
 
 Then occurred an elevation of that part of the sea 
 bottom where they had been formed. The great white 
 chalk cliffs of England, for example, and the white num- 
 mulite limestone of the lower Mississippi valley, arose 
 from under the sea. Such processes still continue. In 
 the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean myriads of minute 
 animals exist which form a shell of lime carbonate, and 
 their emj)ty shells are forever falling in showers to the sea 
 bottom. The whole of the telegraphic plateau, as it is 
 called, between Newfoundland and Ireland, has a bottom 
 comjwscd of a deep ooze known to scientists as the Glober- 
 gerina ooze, composed of the shells of these minute ani- 
 mals, the flint spdcules of sponges and the skeletons of 
 microsco])ic diatoms. Dredge uj) some of this mud from 
 the ocean bottom and dry it and you can write with it on 
 a blackboard just as with common chalk. 
 
 All the while the forces of the great sea waves are at 
 work in the formation of soil. They eat into the hard 
 cliffs and dash up at another place the iinc particles of 
 sand. At low tide the sand dries and the winds blow it 
 into the great sand dunes that line the coasts covering the 
 marshy land behind them. A forest grows there and 
 after a wiiile other sand dunes arc formed, drift inward 
 and bury the forest. Thus a greater elevation of land is 
 made while the sea gradually eats landward and at im- 
 l)ortant ])oints a sea wall becomes necessary to protect 
 human interests. No sooner have the forces of nature 
 elevated a portion of land above the sea than the waves 
 l)ut in their work of breaking it down. 
 
 Hut the sea is the great agent of another work in the for- 
 nialion of soil. In the more shallow waters along the coast, 
 
The Soil 15 
 
 especially in the warmer temperate and tropical regions, 
 the untold millions of coral polyps live and construct 
 great reefs, which are gradually brought to the surface 
 and exposed to the action of the waves. The httle build- 
 ers die, but the waves carry the particles of their building 
 landward, and the lagoon behind the reef gradually fills 
 up. The Mangrove trees send their great roots into the 
 water along the lagoon, the shellfish accumulate there, 
 and the decay of the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics 
 soon makes a swamp of a lagoon. But further out again 
 the coral polyps build a reef, and again the process is 
 repeated. In this way, by the constant increase of the 
 coral reefs and the growth of the swamps, a large part of 
 the Florida peninsula has been formed. 
 
 As the soils increased on the surface of 
 ^°^ _ the earth the vegetation increased, till it had 
 
 Vcffctfl-tion 
 
 Prenared the ^^^^^ ^^^ greater part of the carbonic acid 
 
 Soil from the air and left the carbonaceous 
 
 remains to form what we call soil to-day, 
 and in which we grow crops. The accumulation of 
 vegetable mold is another agency for soil-building and 
 improvement. The roots of trees themselves exert a 
 solvent action on the rocks, and at times in their growth 
 force them apart through the swelHng of their roots in the 
 rock fissures. Then other Hving forms invisible to the 
 naked eye find a home in the vegetable soil, and through 
 their incalculable millions, these so-called bacteria exert 
 a great influence in changing the character and composi- 
 tion of the soil. 
 
 Unlike green plants above ground, which throw off 
 oxygen, these bacteria evolve carbonic and other acids 
 
16 Practical Farming 
 
 How Bacteria which are agents of corrosion, dissolving the 
 Work in the g^jj g^ ^^isLt it is carried by the rivers in 
 solution and deposited elsewhere. The work 
 of these invisible plants is of the greatest importance 
 to the tiller of the soil; for it is through their agency 
 that the materials used by other plants are again reduced 
 to their component parts, so that they can once more be 
 used by crops. Thus goes on the constant round of nature, 
 using over and over again the same elements. 
 
 The same water that has flowed to the 
 
 • ^^f \ *°" sea is returned by the clouds in rain, and 
 in Nature •' ' 
 
 thus keeps up vegetation on the earth and 
 through it the animal life as well. The radiant energy of 
 sunshine acting on the green leaves of plants enables 
 them to get and store away in their tissues the carbon from 
 carbon dioxide. Year after year the tree grows, storing 
 carbon away and locating the energy of the sunshine 
 where it can again be turned into active energy. We cut 
 the tree into firewood and burn it, and get back the 
 radiant energy of the sunshine in the heating of our houses 
 and the driving of our steam engines. In the same man- 
 ner the coal accumulations are simply the stored-up 
 energy of the sunshine of long past ages, and we get the 
 same radiant energy when we use it for heating or the 
 driving of the locomotive. We burn it, and the carbon 
 dioxide goes back to the air to furnish food for other plants, 
 so that the ceaseless round of nature is kept up. We 
 destroy nothing in this world. What we call destruction 
 is simply the resolving of matter into original and simple 
 states ready to make other combinations and to appear in 
 even more useful and beautiful forms. The various cur- 
 
The Soil 17 
 
 rents in the air keep the materials composing it always 
 stirred up so that the composition is always nearly the 
 same. But for the winds and the natural upward and 
 downward currents of the air there would be an accumu- 
 lation of carbon dioxide in the lower levels just as we find 
 it deep in wells and mines, causing the choke damp so 
 fatal to animal life. 
 
 There are still other lowly soil builders. 
 Subsoiling 'ph^. i^tg Charles Darwin, the most careful 
 Earthworms ^^^ methodical of students, wrote a book 
 on the work of the earthworm. These 
 earthworms are found in all parts of the world, and have 
 in their various genera an enormous range. They are 
 found in the most distant and isolated islands, in far away 
 Iceland, in the West Indies, in the Coral Islands of the 
 Pacific and in the Falkland Islands of the Antarctic Ocean. 
 Their wide distribution, Darwin says, is hard to explain, 
 since they are killed by salt water, and could not have 
 drifted to these islands. But in every place they inhabit 
 they are continually engaged in throwing up Httle mounds 
 or castings. No one in the country who has observed 
 anything can fail to have observed these castings of the 
 earthworms. In humid climates they are found in the 
 greatest abundance, and always in the more moist locali- 
 ties of drier climates. Every boy who goes fishing knows 
 well that he must look for worms in a moist and fertile 
 piece of ground. An observer in India says that after the 
 water is drawn off from the rice fields the whole soil soon 
 becomes covered with the castings of the worms, and on 
 the lawns they are continually compelled to roll down the 
 castings piled up fully four inches high. Even on the 
 
18 Practical Farming 
 
 high mountains of India earthworms were found, and in 
 Ceylon, Professor King found a worm two feet long and a 
 half inch in diameter. As the worm goes deep in the 
 earth to hibernate during the winter season in the tem- 
 perate zones and in the dry season of the tropics, the 
 amount of material they bring to the surface has a great 
 influence on the formation and nature of the surface of 
 the soil. 
 
 Darwin gives a number of cases where ashes and cinders 
 were spread on the surface and after some years were 
 deeply covered by the earthy matter brought up by the 
 worms from below, till a new soil was formed solely 
 by the worms. At an abandoned hmekiln in England 
 several large sandstone pieces were left lying on a hard 
 rubbish of broken bricks and mortar. Thirty-five years 
 later found the stones covered with a deep layer of soil and 
 turf. He had one of the stones removed by men with 
 crowbars, and found that it still rested on the broken bricks 
 and mortar, and showed no signs of having sunk, but the 
 soil and turf had accumulated around it, sloping up to 
 the top in a crater-like form, and the fine vegetable mold 
 around it evidently consisted of the castings of worms, 
 some of which were quite recent. Measuring the rate at 
 which the stone had actually settled, he estimated that it 
 would have taken two hundred and forty-seven years for 
 it to settle so as to bring its surface even with the surface 
 of the earth. From this and other investigations he be- 
 came satisfied that the accumulation of soil through the 
 ejections of earthworms had a very important influence 
 on the increase of the upper soil. Darwin estimated that 
 the number of earthworms in an acre of land was about 
 
The Soil 19 
 
 53,767, and from their average weight this would mean 
 356 pounds of worms in an acre of land. The weight of 
 single worm castings was found to be over two ounces as 
 an average. This shows well the great amount that can 
 be brought from the subsoil to the surface by this appar- 
 ently insignificant means. 
 
 Thus we see that numerous agencies have 
 Summary of ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ -^^ ^j^^ formation of the soils 
 Nature's 
 
 Processes ^^ cultivate. The rain water, with its car- 
 
 bonic acid, disintegrated the rocks; the 
 frost helped, and the water transported the fine materials. 
 The glaciers ground the rocks through unnumbered ages, 
 and their melting carried the muddy flood over all the 
 earth. The growth and decay of vegetation added fer- 
 tility to it with the materials the trees had gotten from the 
 air; for you will remember that over 97 per cent, of their 
 structure comes from the air and is thus returned to the 
 soil in their decay. Then in some cases the coral polyp 
 has extended the land seaward and enabled the vege- 
 table soil to accumulate, and the little earthworm has 
 industriously burrowed in this soil and deepened the 
 surface soil with material brought from below. Lime- 
 stone deposits have been heaved up from the bottom 
 of the sea. The rivers have transported soil from place 
 to place, and shrinking left the river flats or bottoms 
 elevated for cultivation. 
 
 Even in our own days we can see how 
 Wasted Soil ri^^ti^^"^ restores a wasted soil. Men culti- 
 vate a field carelessly in a single crop till 
 they say it is worn out. This has been done particularly 
 in the Southern cotton and tobacco sections. The field is 
 
20 Practical Farming 
 
 turned out as worthless. Then at once nature goes to 
 work to restore what man has wasted. The broomsedge 
 grass covers the old field, and the wind bears the light 
 seed of the old field pine, which starts and grows in the 
 sheltering grass. The pine sends a long tap root down 
 into the subsoil below where the Uttle plow of the devas- 
 tator went, and year after year pumps up material for 
 growth and takes its great share, too, from the air. Year 
 after year it covers the land with its fallen leaves contain- 
 ing the matters it got from earth and air, and a forest 
 grows up without any help from man. Another man cuts 
 the forest down and utilizes the wood, and finds that he 
 has a piece of virgin soil instead of a worn-out one. 
 This is nature's process of soil-building, and it is the same 
 process that has been going on through all time in the 
 making of the fertile surface soil in which humus or 
 vegetable decay plays so important a part. 
 
 We have seen that great accumulations 
 How Lime- that have been made on the surface of the 
 
 s one an earth, while largely of a mineral nature, 
 
 Clays Afifect ' ° •' . ' 
 
 Fertility have been the result of the activity of animal 
 
 life. Chalk is simply one form of what we 
 
 call limestone; and in all limestones, with the exception 
 
 of the older limestones, which have been crystallized by 
 
 heat, we find fossilized animal remains, showing how they 
 
 were made under either the salt or the fresh water. When 
 
 these limestones are elevated by the changes of the 
 
 earth's surface, vegetation starts on them rapidly; and 
 
 its decay increases what we term soil; and on these 
 
 limestone deposits we find much of the best type of 
 
 soils. 
 
The Soil 21 
 
 The clays of the different parts of the country are 
 formed from the decomposition to a great extent of the 
 old crystalHne rocks of the granite series. They have been 
 spread abroad by the floods of past ages and cover the 
 nakedness of the older rocks, and are gradually trans- 
 ported by the erosive action of the rains and frost to form 
 the foundation for the most productive soil. 
 
 Hence we find that long before there was 
 Preparation ^ ^^^ ^^ ^jjj ^.j^g g^jj ^j^^j.^ j^^^ j^ggj^ myriads 
 of the Earth , . . , i r i • , , • 
 
 for Man ^^ agencies preparing the earth for his habi- 
 
 tation. The atmosphere had been purified 
 of its excess of carbon by its being taken up by the old 
 moss trees and buried in the coal formation for his future 
 use. Even the growing lack of fertility had been pro- 
 vided for by the accumulation of phosphatic rocks in 
 various regions, finally to come into use as man wasted 
 his inheritance by careless cultivation; for the earth on 
 man's advent was a new world growing on the old decay 
 and putting out new forms of tree and animal. Time and 
 time again has the Almighty fulfilled the words of the 
 Psalmist: "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and 
 return again to their dust." "Thou sendest forth thy 
 breath, they are made, and thou renewest the face of 
 the earth." 
 
 Phosphorus from the animal bones of past ages is used 
 in the fertilizing of our fields to-day, and thus they are 
 taking on a new hfe, and we know not how often this 
 has been done in the long ages past, for we have seen that 
 all the materials that enter into our soils to-day and grow 
 up into crops have always existed and will exist till the 
 end of all things, taking on new shapes age after age. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF SOILS 
 
 THE earthy covering over the rocks, which we 
 call soil, being largely composed of the particles 
 of the rocks themselves, varies greatly in its 
 texture or physical composition. Since its first deposition 
 this soil has been the great laboratory of nature in which 
 many and great chemical and j)hysical changes have been 
 brought about. And in this great laboratory the work 
 has never ceased. It is still in progress, through agencies 
 which may be classed as physical, chemical, and biologi- 
 cal, as wc shall see. 
 
 There is a wide difference, as the most 
 
 The Soil's casual observer may note, in the size of the 
 Capacity for • , i i ., i , • 
 
 Moisture particles that make up our soils, and this 
 
 difference in size involves also a great differ- 
 ence in the capacity of different soils for the retention of 
 moisture. In soils that are sufficiently well drained for 
 agricultural purposes the moisture does not exist as stand- 
 ing water; and this is essential since the welfare of all our 
 cultivated plants demands free access of air. It is moist 
 air rather than water which plant roots need, and this 
 moist air is secured by the dehcate films of water that sur- 
 round and adhere to each particle of the soil. 
 
 It will be easy, then, to reaUze that the smaller these 
 particles, each with its delicate film of water, the greater 
 
The Physical Character oj Soils 23 
 
 total amount of moisture in the soil. Professor King, in 
 his book on the soil, well illustrates this with the example 
 of a marble dipped in water. It will be surrounded by a 
 film of water. A marble one inch in diameter will hold a 
 film of water 3.1416 square inches in area. Reduce the 
 marble to spheres one-tenth of an inch in diameter and 
 their aggregate areas will be 31.416 square inches. Re- 
 duce the particles to one-hundredth of an inch and it will 
 take a miUion of them to fill a cubic inch, and they will 
 have a total area of 314.16 square inches. With soil par- 
 ticles only one-thousandth of an inch in diameter, it will 
 take one thousand millions to make a cubic inch; and 
 their aggregate surface must measure 3 141. 6 square inches 
 — all contained in the inch which, as a whole, had but 
 3.1416 square inches of surface. 
 
 This illustrates in the plainest possible manner the way 
 in which moisture is held by soils of different physical 
 character. Naturally, in a cultivated soil there is a ten- 
 dency for the finer particles to settle downward between 
 the coarser particles, if they are of the same specific grav- 
 ity. Thus we find that in the wide areas that exist in 
 some countries hke China, where the soil to a considerable 
 depth has been formed by finer particles blown by the 
 wind, there is a smaller percentage of extremely fine par- 
 ticles than where the soil is sedimentary clay that was 
 carried by water. The more sandy nature of this "loess" 
 soil, so called, makes it far more easy to cultivate than the 
 sedimentary clay which has a far larger percentage of fine 
 particles. Where the clay particles approach the fineness 
 of the five-thousandth of an inch, they are apt to be 
 agglomerated into larger masses and not to hold, each 
 
24 Practical Farming 
 
 individually, a film of water. Still, the fineness of the 
 
 clay soil makes it far more retentive of moisture than a 
 
 coarse or even a fine sand. The computations of Professor 
 
 King are meant to be comparative and not actual to a 
 
 further extent than he has computed. 
 
 The texture of the soil has a great deal to 
 
 o^-?V^^x° do with the way in which the rain water, 
 Soil Texture ... 
 
 laden with the carbonic acid, affects it. A 
 
 piece of rock may lie on the surface for ages and suffer 
 very little loss in bulk. But if the same rock is pulverized 
 into an impalpable powder and mixed with the soil, its 
 decomposition will be comparatively rapid. This is well 
 illustrated by the case of the phosphatic rock dredged 
 from the rivers of South Carolina, where it has lain for 
 countless centuries slowly wearing and being rounded. 
 But when put into a mill and reduced to the impalpable 
 powder sold on the market under the name of "Floats," 
 it becomes a useful plant food which is readily acted 
 upon by the rains and the combinations of matter in the 
 soil. 
 
 Pelouze, a French chemist, found that a flask in which 
 water was kept boiling for five days lost less than two 
 grains in weight; but when he broke off the neck of the 
 flask, reduced it to a fine powder, and boiled it five days, 
 he found that one-third of the weight of the flask had been 
 dissolved by the water. If, then, such an insoluble ma- 
 terial as glass can be thus dissolved by the action of hot 
 water, we can begin to realize what is going on in the soil 
 in which the action of the sun's rays has set up heat, and 
 in which the fineness of the soil gives the rain water an 
 opportunity to act. 
 
The Physical Character of Soils 25 
 
 Loess, or wind-borne soils, arc made up of very fine 
 particles held together by mineral matters, so that in cul- 
 tivation they approach the nature of the sandy soils. 
 Differences in the physical nature of soils explain the 
 difference in the degree to which air and the roots of plants 
 penetrate them. In a soil of a mellow texture the roots of 
 many plants strike down several feet. The tap root of 
 the alfalfa plant in a mellow subsoil will go straight 
 down, while on a soil the surface of which is sandy 
 but underlain by a very compact clay of great fineness 
 of particles we have found the roots of alfalfa striking 
 this clay and then running horizontally, so that the 
 plants came under the bhghting influence of a summer 
 drought. 
 
 But a soil too loose in texture becomes a leachy soil. 
 This is the case with deep sands, through which the water, 
 laden it may be with plant food, soon gets beyond the 
 reach of plants, and constant applications of fertilizers are 
 needed to keep uj) its productiveness. The barrenness of 
 sand hills is largely due to this leaching away of plant 
 food. Hence, in the amelioration of such soils, applica- 
 tions of clay and lime have been found useful in binding 
 the particles and making them less open and leachy. The 
 rotation of crops, and the addition of organic matter in 
 decayed vegetations, also improve the leachy sands, for 
 on account of their extreme fineness the particles of vege- 
 table decay have a greater power to retain moisture than 
 matter in any other form. This black humus or organic 
 decay is of the first importance in agriculture, not only as 
 a carrier of plant food that has contributed to the structure 
 of other plants, but as a mellower of a heavy soil, as a 
 
20 Practical Farming 
 
 compactcr of too light soil, and especially as a retainer of 
 
 moisture for the roots of crops. 
 
 The agencies by which combinations are 
 
 The Chemical formed and broken up are not only chemical 
 
 Composition ,,.,., 
 
 of Soils but biological, as we shall see later; for soil 
 
 fertility depends to a great extent on life in 
 the soil. A fertile soil is really a living soil, while a barren 
 soil is to a great extent dead. But our present lesson is 
 in regard to the chemistry of the soil. 
 
 Chemists have discovered that the soil and air and 
 water are composed either of mixtures or chemical com- 
 binations of certain elements. An element is matter 
 reduced to its ultimate form, something in which we can 
 find but the one thing. The great advance in chemical 
 science, however, is still finding new elements, and find- 
 ing that some substances which have been regarded as ele- 
 ments may yet be divided into two or more elements. Some 
 of the well-defined elements are known as metals, such as 
 iron, potassium, aluminum, calcium, magnesium, sodium, 
 and manganese. Others exist in a gaseous form, such 
 as oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc.; while still others, 
 though non-metallic, are found in a mineral state, as 
 silicon, carbon, sulphur, chlorine, and phosphorus. The 
 air we breathe is made up of a mixture of oxygen and 
 nitrogen, both free and not combined with each other, 
 the nitrogen being in the air as a diluent to enable us to 
 breathe the oxygen. For in free oxygen alone we should 
 soon burn up. Oxygen exists in the soil as a free gas 
 necessary to the roots of plants. It is also found in com- 
 bination with nearly all other elements and is the active 
 constituent of the mineral acids. 
 
The Physical Character of Soils 27 
 
 Combinations The most abundant element in nature is 
 
 of Silicon, probably silicon. The quartz rocks so plen- 
 Carbon, -r „ ,- •, i , , 
 
 Oxygen and tifully distributed over the earth are corn- 
 Hydrogen posed of silicon and oxygen, making what 
 is called silica, and the breaking down of 
 these rocks makes the sharp quartz sand used in plas- 
 ter for building. Silica, either in the form of sand more 
 or less fine, or in the forms of pebbles and broken frag- 
 ments of rock, makes the greater part of the bulk of all 
 the soils, and without a liberal amount the cultivation 
 of soil would be almost impracticable. 
 
 Carbon gets into the soil through the decay of vegeta- 
 tion. Vegetation gets it from the air, through the green 
 leaves that possess power to gather carbon from the at- 
 mosphere, where it is always present in combination with 
 oxygen. When it combines with oxygen and forms car- 
 bon dioxide, or as it is commonly called, carbonic acid, it 
 becomes one of the great decomposing agencies in the soil, 
 and also combines with lime to form the carbonate of lime 
 known as limestone, or with other elements, making other 
 carbonates. 
 
 In the soil this carbonic acid plays a very important 
 part as a decomposer of combinations that are insoluble 
 in plain water, and so brings into use for plants potash 
 and other plant foods that exist in the soil. While carbon 
 in its various combinations is plentiful in all fertile soils 
 where humus or vegetable decay abounds, no experiments 
 have proved that plants ever take carbon through their 
 roots from the soil. In building up their structure, in 
 which carbon plays a very important part, they get their 
 supply rather, as we shall explain further on, through 
 
28 Practical Farming 
 
 their green leaves from the carbon dioxide in the air. 
 Hydrogen, when combined with oxygen, makes water, 
 which is of such vital importance to plant and animal life 
 alike. The water that plants take up from the soil by 
 means of their root system furnishes them with the greater 
 part of the oxygen they need and with all the hydrogen; 
 and from combination of it with the carbon taken in by 
 the leaves the plant makes starch, sugar, and woody 
 material for its structure and for storage as future food. 
 
 Sulphur occurs in the soil in the form of 
 Occurrence sulphates of iron, lime, and magnesium. 
 
 o up ur, rpj^^ sulphates and oxide of iron color our 
 Chlorme, and ^ 
 
 Phosphorus clays and play an important part in the man- 
 ufacture of the leaf-green of chlorophyll in 
 plants. Iron is the most plentiful of all metals and one of 
 the most essential plant foods, for without iron there would 
 be no green leaves and hence no getting of carbon from 
 the air, and therefore no plant growth. It exists in inex- 
 haustible amount in all cultivable soils, and while of vital 
 importance there is no danger that it will ever become 
 deficient, for the decay of the forest leaves and vegetable 
 matter in general rapidly restores it to the soil. 
 
 The element chlorine is found in its most common 
 combination in the chloride of sodium, or common salt. 
 It is also found naturally combined with potash, and thus 
 furnishes one of the readiest means for restoring potash 
 to soils that are deficient in this material. While salt is 
 found in all soil waters and in all plants it is still an unset- 
 tled question as to whether or not it is an essential part 
 of plant food. Potash, with which chlorine is often com- 
 bined, is essential to plant life; but there is no evidence 
 
The Physical Character of Soils 29 
 
 that sodium, the base of common salt, is of value to our 
 cultivated crops, though some once imagined that the soda 
 could replace the potash when it is lacking. Most experi- 
 ments, in fact, go to show that in the absence of potash 
 soda cannot take its place, and that plants will perish for 
 lack of potash even though soda is abundant. 
 
 The element phosphorus is never found free in nature, 
 since it bums on exposure to oxygen, and in its most 
 famihar form, the heads of matches, it is used as a means 
 of producing flame. It is found in all fertile soils, and is 
 essential to the life of plants, for without some soluble 
 combination of phosphorus in the soil, no plant can 
 grow. It is removed from the soil by crops, and grazing 
 animals take it rapidly in the formation of their bony 
 structure. Hence, in all of our older cultivated soils it 
 is apt to be more deficient than any other form of plant 
 food. It is a component part of all the old rocks, and their 
 decay and disintegrations have furnished it to the soil. 
 In some sections it is found in immense deposits made up 
 of the fossil remains of the extinct animals of former 
 ages, and these deposits now form the chief source from 
 which we replenish the waste of phosphorus in our culti- 
 vated soils. 
 
 The fossil phosphatic rock is pulverized and used to 
 some extent in that form as a fertilizer, which slowly 
 becomes available to plants through the action of the car- 
 bonic acid in the soil water, or is dissolved in sulphuric 
 acid so that a large part of its phosphorus is made availa- 
 ble for mixture with soil water. The ancient animals 
 made their bony system from the lime and phosphorus of 
 the old vegetation, and have left the combination in the 
 
30 Practical Farming 
 
 soil lo be used over again in furnishing plants with food. 
 In addition to the fossil phosphorus in the rocks we get 
 phosphorus from the bones of dead animals of the present 
 day, which thus quickly return it to the soil to grow more 
 plants and to feed more animals; for, as we have seen, 
 without phosphorus no plant can grow, and without plants 
 no animals could live on the earth. Thus the mineral 
 kingdom supplies food to the vegetable and the vege- 
 table to the animal, and the succession of hfe is main- 
 tained. 
 
 While analysis shows that there is an immense deposit 
 of the various essential plant foods in the soil, it has also 
 l)cen proved in practice that continual cropping depletes 
 some of these faster than others, and that one of the most 
 rapidly used-up elements is phosphorus. While, as we 
 shall see hereafter, we can get nitrogen in abundance with- 
 out applying any to the land, our older cultivated soils 
 may need application of phosphorus and potassium in the 
 forms of phosphoric acid and potash for the perfection of 
 crops, even when a chemical analysis would show these 
 abundant in the soil. For often they become available 
 too slowly for the demands of modem farming. It has 
 been found, too, that the plants that help us get nitrogen 
 from the air can do this far more effectively when well 
 supplied with phosphorus and potassium. Lime added 
 to the soil plays, as we have seen, an important part in 
 the nitrification of organic matter, and it also assists in 
 bringing into use the insoluble potash in the soil. If 
 carelessly used it may aid in the robbing of the soil. But 
 the use and abuse of lime will be treated in a subsequent 
 lesson. 
 
The Physical Character of Soils 31 
 
 Importance The larger part of the atmosphere is made 
 
 of Nitrogen, q£ nitrogen, which, as we have shown, 
 
 Aluminum, . 
 
 and Potassium ^^ there to dilute the oxygen so that we can 
 
 breathe it safely. Nitrogen rapidly leaves 
 the soil by the growth of plants and by leaching away 
 in the soil water, and is also driven back to the air 
 by the combustion of organic matter. In the soil it 
 is most abundant in the vegetable decay of humus that 
 makes soils dark in color. The decay of animal tissues 
 also contributes to this humus and consequently to the 
 store of nitrogen. Nitrogen exists, further, in the soil in 
 combination with Ume, potash, and other bases formed 
 through the action of microscopic plant life on organic 
 matter. By this action ammonia, the hydride of nitro- 
 gen, is released, which is still further reduced by these 
 various bacterial forms to nitric acid. The nitric acid 
 seeks a base in the soil and forms the nitrates of lime, 
 soda, or potash. Plants with green leaves use nitrogen 
 only when it has become a nitrate, and hence the action 
 of bacteria in reducing the organic matter and carrying 
 its nitrogen to a nitrate is an important work in nature's 
 process and goes far toward separating a living soil which 
 abounds in microscopic life from a dead soil in which 
 these minute forms are starved out by the lack of organic 
 matter. 
 
 The metal aluminum is one of the most abundant 
 elements. It is of late becoming more familiar to all in 
 its metallic form, since modern chemistry has devised 
 ways for separating it from its combinations in clay. It 
 is the very foundation of all true clays, which are formed 
 by the decomposition of granite or feldspar; and while 
 
32 Practical Farming 
 
 itself it docs not feed plants it is important as clay in 
 increasing the ability of soils to retain moisture and plant 
 food. Clay is essential to bind together the particles of 
 silica and to make clayey loams, which are more retentive 
 than pure sands. 
 
 The metal potassium is one of the most important of 
 all the elements that contribute to the growth of plants in 
 the soil. The first material that we can discover that is 
 formed within the tissues of a plant is starch, and from 
 this starch all the long series of substances known as 
 carbohydrates are made, and the woody structure of 
 plants is built up of these by the living matter in the 
 plant cells. But without potassium in a soluble form no 
 plant can make starch, and hence can make no growth. 
 Not that there is any potassium in starch, but it has been 
 well proved that in its absence no starch can be formed. 
 Plants could not use potassium in a metallic form, and it 
 is found in combination with oxygen, making potash. 
 The granitic rocks contain the silicate of potassium in 
 their feldspar and the clays formed from the decomposi- 
 tion of these rocks are rich in potassium, which becomes 
 slowly available to plants as potash through the action of 
 the carbonic acid in the soil waters. It has been found, 
 too, that the carbonate of lime acts on this insoluble potash 
 and sets it free for plants, and lime sulphate also has a 
 similar effect. In New Jersey and other sections of the 
 Atlantic coast there are beds of greensand marls which 
 contain a mineral known as glauconite. This has a very 
 considerable percentage of potash, which becomes slowly 
 available when applied to the soil. Kaolin, the white 
 clayey material from which chinaware is made, also con- 
 
The Physical Character of Soils 33 
 
 tains potash. When we burn wood in the fire, especially 
 
 the harder woods, such as oak and hickory, we find that 
 
 these plants had a large supply of potash, which is left 
 
 in the ashes. Wood ashes, therefore, are useful as 
 
 applications to the soil for restoring potash, hme, and 
 
 phosphorus in a form very readily available for the use 
 
 of plants. 
 
 We have in a former lesson mentioned the great 
 
 abundance of limestones, and have said something of 
 
 their formation in past ages. Carbonic 
 
 Lime, Sodium, acid, united with the metal calcium, formed 
 
 e c, as these limestones, in many of which there is 
 
 Productive . -^ 
 
 Factors ^Iso found a varying percentage of another 
 
 metallic element, magnesium. Both calcium 
 and magnesium are essential as plant food, and are found 
 abundantly in all the seeds of our cereal grains and of 
 other plants. The carbonates of these elements are 
 found so plentifully in nature that they are practically 
 inexhaustible so far as mere plant food is concerned. 
 But hme, or the carbonate of calcium, in the form of 
 calcined Hmestone or common quickHme, plays a very 
 important part in the development of the productive 
 capacity of our soils when used in an intelligent way. 
 Of its use and action we will have a lesson further on. 
 
 The metal sodium is important as the base of our com- 
 mon salt; but, as we have said, though closely resembling 
 potash it cannot be used as a substitute for that material 
 in a fertihzer mixture. When combined with nitric acid, 
 however, forming the nitrate of soda, it becomes one of 
 the most readily available and important carriers of 
 nitrogen. 
 
34 Practical Farming 
 
 Experience There has long been a notion, and it is 
 
 More Reliable g^^^j prevalent amonff those who have not 
 than Analysis . ^ _ . " . . . . ^ 
 
 given close study to these things, that a 
 
 chemical analysis of our soils will at once show us 
 what they need in order to become more productive. 
 But while the chemist can find out the composition 
 of the soil, he cannot determine the availability of the 
 materials of which it is composed, and a soil may 
 show a full composition of all the essential elements of 
 plant food and still be a barren soil so far as plant Ufe is 
 concerned, because the existing plant food is not in availa- 
 ble form. It seems that often the physical nature of the 
 soil and its mechanical texture has more to do with its 
 productiveness than the actual amount of plant food it 
 contains. 
 
 A study of the soil through the experimental growing 
 of various plants in plots, with the addition of the different 
 plant foods separately and in various combinations, will 
 help the farmer to understand the needs of his soil better 
 than any number of chemical analyses. Chemical analy- 
 sis shows that there is a very great difference in soils within 
 very limited areas, and it has also been shown that the 
 roots of plants have a selective capacity, and that some 
 take far more of certain elements than others do. Hence 
 the study of the soil must be continued for several years, 
 and with varying plants, in order to arrive at an intelligent 
 understanding of its needs. Of this we will treat more 
 fully when we come to the study of fertiHzers. 
 
 The common classification of soils as clayey, clay 
 loam, sandy loam, sandy, or peaty, really tells us little 
 in regard to the actual composition of soil, since soils of 
 
The Physical Character of Soils 35 
 
 Classification similar appearance and texture vary greatly 
 of Soils -j^ ih.e\T chemical composition and produc- 
 
 tivity. All through the upland country east of the 
 Blue Ridge Mountains there is found a clay loam of a 
 reddish color, which the soil survey made by the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture has called Cecil clay, from the fact 
 that it was first noticed in the northern part of Cecil 
 County, Maryland. But it is well known that this Cecil 
 clay is of greatly varying character within limited areas, 
 being far more mellow and tractable in some places than in 
 others, and it varies also in fertility and productiveness. 
 Therefore a superficial soil survey, depending on the 
 similarity of appearance, is a poor guide to the character 
 of the soil. The productivity of a soil depends very 
 largely on the ease with which the plant food it contains 
 is dissolved in the soil water, and also on the coarseness or 
 fineness of the particles of which it is made up. A clay 
 soil containing a much larger actual amount of plant food 
 may still be less productive than a soil with much smaller 
 store of food, but which from its mechanical nature al- 
 lows the store to be more easily used by the roots of 
 plants. 
 
 In the physical character of soils, the terms light and 
 heavy have reference to the ease or difficulty of culture 
 rather than to the actual weight; for, bulk for bulk, a 
 "light" sandy soil is really heavier than a "heavy" clay 
 soil. A soil will be termed sandy when 35 to 50 per cent, 
 of its material is made up of coarse grit. In a clay soil 
 the extremely fine particles are in the greatest proportion, 
 even making 95 per cent, in the heaviest clay. Between 
 the sandy soils and the clay are numerous gradations, dis- 
 
36 Practical Farming 
 
 tinguishcd as sandy loams and clayey loams according as 
 the soil particles differ in size and the soil is more or less 
 easy of cultivation. Soils derived mainly from the decay 
 of organic matter form a class by themselves, and are 
 termed peaty, swampy, or humus soils. These soils when 
 well drained are generally found to be abundantly sup- 
 plied with nitrogen, but are apt to be deficient in the min- 
 eral matters, phosphorus and potassium, and produce a 
 rank growth without a corresponding maturity of the 
 grain or fruit. 
 
 One of the most important contents of arable soil is 
 
 what we call humus, the decay of organic matter which 
 
 makes the surface of the soil darker in 
 
 Humus, its color, more mellow in character, and above 
 Sources and ,, ... _.., ., 
 
 Services '"^^^^ more retentive of moisture. While gen- 
 
 erally esteemed of the greatest importance, 
 humus is still, in its chemical composition, not so well 
 understood as the mineral soils. Its value does not seem 
 to lie so much in its furnishing plant food, though of course 
 it does this, as in its physiological and mechanical effect. 
 The soils of arid regions, which are generally deficient in 
 humus, are still very productive when only water is ap- 
 plied; and a soil of good mechanical composition will 
 produce fine crops though destitute of humus, if well sup- 
 plied with soluble plant food. 
 
 Humus is formed from matter which once carried life, 
 either animal or vegetable, and which the forces of nature 
 are reducing to such form that the materials can be again 
 used in the building up of plants and the support through 
 them of animal life. It is simply the result of the never- 
 ceasing round by which nature uses over and over again 
 
The Physical Character of Soils 37 
 
 her old materials, getting again the carbonic acid, water, 
 nitrogen, and the ash elements for the building of new 
 forms. In northern sections, where the snowfall is heavy 
 and the winters long and cold, the vegetable matter in the 
 forest waste is held in place, and its decay being slower 
 than in warmer regions there is always in the virgin soils 
 of the north a greater accumulation of humus than in a 
 southern and warmer region. When we come to the 
 tropics, with their uniform heat in the soil and rapid 
 oxidation as a consequence, the amount of humus is very 
 slight. In the high open woodlands of our own southern 
 country the leaves of the deciduous trees blow into the 
 hollows and low lands and there help to form the fertile 
 bottoms, while the hills retain very little. Hence, for the 
 careful farmer in the red clay hills of the South, it is of 
 far more importance to increase the humus content of his 
 soil than it would be with the deeper humus soils of the 
 North. 
 
 Nothing has tended more to the impoverishment and 
 unproductiveness of the southern uplands than the con- 
 stant cultivation of cotton on them, with only the aid of 
 commercial fertilizers, which return no humus to the soil. 
 The first steps in their improvement must be the restora- 
 tion of the organic decay that has been burnt out of them 
 in the long clean culture of cotton. These soils have 
 become really dead, because the microscopic hfe that finds 
 its food in the humus has been starved out. Since the 
 products of the life of the soil-bacteria are of the greatest 
 importance to our cultivated plants, it is evident that the 
 greatest value of the humus Hes in its being the home and 
 food of these microscopic forms. Stable manure, while 
 
38 Practical Farming 
 
 containing less plant food, bulk for bulk, and in a far less 
 available form, than commercial fertilizers, has a value 
 which the fertilizers do not possess. It aids in keeping up 
 the supply of humus by the decay of the organic matter 
 it contains, especially through the presence of straw, etc., 
 that has been used in the bedding of animals. The com- 
 mercial fertilizer exerts no influence in making the soil 
 more retentive of moisture, while the stable manure docs 
 this essential work. The nitrogen that is in the organic 
 matter of the humus, when it is reduced to nitrates through 
 the action of the bacteria which are engaged in what we 
 call nitrification, is rapidly washed from the soil in humid 
 regions; and hence it has been shown by analysis that the 
 small amount of humus in the soils of arid regions has a 
 larger percentage of nitrogen than the larger amount of 
 humus in humid regions. 
 
 In the soils of arid regions there is, as might be sup- 
 posed, a larger percentage of soluble plant food than in 
 the soils of humid regions, simply because it has not been 
 washed down by heavy rains. The presence of a larger 
 percentage of lime in the soils of arid regions also has a 
 tendency to flocculate the particles, and to prevent the for- 
 mation of plastic clays so common in humid sections. 
 Hence, irrigating water applied to soils of an arid region 
 brings about a wonderful productiveness by the solution 
 of the food waiting for water. 
 
 In the sections devoid of rainfall, like Peru, and parts 
 of Chih, the nitrogen has accumulated in the form of 
 nitrate of soda, which has become of great commercial 
 importance for the supplying of nitrogen to our cultivated 
 crops in the most rapidly available form. 
 
The Physical Character of Soils 39 
 
 Action of It has been well said that the chemistry 
 
 Organic ^f carbon is the chemistry of life, for its 
 
 ^prgnts in 
 
 gQjjg presence in the soil is evidence of living 
 
 forms having been there and died there. 
 In like manner it has been said that the chemistry of 
 the rocks is the chemistry of silicon, of which rocks are 
 so largely composed, and which in their decay they 
 have furnished in many complex compounds to the 
 soils of the earth. In fact bio-chemistry, the study of 
 chemical changes made in the soil through the action 
 of living forms, is becoming more and more a matter of 
 investigation from which great results are being had and 
 greater are still to be obtained. 
 
 We know that the breaking down of organic matter 
 in the soil is the work of microscopic plant hfe. The 
 ammonia thus released in turn becomes the food of other 
 micro-organisms, which reduce it to nitrites. Then still 
 another form feeds on nitrites and makes nitric acid, which 
 at once unites with some base in the soil, such as lime or 
 potash, and in this form, a nitrate, the nitrogen becomes 
 food for the green-leaved plants. We know, too, that while 
 the green-leaved plants are dependent for their carbon on 
 the carbon dioxide in the air, these microscopic forms, 
 which make no green and cannot thus get carbon from 
 the air, have the power that green-leaved plants do not 
 possess of getting carbon from the carbonate of lime in 
 the soil, and that thus the presence of lime carbonate in 
 the soil aids in the process of nitrification or the change of 
 organic nitrogen into the readily available nitrates. But 
 the soil still offers innumerable problems to the chemist, 
 and many a question is yet to be worked out there in the 
 
40 Practical Farming 
 
 solution of which the small laboratory of the chemist hardly 
 suffices. For nature often contradicts the results that are 
 attained in restricted conditions and in artificial ways. 
 
 We have now learned that a certain amount of nitrogen, 
 potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, calcium, and 
 perhaps some minor constituents is essential to plant life, 
 and that these must be in such combination as will render 
 them easily appropriated by the roots of plants. If any 
 one of these elements is entirely lacking in the soil no plant 
 can grow in it. This much has been abundantly proved. 
 Sulphur, which is also an essential in plant life, is gotten 
 from the combinations of the other elements with sul- 
 phuric acid, forming the sulphates of lime, ammonia, 
 or potash. Some of these things that are deemed essen- 
 tial are really needed by plants in very small amounts as 
 plant food. Silica is taken into the plant simply because 
 the plant cannot help taking it when dissolved in the soil 
 water, and a large portion of the Hme found in the plant 
 tissues is there for the same reason, though part is utihzed 
 by the plant to render harmless some products that would 
 be harmful to plant life, like oxalic acid. The lime unites 
 with this and forms crystals of oxalate of lime that are 
 insoluble in the cell sap, and thus the acid is rendered 
 harmless. A soil without iron could form no green mat- 
 ter for the leaves of plants, and without this green matter 
 the plants cannot decompose the carbon dioxide in the 
 air and get their carbon, and hence no growth. But iron 
 is found everywhere in some form, and is so plentiful in 
 nature that no soil is deficient in it. Every green leaf 
 takes up iron and in its decay returns it to the soil, so that 
 it is being used over and over again. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE RELATION OF SOILS TO MOISTURE AND AIR 
 
 THE roots of plants, if we except the aquatic plants 
 of the swamps and marshes, do not need water 
 in the soil, for standing water in the soil shuts 
 out the air which is essential to the oxidation of plant food, 
 and keeps the soil cold. What we need in the soil is 
 moist air. We have seen in our first lesson that the per- 
 centage of moisture in the soil will depend largely on the 
 size of the soil particles, each surrounded by its film of 
 water. A soil that parts with this moisture rapidly by 
 evaporation into the atmosphere will always be a colder 
 soil than one which holds the moisture and evaporates it 
 more slowly. So standing water is harmful, though 
 moisture is necessary. It is essential that the soil be 
 penetrated by air that the oxidation of matter in the soil 
 may take place, and it is necessary that there be a due 
 amount of moisture so that plant food may be dissolved 
 for the roots since, as we shall see, no plant food is taken 
 up until completely dissolved in the soil moisture. 
 
 The rise of water in the soil to supply 
 Supply of that taken by plant roots and by the evapo- 
 
 ois ure y j-^tion into the air is caused by what is 
 Capillary ^ ^ •' 
 
 Attraction known as capillary attraction. Place a 
 
 thick towel with one end in a pail of water 
 
 and the other end resting on the ground and you will see 
 
 that the water is taken up from the pail and transferred 
 
 41 
 
42 Practical Farming 
 
 over the rim to the ground through the capillarity set up 
 in the fine meshes of the towel. The same capillarity 
 occurs in the soil when left at rest, and in this rising water 
 there is also brought to the surface soil much plant food 
 that otherwise would be out of reach of the roots of crops. 
 It has been shown that when a glass tube of very small 
 diameter is inserted in water the water will rise in the tube 
 above the surface of the surrounding liquid, and also that 
 the smaller the diameter of the tube is the higher the 
 water will rise within it. In like manner very small tubes 
 form in the soil by which water rises in the same manner, 
 and the extreme fineness of these naturally formed tubes 
 greatly increases the power to draw up the water, though 
 in a far more irregular shape than the straight tube of 
 glass. Professor King says that he "found that a very 
 fine sand did lift water through four feet at the rate of 
 .91 pounds per square foot in twenty-four hours, while a 
 clay loam lifted it at the rate of .9 pounds per square 
 foot through the same distance in the same time." By 
 this means water from below is continually being brought 
 within the reach of the plant roots. 
 
 Since all plant food must be in a state of solution in the 
 soil before plants can use it, the importance of a supply of 
 water along with an abundant supply of the oxygen of the 
 air in the soil, will be at once apparent. The films of 
 water surrounding every soil particle exert a wonderful 
 influence in the solution of food for the plant roots. Even 
 materials which the chemist finds insoluble in water in 
 the laboratory are slowly attacked by the soil water with 
 its carbonic acid and brought into shape for plants to use. 
 Finely pulverized phosphatic rock when placed in the soil 
 
Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 43 
 
 and left to the action of these films of water gradually 
 releases its phosphorus to the roots, though the chemist 
 finds that it is soluble only in strong acids. But Nature's 
 laboratory, though working slowly, works all the time 
 and often puts at naught the results of the laboratory of 
 the chemist. Few who have not studied the matter sci- 
 entifically realize the large amounts of water used in the 
 production of our cultivated crops. For every ton of dry 
 matter in a crop of Indian corn the plants used 309.8 tons 
 of water, and similar amounts are used by other crops. 
 A clover crop uses a great deal larger amount than corn. 
 This water is not only taken as a means for the carrying 
 of plant food, but is itself necessary for the life activities 
 of the plant ; for no matter how much food may be present 
 and within the plant its activities must cease if there is 
 not a sufficiency of water present for the Hving matter to 
 continue its work. 
 
 Soils vary greatly in their capacity for the 
 
 Retentive retention of moisture. Since the water in 
 
 apaci y o ^j^^ ^^^^ -^ j^^^^ -^^ films surroundinsr each 
 
 Various , _ *=• 
 
 Soils grain, it is evident that a coarse-grained soil 
 
 will hold less moisture than one made up of 
 very fine grains. Then, too, the capacity of the soil for 
 drawing water from below will vary with the fineness of 
 its particles, for we have seen that the finer the capillary 
 tubes in the soil the higher the water will rise from below. 
 This capillarity will also depend on the depth at which 
 the permanent water-table in soil is from the surface. 
 Also, in a finely divided soil the water that falls in rain 
 percolates more slowly downward and moisture is re- 
 tained longer after a rain than in a coarsely granulated 
 
44 Practical Farming 
 
 soil. This can be readily seen in a deep, sandy soil after 
 a rain. The rain water disappears very quickly, while 
 on a more loamy soil the surface will remain wet for a 
 much longer time and on a compact clay the water may 
 stand for a time on the surface if special means have not 
 been provided for sinking it in the soil by underdrainage. 
 Even in a sandy soil the rate of percolation downward 
 depends largely on the fineness of the sand. There are 
 soils in some sections which are known as pipe-clay soils, 
 which drain very slowly and become very hard in dry 
 weather, when the soil is really not properly a clay but 
 sand of great fineness and has just enough of clay to bind 
 these very fine particles closely together. They are really 
 quicksand soils and are among the most intractable of 
 soils for cultivation since they hold water till evaporation 
 takes place from the surface, making the soil cold and 
 unfavorable to vegetation. When soils of this nature 
 are well stocked with humus or organic decay they are 
 made more porous, and the downward percolation is more 
 rapid. Yet the retention of soil moisture is increased, 
 though it may seem paradoxical, for the hardening of such 
 soils in dry weather is due to the extreme fineness of the 
 particles favoring rapid evaporationr from the surface, 
 unless the formation of a crust is stopped by frequent 
 shallow cultivation. Free percolation of water through 
 the soil is essential to the keeping of the aeration of the 
 soil perfect, provided the percolation is not too deep and 
 a more retentive stratum is not far below. But the rapid 
 percolation in a coarsely granulated sandy soil under 
 which there is no retentive subsoil is excessive, and makes 
 what is known as leachy soil in which the plant food is 
 
Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 45 
 
 rapidly carried downward by the rain water out of the 
 reach of plant roots. In such a soil constant applications 
 of manure and fertilizers are essential to the production of 
 crops and the accumulation in it of organic decay that 
 will tend to make it more retentive of moisture. Then, 
 too, the depth to which the water percolates and the feeble 
 capillarity of a coarse sand makes the rise of water in such 
 soils less than where there is a retentive subsoil near at 
 hand. These sandy soils, however, yield up to plants 
 their water more completely than a clay loam. Professor 
 King reports that he found corn able in a sandy soil to 
 draw down the water content of the soil to 4.17 per cent., 
 while in a clay soil with a much greater water capacity 
 the corn crop could draw it down only to 11.79 P^^ cent. 
 In all soils there is a point below the sur- 
 fvj^ P face where water is constantly present. This 
 tajjlg is called the water-table. Where this is too 
 
 near the surface the soil is rendered cold, 
 and the chief value in tile underdrainage is in lowering this 
 water-table so that the air can penetrate deeper in the soil 
 and there will be a greater depth of soil containing only 
 the capillary moisture that is needed by the roots of plants. 
 Much of the greater productivity of the lowlands or bot- 
 tom lands is due to the fact that the permanent water-table 
 in the soil is nearer to the surface than on the uplands, and 
 hence the capillarity of the soil can bring moisture to the 
 roots more readily and constantly. 
 
 The water-table in good arable soils should always be 
 four feet or more below the surface, and as a matter of 
 fact it is on the uplands generally from ten to fifty feet 
 down. What concerns us mainly in agricultural opera- 
 
46 Practical Farming 
 
 tions is how much moisture can we control and retain in 
 the soil for plants during seasons of drought, for the 
 actual movement of the water in a saturated soil is of im- 
 portance mainly as a question to be determined in the drain- 
 age of land. The rapidity or slowness with which water 
 evaporates from the soil is what concerns the farmer and is 
 largely what determines the productiveness of a certain soil. 
 The Bureau of Soils of the United States 
 
 Experiments Department of Agriculture has made some 
 
 in Evaporation . , , . 
 
 of Moisture experiments to show the rate of evaporation 
 
 from the different soils. In making the soil 
 surveys in various parts of the country this Bureau gave 
 various names to certain types of soil according to the lo- 
 cality where each pecuhar type of soil was seen. " Cecil 
 clay" has been spoken of. In Hke manner they call the 
 heavy clay soil of the Hagerstown valley in Maryland, 
 "Hagerstown clay." The "Yazoo clay" is named from 
 the soil in the Yazoo river bottoms in Mississippi, These 
 three clay soils the Bureau says are the strongest types of 
 clay soil used for agricultural purposes in this country. 
 After evaporation in tin cans for twenty-five hours the 
 Cecil clay retained seven per cent, of the water it con- 
 tained at the start, while the Norfolk sand retained but 
 one per cent. In another experiment samples of a num- 
 ber of soils were exposed to the sun and wind for six 
 hours. Sand-hill soil that had lo per cent, of water at 
 first, lost 33 per cent, of its content; and Cecil clay, 
 which contained at first 17 per cent, of water, lost but 14 
 per cent, of the amount it contained. 
 
 The importance of a loose soil cover as a preventive of 
 evaporation was shown by an experiment with various 
 
Relation oj Soils to Moisture and Air 47 
 
 samples. Cecil clay was placed in a tumbler and covered 
 with a layer of dry earth an inch thick. Some Ught loam 
 from St. Mary's County, Maryland, was treated in the 
 same way, and one glass was left to evaporate without any 
 cover. The total loss from the Cecil clay was somewhat 
 less than half as much as that from St. Mary's loam, show- 
 ing the marked difference in the resistance offered by the 
 two soils to the passage of watery vapor. The uncovered 
 loam lost three times as much as the covered. 
 
 From various experiments it is evident that the per- 
 centage of humus in a soil has a marked effect on its 
 capacity for retaining moisture. In general, then, we 
 may assume that evaporation is less rapid from a clay soil 
 than from a loam or sandy soil, and that to retain the 
 moisture brought up by capillarity in any soil it is advisable 
 to keep a layer of loose and dry soil on the surface and 
 to prevent the formation of a crust there which would 
 promote the rapid evaporation. In short, by shallow 
 cultivation during dry weather we can prevent the loss of 
 moisture and hold the capillary moisture where the roots 
 of the plants need it. 
 
 There is, however, one point that has been 
 Selective determined by experimenting with water in 
 
 Plant Roots ^^^ solution of plant food in the soil. As is 
 well-known, the food which is taken up by 
 the roots of plants must be in complete solution. But the 
 extent to which this solution is due to the water in the soil 
 is far less than is usually imagined. At the Minnesota 
 experiment station grain grown in pots filled with a very 
 fertile soil, grew finely and matured normally. In other 
 pots sand entirely free from plant food was also planted 
 
48 Practical Farming 
 
 with similar grain. This sand was kept moist with water 
 that was leached through a fertile soil similar to that in 
 the first-named pots, thus getting as much as possible of 
 the soluble plant food in the soil. Another pot of the 
 sand was watered with distilled water. This last pot pro- 
 duced plants to the extent only of the plant food in the 
 seed sown and then died. The pots watered with the soil 
 leachings grew feebly and finally died, showing that the soil 
 leachings alone did not furnish food enough for the plants. 
 These experiments seem to confirm the opinion that the 
 roots of the plants themselves have a solvent power on 
 matter in the soil which is not directly soluble in the soil 
 water. It also goes far to explain the fact that matter, 
 like pulverized phosphatic rock, which the chemist decides 
 is insoluble in water, when placed in the soil, does feed 
 the crop. While, therefore, the presence of water is essen- 
 tial in the soil, the solution of plant food is not altogether 
 dependent on the water, and experiments made to show 
 that the water-soluble food in all soils is very similar are 
 misleading, since they take no account of the work of the 
 plant roots themselves, which not only take part in the 
 solution but, as we shall see later, have the power to select 
 the foods they particularly need in different percentages 
 in different crops. 
 
 „^ ^ Movements of water in the soil are often 
 
 Effects of ^ ,.,.,. . , 
 
 Atmospheric ci^e to the sou air and its expansion and con- 
 Pressure on traction. Springs and small streams will 
 Moisture often swell up for the same reason that the 
 
 mercury falls in the barometer, that is be- 
 cause of lessened air pressure. Changes in the barom- 
 eter are very commonly accompanied by changes in the 
 
Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 49 
 
 outflow of water from tile drains. When the air pres- 
 sure above ground is lessened there is to some extent 
 the same diminution in pressure of the air in the soil, and 
 the water flows more freely from drain or spring, and rises 
 higher in wells. Some years ago late in autumn a corre- 
 spondent of a city paper wrote to the editor that he noticed 
 that just before a rain storm the water in his spring rose, 
 and he wanted to know the reason. The editor, who we 
 suppose had been taught the old fable that the sap runs up 
 the trees in the spring and runs down in the fall, replied 
 that this was easily explained, for it was the sap running 
 out of the roots of the trees at that season of the year. 
 Inasmuch as nothing of the sort takes place, as we shall 
 see later in our study of plants, a little more information 
 would have taught the editor that it was simply the release 
 of the atmospheric pressure that caused the water to flow 
 into the spring, just as it causes the mercury to flow into 
 the cup of the barometer. It has been found that in Wis- 
 consin during the summer, from July to September, the 
 surface of the ground water and the rate of percolation 
 into tile drains are subject to daily oscillations in level and 
 changes in the rate of flow, owing to the daily expansion 
 and contraction of the air contained in the upper two or 
 three feet of the soil. "The changes of pressure thus 
 developed react on the capillary water in the soil in the 
 zone where the cavities are nearly or quite filled, forcing 
 the water down and out into drainage channels when the 
 air is expanding, but allowing such as has not been per- 
 manently lost to return again to its normal level when the 
 pressure becomes less with the cooHng and contraction 
 of the soil air." This diurnal rise and fall from the differ- 
 
50 Practical Farming 
 
 cnces in the pressure of the heated and coohng ah: can be 
 easily traced in a shallow well. 
 
 We have seen that the capacity of a soil 
 Proportion of to retain moisture varies generally in pro- 
 j^^^" portion to the percentage of clay it contains. 
 
 Soil Few soils do retain in the upper five feet of 
 
 the soil as much as twenty inches of water, 
 while some authorities claim that for the best results in 
 the crop the water content should be held up to fifty 
 inches or more. While the water-fall of a section may 
 annually amount to this much in inches, the percolation 
 and evaporation very largely reduce the percentage avail- 
 able to the crops. In practical agriculture, then, the con- 
 servation of the soil moisture becomes of the greatest 
 importance especially where the annual amount is below 
 the optimum. Even in regions of heavy rainfalls as in our 
 South Atlantic states a large part is carried off by surface 
 washing in the torrential rains of summer, another part 
 evaporates, and still another passes down into the subsoil 
 in the drainage, so that even with fifty inches of annual 
 rainfall it is one of the most difficult of problems to retain 
 for the use of plants as much as one-third of the rain- 
 fall. The importance, then, of using every means possible 
 to prevent the loss of water will become apparent to any 
 one. The practical means for accompHshing this will be 
 more fully treated in another lesson. 
 
 We have seen that water standing too near the sur- 
 face is damaging to our cultivated crops since it makes 
 the soil cold and shuts out the oxygen of the air which 
 is so essential to the welfare of the plant roots. We have 
 also noted that the point in the soil where water lies per- 
 
Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 51 
 
 Drainage and manently is known as the water-table. 
 
 Mechanical Where this water-table is within a foot or 
 Improvement ^ , . , ,. . . 
 
 of Soils ^^° °* ^^^ suriace any addition from rain- 
 
 fall soon floods the land and destroys crops. 
 Hence the importance of drainage for lands of this char- 
 acter. Open ditches will to some extent lower this water- 
 table and carry off the rainfall. But open ditches to be 
 effective in the drainage of the land need to be quite close 
 together and thus are seriously in the way of cultivation. 
 Their banks also become the nurseries of weeds and 
 bushes and need constant clearing. They occupy too 
 much of the land. Hence the importance of taking the 
 water away in underdrains. Underdrains are not pri- 
 marily for carrying off the rainfall rapidly but for lowering 
 the permanent water-table in the soil, thus making room 
 for the air and enabling the soil the more rapidly to take 
 up the water that falls in rain. The air, too, warms the 
 soil and lightens its mechanical condition. To accomplish 
 this the drains must of course be placed in the soil deeper 
 than the natural water-table, and the nearer the lines of 
 drains are to each other the more effectually they will 
 lower the water-table, since each drain will draw water 
 only from a certain distance each side of it, and if too far 
 apart the intervening water-table will be very little lowered. 
 The best material for underdrains is tile 
 Materials and baked like bricks. These are made in short 
 
 e o s or lenprths and of various diameters. Many 
 Drainmg *=" •' 
 
 Lands shapes of tiles have been made, but practical 
 
 tile drainers have settled down on the round 
 
 tubular tiles as best. Various other materials have been 
 
 used and answer very well for a time where tiles may be 
 
52 Practical Farming 
 
 too expensive. One of the simplest forms of underdrains 
 is to cut a ditch of the proper depth and lay in the bottom 
 two pine poles with the bark taken off. These are laid so 
 as to leave a space between them and a larger pole is placed 
 on top so as to form a channel for the water between the 
 first two. The whole are covered with leaves to prevent 
 the earth sifting in and the ditch is then filled. These 
 pole-drains last well and have in some cases done effective 
 work for twenty years. Drains are also made where rocks 
 or stones are plentiful by placing them on the sides of the 
 ditch and covering with other and larger rocks or stones 
 and then with smaller broken parts before filling. These 
 drains when well made are of a very lasting character. 
 Still other drains are made by nailing four narrow boards 
 in the form of a long box and laying these in the ditch. 
 These, too, last well in the ground, for when kept con- 
 stantly wet the wood, shut from the air, takes a long time 
 to decay. But for permanent drains the earthen tiles are 
 much to be preferred where the expense can be afforded. 
 
 Still we have had in use well-made stone underdrains 
 which as near as could be ascertained were laid one hun- 
 dred years ago and are still effective. The drains should 
 be cut as deep as the fall in the land will allow, for the 
 deeper they are below the surface and the nearer the hnes 
 of drains to each other, the more effectively they will lower 
 the water-table. 
 
 Special tools are made for digging and shaping the bot- 
 tom of the ditch and for laying the tiles. We have found 
 that it is always better to cover the tiles at first with fine 
 hay or straw to prevent the earth sifting into the joints of 
 the pipes. 
 
Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 53 
 
 Ground Plans In cutting ditches for underdrains they 
 
 and Grading should run in a direct Hne to a general 
 of Ditches , . , ^, i r , 7 
 
 dram or outlet. The grade of the bottom 
 
 of the ditch must be made perfectly uniform, since any 
 
 break in the grade will form sags that retain silt and 
 
 choke the drains. In a piece of low ground bordered by 
 
 high land and with a stream of water running through, 
 
 the drainage is simple, as the ditches should run from the 
 
 base of the hills directly to the stream, inclining somewhat 
 
 in the direction of the stream to prevent any choking of 
 
 the outlet. In this case the ground plan of the drains will 
 
 be Hke the bones of a fish with the stream representing the 
 
 backbone. The ditches should be as narrow as they can 
 
 well be dug so that the tile at the bottom will rest in a sohd 
 
 bed of similar size and shape to the tile used. 
 
 The distance between the line of ditches will vary with 
 local conditions. Where the fall is slight and the ditches 
 not very deep, they will need to be nearer together; even 
 where there is a good fall and the ditches are cut deeply 
 they will be better near together, if there are strong spring 
 heads near the higher ground. In fact we have found it 
 an advantage to run a line of large tile around the base of 
 the hill to cut off the springs and then to branch the tiles 
 from this line to the outlet. 
 
 The size of the tile used will depend on the amount of 
 water to be carried. Where the wetness of the land is 
 caused by strong springs that break out and overflow it, 
 there will be need of larger tiles to carry off this water than 
 where the wetness is simply due to a general nearness of 
 the water-table to the surface. Where the drains empty 
 into an open ditch or stream the outlet must be protected 
 
54 Practical Farming 
 
 with a facing of stone or bricks to prevent the washing and 
 caving in of the bank. Where a tile drain crosses a springy 
 place with many crawfish holes it is better to place a nar- 
 row plank in the bottom of the ditch on which to place the 
 tile, as the burrowing of the crawfish is apt to throw the tiles 
 out of line and choke them. Wherever the fall will allow 
 it, the depth to which the water-table is lowered should be 
 as nearly four feet as practicable. Where it is impracti- 
 cable to have the drains so deep they should be nearer 
 together. Never connect a lateral tile drain with a main 
 tile at right angles, but always at a more or less acute 
 angle in the direction of the current. The same caution 
 should be used in terminating at an open outlet, where the 
 end should be above the water in the open ditch or stream. 
 The higher or lower level of the source of the water to 
 be drained determines the width between the drains to 
 some extent. As before shown, the water-table in the 
 soil will always be a little higher midway between the lines 
 of tiles, and when the fines are too far apart the water- 
 table midway between the fines will be practically undis- 
 turbed. Where the water in the tiles comes from strong 
 springs on higher land above, the lower levels will become 
 subirrigated from the seepage from the full tiles lower 
 down and a permanent moisture maintained there. If 
 this is not kept too near the surface it will be of advantage 
 to some crops. We once had a piece of land kept moist 
 in this way in which crops of melons and cucumbers 
 throve all through the summer when on drier land they 
 dried up after producing the first crop of fruits. For gar- 
 den crops like celery this subirrigated land will prove 
 very favorable. 
 
Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 55 
 
 The advantages of undcrdrains over open ditches are so 
 many that the matter is hardly debatable. Underdrain- 
 age, by lowering the standing water in the soil, admits the 
 air to a greater depth and hence tends to make the soil 
 warmer. It improves the mechanical texture of the soil 
 through this admission of air separating the soil particles. 
 The roots of plants are able to run deeper into the soil by 
 reason of the improved depth of aerated soil and the im- 
 proved texture. The soil dries earlier in the spring, and 
 hence can be worked at an earlier date, which is of itself 
 advantage enough to pay for the work. The presence of 
 standing water in the soil prevents the release of nitrogen 
 from the organic matter in the soil in the form of nitrates 
 for the use of plants, both by shutting out the air and by 
 preventing the increase of the bacteria which are engaged 
 in the process of the nitrification or change of organic 
 nitrogen to nitrates soluble in the soil water. There is also 
 an acid condition in wet soils that is unfavorable to the 
 growth of plants, and particularly unfavorable to the life 
 of the soil bacteria, the microscopic plants which, as we have 
 seen, are among the most important of the agencies engaged 
 in the production of the higher plants that form our crops. 
 The immense arid regions of the far West, 
 
 Irrigation— v^^here the rainfall is too hght for the pro- 
 Surface and . . . 
 Overhead duction of crops, are made in many sections 
 
 extremely productive through irrigation from 
 
 canals conveying the water at a higher level from the upper 
 
 waters of the streams. The United States Government is 
 
 now engaged in a vast system of storage lakes in this region 
 
 so that great areas of the land now in desert by reason 
 
 of lack of rainfall, will be brought into cultivation. The 
 
56 Practical Farming 
 
 need for irrigation on these lands is generally admitted. 
 But few as yet realize the importance of irrigation in sec- 
 tions where the rainfall is abundant, where it is differently 
 distributed. Our South Atlantic states have an abundant 
 rainfall, which is at times excessive, but at other times 
 they suffer from protracted drought. Cultivators, espe- 
 cially the market gardeners, are beginning to understand 
 that a supply of water available in dry weather often 
 makes all the difference between success and failure of 
 the crops. Instead of running water on the surface in 
 ditches the market gardeners of the South have devised a 
 system of overhead irrigation by means of iron pipes 
 elevated on posts high enough to work horses under. In 
 some cases the water is forced by a steam pump directly 
 through a main pipe of large size, from which lines of per- 
 forated pipes of smaller size branch forty feet apart from 
 each other. By this means a general shower is made over 
 the whole plot of land. In one instance we have exam- 
 ined eighteen acres are thus watered. In other cases the 
 water is pumped to an elevated tank and from there dis- 
 tributed by natural flow to the pipes. 
 
 Another value has been found in this method of over- 
 head irrigation. This is for the purpose of warding off 
 damage from late spring frosts. The shower is kept up 
 during a frosty night, and the cold water, being always 
 above the frost point, with its latent heat prevents any 
 damage from the frost. In hilly districts where there are 
 running streams and low lands bordering them, irrigation 
 may often be done with economy on a small scale by the 
 natural flow of the stream being turned from above to 
 take a higher level in a ditch along the base of the uplands 
 
Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 57 
 
 from which it can be taken to water the market gardens on 
 the flats by running the water slowly between the rows of 
 vegetables. With high-priced products like those of the 
 garden it is often, even in humid districts, profitable to 
 provide some means for watering in dry weather. With 
 the introduction of cheap gasoline engines for pump- 
 ing water to elevated tanks this can often be accom- 
 plished even on lands that cannot be watered from 
 streams. 
 
 In some sections, especially in Europe, on high-priced 
 lands, the sewage flow from the cities has been utilized in 
 the production of great crops of grass. The sewage flows 
 over the surface and the surplus water is carried off by a 
 system of underdrains. Irrigation for general farm crops 
 in our humid sections is still in the future, but will come 
 with the increase in population and the value of the farm- 
 ing lands. In one large institution of over five hundred 
 inmates, in this country, the sewage is disposed of on a 
 five-acre lot of grass. The sewage is received in a general 
 cesspool from which porous tiles radiate in all directions, 
 and below these are lines of drainage tiles to carry off the 
 surplus water, which flows almost entirely purified by 
 the absorbent power of the soil, into a stream below. 
 The field cuts very heavy crops of grass. 
 
 It is probable that the overhead system, imitating a 
 rainfall, will be the one most generally used by market 
 gardeners. One market gardener's farm in North Caro- 
 lina has now eighteen acres irrigated in this way. The 
 overhead sprinkling pipes can also be used for the distri- 
 bution of fertilizers dissolved in the supply tanks and can 
 thus be distributed in the most uniform and readily avail- 
 
58 Practical Farming 
 
 able manner. The absorbent power of a good loam soil 
 is such that even when the plant food is in perfect solution 
 the soil will hold on and rob the solution of the plant food 
 so that nothing will escape in the drainage water except 
 the nitrates. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS 
 
 PLANTS of all kinds make their growth by multi- 
 plication of minute box-like forms called cells. In 
 the lowest forms of plant Ufe the entire plant con- 
 sists of a single cell containing the living matter known 
 to botanists as protoplasm. This Hving matter, though 
 itself a formless substance resembhng the white of an egg, 
 does all the work of the plant. From material carried by 
 this formless protoplasm it builds the walls of its cell and 
 carries on all the functions of hfe. As plants develop in 
 complexity we find that the first increase of these cells is 
 in long strings, cell added to cell in straight rows. With 
 little higher organism, as in mosses, they are formed into 
 flat tissues by the union of these rows of cells, making 
 some resemblance to the true leaves of the higher plants. 
 When we come to the ferns we find a greater complexity, 
 certain cells taking on certain work and others making 
 quite different forms. Then in our ordinary forest trees 
 we find a still greater complexity and division of labor 
 between the various cells. 
 
 By examining the cross-section of one of our trees we 
 can see with the naked eye a series of rings of growth 
 around a common center. Examining these rings with a 
 microscope we find that the appearance of rings is pro- 
 duced by the decrease in the size of the cells and the thick- 
 ening of their walls toward the close of the season, the new 
 
 59 
 
60 Practical Farming 
 
 growth of the following season starting with large and thin- 
 walled cells and gradually growing thicker-walled toward 
 the close of the season of growth. 
 
 The ring-like appearance gives us the means for count- 
 ing the age of the tree. Growth is added to the tree in 
 circles of cells something after the manner of building a 
 house by adding brick after brick, only that in the tree 
 the brick-maker and the mason hve inside the bricks and 
 from their ovm substance construct the walls around them. 
 In the first stages of growth, as between the bark and 
 the wood, these cells are all in communication with each 
 other, so that materials can be transported up or down 
 throughout the whole increasing tissue of the cells, and 
 their becoming more woody cuts o£f each cell to itself, 
 and the living matter in each cell goes on thickening the 
 walls around it till its substance is entirely used up, and 
 in the completed wood there is no life left. It is now 
 heart wood, dead wood, and remains simply as a support 
 to the tree, while the Hfe goes on circling around it and 
 gradually adding more completed wood to the heart. 
 That this heart wood is no longer of use to the tree except 
 as a support is well shown by the fact that the heart may 
 decay and the tree become hollow and the growth still 
 goes on uninterrupted. But cut off the sap wood, and 
 the tree at once dies. 
 
 There is, however, another class of plants 
 
 Two ea ing j^ ^^^ stems of which we see none of this 
 
 Classes of 
 
 Plants ring-like growth, but the whole stem is 
 
 filled with a multitude of long fibers growing 
 
 through a softer aggregation of thin-walled cells. We do 
 
 not find this character of growth in trees till we reach the 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 61 
 
 section where palm trees grow, but all of our grasses have 
 some such structure. Indian corn, really a grass, is a 
 good example. Break off a dry stalk of com and you will 
 find a multitude of the thread-like forms growing up 
 through the soft fundamental tissue. If we make a thin 
 cross-section of a corn stalk and examine it under a micro- 
 scope we shall see that these threads are really tubular in 
 form and are the means through which each leaf on the 
 corn plant gets the water from the soil. Not that the soil 
 water comes up in these tube-like structures in the same 
 way that water runs through a pipe, for the elongated cells 
 are really filled with air and the water rises by permeating 
 the walls of the cells. 
 
 These two classes of plants have been denominated, 
 the first class exogens or outside growers, and the second 
 class endogens or inside growers. While these names are 
 not scientifically accurate they serve very well to distin- 
 guish the characters of the plants. The differences in 
 their structure are correlated with other differences, be- 
 ginning from the structure of the flowers, the germination, 
 and the general habit of the plants. The better distin- 
 guishing terms would be to call the first class, the exogens, 
 dicotyledons, because of the fact that in germinating from 
 the seed they always have a pair of seed leaves, while the 
 other class or endogens, are very properly monocotyle- 
 dons, or one-seed-leaf plants. The seed leaves are termed 
 cotyledons by botanists, and with the prefix, mono, the 
 word means of one, and with di, of two, seed leaves. 
 There is still another class with which we have little to 
 do in agriculture, which make a circle of seed leaves 
 in germinating, and is therefore called poly, or many 
 
62 Practical Farming 
 
 cotyledons. Our pine trees give us an example of this 
 
 class. But the pines, while differing in their internal 
 
 structure from many other plants of two or more seed 
 
 leaves, are still outside growers like the true dicotyledons. 
 
 Even our common forest trees, which in the greater part 
 
 of this country all belong to the dicotyledons, have certain 
 
 of their cells transformed into the tubular shape for the 
 
 conveyance of water and afterward for the distribution of 
 
 the elaborated material for the growth of the tree. Various 
 
 names are applied to these transformed cells by botanists 
 
 according to the purpose they serve in the Hfe of the plant. 
 
 But it is not our purpose here to deal in botanical terms 
 
 further than is necessary to comprehend the structures 
 
 that carry on the life-work of plants. 
 
 To study the growth of a plant it is best 
 The Study of ^^ ^.^ ^.^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ q^^ ^f ^^^ ^^^^ 
 the Bean '^ 
 
 subjects to select for study is the common 
 
 garden bean. Take some beans and soak them for a 
 night in water. The next morning you will find that 
 they have swollen. This is the first step toward germi- 
 nation. So long as a seed is kept perfectly dry the living 
 matter in it will remain dormant, and in some seeds it 
 can be kept dormant, but still Hving, for many years, while 
 others lose their vitality in a short time, and some will not 
 even admit of complete drying. But to return to the 
 swollen bean. You will find that it has a protective coat 
 around the whole — a sort of skin. On one side you will 
 find the eye or scar where it was attached to the interior 
 lining of the pod. On one side of this eye you will find a 
 raised lump and on the other side a minute opening 
 through the outer skin. Now place a knife blade carefully 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 63 
 
 on the other side of the bean and split it into halves as 
 it naturally divides. Down near the eye you can easily 
 see a pair of miniature leaves and a short pointed stem, the 
 point being directed straight toward the little opening 
 we noticed on the outside. The bean, having imbibed 
 moisture, is ready to begin active life, for a plentiful supply 
 of moisture is essential to the activity of the living matter 
 in the seed, which performs all the work of the plant, and 
 it must swell from its dormant condition and fill the cells 
 before active life can begin. 
 
 Now place in a deep saucer a number of layers of thick 
 blotting paper and wet them well. Lay some of the 
 swollen beans on this wet paper and cover the saucer with 
 a pane of glass, and keep in a warm place. At the same 
 time plant some in wet sand in a box with the eyes of the 
 beans down. Watch those on the paper and in a little 
 while you will see the pointed end of the stem you examine 
 in the spht bean protruding through the little opening, and 
 directly the two halves of the bean begin to separate and 
 rise up, and become somewhat green in color. The stem 
 runs along on the damp paper straight ahead and becomes 
 a root, and shortly other roots branch from it, each with a 
 pointed end. Examine these roots with an ordinary mag- 
 nifying glass and you will see that the end of each rootlet 
 is naked, while just back of it the root is covered with a 
 velvety coating of fine hairs. 
 
 The older botanists told us that the extreme tips of the 
 roots of plants were soft and spongy, and they called them 
 spongioles, supposing that it was by them that the plant 
 got food from the soil. We now know better, and know 
 that the means through which the plant takes food from 
 
64 Practical Farming 
 
 the soil dissolved in the soil water, is the mass of fine root 
 hairs just back of the pointed tip, and that instead of 
 being the softest part the tip of the root is really a little 
 older than the part just back of it. 
 
 We have seen that the growth in a tree is carried on by 
 the increase in cells circling around it under the bark. 
 The same is true with the roots. The protective cover of 
 bark is carried to the remotest rootlet, and the cells increase 
 under it at the tip and around it everywhere. The added 
 growth at the tip under the root-cap pushes the root for- 
 ward in the soil, while the outer part wears away to some 
 extent and is constantly renewed. You will understand 
 at once that this is a wise provision, for if the extreme 
 tip were really the youngest growing point it could never 
 insert itself among the particles of the soil. The root 
 hairs, which are the means through which the plant gets 
 food from the soil, dry up and die off as the root gets older, 
 while new ones arc constantly being formed out near the 
 advancing root-cap; so that the roots are always foraging 
 in new soil. This illustrates the error that a multitude 
 of farmers make in putting manure or fertilizers only 
 in the hill for corn. It would do the corn far more good 
 at the critical period of earing if it were in the middle 
 between the rows, where the advancing roots would find it 
 at earing time. In the hill the roots soon pass it and are 
 foraging in poorer soil which fails to sustain the growth 
 started by the manure in the hill, and the corn plants 
 soon show that they are failing. Knowing, too, that the 
 portion of the roots engaged in getting food from the 
 soil is a short part near the tip of the rootlets, we can 
 understand the folly of running a plow deeply through 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 65 
 
 a corn field and tearing off the roots that were feeding 
 the plants. 
 
 But to return to our beans. Note the beans planted in 
 the box of moist sand. The two halves of the bean sepa- 
 rate as they come above the soil. They get larger, and 
 green in color, and the little leaves that you saw in embryo 
 in the split bean are developing into large green leaves. 
 Until the plant takes on this green color it is entirely 
 dependent for food on what was stored in the dry bean. 
 The two halves, separating, form the cotyledons or seed 
 leaves, though they never take on the character of true 
 leaves, and it is not necessary they should in the bean 
 because of the rapidity with which the second pair of 
 leaves come out. But the thick cotyledons could remain 
 under ground and feed the plant till the true leaves appear. 
 In fact this is done by the garden pea and the acorn, the 
 cotyledons of which always remain below ground, and the 
 first leaves seen are the true leaves and not seed leaves. 
 
 The green color is caused by certain granules in the 
 living matter of the cells taking on a green color. These 
 granules are called chlorophyll grains, and the green color 
 they carry is the most important thing in the life of the 
 higher-developed plants, as we shall see later. The little 
 bean, now having roots, a pair of seed leaves, and a second 
 joint and pair of leaves, is a complete plant, and has all 
 the parts that any plant has, even to the largest tree; for 
 the great tree is but a repetition of these plant units: a 
 node or joint, an internode or space between the joints, 
 and a pair of leaves or one leaf. The bean plant in the 
 sand has these, and the great tree merely has more in 
 number of the same things. 
 
66 Practical Farming 
 
 How Plants We have said that the green granules in 
 
 Get Food ^Yi^ living matter of the plant cells known as 
 
 from the Air , , , „ . , 
 
 chlorophyll, are one of the most important 
 
 things in the life of the plant. And the green color 
 is essential to their activity. Let a potato sprout in 
 the dark and you may take the section of the stem and 
 find that the granules are there, but have not taken 
 on the green color. Find two potatoes of exactly the 
 same weight. Let one sprout in darkness and keep the 
 other one from sprouting till the sprouted one has made 
 long white shoots. Then thoroughly dry them both as a 
 chemist would dry them and you will find that the sprouted 
 one has not gained anything in dry matter. There has 
 simply been a transfer of the materials stored in the potato 
 to a different form, and no real growth has been made. 
 Now take two similar potatoes and let one of them sprout 
 in the full light of the sun till there have been developed 
 strong green shoots, then dry both again, and you will 
 find that the potato that has made green sprouts has 
 gained a little in dry matter. 
 
 Hence we find that in some way the green color is an 
 important thing in the plant life. By far the larger por- 
 tion of the structure of all plants comes from the air, over 
 95 per cent. How then does the plant get the material 
 for growth from the air? In the leaves of every plant, 
 especially on the underside of all leaves, there are numerous 
 openings of microscopic size, on each side of which there 
 is a cell something like a lip, and these two lips constitute 
 really the mouths of the plant, for they are capable of 
 opening and closing just as we can open and close our 
 lips. They open between the loosely arranged cells in 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 67 
 
 the interior of the leaf. These cells are full of the green 
 chlorophyll granules. The air, as we have seen, always 
 contains a minute portion of carbon dioxide or carbonic 
 acid gas. When the sun shines, and at no other time, the 
 mouths of the leaf, or the stomata (singular stoma), open, 
 and the air with the carbon dioxide, can penetrate to the 
 interior of the leaf, there coming in contact with the green 
 granules. This green material has the extraordinary 
 power of breaking up the combination of the carbon and 
 oxygen in the carbon dioxide and taking in the carbon. 
 The leaf throws off the oxygen and thus serves to purify 
 the air from the carbon dioxide which, while furnishing 
 food to the plant, is poisonous to animal life. It cannot 
 of course be determined that the plant does throw off the 
 identical oxygen that was combined with the carbon, but 
 it does throw off about the same amount. Getting this 
 carbon, then, from the air, the living matter in the cells of 
 the leaf goes to work to make further combinations with 
 it and the hydrogen, oxygen, and other matters brought 
 from the soil. So it constructs new material for new cell 
 walls, for renewing the waste of hving matter, and for the 
 purposes of growth in general. 
 
 The materials elaborated in the leaves are sent to every 
 part of the plant where cells are forming and growth is 
 going on. To the remotest tip of the shoots and the 
 farthest rootlet, the materials for growth are sent from 
 the leaves, so that whatever the leaf of a plant is that will 
 be what the plant as a whole is. No mistake is ever made. 
 The leaves of the apple tree manufacture material for 
 apple wood, apple roots, and apple leaves only. The oak 
 and the pine growing side by side with their roots inter- 
 
68 Practical Farming 
 
 laced, never forget thai they are oaks and pines, and that 
 each takes food from the soil in a (hlTerent way and makes 
 a difTcrcnt article in the final result of its work. The soil 
 water, brought up by the roots and distributed to the leaves 
 through the elongated vessels which branch into the leaf 
 and form what we call the veins of the leaf, has food for the 
 plants in a very dilute state. The stomata of the leaves 
 then take on another office, and to some slight extent the 
 whole leaf aids in this. This is the eva[)oration or trans- 
 piration of moisture, in the form of invisible vapor, into 
 the air. Thus the plant condenses the watery food, re- 
 taining the food and ])arting with the surplus moisture. 
 Sometimes this evaporation becomes too rapid, and the 
 moisture passes off more rapidly than the roots can supply 
 it from a com])aratively dry soil. The result is that the 
 leaves wilt and the stomata in the leaves close, so that 
 the evajioration is checked. The wilting of the leaf is 
 Nature's method of checking evaporation. If too long 
 continued of course the plant dies, but under ordinary 
 conditions the plant during a night will have taken up 
 more moisture from the soil and the morning fmds it 
 freshened again and ready to resume work. 
 
 If you will examine the arrangement of the leaves on a 
 branch of any plant or tree you will find that they are 
 arranged so that each leaf has its own share of exposure 
 to light and air, so that each leaf has its own opportunity 
 to do its work. 
 
 When the leaves take in the carbon dioxide and in this 
 way get carbon by breaking up the combination with the 
 oxygen, the plant goes to work, as we have said, to manu- 
 facture the materials needed for growth, and for the sup- 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 69 
 
 port of ils living matter. The first thing we can find that 
 is formed in this way is starch, but it is probable that 
 really some form of sugar for the immediate consumption 
 of the growing plant is first formed, though it cannot be 
 detected. Starch is called a carbohydrate because it con- 
 sists of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Carbohydrates 
 are used by plants for building purposes and as a storage 
 form for food to be used in subsequent growth. Starch 
 is largely stored up in seeds, but in some seeds is very 
 largely changed into oil, as in the cotton seed and others. 
 When we put a seed in the ground and it imbibes water 
 and begins to germinate, the starch is transformed into a 
 sort of sugar which the growing plant can use, for starch 
 as starch is not digestible by animals or plants. 
 
 In the germinating seed there is a sort of ferment formed 
 that changes starch to sugar without itself being in any 
 way changed. We have the same thing called diastase in 
 our saliva, and when we eat starchy food this is mixed with 
 it and changes the starch to a glucosidc or sort of sugar, 
 so that it is made digestible. Starch, then, is a storage 
 for food. It is stored in the cells of the plant and when 
 active growth begins it changes into sugar for use. Take 
 a potato that has sprouted, and on cooking it you will find 
 that it has become clammy and has a sweetish taste, 
 owing to this transformation of the starch. In seeds 
 where the food is stored in the form of oil the oil is trans- 
 formed back to starch and the starch to sugar for the use 
 of the plant till it can develop green leaves and get more 
 material from the air for the manufacture of more starch. 
 From the starch all the long list of substances called 
 carbohydrates is formed; the sugars, oils, acids, and 
 
70 Practical Farming 
 
 woody ni:iU'ri;il for trees. 'J'lu' only ])arl of the jjlant con- 
 taining nitrogen is the living rnatlcr or ])roto])lasm, which 
 does all the work of the plant. We find, then, in all our 
 food crops these two classes of substances: the nitrogenous 
 or proteid materials and the carbohydrates and fats. Of 
 these and their nature we will treat in another lesson. 
 
 Take a large plant of green Indian corn 
 How Plants .^^^^^ ^.^,, n ^^^ .j,^^| ^^,^.j ,^ ^ .p, ^| jj 
 Get Food ... 
 
 from the Soil thoroughly by artificial heat so as to drive 
 
 off all the water. Weigh it again, and you 
 
 will find that it has lost a great deal by parting with the 
 
 water it contained. Now burn it. Hum it thoroughly, 
 
 as a chemist would in a crucible, till nothing is left but 
 
 ])ure white ash. With the exception of the nitrogen and 
 
 water whiih has been driven off into the air, this little 
 
 handful of ashes contains all that the plant took from the 
 
 soil, and you can realize how small a portion of the bulk 
 
 of the ])lant came from the soil. The ashes contain the 
 
 lime, })hos])horus, ])otassium, and other mineral elements. 
 
 You have destroyed the stalk of corn as a stalk of corn, 
 
 but you have not really destroyed anything. You have 
 
 simply changed to another form of energy the energy of 
 
 ])osition located there by the sunlight acting on the green 
 
 leaves. Thus in burning coal we get back the radiant 
 
 energy of the sunlight of long ages ago when the plants 
 
 that formed the coal-beds grew; and we send back to the 
 
 air the matc'rials that in the first j)lace came from the air, 
 
 the carbon dioxide and the water, so that nature can begin 
 
 to use them over again in the construction of other plants. 
 
 We can change the form of matter but we can never 
 
 destroy anything. 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology oj Plants 71 
 
 Now, how does the plant get these mineral elements 
 from the soil? In treating of the germination of the bean 
 we have seen that near the pointed root-cap there is a 
 short space covered with velvety hairs. These hairs on 
 the rootlet are the absorbing agents of the plant through 
 which it gets food from the soil. The pointed root-cap 
 we learned is projected through the soil by the increase 
 of cells behind it; and as fast as new root growlli is made 
 there is a new belt of root hairs formed as the old ones dry 
 off, so that the roots are always foraging in fresh soil. 
 Since these root hairs are of extremely minute size, though 
 they have been demonstrated to be tubular, they cannot 
 take in any undissolved matter, and hence the food for 
 the plant must be completely dissolved in the soil water. 
 
 There is some evidence, as you saw in an earlier lesson, 
 that the root hairs themselves have a power to hasten the 
 solution of matters in the soil, and they certainly have the 
 jjower to select from the dissolved plant-food in the soil 
 water the elements they most desire. Thus, one plant 
 will use potash in much larger percentage than another, 
 and another will seek out the phosphorus and nitrogen 
 more largely. No matter how the roots interlace in the 
 forest each tree does its own work and never by any mis- 
 hap takes on the work of another. 
 
 The soil water, laden with the j)lant food taken in with 
 it, is carried up through the long tubular-shaped cells and 
 the veins of the leaf till it meets the carbon taken in 
 from the air; and then, in the leaf, which is the labora- 
 tory of the plant, all the materials that add growth to 
 the plant are formed. The water that rushes u[) into 
 the trees in the spiring is not sap but merely the material 
 
72 Practical Farming 
 
 for the manufacture of the elaborated sap in the leaves. 
 The plant gets from the soil nitrogen, phosphorus, potas- 
 sium, lime, magnesium, sulphur, and some other minor 
 things. The nitrogen originally comes from the air to the 
 soil, and we have means for getting it back from the air, 
 as we shall see. 
 
 Each part of the plant, we have observed, has its par- 
 ticular function. The leaves, with their chlorophyll, take 
 in and decompose the carbon dioxide in the air, appro- 
 priate the carbon for starch-making, and return oxygen 
 to the air to purify it for animal Hfe. The roots, with 
 their constantly multiplying areas of root hairs, take the 
 various ash elements and the nitrogen from the soil dis- 
 solved in the soil water, and carry the dissolved food up 
 through the conducting bundles of cells to the leaves. 
 There the material for construction and for the food of 
 the Hving matter is formed, and from this elaborated 
 material all the increase in the cells of the plant is made, 
 both to tops and roots. It is plain, then, that roots are 
 the product of stems and leaves, and not stems and leaves 
 of roots. It is perfectly possible in most plants to place a 
 cutting under proper conditions, and from food stored in 
 the cells of the cutting to form roots, and in this way to 
 make a new plant that is identical with the plant from 
 which the cutting came. In some plants it is easy, indeed, 
 to make new plants also from cuttings of the roots, for on 
 many roots there occur what are known as adventitious 
 buds. But this fact does not contradict the statement 
 that roots are the product of stems, for the material from 
 which growth is made from a root cutting is the result of 
 materials stored there by the stems and leaves. 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 73 
 
 Some grccn-lcavcd jjlants grow immersed in water, and 
 
 these get their carbon from the air always present in water 
 
 and in turn they keep the water supphed with oxygen to 
 
 support aquatic life in animals that live in the water. 
 
 Put a few fish in a vessel of water, and they soon exhaust 
 
 the oxygen and are found sucking air at the surface and 
 
 soon die. But if a few water plants are grown in the vessel 
 
 where the fish are they remain healthy and thrive. This 
 
 shows that water always contains some air, and that plants 
 
 are essential to animal life in water as on land. Without 
 
 plants there could be no life either on land or in the water, 
 
 for plants use the minerals which animals cannot use and 
 
 transform them into shapes that are the food of animals. 
 
 On the other hand, a large part of the food of animals is 
 
 excreted and returned to the soil for the use of plants, and 
 
 the dead bodies of animals return to the earth to feed 
 
 other plants, thus keej)ing up the round of nature. 
 
 Plants are increased in various ways. 
 
 How Plants The natural way in which all of our higher 
 
 re erpe u- p^^^j^^g ^^^, increased is by the seed. In the 
 ated and ^ •' 
 
 Perfected blossoms of plants the leaves, which on other 
 
 parts of the plant perform the work of taking 
 
 in carbon, are transformed into the various organs, each 
 
 having its special office to perform in perpetuating the life 
 
 of the plant. 
 
 The normal, complete, and perfect flower has four sets 
 
 of organs. P'irst, at the end of the stem bearing the flower 
 
 we find what is called the calyx of the flower. This is 
 
 commonly green, but sometimes colored (botanists do 
 
 not class green as a color, it being the natural color of 
 
 plants, and when a part is said to be colored it means 
 
74 Practical Farming 
 
 that it is some color beside green). Inside of this calyx 
 there is a row or rows of colored leaves, known as petals, 
 and these taken together form the corolla of the flower. 
 The calyx, the separate leaves of which are called sepals, 
 and the corolla take no part in the formation of the seed. 
 They are the protective parts of the flower; and by the 
 color of the corolla bees and other insects are attracted 
 to the flowers and serve to set the seed, as we shall see. 
 Inside the corolla there are a row or rows of still more 
 transformed leaves, commonly slender and hair-like, and 
 on the end of each of these is a closed vessel containing 
 minute cells of hving matter. These are called the sta- 
 mens or male part of the flower, and the vessels at the 
 ends are called anthers. The little cells of living matter 
 contained in these anthers are what is called pollen. As 
 lliis pollen matures the vessels containing it open in 
 various ways, so that the line pollen grains are dispersed. 
 In the interior center of the flower is another organ called 
 the pistil. A normal pistil consists of an ovary or seed 
 vessel at the base, a more or less elongated stem called 
 the style, and a space at the top of this which is entirely 
 bare of any skin or covering and for a time is moist, and 
 v^hich is called the stigma. Now, when the pollen in the 
 anthers of the stamens is mature and is dispersed it falls 
 on this moist stigma. At once the little cells begin to 
 grow and ])enetratc downward through the style of the 
 pistil till they reach the ovary or seed vessel. In this 
 ovary there are certain bodies known as ovules. The 
 living matter of the pollen reaches the living matter in 
 these ovules, and at once a new growth is started and 
 finally the germ of a new plant is formed — a seed — and is 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology oj Plants 75 
 
 surrounded by or includes a store of material that can be 
 used by it in germinating when the seed is planted. The 
 seed now formed, with its germ and store of food, parts 
 with its water and ripens into a perfect seed, which is capa- 
 ble of remaining dormant for a longer or shorter period 
 in different plants; and when placed in the soil it imbibes 
 water and the living matter again becomes active, and the 
 food stored in the seed supports the growth until green 
 leaves are formed and new material for growth can be got 
 from the air. 
 
 We have described a normal, complete, and perfect 
 flower. A complete flower has all the organs named, but 
 a flower may be perfect for all the purposes of seed- 
 making when the corolla and calyx are absent, hence the 
 distinction between a perfect and a complete flower. 
 Some species bear flowers on one plant which have only 
 the male organs, and have the pistils or female organs on 
 flowers borne by other plants. Some plants, like our 
 Indian corn, have male flowers or stamens on one part of 
 the plants and the pistils or female flowers on another 
 part. 
 
 In Indian com the anthers with their pollen are the tassel, 
 and the pistils that belong to every grain on the ear are 
 what we call the silks, and the part of the silks that extend 
 beyond the ear are the stigmas which receive the pollen, 
 and this perfects the embryo or germ in the grain of corn. 
 The tassels with the pollen are elevated so that the pollen 
 does not generally fall on the stigmas of the same plant, 
 but is blown to others. But in a com field this pollen is 
 made in such great quantities that all the pistils usually 
 get a supply, and nature adopts this plan to prevent too 
 
76 Practical Farming 
 
 close breeding. One can easily see that this is so by 
 observing a sohtary plant of Indian corn that grows at a 
 distance from any other corn plant. You will find that 
 only a few grains will be formed on the cobs, because only 
 a little of the pollen fell direct on the stigmas of the pistils. 
 You will also see that a plot of yellow corn planted to the 
 windward of a plot of white corn will affect the white corn, 
 and make scattered grains of yellow corn by reason of the 
 wind-borne pollen. In this way corn will often mix a 
 long distance. All of our plants and crops make a great 
 abundance of pollen in order that there may be no lack 
 of seed-making. 
 
 All this is Nature's process for the increase of plant 
 life. Man has devised many other methods for the in- 
 crease of plants. It is found that by crossing in various 
 ways of the pollen of one plant on the pistils of another 
 the plants grown from seed can be made to vary greatly. 
 Hence, in our fruit trees we seldom resort to the seed 
 except for the purpose of getting new varieties. We con- 
 tinue the identical plant by dividing it in various ways. 
 This can be done by making cuttings and rooting them 
 as we have shown, or the cutting may be inserted as a graft 
 or bud on another plant which already has a root, and 
 this serves to sustain the new part that is attached to it 
 and allowed to make the future tree. Or we may bend a 
 branch to the earth and cover it till rooted and then have 
 a new plant identical with that from which it came. Of 
 all these artificial methods of increasing plants we will 
 treat in detail in further lessons. Our farm crops are 
 grown from seeds, and the perfection of the seed is a 
 matter of great importance to the farmer. Every farmer, 
 
The Anatomy and Physiology 0} Plants 77 
 
 therefore, should understand the methods best adapted to 
 
 the perfection of the seed he uses for his crops. 
 
 Much has been pubhshed of late years in 
 
 Plant-breeding j-ggQ^j-d to the improvement of the corn crop, 
 Applied to the , , i i i , 
 
 Corn Crop ^^^ great stress has been placed on the 
 
 proper selection of ears for this purpose. 
 But the mere selection of pretty and well-formed ears 
 will do little toward the improvement of the corn crop. 
 In any improvement of our plants used for farm crops we 
 must make a careful study of the whole plant. If we 
 breed corn simply for a pretty ear we may get the pretty 
 ear borne on a very undesirable plant with but a single ear, 
 and that too far from the ground and liable to be blown 
 over. In starting the improvement of Indian corn we 
 must remember what has been said of the way corn is 
 fertilized by the pollen around it. Each silk is a separate 
 pistil, with its separate ovary, the whole of which is trans- 
 formed by the pollen into a fruit or grain. So, instead of 
 assuming that the ear is the unit to begin with we must 
 know that each grain on the cob may have, and probably 
 has, a distinct male parent or pollen grain, and is there- 
 fore entirely different in its inheritance from the grain 
 just beside it. Now, if the pretty and well-formed ear 
 we have selected by the score card has grown where it is 
 surrounded by inferior plants it is easy to see that it will 
 be as apt to reproduce the inferior plants as the one from 
 which it came. Therefore, the farmer who wishes to 
 improve his corn should plant a plot to be grown for seed. 
 He should use com that has long been grown in his sec- 
 tion, for com from far north or south of any given locality 
 will not do well there till acclimated. He should give this 
 
78 Practical Farming 
 
 plot the best attention in the cultivation. Then, when the 
 plants begin to make tassels, go through and remove these 
 from the plants that show no ear coming, and from all of 
 an inferior character and of too tall and ungainly stature 
 or too stunted growth, or that are evidently of inferior 
 production. In this way the pollen will be produced only 
 by the best plants in the plot. From the best ears grown 
 in this way select seed for another plot, and use the gen- 
 eral product for the field planting. Take the same care 
 every year with the seed plot to get all the plants nearer 
 and nearer to your ideal of a perfect corn plant. 
 
 Breed at first for productiveness in ears, and after the 
 trait of bearing two or more cars is well established it 
 will be time enough to go by the score card and select the 
 best ears. I have given these directions for the selection 
 of seed corn as it is one of the important crops and one 
 that yields readily to proper selection. You want plants 
 of corn of a sturdy habit, with short joints and broad 
 leaves, for the leaf is the most important organ in the 
 general development of the plant. Similar methods will 
 be of value with all of our crops, whether wheat, cotton, 
 or any other crop ; for only from the best formed and best 
 matured seed can the best crop be grown. Of other crops 
 we will have more in detail hereafter. We have used 
 Indian com to illustrate how plants develop. How the 
 roots of this corn plant should be developed and im- 
 proved we will discuss more fully when we come to tillage 
 of crops. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 PLANT FOOD IN THE SOIL 
 
 WHILE plants get the larger part of their bulk 
 from carbonaceous material constructed from 
 carbon taken out of the air, we have seen that 
 the elements which they get dissolved in the soil water 
 through their roots are of vital importance, for without the 
 water itself the carbon would be useless, and without 
 the nitrogen there could be no protoplasm to continue the 
 life work of the plant. A fertile and productive soil 
 is not only one in which there is a good supply of the 
 elements which the plant gets from the soil, but one in 
 which the mechanical texture is such, and the condition 
 of the plant food is such, that the roots of plants can make 
 use of the food. 
 
 Years ago the notion prevailed that all that was neces- 
 sary to show the farmer how to improve the productive- 
 ness of his soil was for the chemist to make an analysis of 
 it and show him what it lacked so that he could add the 
 lacking materials. But experience has shown that this 
 analysis is of little value to the farmer, for the chemist can 
 simply tell him what the soil contains, but cannot tell him 
 whether plants can use these materials or not. 
 
 Sometimes certain plant foods, especially potash, which 
 are in an unavailable condition in the soil, may be made 
 available by the use of hme or plaster, which is the sul- 
 phate of lime, and many farmers seeing that lime helps 
 
 79 
 
80 Practical Farming 
 
 their soil have jumped to the conclusion that all they have 
 to do to make their soil rich and productive is to keep 
 using lime on it, not realizing that the effect of the lime 
 is to make available the supply of potash that already 
 exists in their soil. Hence, there came about the proverb 
 that "lime enriches the father and impoverishes the son." 
 While this is true when hme is incautiously used, with the 
 idea that it is simply a manure, lime is of great value in 
 improved agriculture, as we shall sec later. 
 
 Plants cannot grow in any soil which does not contain 
 nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, magne- 
 sium, sulphur, sodium (for some species), chlorin, and 
 siUcon. Most of these exist in inexhaustible amounts in 
 all cultivable soils. Those which are Hable to become 
 exhausted or deficient from cultivation are nitrogen, 
 phosphorus, potassium, and sometimes calcium. The 
 crops we grow take these in larger amounts than other 
 elements. If any one of these is in the soil in a smaller 
 percentage than a proper development of the plant re- 
 quires, the crop will be smaller even though the other 
 elements are in full supply. The soil that has a very 
 small percentage of potassium and phosphorus may have 
 a large supply of nitrogen; and the plants may make a 
 rank growth and yet fail to perfect grain, since the per- 
 fection of the grain depends on these elements. In like 
 manner there may be a full supply of these available and 
 yet a deficiency of nitrogen, and the plants will make a 
 feeble growth, and lack the healthy green of flourishing 
 crops. Hence it is necessary that the plant food in the 
 soil shall be as well balanced as it has been found neces- 
 sary to balance the rations for our domestic animals. 
 
Plant Food in the Soil 81 
 
 Then again, a soil may be abundantly supplied with all 
 the elements of plant food in a perfectly available form, 
 but if there is no water to dissolve them for the use of 
 plants the soil will be a barren one, or produce only such 
 plants as are able to exist in desert conditions. The re- 
 sults of irrigating the desert lands of the West show this 
 very plainly. Still again, the soil may possess an abund- 
 ance of plant food, but the temperature of the soil may be 
 kept too low by the presence of water near the surface, 
 the water, too, shutting out the full supply of air which is 
 essential to plant roots. So the soil will be unproductive 
 except in such plants as prefer these saturated conditions, 
 and the growing of farm crops on such land imperatively 
 demands the drainage of the surplus water. Then, too, 
 as we have said, the physical and mechanical nature of 
 the soil may prevent the prosperity of plant life on it, and 
 means for ameliorating these conditions are usually within 
 the reach of the farmer, as we shall endeavor to show 
 later. 
 
 While all the elements named are essential to plant life, 
 some of them exist in all soils so abundantly that there is 
 never any need for using them as additional plant food. 
 Iron, for instance, is the most abundant of all the ele- 
 ments. Our clays are colored with the oxidized iron, 
 and we could hardly make up a mixture of fertihzing 
 materials without at the same time getting some iron in it. 
 The green color of plant leaves caused by the chlorophyll 
 grains, is due to iron, and so long as trees and plants in 
 general make green leaves it is evidence of an abundance 
 of iron. Sulphur is essential, but it is always in combi- 
 nation with other elements in the soil and the fcrtihzers 
 
82 Practical Farming 
 
 used, and we do not use sulphur as sulphur. (In fact, as 
 we shall try to explain, we do not use any of the elements 
 in the soil as pure elements.) Sodium is essential mainly 
 to marine plants, and is of little use in the plants usually 
 grown as farm crops. There was some years ago an effort 
 made by the salt manufacturers to make the farmers be- 
 lieve that sodium could take the place of potassium. But 
 you have been told that plants will not thrive where there 
 is a deficiency of potash, though there may be a large per- 
 centage of sodium. None of our cultivated crops use 
 sodium to any great extent, though the chloride of sodium, 
 common salt, may have some effect in the solution of 
 other matters in the soil, and to some extent may be useful 
 to such crops as cabbage and beets, which in their wild 
 state are natives of the seashore. Lime exists in the soil 
 as the carbonate of calcium, and is largely used by plants 
 to render harmless certain acids, such as oxalic acid, which 
 are formed in the plant. The oxalic acid is located in 
 crystals of the oxalate of lime in certain cells, and this 
 form being insoluble in the cell sap, the acid is rendered 
 harmless to the plant. Lime is also found in all the cell 
 walls. But the supply of hme needed as plant food is 
 usually abundant in all cultivated soils, and it is mainly 
 valuable as a reagent, as will be explained in full. 
 
 Nitrogen is a gas which we have shown to be the larger 
 part of the mixture of nitrogen and oxygen which we call 
 air. Hence it must be got into combination with other 
 matters before it can be located in the soil and become 
 available to plants. Considerable quantities of nitrogen 
 are brought to the soil in the rain water in the form of 
 ammonia, which is a hydride of nitrogen. The decay of 
 
Plant Food in the Soil 83 
 
 organic matter, or matter that has once formed the bodies 
 of animals or of plants, also brings ammonia to the soil. 
 But it has been found that the roots of ordinary plants do 
 not use ammonia. When the organic matter decays in 
 the soil, however, the decay is caused by certain low forms 
 of plant life known as bacteria, which hasten the decay by 
 their growth and through this decay release the ammonia. 
 Then other forms of these bacteria, which thrive in a soil 
 abounding in organic decay or humus, feed upon the 
 ammonia and the final result is the formation of nitric acid 
 in the soil through their oxidation of the nitrogen. Then 
 this nitric acid at once combines with whatever alkaline 
 base may be present, usually lime or potash, and we have 
 a nitrate which plants can use at once, and which if not 
 used at once is soon washed from the soil by reason of its 
 great solubility. Careful experiments have shown that 
 our green-leaved plants use nitrogen only after it has 
 been brought to the condition of a nitrate, and as this 
 process of reducing organic matter and releasing its am- 
 monia and converting it into nitric acid is carried on by 
 the minute plants in the soil known as bacteria, it is evi- 
 dent that to maintain this useful life in the soil there must 
 be in the soil a due amount of organic decay or humus. 
 The office of nitrogen in the plant seems to be the promo- 
 tion of vital activity tending to rapid growth. But this 
 growth can be maintained and matured properly only 
 when the nitrogen has associated with it a due percentage 
 of the ash elements which plants get from the soil. Prob- 
 ably the most important of these is phosphorus. 
 
 We have shown that we cannot use nitrogen as a pure 
 element in the feeding of plants. In like manner we can- 
 
84 Practical Far}ni)ig 
 
 The Role of not use pliosphorus. Pure phosphorus takes 
 Phosphorus j-j.^, ^^ ^^^^ ^^ hcm2, exposed to the oxygen 
 in the Plant or jo 
 
 of the air. This fact is made use of in 
 
 the manufacture of our friction matches. Hence we 
 must get our phosphorus in some combination in which 
 it can be used by the roots of plants and can for this pur- 
 pose be dissolved in the soil water. Phosphoric acid, the 
 oxide of phosphorus, is generally found combined with 
 calcium, forming the phosphate of lime. It is found in 
 this shape in fossil rocks and in the bones of animals in 
 general. As it exists in soil it is one of the most rapidly 
 exhausted forms of plant food. The ripening grain takes 
 {phosphorus from the soil. The availability of the phos- 
 phorus in the soil depends upon the form in which it 
 exists. In freshly ground bones it is sooner made avail- 
 able than in the pulverized fossil rock, because of the more 
 rapid decay of the fresh bones. But unlike nitrogen, it 
 does not rapidly leach away from the soil in the drainage 
 water, for a good loamy soil or clay soil will hold on to it 
 till some plant calls for it, but in case there is more of the 
 soluble phosphoric acid applied than plants at once use 
 it will revert to a less soluble form and remain to become 
 more slowly available. 
 
 The exact office which phosphorus performs in the plant 
 is less fully understood than that of other elements. So 
 far as we know it seems to be mainly useful in the transfer 
 of formed materials to points where maturity is needed, as 
 in the ripening of fruits and seeds. There may be great 
 activity in the plant through an abundance of nitrogen, 
 and yet the grain may fail to |)erfect through the defi- 
 ciency of phosphorus. 
 
Plant Food in the Soil 85 
 
 The Role of Potassium is a metallic element, and like 
 
 Potassium jn |.]^g other elements cannot be used by plants 
 the Plant . . , , , , , , , • 
 
 m its elemental form, but must be had m 
 
 some combination. We get potassium in the form of 
 the oxide of potassium, or as it is commonly called pot- 
 ash. No plant can thrive in the absence of available 
 potash in the soil. In our clay soils, which are the 
 result of the decomposition of granitic or feldspathic 
 rocks, there is usually a large supply of potash in the form 
 of an anhydrous silicate, which becomes slowly soluble 
 through the action of the lime in the soil and the carbon 
 dioxide in the rain water, and it can be rendered more 
 rapidly available by fresh apphcations of water-slaked 
 lime, which, as one chemist has said, "pushes out" the 
 potash from its insoluble silicate. While nitrogen rapidly 
 leaches from the soil in the drainage water, there is but a 
 sHght loss of potash in this way, for the soil holds the 
 phosphorus and potash much more strongly than it does 
 nitrates, and but the merest trace of these is usually found 
 in the drainage water. Potash is much more slowly used 
 up from the soil by crops than phosphorus is, since in the 
 ripening of grain the potash largely returns to the roots. 
 Still there are crops like potatoes and tobacco which 
 select far more potash than other plants and hence these 
 exhaust the soil supply most rapidly. Potash also exists 
 in nature in the combinations with chlorine, sulphur, 
 and carbon, making the muriate, sulphate, and car- 
 bonate of potash. These are all readily soluble forms, 
 and are the forms in which potash is most commonly used 
 in fertilizers. It is also combined with nitrogen in the 
 form of the nitrate of potash, or as it is commonly called, 
 
86 Pmrtiia! 7^ /;•;;//;/<; 
 
 saltpeter. Wood ashes, especially those liom the haril 
 woods, contain a considerable percentage of potash and a 
 large percentage of lime, and are of value as a source of 
 potash. As an ingredient in a fertilizer, potash is of less 
 importance on many soils than phosphoric acid or nitro- 
 gen, because of its greater abundance in clay soils and 
 because less of it is removed in the crops than of nitrogen 
 or phosphorus. Nevertheless it is important that a sulTi- 
 cient supply be at hand in the soil in an available form; 
 and sandy or peaty soils are generally deficient in potash. 
 Manufacturers of commercial fertilizers have as a rule 
 given too much prominence to phosphoric acid in their 
 mixtures and too Uttle to potash, especially for use on such 
 crops as largely select potash. In the economy of the 
 plant it has been fully shown that phosphoric acid does 
 not have its full etTect unless there is a due sujiply of potash 
 present, and on the other hand potash will not give the 
 best results in the growth of the plant unless there is also 
 a due percentage of phosphoric acid available. The inter- 
 dependence of these can be easily understood when we 
 realize that the office of potash in the plant is to favor 
 the formation of starch and that of phosphoric acid is the 
 conveyance of the formed material to points where it is 
 needed in the construction of new cell walls. Starch, 
 which we have seen is the starting point of materials for 
 building, and the storage form of plant food, cannot be 
 abundantly made for phosphoric acid to convey to the 
 grain as plant food, unless sufficient potash be available. 
 Though the combination in which potash is applied to 
 the soil may be perfectly soluble in the soil water, the 
 absorptive power of a good loamy or clay soil is such 
 
Plant Food in the Soil 87 
 
 that it will retain the potash from a combination hke chlo- 
 ride of potash while the chlorine may be leached away. 
 That is, the absorptive power of the soil is such that it 
 will rob a complete solution of the mineral elements and 
 keep them till some plant roots need them. 
 
 Lime exists in rocks and in the shells of marine shell- 
 fish as the carbonate of calcium. By burning the rocks 
 or shells we get the oxide, and this, rapidly slaked with 
 water, makes a hydrated lime which is still quite caustic 
 and active, but rapidly returns on exposure to the air to 
 the more insoluble form of the carbonate. Lime is essen- 
 tial to plant life, but while large percentages of lime are 
 found in the ashes of plants a comparatively small per- 
 centage is really used as plant food. It is taken in because 
 it abounds in the soil water and is useful for the thickening 
 of the cell walls in woody plants, and is also used by plants 
 to render harmless certain acid that is formed as a sort of 
 excretory or waste matter. This was discussed in Chapter 
 II. Though lime is essential to plant life there are few 
 soils in which it is not abundantly present for this purpose. 
 Nevertheless fresh appHcations of lime are often very 
 beneficial. Soils through long cultivation are apt to be- 
 come acid, and many of our crops will not thrive in an 
 acid soil. Lime, then, is useful to correct the acidity of 
 the soil and render it slightly alkaline in its nature. Lime 
 also has a good effect on hea\^ clay soils, preventing the 
 clay from forming hard masses, by flocculating it into 
 small masses that aggregate loosely together. The use of 
 lime on a sandy soil has been spoken of in Chapter I. 
 While lime to a small extent is plant food, it differs from 
 the other elements which we have mentioned as plant food 
 
88 Practical Farming 
 
 in the fact that it is more a stimulant and reagent in 
 rendering plant food already in the soil available to 
 plants. 
 
 In a soil abounding in vegetable decay the work of the 
 bacteria which change the organic nitrogen into nitrates 
 is greatly helped by lime, for these microscopic plants have 
 a power which no green-leaved plant has, in that they can 
 get the carbon they need from the carbonate of Hme, while 
 green-leaved plants get it from the air as we have before 
 explained. Lime should never be mixed in fermenting 
 animal manures, as it tends to make the ammonia in the 
 manure more volatile and to drive it off into the air. On 
 the other hand plaster, which is the sulphate of lime, has 
 a tendency to prevent the loss of ammonia by putting it into 
 a less volatile form. 
 
 It is supposed by some that the use of the dissolved 
 phosphatic rock or acid phosphate is apt to render the soil 
 acid, by the plants taking up the phosphorus and leaving 
 the sulphuric acid which at once unites with the lime 
 already in the soil, and in this way robs the soil of lime 
 carbonate. In this case lime freshly slaked in water 
 and applied will restore the lime needed as a carbonate, 
 and will tend to sweeten the soil. 
 
 It has been found that a sour condition in the soil is 
 detrimental to the bacterial life needed there, and in this 
 condition clover fails to grow, and the farmer says that 
 his land is "clover sick." This condition always indi- 
 cates the need of lime. Lime is of great value to the 
 student farmer, but must be used intelligently because it 
 may be of damage to the man who does not study his 
 conditions. 
 
Plant Food in the Soil 89 
 
 We will now examine the sources of various plant foods, 
 and will first deal with nitrogen. 
 
 We have explained that nitrogen exists as 
 jj. a gas in the air, and that to get it in the soil 
 
 from which our crops must derive it, it must 
 be in some combination, and that the final form in which 
 plants use it is in combination of nitric acid with a base, 
 forming a nitrate of lime, potash, or some other base in 
 the soil. When it is reduced to this available form it is 
 so readily soluble that it washes out of the soil more rap- 
 idly than any other form of plant food, and hence must be 
 more frequently renewed in the soil. Then, too, when 
 the vegetable matter in the soil is rapidly oxidized or burnt 
 up by the continuous cultivation of one crop year after 
 year on the same land, as our cotton farmers and the 
 wheat farmers of the Northwest have been doing, there is 
 a serious loss into the air more than through the cropping. 
 Nitrogen, when purchased in any form, is always the most 
 costly of all the plant foods that make up our commercial 
 fertilizers. It is found in all decay of vegetable or animal 
 matter, and is then known as organic nitrogen. A soil 
 abounding in humus or vegetable decay is usually supplied 
 with nitrogen more or less available. One special value 
 of stable manure is in the organic matter which is applied 
 with it, and which, having to pass through the process of 
 nitrification in the soil through the agency of bacteria, 
 makes the more lasting effect of such treatment. We also 
 get nitrogen in an organic form more readily available in 
 the dried blood from the great slaughterhouses. When 
 this is carefully dried and is of a red color it is far more 
 valuable than that which has heated and has turned to a 
 
90 Practical Farming 
 
 black color. The reel blood may contain as much us 15 
 per cent, of nitrogen. A similar and important source of 
 nitrogen is the dried and pulverized scrap from the fish- 
 oil factories, which contains 8 per cent, of nitrogen and 
 nearly as much of phosphoric acid. 
 
 Another product from the slaughterhouses is what is 
 known as tankage. All the refuse animal scraps which 
 cannot be utilized as food for men are boiled down and 
 dried and ])ulverized. Its value depends on the material 
 used, so that tankage varies greatly in the percentage of 
 nitrogen. Some manufacturers of fertilizers have used 
 ground leather scraps, wool and hair waste, and horns 
 as a source of nitrogen. These are of little value in a fer- 
 tilizer on account of their slow decay. 
 
 A great source of nitrogen is cotton-seed meal, which is 
 the by-product in the manufacture of cotton-seed oil. 
 The ])omace left after pressing castor-oil beans is also 
 pulverized and used in like manner. Cotton-seed meal 
 will contain from 7 to 8 per cent, of nitrogen and also some 
 phosphoric acid and potash. The best authorities, how- 
 ever, believe that this meal should not be used as a fer- 
 tilizer direct, since its feeding value as a com})onent part 
 of a well-balanced ration for farm animals is greater than 
 its manurial value, while the larger part of the nitrogen 
 can still be recovered in the manure, and thus greater 
 profit will accrue to the farmer than by using it as a direct 
 manure. But all manufacturers of fertilizers use it very 
 largely in their mixtures. 
 
 I'ormerly one of the chief sources of nitrogen was in 
 the Peruvian guano from the Chincha Islands in Peru. 
 But this deposit was long since used up, and the Peruvian 
 
Plant Food in the Soil 91 
 
 guano of to-day comes from a different set of islands and 
 has a far lower percentage of nitrogen, though a high 
 total of phosphoric acid. One of the greatest sources of 
 nitrogen of late years is the nitrate of soda found in Peru. 
 This, being already in the form of a nitrate, is at once 
 available to plants, and is always to be applied to growing 
 ])Iants and not to dormant ones in winter, since if not 
 used at once by plants it is readily leached by the soil. 
 Another important source of nitrogen is the sulphate of 
 ammonia. This salt when pure contains 21.2 per cent, 
 of nitrogen, ammonia being a hydride of nitrogen, and in 
 the ordinary commercial forms it has 20 per cent, of nitro- 
 gen. This makes it far richer than nitrate of soda. In 
 the manufacture of boneblack for the sugar refineries by 
 distillation it is obtained, and also from the waste ammo- 
 niacal liquor from the gas works. Of late years im- 
 proved methods of making coke have increased the 
 amount of sulphate of ammonia saved in the process. 
 The sulphate of ammonia becomes more quickly avail- 
 able to plants than the organic nitrogen in animal refuse 
 since in that form the ammonia needs first to be released 
 before the process of nitrification or the forming of nitrates 
 can be accomplished, while the ammonia is ready at once 
 for the work of the bacteria that carry on this process of 
 making nitric acid. But it has been found that on soils 
 that are to any extent acid the application of the sulphate 
 of ammonia is actually poisonous to plants until the 
 acidity is corrected by hme. 
 
 We have seen that phosphorus is the element most 
 generally deficient in old cultivated soils, and since we 
 cannot get it from the air as we can nitrogen, as will be 
 
92 Practical Farming 
 
 Sources of explained later, it must be returned to the 
 Phosphorus g^jj -^^ ^j^^ manure, or fertilizers applied. 
 In some cases where farmers find it profitable to feed 
 on the farm food raised elsewhere it may be possible 
 to keep up the supply of phosphorus in the soil with- 
 out the purchase of phosphates. And right here we are 
 reminded that in many parts of the country the farmers 
 have got into the habit of calling all commercial fertilizers 
 phosphates. Of course, all complete fertilizer mixtures 
 have some phosphate or generally phosphoric acid in 
 them, but the term phosphate is applicable only to the 
 dissolved phosphatic rock known as acid phosphate. 
 The complete mixtures are always called commercial 
 fertilizers. Formerly, almost the entire supply of phos- 
 phorus came from the bones of animals. When these 
 bones are ground raw they will usually contain from 20 
 to 28 per cent, of phosphoric acid and about 4 per cent, 
 of nitrogen. Since the phosphoric acid is in an insoluble 
 form its becoming available depends largely on the fine- 
 ness of the material, and if the bones are fresh it is hard to 
 get them very fine on account of the oily matter associated 
 with them. To rid fresh bones of this oily matter they are 
 often steamed. This steaming also takes out most of the 
 nitrogen. Accordingly the steamed bone is valuable only 
 for its phosphoric acid, though at times a small percentage 
 of nitrogen may remain. But as a source of phosphoric 
 acid the steamed bone is better than the raw. 
 
 Tankage, which we have referred to as a source of nitro- 
 gen, also contains bone and furnishes a considerable 
 amount of phosphoric acid in variable amounts depending 
 on the character of the material used. 
 
Plant Food in the Soil 93 
 
 The fish scrap, which is valued mainly as a source of 
 nitrogen, also has a considerable percentage of phos- 
 phoric acid, and as we have before said, there is a small 
 percentage of phosphoric acid in cotton-seed meal and 
 castor-oil pomace. 
 
 Animal charcoal is made from bones. It is used in the 
 refining of sugar, and after this in the manufacture of 
 fertilizers for the percentage of phosphoric acid it con- 
 tains. It usually contains about 35 per cent, of phos- 
 phoric acid, but as its availability in the soil is slow it is 
 used less now than formerly. Bones gathered on the 
 Pampas of South America are burned and made into 
 what is called bone ash, which may contain 35 per cent. 
 of phosphoric acid. But the chief source of phosphorus 
 of late years is the phosphatic rock found in South Caro- 
 lina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and others of 
 our Southern States. The rock from different sections 
 varies in its percentage of phosphoric acid, that from 
 Tennessee being generally the richest. In South Carolina 
 it is dug from the deposits on the coast and is also dredged 
 from the rivers. This rock is often ground to an impal- 
 pable powder spoken of in our first chapter under the 
 name of "Floats." Chemists formerly attached no value 
 to this because of its insoluble state. But more recent 
 experiments have shown that in the soil it does become 
 gradually available, and its use is increasing because of 
 its greater cheapness as compared with ready dissolved 
 rocks, and also because of the fact that the rock dissolved 
 in sulphuric acid has a tendency to rob the soil of lime 
 carbonate, through the plant taking the phosphorus and 
 releasing the sulphuric acid. This latter at once unites 
 
94 Practical Fanning 
 
 with the Hme in the soil and makes the sulphate of lime 
 or plaster, and in this way is apt to cause an acidity in the 
 soil which is harmful to the prosperity of the microbes 
 that Uve with clover, and hence harmful to the growing of 
 clover. The notion that acid phosphate carries free sul- 
 phuric acid is generally erroneous, for a well-made phos- 
 phate has the acid completely neutralized. There is also 
 a notion which the manufacturers of bone fertihzers have 
 encouraged, that phosphoric acid from bones is better 
 than that from the rocks. Phosphoric acid is always one 
 and the same thing, no matter from what source it comes, 
 and the only difference is in its solubihty. That in raw- 
 bone is insoluble and also that in the pulverized rock. 
 From bone it will become available more quickly than 
 from pulverized rock, because the bone, if fine, decays 
 more readily, but the most readily available form is in 
 the dissolved rock or acid phosphate. 
 
 Phosphorus, in the form of phosphoric acid, does not 
 leach from the soil as the nitrates will, but is held there 
 till called for by plants. 
 
 Potash is the oxide of potassium, a metal- 
 
 e ources j-^ element, and as we have seen, one of the 
 of Potash 
 
 essentials to plant growth. Formerly most 
 
 of the potash used was derived from the ashes of hard 
 woods, and these are still a valuable source not only of 
 potash but of Hme, and to a more limited extent of phos- 
 phoric acid. But the supply of ashes is totally insufficient 
 for the needs of modem agriculture, and the discovery of 
 potash salts in the salt mines of Germany was of the 
 greatest importance to the farmer. This potash is found 
 as a chloride in what is commonlv called the muriate of 
 
Plant Food in the Soil 95 
 
 potash, and is also found as a sulphate and as a carbonate, 
 in all of which forms it is readily used by plants. 
 
 One of the most commonly used forms of the crude 
 potash salt is what is known as kainit. Though the pot- 
 ash in kainit is a sulphate of potash it is associated with so 
 large a percentage of chlorine that its action is rather that 
 of a chloride than of a sulphate, and for this reason has 
 been found detrimental to some crops such as tobacco, 
 for which only a pure sulphate should be used. More- 
 over, the expense of freighting a crude salt like kainit, 
 which has but about 12 per cent, of potash, is so great 
 that it is not now so much used as the manufactured and 
 concentrated form called the muriate of potash or chloride. 
 In this concentrated form there is an average of 50 per 
 cent, of actual potash. A very high grade may contain 
 more than 50 per cent. 
 
 The high-grade sulphate of potash is also a manufac- 
 tured article which usually has a little more actual potash 
 than the muriate and in a better form for crops like tobacco, 
 Irish potatoes, and crops in which sugar is an important 
 ingredient. Another refined article is what is known as 
 the double manure salt or sulphate of potash and mag- 
 nesia. It has not over one-half the amount of potash 
 that is contained in the high-grade sulphate, and the pot- 
 ash costs more in this form. In the same manner as with 
 phosphoric acid, the soil will absorb and retain potash 
 even to a greater extent than it will phosphoric acid, since 
 it is largely left in the roots, while the phosphoric acid is 
 concerned in the ripening of the grain. Still another 
 source of potash, which has come into use of late years, 
 is the waste stems of tobacco and the tobacco dust from 
 
96 Practical Farming 
 
 the smoking-tobacco factories. These contain as much 
 as 8 per cent, of potash and two and a half per cent, of 
 nitrogen and a small percentage of phosphoric acid, and 
 in many places near the factories they can be had at a 
 price that pays well for their use. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 MANURES AND COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 
 
 THE term "manure" is generally understood to 
 mean the manure obtained from domestic ani- 
 mals. But in the consideration of manures we 
 will not use the word in so limited a sense, for there are 
 numerous materials of a manurial nature that are not 
 artificial manufactures like the commercial fertilizers. 
 The muck and peat from swamps, when properly piled 
 and composted with lime and ashes, make a valuable 
 manure, and the sewage from cities is frequently con- 
 densed into what is known as sludge, which has a very 
 considerable manurial value. Farmers who are located 
 near the ocean can get a large supply of seaweed which 
 is blown on the beaches in storms, and which has a very 
 good manurial value in itself, but is also valuable when 
 dried as a bedding material for domestic animals and an 
 absorbent of the manure. We have already noted the 
 manurial value of the ashes from hard woods, and it is 
 important that all these should be carefully saved and 
 kept from the weather on every farm. Coal ashes are 
 commonly considered of no value. But we have found 
 that they are quite valuable on heavy clay soils as a means 
 for the improvement of its physical character. They are 
 also very retentive of moisture and help in this way in the 
 soil. The ashes of cotton-seed hulls are among the very 
 
 97 
 
98 Practical Farming 
 
 best sources of potash, but of late years they have been 
 
 taken up mainly by the manufacturers of fertihzers and 
 
 are no longer on the general market. In many sections 
 
 there are deposits of marl of varying character. The 
 
 greensand marl is of the greatest value, since it contains 
 
 phosphoric acid and potash. The ordinary shell marl is 
 
 valuable solely for the carbonate of lime it contains, and 
 
 like lime in general, it improves the mechanical condition 
 
 of the soil. Lime in any form is not to be considered as 
 
 manure, however, but a reagent in bringing about changes 
 
 in matters already in the soil, making them available. 
 
 Since the keeping and feeding of live- 
 
 arnyar stock is of vital importance in any system 
 
 Manures ^ ■' ■' 
 
 of improved agriculture, the proper saving 
 
 and applying to the land of the droppings and urine of the 
 stock, so that there shall be as little loss of its plant food 
 as possible, is essential. The need for commercial fertil- 
 izers has been largely brought about by the waste of the 
 home manures during past years. And unfortunately this 
 waste is still going on all over the country, while it can be 
 very largely avoided by proper care. Careful experiments 
 have shown that in many cases fully one-half of the ma- 
 nurial value of the barnyard product is lost by improper 
 fermentation and leaching. Professor Voorhees estimates 
 that if but one-tenth part of the present waste of manure 
 were avoided (and a larger percentage is avoidable) the 
 total amount of constituents thus saved would be more 
 than equivalent to the amounts of plant food now pur- 
 chased in commercial fertihzers. 
 
 When manure is thrown out from the stables in loose 
 piles it begins at once to ferment, and its nitrogen flies 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 99 
 
 off into the air in the form of the volatile carbonate of 
 ammonia which every one can easily smell escaping from 
 a manure heap. The heat engendered in the fermentation 
 causes a rapid oxidation of the organic materials in the 
 manure, and a loss of what would in the soil be making 
 humus. All over the country we see this practice. The 
 heaps in many places are thrown out under the stable 
 eaves, and there is not only a loss from the fermentation 
 but there is also a great waste through the rain-water 
 falhng on the heap and washing out its soluble plant food. 
 We have often seen drains made to carry off this manure- 
 water down hill to some stream that carries it away forever 
 from the farm. Every farmer should understand that the 
 manure from his stock is one of the most valuable assets of 
 the farm, and should use the utmost care in saving and 
 applying it. The sooner the manurial accumulations can be 
 got upon the land where they will feed crops, the better. 
 On many farms it is perfectly possible to haul out the 
 manure and spread it on the land as fast as it is made daily. 
 
 On a farm where a good rotation of crops is practiced 
 there can always be found a place at all seasons of the 
 year where the manure can be spread and go to work 
 feeding plant roots instead of wasting in the barnyard. 
 In summer, after the clover is cut, the manure can be 
 profitably spread on the stubble. Or it can be spread 
 between the rows of com or cotton or any other crop 
 that may be in process of cultivation. During the winter 
 months it can be hauled and spread on the sod that should 
 be ready to go into corn the next spring. 
 
 But it is not always practicable to haul out the manure 
 daily since there will come times when it is not practicable 
 
100 Practical Farming 
 
 to haul on the wet land. How, then, shall we care for 
 the manure that must be kept on hand for a time? Wher- 
 ever it is possible the open barnyard should have a hard 
 bottom. Where rocks are plenty it should be paved or 
 macadamized to prevent the clay from working up under 
 the tread of the cattle into mud. Then the barnyard 
 should be well filled with straw or forest leaves several 
 feet deep all over, so that whatever manure is made in the 
 open yard may have some absorbent at hand. Covered 
 barnyards are often advised, but unless there is extra care 
 given to them the manure therein is apt to be damaged 
 more than in the open yard with plenty of absorbents. 
 In the stable the rule should be to have box stalls kept 
 plentifully bedded. The animals tramping on the ma- 
 nure will prevent fermentation and the manure can safely 
 be left in these box stalls till it is convenient to haul it 
 and spread it on the field. But after loosening it up in 
 the stalls, haul it at once to the fields, for it will at once 
 begin to ferment and lose value if piled. The box stall 
 with abundant bedding is the safest place possible for 
 keeping the manure till hauled out, and the rain will make 
 the decay of what falls in the open yard better than if in 
 a covered yard where it will heat and fire-fang. But as 
 little as is practicable should be left in the open yard. 
 
 Years ago, when the writer was carrying on a large 
 stock farm, he had the barnyard macadamized and the 
 manure hauled out daily, so that at all times one could 
 walk in the yard without inconvenience. But the learner 
 may ask, "Does not manure spread upon the surface of 
 land left exposed lose a great deal?" There is little 
 fermentation when thus spread, especially if torn up fine 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 101 
 
 and spread evenly with a manure-spreader, a machine 
 that should be on every farm; and it loses mainly only 
 w^ater, while if piled up in the barnyard it loses immensely 
 of that most valuable constituent, the nitrogen. Then, 
 instead of the rain's washing out the plant food to run 
 away from the barnyard, it is washed into the soil and 
 the soil holds it there for the use of the crops. Even in 
 cold climates, where the soil freezes hard, the manure 
 spread in the fall and let lie till spring has given the best 
 results in the crop. At the New Hampshire station an 
 experiment was made of spreading manure on the surface 
 in the fall and letting it lie all winter. On another piece 
 the manure was plowed under at once in the fall. On a 
 third piece the manure was spread in the spring, and then 
 all three pieces were plowed for corn. The best corn was 
 made on the plot where the manure lay on the surface 
 all winter. 
 
 Have as little manure as possible, then, in the open 
 yard. Keep what is in the box stalls well tramped down 
 and filled up with straw or leaves, and it can remain there 
 unhurt till it is convenient to haul and spread at once. 
 The urine from the animals is of more value, even, than 
 the droppings, and an abundance of absorbing material 
 is of importance to save this. If the stalls have a hard 
 clay bottom do not put a wooden floor in them. If the 
 soil is sandy and apt to leach, the floor should be made of 
 broken rock grouted well with cement to prevent the loss 
 of the hquid manure. Then, if it cannot leach away, 
 and plenty of absorbents are used, the whole can be saved 
 and make a far more valuable manure than if the liquids 
 leached out. 
 
102 Practical Farming 
 
 The manure from wcll-fecl animals is of far more value 
 than that from ill-fed ones. In fact, cattle that are merely 
 kept alive all winter on straw and corn shucks make a 
 manure that has very little value as compared with that 
 from animals that have been fed a well-balanced ration in 
 which there is an abundance of the nitrogenous or protein 
 foods. You cannot get something out of nothing, and 
 while manure from straw-fed stock may have some value 
 it will still be merely straw and of no more value than the 
 materials the stock had to make it of. 
 
 While freshly made manure may have little plant food 
 that is at once available as compared with the concen- 
 trated and soluble plant food in commercial fertilizers, it 
 has an added value which the fertilizers lack. This is the 
 large amount of organic vegetable matter associated with 
 the manure. This, when buried in the soil, oxidizes 
 slowly and adds the black humus to the soil, and not only 
 releases plant food but has a further important effect in 
 making the soil more retentive of moisture. Hence the 
 longer continued effect of an appHcation of manure over 
 one of readily available fertilizers. 
 
 While keeping manures in piles always involves some 
 loss, it is often desirable to partially rot it, especially for 
 garden purposes. This can be best accomplished by 
 pihng the manure in broad flat heaps with layers of dry 
 muck or woods-earth, and chopping this down frequently 
 and repiling in the same flat heaps. Then, if convenient 
 to water, sprinkle it well all over, and make a trench 
 around the compost pile to catch the leachings to be 
 returned to the heap. But for the ordinary farm crops it 
 is never economical to go to the heavy labor of composting 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 103 
 
 the manure. It is far better to get it out as rapidly as 
 possible, for it requires high-priced crops to pay for the 
 labor of composting and the loss in the process. 
 
 The Cornell station found that a ton of manure with 
 the usual straw bedding was worth, when fresh, $2.30. 
 After it had been exposed to the weather for six months 
 it had lost ninety-eight cents of this value, or 46.6 per 
 cent., nearly all of which would have been saved had it 
 been spread on the land while fresh instead of being left 
 in a loose heap. They also left 4,000 pounds of horse 
 manure in a heap from April to September. Calculating 
 from its content at first of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 
 potash, this manure was worth $2.80 per ton, while on 
 the 2 2d of September it was found to have lost so much 
 that it was worth but $1.06 for what weighed a ton at the 
 start. They also left 10,000 pounds of cow manure 
 exposed during the same period. At the end of the time 
 the manure that was worth at the start $2.29 per ton had 
 left of the ton only $1.60 worth of plant food. At the 
 North Carolina station manure in three weeks showed a 
 loss of 2.77 per cent, of its nitrogen. The Massachusetts 
 station found that the leachings from a manure pile caused 
 by rain had in them plant food worth $2.94 per ton 
 although the leachings were 93 per cent, water. All the 
 investigations go to show that keeping the manure in the 
 yard can usually be done only at a great loss. When 
 spread on the field these valuable leachings are absorbed 
 by the soil, and as there is Httle fermentation there is less 
 loss of ammonia there. The only way to keep manure, 
 as we have said, without great loss is to keep it packed 
 under the tread of stock in the stables. When once 
 
104 Practical Farming 
 
 loosened up and the air admitted it should at once go to 
 the field. In covered manure yards, where there are cat- 
 tle enough to keep the manure trampled down as made, 
 there will be less loss than in an uncovered yard, but 
 manure thrown in heaps in a covered yard will lose more 
 rapidly than in an open one. We have said that the 
 urine of the domestic animals has a far higher manurial 
 value than the solid excrement. Few farmers reahze this. 
 Carefully made analyses show that the urine of the horse 
 has plant food in it that makes it worth $5.37 per ton, 
 while the solid excrement is worth by the same analyses 
 $2.23 per ton. The urine of the cow is worth $4.37 per 
 ton, and the solid dropping but $1.49 per ton. 
 
 It has been estimated from carefully made experiments 
 that the manure of one horse is worth annually, from the 
 market price of the nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
 it contains, $24.06 per year; that of the cow is worth 
 $32.25 per year; that of a sheep is worth $2.29 per year, 
 and that of a pig $3.06 per year. Where a large stock is 
 kept, and half the value of the manure is lost by fermen- 
 tation and leaching, we can readily see how much the 
 farmer is losing, and why so many farms get poorer in- 
 stead of richer. The average barnyard manure, as ascer- 
 tained by a number of investigators, will contain plant 
 food to the value of $2.20 per ton. In addition to the 
 waste of manure in yard and stable there is commonly a 
 great waste in its applications when spread by hand, some 
 spots getting an excess in the large lumps while other 
 spots are not covered. It is here that the value of the 
 manure-spreader comes in, giving a more uniform coat 
 and making the manure go much further than if spread 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 105 
 
 by hand. As we have pointed out, one of the chief values 
 of farm manure lies in the large amount of vegetable 
 matter carried with it, which keeps up the humus supply- 
 in the soil and makes it more mellow and easy to work, 
 and more retentive of moisture for the sustenance of 
 crops in dry weather. The commercial fertilizers have 
 a far larger amount of plant food in a more readily avail- 
 able form, but they do not furnish this organic decay. 
 How we may make the fertilizers take the place of stable 
 manure will be the subject of future treatment. 
 
 While hme is essential to the life of plants, 
 
 Lime and Its Yttosi of our cultivated soils have a large sup- 
 Work in & r 
 Agriculture P^Y ^^ them. It has been shown that a good 
 wheat soil which will produce a crop of 
 twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre, will contribute to 
 the grain and straw about seven to eight pounds of hme 
 per acre, while there will probably be in this acre of soil 
 fully two tons of lime. And yet it has been found that 
 appHcation of freshly water-slaked lime on this same 
 soil will increase the wheat crop. We are therefore forced 
 to beheve that it is something beside the lime itself which 
 causes the increase, since the crop had already at com- 
 mand a far larger supply than it could possibly use. 
 Careful investigations have shown that, aside from a lim- 
 ited use by plants as food direct, lime has a still greater 
 influence as a reagent in the soil. 
 
 Soils having a large amount of humus from the decay 
 of organic matter may get into an acid condition which 
 is unfavorable to the growth of many crops. This acid 
 condition may be brought about also in soils which have 
 not an excess of organic matter, through long continued 
 
106 Practical Farming 
 
 cropping and annual dependence upon commercial fer- 
 tilizers. But from whatever cause, it is found that this 
 acidity is fatal to the growth of the soil bacteria that 
 carry on the process of transforming organic nitrogen 
 into nitrates. In the one case, while there is an abund- 
 ance of the organic matter for their use, the acidity of the 
 soil is detrimental to their growth. In the other case, 
 they have simply been starved out by the lack of their 
 food. The acidity in the soil is also fatal to the bacteria 
 that live on the roots of clover and other legumes and 
 enable them to acquire the free nitrogen from the air. In 
 either case, then, lime is the remedy by which the alka- 
 linity of the soil is restored. 
 
 Lime promotes the nitrification of organic matter in 
 the soil, not only through its effect in sweetening the soil 
 and making conditions more favorable to the nitrifying 
 bacteria, but also in another way. It is directly helpful 
 to the bacteria; for these microscopic plants, having no 
 green leaves, are not able, like plants with green leaves, 
 to get carbon from the air; but they have the power that 
 no green plant has, to get the carbon needed from a 
 chemical combination. They get carbon from the car- 
 bonate of lime in the soil, and in this way their growth 
 and activity is greatly increased. It is found, therefore, 
 that lime has an important bearing on the formation of 
 nitrates in the soil, for the use of crops with green leaves 
 which take nitrogen from the soil only in the form of a 
 nitrate of Hme or potash or whatever base may be 
 present in the soil. The bacteria on the legumes get 
 what they need directly from their host plants, and 
 though they are parasitic to this extent they return more 
 
Manures mid Commercial Fertilizers 107 
 
 than they take and make what is called a symbiosis, or 
 living together. 
 
 Many of our heavy soils, particularly those in which 
 the clay is the result of the decomposition of granite rocks 
 containing large percentages of feldspar, have in them 
 large amounts of potash in the form of an insoluble 
 silicate. On these soils it has been found that the use of 
 lime has the effect of releasing potash in such a shape 
 that plant roots can get it. In some soils the first use of 
 lime has such a marked effect from this releasing of pot- 
 ash that farmers often jump to the conclusion that all 
 they need to keep their land rich is to continue applying 
 hme as a manure. But you understand by this time that 
 the lime has only helped them to get at what was already 
 in their soil and has depleted instead of enriched it. While 
 the ordinary commercial fertihzers are merely the means for 
 supplying plant food that may be deficient in the soil, lime is 
 therefore to be regarded more as a stimulant. It has also a 
 mechanical effect about which you have already learned. 
 
 Lime and ashes, remember, should never be mixed with 
 the farm manures, since the effect will be to form the vola- 
 tile carbonate of ammonia, which will escape into the air, 
 for wood ashes contain a large percentage of lime. Neither 
 should lime be mixed with phosphatic fertilizers as it will 
 tend to revert the phosphoric acid in them into a less avail- 
 able form or condition. But there is another form of lime 
 that can be used with benefit with the manure. This is 
 the sulphate of lime commonly known as plaster. When 
 this is mixed with the manure it tends to retain the ammo- 
 nia in a less volatile form. Plaster also has the effect of 
 releasing potash in the same way that lime does. 
 
108 Practical Farming 
 
 Commercial We often hear men, who have seen the 
 
 Fertilizers ^^^ results that have come through the 
 injudicious use of commercial fertihzers, say that they 
 are only stimulants, and that they do the soil harm. 
 The fact is that the only real stimulants used are, as 
 we have seen, hme and plaster. The commercial fertil- 
 izers consist of the various plant foods that have been 
 found from experience to be most commonly used up and 
 made deficient in our old cultivated soil, in a readily 
 available and concentrated form. They contain when 
 complete fertihzer mixtures, all the plant foods that are 
 contained in animal manures, but in a more concentrated 
 and more readily available form, and hence are more 
 quickly used by crops. 
 
 The main difference between the commercial fertihzers 
 and stable manure hes in the fact that the stable manure 
 carries with it a large amount of organic matter that in- 
 creases the humus content of the soil, and thus renders 
 it more mellow and more retentive of moisture, while the 
 commercial fertihzers only furnish readily available plant 
 food. Therefore, if the use of commercial fertihzers is 
 continued year after year, without any effort to restore 
 and maintain the humus-making matter in the soil, the 
 final result will be the starving out of the nitrifying bac- 
 teria and the souring of the soil, while the absence of humus 
 will cause a heav^ soil to run together after rains and bake 
 hard and dry out quickly. Under such conditions hilly 
 clay soils are made more inclined to wash. This result 
 can be seen all over the South, where cotton has been 
 grown year after year with simply an annual application 
 of commercial fertihzers in small amount in connection 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 109 
 
 with the scratch plowing of the Httle plow and one mule. 
 Right under the shallow plowing the soil is hard and un- 
 broken, and when the torrential rains that are common 
 in the South come, the shallow broken soil gets into a 
 creamy state, and having no vegetable matter in it to hold 
 it, it runs down hill as the only way it can go, and a gully 
 is soon formed, and the farmers find it necessary to make 
 terraces and banks of various sorts to check the waste, 
 when by a more thorough plowing and deepening of the 
 soil there would be room to hold the water and check the 
 washing, especially if vegetable growth had been turned 
 into the soil. Then they jump to the conclusion that 
 their land is getting poorer because the fertilizers applied 
 in a scanty way are only stimulants, when the fault is in 
 their management of the land and the way in which they 
 use the fertilizers merely to squeeze a little more from the 
 soil to sell away from it. They apply a httle fertihzer, 
 generally in the hill or furrow, and the crop at once uses 
 up the Httle supply of food and then draws further on 
 what was in the soil, and the result is that the soil is left 
 really poorer than before. 
 
 I have told you of the various forms of plant food that 
 are essential to plant life and which must be in the soil in 
 order to make plants grow. Some of these, as I have 
 shown, are naturally in such abundance in the soil that 
 there is no need for applying them in fertihzers. But 
 there are three of the elements that are exhausted from 
 the soil in cultivation. These are nitrogen, phosphorus, 
 and potassium. I have also explained that we do not 
 use these as pure elements, but in various combinations; 
 as nitrogen in nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, 
 
110 Practical Farming 
 
 tankage, cotton-seed meal, etc.; phosphorus in phos- 
 phate of Ume found in rocks and bones; and potassium 
 in the potash salts and ashes in the form of potash. The 
 object of commercial fertilizers is to furnish these things 
 in a concentrated and readily available form. They are 
 naturally associated with other matters, so that in a ton 
 of fertilizer we find only certain percentages of the essen- 
 tial plant foods. Then, in order to make a particularly 
 low-priced article, the manufacturers often add what they 
 call a "filler" of perfectly inert material, so that while an 
 apparently low price is charged, the farmer is really paying 
 full price for all that is of value in the article, and is pay- 
 ing freight on the filler, which is of no value. Hence, in 
 buying fertilizers it is always cheaper to buy a high- 
 grade article than a low-grade. I know of one instance 
 where a manufacturer of a low-grade fertilizer added to 
 each ton 500 pounds of the burnt oxide of iron which was 
 the result of his manufacture of sulphuric acid that was 
 used in the dissolving of the phosphatic rock. This 
 material was perfectly useless to the farmer if not actually 
 harmful, and one-fourth of the freight on each ton was 
 for this useless material, while he thought he was getting 
 a cheap article. There is always an abundance of filler 
 naturally associated with the materials that must be used 
 in the manufacture of fertilizers, and no filler is needed 
 whatever. 
 
 The term "Complete Fertilizer" means that the article 
 has in it a due percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 
 and potash. Any two of these alone makes an incom- 
 plete fertihzer, and, as we shall see, it is often advisable 
 to use an incomplete mixture. Manufacturers of fer- 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 111 
 
 tilizers often put the nitrogen in their fertilizers on the 
 sacks as ammonia. This has become customary because 
 the figures look larger, for ammonia is a hydride of nitro- 
 gen and is only partly nitrogen, and nitrogen is the essen- 
 tial thing we are after. You can find the actual amount 
 of nitrogen in the article by multiplying the figures on the 
 sack for ammonia by 0.8235. Thus, if the sack brand 
 says that the mixture contains 3 per cent, of ammonia, 
 this means that it has 2.47 per cent, of nitrogen. In some 
 states the manufacturers of fertilizers print a great deal 
 on their sacks to make farmers think there is more in the 
 goods than there really is. For instance, the two follow- 
 ing analyses were recently submitted for our opinion: 
 
 First 
 
 Nitrogen 2 to 3 per cent. 
 
 Ammonia 3 to 4 per cent. 
 
 Soluble Phosphoric Acid 3 to 10 per cent. 
 
 Insoluble Phosphoric Acid 7 to 8 per cent. 
 
 Potash 7 to 8 per cent. 
 
 Second 
 
 Ammonia 2 to 3 per cent. 
 
 Soluble Phosphoric Acid .... 6 to 8 per cent. 
 Insoluble Phosphoric Acid. .2 to 4 per cent. 
 Equal to Bone Phosphate.. .4.36 to 8.73 per cent. 
 
 Potash 2 to 3 per cent. 
 
 Equal to Sulphate of Potash. 3. 7 to 5.55 per cent. 
 
 All this simply means, in the first article, that it proba- 
 bly contained 2 per cent, of nitrogen, 3 per cent, of soluble 
 phosphoric acid, 7 per cent, of insoluble phosphoric acid, 
 and 7 per cent, of potash, for when any sliding scale is 
 printed on the sacks it is always safe to assume that the 
 
112 Practical Farming 
 
 lowest figure is the true one, and the ammonia is put 
 there simply to represent what the nitrogen would be as 
 ammonia, and does not mean that there is both nitrogen 
 and ammonia. 
 
 In the second the ammonia is put down, and the phos- 
 phoric acid, and "Bone Phosphate" is put there because 
 that amount of phosphoric acid would be contained in 
 the given amount of bone phosphate, and to make the 
 farmer suppose that there is some bone in it, as farmers 
 have an idea that phosphoric acid from bones is better 
 than phosphoric acid from rock when both are the same 
 identical thing. Then "Equal to Sulphate of Potash" 
 simply means that such a percentage of sulphate of pot- 
 ash would contain the potash stated, while the proba- 
 bility is that the potash in the article came from the 
 cheaper muriate of potash. 
 
 In some states, notably in North CaroHna, the law re- 
 quires that the manufacturer put on his sacks only the 
 actual percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
 that the article contains, only this and nothing more, no 
 sliding scale and no " equal to." It is well for the student 
 to understand these things so as to be able to arrive at the 
 exact value of the article submitted to him. Formerly, 
 there was a great deal of fraud practiced in the manufac- 
 ture of commercial fertilizers, but of late years the laws in 
 most states have been made so strict that there is now 
 little actual swindling in these, and the upright manu- 
 facturers are as earnestly in favor of the enforcement of 
 the laws as any one, since they, too, are protected from 
 competition with worthless frauds. What is important 
 for the farmer to know in regard to any complete fertilizer 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 113 
 
 mixture is what it contains that is of value as plant food 
 and not what the fancy-brand name may be. 
 
 Different crops use nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and pot- 
 ash in different amounts, some selecting nitrogen and 
 phosphoric acid mainly, while others call for a large per- 
 centage of potash in proportion to the other ingredients. 
 Hence, while a certain ready-mixed fertiUzer may be well 
 suited to one crop it may not be as well suited to another 
 one. Then, too, the soil on one man's farm may be 
 mainly deficient in nitrogen and phosphoric acid, while 
 another farm near by may be especially deficient in pot- 
 ash. Therefore the same fertilizer would not be the best 
 for both, for it will, if it has a sufl&cient percentage of 
 potash for the latter, make the first man buy what his soil 
 does not particularly need. From these facts there has 
 arisen the practice of home-mixing of fertihzers. 
 
 Kjiowing that what we want is the proper 
 °^^'™^"^^ percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 
 potash for the various soils and crops, one 
 need only buy the nitrogen he needs in the most accessible 
 form, the phosphoric acid in like manner, and the potash 
 also, and he can readily mix these with the aid of a shovel 
 and a sand screen on a barn floor, can do it as well as it 
 can be done in any factory, and can save a great deal of 
 the cost. Nitrogen can usually be had more cheaply in 
 nitrate of soda than in any other form. But in mixing a 
 fertiUzer it will not do to use the nitrate of soda alone as a 
 source of nitrate, for it is so readily dissolved that it must 
 be used at once by the plants or is washed away. It is 
 useful in the start, but we must have in addition to the 
 nitrate some organic nitrogen like that contained in cotton- 
 
114 Practical Farming 
 
 seed meal, lish scraj), or tankage, which will become avail- 
 able during the growth of the crop and will thus keep up 
 the feeding of the crop. Phosphoric acid can be gotten 
 most cheaply in acid phosphate or the dissolved phosphatic 
 rock, and potash can be had best and cheapest in the muri- 
 ate of potash imported from Germany. Knowing, then, 
 the percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
 contained in each of the materials, it is easy to make up 
 a complete fertilizer suited to the various crops and soils. 
 
 While one's soil needs can only be ascertained by tjic 
 man who cultivates it, the chemist, however, can tell you 
 what your soil contains, and you may have a soil that the 
 chemical analysis shows contains large amounts of all 
 the elements of plant food, and yet it may be a very 
 unproductive soil by reason of the unavailability of these 
 things. Actual experiments on the soil itself are necessary 
 to determine what it particularly needs in the way of 
 fertilizers. Professor Voorhees, in his work on Fertilizers, 
 suggests that the farmer stake off ten plots, each one- 
 twentieth of an acre, and gives the following plan: 
 
 Plot I. Check. No Fertilizer 
 
 Plot II. Nitrate of Soda 8 pounds. 
 
 Plot III. Superphosphate (Acid Phosphate) . i6 pounds. 
 
 Plot IV. Muriate of Potash 8 pounds. 
 
 Plot V. Check. No FertiUzer 
 
 Plot VI. Nitrate of Soda 20 pounds. 
 
 Acid Phosphate 16 pounds. 
 
 Plot VII. Nitrate of Soda 20 pounds. 
 
 Muriate of Potash 8 pounds. 
 
 Plot VIII. Acid Phosphate 40 pounds. 
 
 Muriate of Potash 8 pounds. 
 
 Plot IX. Nitrate of Soda 8 pounds. 
 
 Muriate of Potash 8 pounds. 
 
 Acid Phosphate 16 pounds. 
 
 Plot X. No Fertilizer 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 115 
 
 By studying the results on these plots for several years 
 with the same treatment annually, the farmer can come 
 very close to ascertaining the actual needs of his soil, and 
 can determine w^hat he needs especially to buy and what 
 he need not buy. If every farmer studied his soil in this 
 way there would be an enormous saving in the purchase 
 of fertilizers, and he could buy the materials containing 
 what he needs and mix them in the proper proportions 
 better than any manufacturer can do it for him. It will 
 generally be found that phosphoric acid alone, though 
 the soil may need it, will not have its due effect unless 
 there is present naturally in the soil or is added to the 
 fertilizer a due percentage of potash, and it will also be 
 found that on a soil that is deficient in potash the potash 
 apphed will not have its due effect unless a due percentage 
 of phosphoric acid is present or is added. These two 
 forms of plant food are so intimately associated in their 
 work that both must be present for the best results. It is 
 found in many soils that potash is present in sufficient 
 amounts, while phosphoric acid is always deficient. 
 
 Hence, on such soils it would be purely a waste to apply 
 potash. But on many other soils, especially those of a 
 sandy nature or the black and peaty soils of reclaimed 
 swamps, it is found that both of these materials are 
 deficient and must be suppHed. 
 
 g , It has been long noticed by all cultivators 
 
 Needed Nitro- of the soil that certain kinds of plants, such 
 gen May Be as clover, COW peas, and other members of 
 ad Free of ^^^ botanical family called leguminosae, or 
 pod bearers, so called because they form 
 their seeds in pods of various sizes from the minute 
 
116 Practical Farming 
 
 pod of the clover to the large pod of the pea, did in 
 some way add to the fertility of the soil on which they 
 grew. Many supposed that they absorbed ammonia gas 
 from the air through their leaves, for it was found that the 
 content of nitrogen in the crop was greater than could 
 be had from the soil. But in recent years this capacity 
 of the leguminous plants for acquiring nitrogen has been 
 the subject of close and long-continued study by leading 
 biologists of Europe and America, and the process is now 
 better imderstood. That is, we have found out the or- 
 ganisms which enable the clover and peas to get nitrogen, 
 though the exact way in which they do it is yet a matter 
 for investigation, and there are several theories in regard 
 to it. For the farmer in practice it is enough to know 
 that they do get nitrogen for him. The air is made up of 
 a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, as we have heretofore 
 seen. The nitrogen is not in chemical combination with 
 the oxygen, but is simply mixed with it to dilute the 
 oxygen so that animals can breathe it. It is therefore 
 termed free nitrogen. It was found that whenever there 
 was an increase of nitrogen in the clover, peas, or other 
 pod plants, there were always a number of little lumps or 
 nodules on their roots, and when the plants had none of 
 these nodules they failed to increase in nitrogen. It was, 
 therefore, assumed that these nodules had something to 
 do with the work, and scientists began to pay special 
 attention to the structure of the nodules. Careful micro- 
 scopic investigation revealed the fact that these nodules 
 were inhabited by minute living plants of extremely small 
 size. As they differed in form from any bacteria that 
 had before been studied, they were at first termed Bac- 
 
Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 117 
 
 teriods or forms similar to bacteria. But scientists have 
 now agreed that they are true bacteria, and that they pre- 
 sent merely an added form to the many already recog- 
 nized. They are parasitic on the roots of the legumes; 
 having no green matter in them they cannot get material 
 for growth from the air as green plants do, and hence are 
 obliged to live on what green plants have obtained. But 
 though these minute plants draw their sustenance from 
 the clover or other leguminous plants, their parasitism is 
 not harmful, since they are the means of enabling the 
 legumes to get the nitrogen in a combined form which 
 they cannot use as a gas. I have said that the process by 
 which they get the nitrogen into combination is still a 
 matter of study and investigation. The most plausible 
 theory is that these plants are of a nature similar to the 
 yeast plants that cause fermentation in the liquids con- 
 taining sugar, and that they are really nitric foments 
 which oxidize or bring into chemical combination the free 
 nitrogen of the air with oxygen. Now, when an element 
 is combined with oxygen the result is the formation of 
 an acid, and when nitrogen is oxidized the result is nitric 
 acid. When nitric acid is formed in the soil it does not 
 remain an acid, because the soil contains lime, potash, 
 and other things of an alkaline nature that are bases for 
 the nitric acid, and at once a neutral salt or nitrate is 
 formed, which is at once taken up by the roots of the 
 clover or other legumes and formed into organic nitro- 
 gen, which will be finally carried through the nitrifying 
 process in the soil when the clover decays, so that the fol- 
 lowing crop gets the benefit of it. We have seen that all 
 green plants use nitrogen from the soil only after it has 
 
118 Practical Farming 
 
 got into the form of a nitrate. But when once in this 
 form it is very soluble, and is rapidly leached from the 
 soil. If, therefore, the nitrogen that the bacteria on the 
 roots of legumes gather remains altogether in the soil in 
 the form of a nitrate, it would be lost before the crops of 
 the following season could get it. But being taken up 
 by the roots at once, it is transformed into the living mat- 
 ter of the plant and becomes organic nitrogen, which 
 remains in the soil to decay and become transformed 
 back again the following season through the agency of 
 the soil bacteria which are engaged in the formation of 
 nitrates from organic nitrogen. While it could not be 
 carried over as a nitrate it can be as organic matter, and 
 we can see the great wisdom of the Creator in this process 
 of preservation. But these legume crops, which are in 
 this way enabled to get and leave in the soil for the follow- 
 ing crop the combined nitrogen in sufficient amount, are 
 themselves among the greediest consumers of the phos- 
 phoric acid and potash in the soil. Hence, we use acid 
 phosphate and potash only on the leguminous crops to 
 increase their growth, and through them to get the needed 
 nitrogen. Since the nitrogen in a complete fertilizer mix- 
 ture costs about as much as both the other ingredients, 
 we can see the great saving that can be made by using 
 these to get through the agency of clover or peas the 
 needed nitrogen in greater abundance than we could get 
 it in a complete fertilizer, while at the same time we get 
 the organic decay in the soil as well as through the appli- 
 cation of stable manure, and can get the most valuable 
 forage for the feeding of stock and the increase of the 
 home-made manures. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 LIFE IN THE SOIL 
 
 THE casual observer is too apt to look upon the soil 
 as merely a lifeless mass of matter, from which 
 various chemicals can be dissolved to be taken 
 up as food by the roots of plants. But our microscopes 
 have shown us that a fertile soil, well supphed with humus 
 from decayed organic matter, teems with Hfe, and may 
 well be called a Uving soil. On the other hand, where 
 long and careless cultivation has been pursued, and the 
 soil has been continually exposed, summer after summer, 
 to the sun (for the sun is one of the most powerful of 
 agents in the destruction of microscopic life in the soil 
 whether it be of a beneficial or harmful nature), and the 
 humus has all been used up, so that the bacterial life has 
 been starved out, the soil really may be termed dead. It 
 has gotten to running together hard, and washes into 
 gulHes with heavy rains, and though the chemical analy- 
 sis may show that there still exists an abundance of plant 
 food in the soil, it is locked up so that the plants cannot 
 get it, and the soil has gotton into such an acid condition, 
 that the life which filled it when new and fresh, can no 
 longer thrive. 
 
 The microscopic life in the soil, to which the soil owes 
 much of its fertihty, consists mainly of the minute forms 
 which have been given the general name of Bacteria. A 
 
 119 
 
120 Practical Farming 
 
 bacterium is the smallest of known vegetable forms. 
 Many bacteria are barely within the reach of the highest 
 powers of the microscope, and it may be that there are 
 still smaller forms that play an important part in the 
 changes wrought in the soil, but so small as to be undis- 
 coverable. There are many sorts of these bacteria, some 
 being disease-making forms, and others of a beneficial 
 nature. But what we are here concerned with are the 
 forms that exist in the soil and work for the farmer there, 
 and also to arrive at a better understanding of the condi- 
 tions in the soil necessary for the welfare of these minute 
 plants whose work is always beneficial in agriculture. 
 Many of them vary so little in appearance that some as- 
 sume that all of them belong to one general species. But 
 whether this is true or not they have become so altered in 
 function that they are as really distinct as though of 
 entirely different species. Certain forms that do certain 
 work in the soil have been isolated and studied; the par- 
 ticular part they play has been definitely determined; 
 and it is evident that a study of these minute forms will 
 help us more toward the understanding of the work that 
 goes on in the soil, than any chemical analysis, which 
 destroys life, can ever do. 
 
 When any organic matter, either animal 
 
 How Bacteria ^^ vegetable, is buried in the soil within 
 
 Work in the , . ' , , . 
 
 Soil reach of the atmosphere, the first thmg that 
 
 takes place is what we call decay. This 
 
 decay, or the breaking down of the original tissues, is 
 
 carried on in the presence of oxygen and moisture, by 
 
 milhons of these bacteria, whose special work is to reduce 
 
 the organic matter to its original elements. All organic 
 
Life in the Soil 121 
 
 matter contains nitrogen; and the decay carried on by 
 the bacteria releases this as ammonia, which is a hydride 
 of nitrogen. Then at once here are myriads of other 
 forms of these minute plants which find their food in am- 
 monia, and their oxidizing work carries it to the form of 
 a nitrite, but no further. Then other forms take up the 
 work, and the result of their growth and oxidizing influ- 
 ence is nitric acid. When nitric acid is present in the soil 
 it soon seeks a base, for there is always Hme or potash or 
 some other base in the soil, and the acid becomes a salt, 
 a nitrate. 
 
 Now, it has already been shown that green plants never 
 use nitrogen until it is in the form of a nitrate; and, that 
 when it has gotten into this form, it is readily taken up 
 by the roots of plants, and is so very soluble that if not 
 soon taken up by plants, it is washed from the soil. The 
 absorptive power of a good loamy soil is such that it will 
 take and hold on to phosphorus or potassium and keep 
 it till called for. But not so with the nitrogen, which is 
 soon leached from the soil in the drainage. The ready 
 availability of nitrogen as a nitrate is well shown in the 
 use of the nitrate of soda as a fertilizer, and the speedy 
 effect it has on plants, and also the way in which it is lost 
 from the soil if not used at once. 
 
 This process, by which the growth of bacteria in the soil 
 changes the organic nitrogen into nitrates for the use of 
 plants, is called nitrification. And, in order that it shall 
 be carried on in the soil it is necessary that there shall be 
 an abundance of food for the bacteria which do the work. 
 We can see, then, the importance of humus-making 
 material in the soil, and the loss that takes place from 
 
122 Practical Farming 
 
 careless cultivation, through which it is used up, and none 
 returned to keep the work going on. This is one of the 
 most important reasons for the rotation of crops, in which 
 there shall frequently come on the soil crops like clover 
 or peas that will return organic matter to the soil, and 
 thus keep up the work of the nitrifying bacteria, which 
 can thrive only on decaying matter. 
 
 But while all organic matter contains 
 The Agency nitrogen which the plants have gotten from 
 
 o ac ena ^j^^ ^^ji there is one class of plants which 
 Nodules on ^ 
 
 Legumes i^ their decay furnish nitrogen more plenti- 
 
 fully, which they have gotten from the air, 
 and which, therefore, is really an addition to the nitrogen 
 of the soil. This class of plants is the one which botanists 
 call the LeguminoscE, meaning plants that make their 
 seed in legumes or pods. And here again we find the work 
 of these minute plants we call bacteria. But they are 
 bacteria that subsist on living and not on dead matter. 
 It has long been known to farmers that in some way the 
 growing of clover, cow peas and other legume plants, did 
 help the productiveness of the soil. It was long thought 
 that they had the power to get ammonia from the air 
 through their leaves. But carefully conducted experi- 
 ments soon proved that the leaves of the legumes had no 
 such function. It was deemed reasonable to suppose 
 that when there is ammoniacal gas in the air the leaves 
 might absorb it, but it has never been proven that they 
 do. The study of the legumes was taken up by scientific 
 men and their growth accurately observed. It was soon 
 found that when any legume did acquire more nitrogen 
 than existed in the soil in which it was grown, there were 
 
Lije in the Soil 123 
 
 always on the roots certain little knots or nodules; and 
 it was also observed that when there were none of these 
 nodules on the roots the legume plants did not increase 
 in nitrogen any more than other plants. It was also found 
 that, when there was a great store of nitrogen in the soil, 
 the plants used this and formed no nodules. It was evi- 
 dent, then, that in some way these nodules were the agents 
 through which the nitrogen was acquired. Then scien- 
 tists began the study of the nodules, and found that they 
 were caused by parasitic bacteria which find a home on 
 the legume roots, and through their growth cause the 
 change in the tissues of the roots making the nodules. 
 The bacteria draw their nourishment from the legumes 
 in part, and hence are parasitic. But the parasitism has 
 been shown not to be harmful; for the bacteria enable 
 the legume to get from the air more than they take from 
 the plant otherwise; and it thus becomes a sort of sym- 
 biosis, or living together, which is mutually beneficial. 
 
 In the first study of these bacteria, they were found to 
 have so different a form from any other bacteria that they 
 were called bacteroids, or forms similar to a bacterium. 
 But it is now pretty well determined that they are true 
 bacteria, altered in form by their peculiar work. In fact, 
 it seems that they have been so altered that certain ones 
 live only on certain legumes and on no other, having be- 
 come specially adapted to certain host plants, so that we 
 have clover bacteria, pea bacteria and bacteria that live on 
 other legumes ; though it may be shown yet that any of them 
 in time can accommodate themselves to different hosts. 
 
 While any of the legumes may be made to thrive and 
 grow on soil that abounds in abundant plant food, their 
 
124 Practical Farming 
 
 peculiar work of getting nitrogen, which is a free gas 
 
 in the air, and locating it in the form of organic matter, 
 
 is always done through the agency of the bacteria that 
 
 Hve on their roots, and these do their work best in a soil 
 
 where there is not an over-abundance of nitrogen, which 
 
 as one has said, makes them lazy, and interferes with the 
 
 work of the bacteria. Therefore it has been found that, 
 
 for the best results with the legumes, the soil must have 
 
 in it an abundance of these parasitic bacteria. They are 
 
 apt to be absent from a soil in which the particular legume 
 
 sown has not before been contained. In such case it has 
 
 been found necessary to inoculate the soil with the specific 
 
 bacteria which Hve on the plant to be grown. 
 
 There has been much talk recently about 
 
 Methods of ^Yie wonderful "discovery" made in the De- 
 
 Inoculating p » • i 
 
 the Soil partment of Agriculture, of cultivatmg the 
 
 bacteria in nutrient solutions, and drying 
 them for distribution to farmers. There is nothing new 
 in the artificial culture of bacteria in the laboratory, for 
 it has been done for generations. The only new thing 
 about the discovery is the method of distribution. It is 
 well-known that these minute plants can be dried and 
 retain their vitality for a long time; and, when placed in 
 nutrient solutions, they may again become active and in- 
 crease enormously and rapidly. The new cultures soon 
 became known commercially under the name of "Nitro- 
 cultures," and have been sold to farmers at $2 per culture, 
 which cost perhaps three cents. These bacteria are sent 
 out in dry cotton wool and with them some nutrient mate- 
 rials, for the purpose of making a solution in which the 
 bacteria are placed, and in which they at once thrive. 
 
Life in the Soil 125 
 
 These solutions were to be used to sprinkle the seed down, 
 and thus to convey the bacteria to the soil when the seed 
 are sown. Some years ago a similar preparation was sent 
 out from Germany under the name of "Nitragin," which 
 was to be applied to the soil to increase the number of the 
 nitrifying organisms concerned in the formation of nitrates 
 from organic nitrogen. This nitragin was a complete 
 failure, and no better results have so far been obtained 
 from the nitro-cultures for the inoculation of the legumes. 
 The artificially grown bacteria do not seem to adapt them- 
 selves readily to the soil conditions, and the nitro-cultures 
 will soon be relegated to the same disuse that has over- 
 taken nitragin. 
 
 How, then, shall we bring about the needed inoculation 
 of the soil for the growth of the various legumes? The 
 easiest way is to get some soil from a field where the par- 
 ticular legumes have thriven and made nodules, and scatter 
 this over the soil to be sown. This method has uniformly 
 been successful. It has been found that soil, in which 
 certain more or less related legumes have grown, will inoc- 
 ulate the soil for others. The plant generally known as 
 sweet clover, melilotus alba, which grows as a weed in 
 nearly all parts of the United States, has been found to 
 contain bacteria which will live on the roots of alfalfa. It 
 has also been found that the more nearly related plant, 
 burr clover, medicago denticulata, when sown in the 
 rough burr-like seeds, will carry the bacteria of alfalfa 
 with it; since alfalfa, medicago saliva, is a very near gen- 
 eric relative. Then it has been found that the bacteria, 
 which live on the roots of the garden pea, will also live on 
 the roots of the vetch, and that crimson clover seed sown 
 
126 Practical Farming 
 
 in the cliafif, will inoculate the soil for clover of any other 
 species. In fact, the use of inoculated soil is now the 
 general mode of introducing the bacteria to new localities. 
 The Southern cow pea needs no inoculation in the South, 
 where it has been grown for generations, and in a new 
 locality the dust that always goes with the peas, will carry 
 the inoculation. 
 
 Soil in which there is an abundant supply 
 Conditions of organic matter will always contain an 
 ^^ *°^ ., abundance of the nitrifying organisms, pro- 
 in the Soil vided it is well drained and has not gotton 
 into an acid condition. Acidity in the soil 
 is destructive to the nitrifying organisms as well as to the 
 symbiotic ones that live on the roots of legumes; and the 
 failure of clover in many parts of the country is due more 
 to acidity in the soil than to any other cause. The appH- 
 cation of phosphoric acid, in the form of dissolved phos- 
 phatic rock has been thought to be largely the cause of 
 this acidity. Not from the acid used in the making of 
 the acid phosphate direct, for it is rather a humic acidity; 
 but because, when the phosphate is applied to the soil, the 
 phosphorus is used by plants and the sulphuric acid used 
 in dissolving the rock is set free and at once unites with the 
 lime in the soil, making sulphate of lime, and thus rob- 
 bing the soil of lime carbonate necessary to preserve its 
 alkalinity. The cure for such a condition is of course 
 lime carbonate. Lime not only sweetens an acid soil 
 and renders it suitable for the bacterial life, but it directly 
 promotes the growth of the bacteria. These minute 
 plants have no green matter, and hence cannot get carbon 
 from the air as green plants do; but it has been found 
 
Life in the Soil 127 
 
 that they have the power which no green plant has, to get 
 carbon from chemical combinations, and they can get 
 carbon from lime carbonate. To preserve bacterial life 
 in the soil, then, we need to have the soil in a feebly alka- 
 line state, and hence, when growing the legume crops on 
 the soil frequently in the rotation, we must avoid acid 
 conditions by an occasional application of lime. 
 
 ^ . .„ . This brings us to the next branch of this 
 
 Denitnfication , . . ^ .. . , . 
 
 mvestigation. In soils rich in vegetable 
 
 decay, there is often a serious loss of nitrogen through 
 rapid oxidation and the consequent escape of ammoniacal 
 gas into the atmosphere. The constant exposure of the 
 soil, in the clean cultivation of cotton in the South and in 
 single cropping in any part of the country, without the use 
 of recuperative crops, is one of the greatest causes of this 
 loss. Bulletin 53, of the Minnesota Station, shows how 
 great the loss is in the constant cultivation of wheat year 
 after year there. While a crop of wheat harvested re- 
 moved but 24.5 pounds per acre, it was found that the 
 actual loss of nitrogen from the soil was 171 pounds per 
 acre. But when wheat was grown in a rotation, in which 
 clover was used as a means for the restoration of the or- 
 ganic matter, there was a great gain instead of loss. The 
 same result has been shown in the constant clean cultiva- 
 tion of cotton in the South, as well as in the same practice 
 in many sections in the cultivation of tobacco. These 
 natural losses are easily preventable by a proper rotation 
 of crops. 
 
 We have already pointed out the danger of great loss 
 of nitrogen, through the improper handling of the ma- 
 nures of the farm, by leaving them to ferment in piles and 
 
128 Practical Farming 
 
 losing the volatile carbonate of ammonia, or by leaving 
 the manure to leach under the eaves of the barn or on piles 
 in the field. We have also pointed out that there is less 
 loss when the manure is hauled and spread as fast as made. 
 Another loss of nitrogen from the farm is the selling of 
 crops having a high feeding and manurial value, such as 
 legume hay, instead of getting its feeding value and saving 
 its high manurial value, and selling such crops as have a 
 higher market value, but a comparatively small manurial 
 value. There are conditions under v^hich a farmer may 
 sell forage crops profitably by exchanging them for a 
 greater value in manure, but these conditions prevail only 
 in localities near a high-priced market for hay and a 
 plentiful and cheap supply of manure. As a rule, all 
 forage and roughage of the farm should be fed on the 
 land, and the manure carefully saved and returned; for, 
 aside from its value as a carrier of plant food in an avail- 
 able form, it is of equal importance as a means of keeping 
 up the nitrification in the soil and preventing the rapid 
 loss through denitrification. It is really a question whether 
 this last function of farm-yard manure is not fully as im- 
 portant as its use in supplying plant food direct. The 
 importance of constantly replenishing the nitrogen in the 
 soil is shown by the fact that, aside from the constant 
 escape into the air through the too rapid oxidation of 
 organic matter, it rapidly drains from the soil in the 
 drainage water when it has gotten into the soluble form 
 of a nitrate. This loss of nitrogen has been more pro- 
 nounced in the South than elsewhere, by reason of the 
 practice of leaving the cotton and com fields bare of 
 vegetation in winter, and exposing the soil to the winter 
 
Life in the Soil 129 
 
 rains in a section where there is far more rain than freez- 
 ing in winter. A winter cover-crop becomes of special 
 importance in the South, and is also important anywhere. 
 This cover-crop must be a green winter-growing crop, 
 capable of taking up and holding in the form of organic 
 matter, the nitrates that would otherwise be washed from 
 the soil and lost. We have no figures to show how great 
 this loss is, but it has evidently been one of the most 
 serious causes of the loss of nitrogen in Southern soils, 
 where the oxidation of the organic matter in the soil has 
 been promoted by constant exposure. In the case of the 
 phosphates already in the soil, or applied to it in a soluble 
 form, there is far less danger of loss, since the phosphoric 
 acid, unused at once by plants, reverts in the soil to a less 
 soluble form; and the absorptive character of the soil is 
 such that it will retain its hold on the phosphoric acid and 
 potash, till called for by plant roots; and the loss of phos- 
 phates and potash is mainly through the crops carried 
 off, and the young animals raised on the farm and sold; 
 for the making of the bony frame of a growing animal is 
 one of the chief sources of loss of phosphates from the 
 soil. 
 
 The fact that nitrogen, as a nitrate, is rapidly washed 
 from the soil shows, too, the importance of having a supply 
 in the form of organic decay; for when we apply nitrogen 
 that is already a nitrate, as in the nitrate of soda, it must 
 be used at once by plant roots; while the organic nitrogen 
 is more slowly coming into use as the plants need it. 
 Hence, the very soluble form of nitrogen in nitrate of soda 
 should never be used except when the plants are in rapid 
 growth, and then, not in excessive amounts. 
 
130 Practical Farming 
 
 Micro- There is also a wide difference in the fer- 
 
 organisms as ti^zinff value of the solid and liquid portions 
 a Manurial ^ i r • i r ^i -^ 
 
 Factor ^^ ^^^ manure of animals, so far as the nitro- 
 
 gen is concerned. Carefully conducted ex- 
 periments have shown that, as compared with nitrate 
 of soda, the solid parts of the manure have an effec- 
 tiveness of but lo per cent.; while the liquid part has 
 an effectiveness of 90 per cent, as compared with the 
 nitrate, which is very nearly equal to that of sulphate of 
 ammonia. The nitrogen of the liquid portion of the 
 manure is very rapidly converted into ammonia, and thus 
 may rapidly escape into the air. It has also been shown 
 that the effectiveness of the nitrogen in the solid materials 
 of the manure is not increased by mixing with them the 
 liquids, but that the conversion of the nitrogen in the 
 urine into ammonia is hastened by the admixture of 
 the soHd excrement and straw. The changes in manure 
 are carried on by microscopic organisms, which multiply 
 with inconceivable rapidity, and thus accomplish wonderful 
 results. 
 
 These micro-organisms or bacteria are plentiful in the 
 manure as soon as it leaves the animal body, and it is be- 
 lieved that many of them come from the stomachs of the 
 animals along with the excrement. The air of the stables 
 always swarms with them, and the latter furnishes myri- 
 ads; and, since we can detect the smell of ammonia at 
 once, it is evident that they are promptly at work. Some 
 of these bacteria are denominated aerobic, since they 
 require the oxygen of the air in order to live and grow; 
 while others flourish only in the absence of air and are 
 therefore termed anaerobic. Those that require air for 
 
Life in the Soil 131 
 
 their work can be controlled by the exclusion of the air. 
 Experiments are recorded which show that they are capa- 
 ble of converting the nitrogen in urine completely into 
 ammonia which escaped into the air in twenty-four 
 hours, when air was freely admitted, while this escape 
 of ammonia was almost entirely prevented by the exclu- 
 sion of the air, though the nitrogen was still largely con- 
 verted into ammonia. 
 
 The same changes occurred in the solid excrement, but 
 more slowly. This explains the value of keeping manure 
 in box stalls under the feet of animals that pack it down, 
 and thus keep the air excluded. We have heretofore 
 shown that this is one of the best means for preventing 
 loss from the manure. How rapidly these micro-organ- 
 isms work, is well shown by the rapidity with which this 
 packed manure heats and loses nitrogen when thrown 
 out in heaps and exposed to the air. Maerker, an emi- 
 nent German investigator, has found that the nitrogen, 
 in deep, stall-fed sheep manure, compared favorably with 
 that of sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda; while 
 ordinary barnyard manure, which contained denitrifying 
 organisms from previous bad treatment, either did not 
 give good results, or actually lowered the yield. 
 
 Kainit has been found to be effective in checking the 
 formation of ammonia and superphosphate in preventing 
 its escape; and they also add valuable constituents to the 
 manure heap. While caustic lime will, if applied to fer- 
 menting manure, drive off the ammonia, it has been found 
 that lime, applied to perfectly fresh manure, will not cause 
 this loss, and that the loss will be very small. But so 
 quickly does the work of the organisms begin, that, while 
 
132 Practical Farming 
 
 it will prevent denitrification in perfectly fresh manure, it 
 is practically impossible to use it effectively because of the 
 rapid fermentation. Lime is also not advised, because 
 it tends to convert the available nitrogen of the manure 
 into insoluble and less available forms, though it will 
 destroy the denitrifying organisms. When the organic 
 matter is in the soil, the application of lime, as we have 
 before shown, will hasten its nitrification. The micro- 
 organisms that denitrify manures can be destroyed by the 
 bi-sulphide of carbon, but this is too expensive an article 
 to be devoted to this purpose. 
 
 A recent official pubhcation says: "One point, which 
 has been clearly brought out by recent investigation is 
 that the addition of straw may very decidedly reduce the 
 fertilizing value of the manure, the injurious effect being 
 the greater the larger the amount of straw used. This is 
 explained by the fact that straw contains organisms which 
 convert the available nitrogen in manures, and, in the 
 soil, into forms which the plant cannot utiHze." All this 
 we regard as pure nonsense. Of course, when a large 
 amount of straw is used the actual excrement bears a 
 smaller proportion to the whole; but the value of the 
 straw is in its humus-making nature and the nitrogen will, 
 without doubt, eventually be brought into use in the soil. 
 Reducing manures to their immediately available plant food 
 value is no way to measure their permanent effectiveness. 
 
 We would sum up briefly the whole mat- 
 Summary ^ •' 
 
 ter of nitrification and the retention of nitro- 
 gen, for the use of plants, as the work of micro-organisms 
 in the soil, and in the manures. Those in the soil are 
 engaged actively in the change of organic matter into 
 
Life in the Soil 133 
 
 nitrates; some, in the maniures before application, are to 
 be guarded against as denitrifying agents; and that an 
 abundance of vegetable matter mixed in farm manures is 
 of final benefit to the soil through the furnishing of food 
 for the beneficial organisms that bring about its decay 
 and the hberation of its nitrogen in the readily available 
 form of nitrates. It is also true that the more rapidly 
 manure is spread on the soil after being made, the better 
 for the crops, and the more it vi^ill aid in keeping up bac- 
 terial hfe in the soil. Therefore, do not be afraid of straw 
 or leaves or any bedding material, except sawdust and 
 shavings which, through their acidity and slowness of 
 decay may, to some extent, be harmful. But, as a rule, 
 get with the manure all the good vegetable matter you can, 
 and get it out on the land, where leaching will meet plant 
 roots ready to absorb it. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 TILLAGE AND ITS PURPOSES 
 
 DEEP breaking of the soil is necessary for the full 
 I development and extension of the roots of plants 
 in the soil. Those who have never investigated 
 the great extension of the roots of our cultivated plants 
 can hardly realize how widely they ramble under favorable 
 conditions, or how great the need is for this extension, if 
 the best results are to be had in the crop. 
 
 Deep breaking admits the air to the roots, and air, with 
 its oxygen, is essential to plant growth in the soil. Unless 
 the soil is permeated by the oxygen there can be no activity 
 in the roots of plants. Anything that shuts out the air 
 from the soil checks plant growth. 
 
 Standing water in the soil shuts out air 
 
 Moisture ^^^ prevents the growth of our upland 
 
 Needed for ° ^ 
 
 Growth plants, but moisture adhering to every soil 
 
 particle is necessary. Few realize the great 
 
 amount of water that our growing crops take from the 
 
 soil. Professor King, in his work on the soil, shows that 
 
 an acre of corn, planted three feet eight inches apart each 
 
 way and with four stalks in a hill, will withdraw from 
 
 the soil in thirteen days 244 tons of water, and that, 
 
 too, from a soil so dry that no amount of pressure could 
 
 squeeze out a drop of water from it. Hence a very wide 
 
 extension of the roots is needed to do this work so 
 
 134 
 
Tillage and Its Purposes 135 
 
 rapidly, since the only part of the roots engaged in the 
 absorption of food from the soil is the narrow zone of 
 root hairs just back of the advancing tip of each rootlet. 
 In a well-developed corn field, which has been properly 
 plowed and properly tilled afterward, the whole soil is a 
 complete net work of branching rootlets, each with its 
 penetrating root cap and its zone of root hairs. The 
 roots from opposite rows meet and cross each other till 
 hardly an inch of soil is left unoccupied. This also means 
 that an extreme fining of the surface soil is needed, for 
 as the plants develop the roots tend more and more to 
 seek the upper layers of the soil and demand a very 
 permeable material for their minutely divided rootlets, 
 which cannot penetrate hard lumps. 
 
 The fining of the surface soil also favors 
 
 Retention of the rootlets by retaining the needed moisture 
 
 Moisture j.- j^^ where they are rambling. A surface of 
 
 Favored by , « , , , i i 
 
 he Fining of loosely aggregated clods exposes too much 
 
 the Surface surface to the air, and dries out rapidly, 
 while the finely pulverized soil acts as a 
 blanket over the soil to check the evaporation of the 
 moisture arising from below by capillary attraction, and 
 to hold it near the surface where the roots can get it. 
 
 While deep breaking is advantageous in enabling the 
 oxygen to penetrate the soil, the subsequent tillage should 
 always be shallow. As we have shown, the roots, as the 
 crop approaches maturity, tend more and more to branch 
 near the surface, and deep cultivation not only damages 
 the crop by the breaking of the roots, but it turns the soil 
 up to dry out rapidly instead of keeping the shallow 
 blanket of fine soil to act as a check to evaporation. Both 
 
136 Practical Farming 
 
 of these evils occur when the farmer uses a plow in the 
 final cultivation of the corn crop to throw up a ridge of 
 earth to the rows of corn, which is not only not needed 
 there, but, by being removed from the middle of the rows 
 where the roots are feeding, the soil is dried out, and even 
 the roots which the plow failed to cut are destroyed by 
 the drying of the soil. 
 
 Conditions There are three conditions needed in the 
 
 Needed in the soil in order that any plant may thrive or 
 Soil for Plant any seed germinate. These are, first, the 
 presence of moisture in due amount but not 
 in excess; second, the presence of the oxygen of the air, 
 and third, the presence of the proper temperature suited 
 to the plants cultivated. If any one of these is entirely 
 lacking no plant can grow, and a deficiency of any one 
 leads to a feeble growth. 
 
 Another reason for shallow cultivation of the soil is the 
 fact that it makes the soil warmer. It has been found 
 that a soil cultivated but one and a half inches deep was 
 much warmer than when it was cultivated three inches 
 deep. This was the case even to a depth of three feet. 
 Hence, the keeping of the shallow blanket of fine soil on 
 the surface enables us to retain heat as well as moisture. 
 Since the roots of our upland plants penetrate deeply into 
 the soil, it is necessary that the air shall penetrate deeply. 
 And there is another important reason for the deep loosen- 
 ing of the soil. The presence of oxygen is not only essen- 
 tial to the activity of the plant roots, but the bacteria which 
 are engaged in the process of releasing nitrogen from 
 organic matter in the soil, and transforming it into nitrates 
 so that green leaved plants can use it, thrive only in the 
 
Tillage and Its Purposes 137 
 
 presence of abundant supplies of oxygen. Shut out the 
 
 oxygen and these bacteria cannot Hve, but other forms 
 
 that are engaged in denitrifying the soil in which they 
 
 live, thrive only in the absence of oxygen, and then get in 
 
 their harmful work. 
 
 These bacteria which carry on the work 
 
 ^ ^^® in the soil called nitrification, are among 
 
 Promotes ° 
 
 Nitrification the most important aids to the farmer. 
 
 The organic decay or humus in the soil 
 contains nitrogen. But our cultivated plants, as we have 
 shown heretofore, cannot use nitrogen until it is in the 
 very soluble form of a nitrate. The nitrifying bacteria 
 in the presence of oxygen and a proper temperature take 
 the ammonia of the organic matter and transform it into 
 nitrites, and then another form feeds on these nitrites, 
 adding more oxygen till nitric acid is the result. Then 
 when nitric acid is present in the soil it at once combines 
 with whatever base may be at hand, either lime or potash 
 usually, and a nitrate is formed which plant roots can use. 
 Hence, one of the most important objects in tillage is to 
 promote the growth of these nitrifying organisms through 
 an abundant supply of oxygen, and at the same time pre- 
 vent the growth of the denitrifying organisms that thrive 
 only where oxygen is lacking. 
 
 . The complete pulverization of very re- 
 
 Soil Promotes fractory minerals, thus enabling the water 
 the Solution and carbon dioxide to act upon every par- 
 
 of Plant ^jj,|g ^-^Yi dissolve from them matters other- 
 
 Food , . . 
 
 wise insoluble. Feldspar, for mstance, is 
 
 rich in potash, but is very insoluble. But it has been 
 
 found that when it is finely pulverized and digested a week 
 
138 Practical Farming 
 
 in water, from one third of i per cent, to i per cent. 
 was dissolved in the water. This means that if there was 
 an acre a foot deep of this finely pulverized material, 
 10,000 pounds of plant food otherwise unavailable would 
 become soluble in a week. 
 
 What this would mean can be better understood when 
 we reflect that in applying fifteen tons of stable manure 
 to an acre we furnish only 150 pounds of potash and 140 
 pounds of phosphoric acid. The more we grind the soil, 
 then, the more it will yield up to us its store of plant food. 
 
 Water passes more readily from a coarse to a fine layer 
 of soil. Hence, there is an added advantage in the fining 
 of the surface soil, while allowing the deeply broken soil 
 below to remain undisturbed to bring up moisture from 
 below to keep the supply good near the surface. 
 
 To sum up then: pulverization of the soil not only 
 favors the root development and the penetration of the 
 air into the soil, but it improves the moisture and other 
 physical conditions, promotes weathering and disintegra- 
 tion, and thus releases plant food, and also supplies 
 favorable conditions for the growth of the nitrifying 
 organisms for which oxygen is needed, and discourages 
 the growth of the denitrifying organisms which do not 
 thrive in presence of oxygen. 
 
 Weed destruction, or what is better, weed 
 Weed prevention, is rather an incident in tillage 
 
 „ . than an object. Proper tillage, sufiiciently 
 
 Incident of frequent, will certainly prevent the growth 
 Tillage of weeds. Weed-kiUing should never have 
 
 to be done in a cultivated crop. The pri- 
 mary object of tillage is to produce the conditions in the 
 
Tillage and Its Purposes 139 
 
 soil most favorable to the growth of the crops cultivated, 
 and if this is properly done there can be no weed growth 
 provided the cultivation is done as rapidly and frequently 
 as it should be. Of course there may come times when 
 for frequent rains, the weed growth will get the start of 
 the cultivator, and heavier tillage will be needed to destroy 
 the growth, but these occasions will always be the excep- 
 tion with the careful and methodical farmer. 
 
 For the breaking of the ground the plow 
 
 '^^^ in some form is always needed. The evolu- 
 
 Implements . r ^ ^ i i i c ^ 
 
 for Tillage ^^^'^ ^^ ^"^ modem plow has been one of the 
 greatest in agricultural implements. In 
 general form it may be said that all turning plows are 
 aUke in having point, share, land-side and moldboard. 
 But all these differ in some- respects in form with different 
 makers, and they vary also a great deal in their ease of 
 draft. For general turning of sod land, the modern sulky 
 plow on which the plowman rides, is the best development 
 of the turning plow. 
 
 Formerly, and still in some parts of the country, much 
 use was made of the shovel plow, which simply tears up 
 the ground without turning the furrows. A modification 
 of the shovel plow is the bull-tongue still used to some 
 extent in the South. It is the cause of much of the waste 
 of the Southern hillsides which were scratched with it 
 while the clay below was left hard, and when the deluges 
 of rain that are common in the South come, the shallow 
 loose surface gets into a creamy state and must run down 
 hill and cause a gully to start, all of which could have been 
 prevented by deeper plowing. 
 
 In recent years the disk plow has been invented and 
 
140 Practical Farming 
 
 put on the market in various forms. In this plow the 
 turning is done by a rolHng disk of steel set diagonally to 
 the Hne of draft. As yet there is no prospect that this 
 style of plow will entirely supersede the moldboard plow, 
 since it has not yet been adapted to the turning of a sod 
 nor the plowing of land that is quite soft. But where the 
 soil is too dry and hard for the moldboard plow to be used 
 at all, the disk, with a strong team, will break it since, 
 unlike the moldboard plow it has no tendency to jump out 
 of the furrow. So, at present it seems that the main use 
 of the disk plow is to enable the farmer to plow when he 
 otherwise could not do so because of dry weather. 
 
 Modern farm implement makers are getting more and 
 more to providing all tillage implements with seats so 
 that the workman can ride, and thus reheve the farmer 
 of a great deal of the hardest work on the farm, following 
 the plow and cultivator. The two-horse cultivators are a 
 great advance on the old single-horse cultivator, not only 
 because the operator can ride, but because one man can 
 do the work that required two men with the one-horse 
 cultivator, and thus a great saving of labor is made, and 
 the work is better done. 
 
 The disk principle has also been introduced into the 
 riding cultivator, and for many purposes that disks are 
 an advantage, as they pull out no sod or trash that may 
 be in the ground. But cultivators with small shovel teeth 
 are still the favorites with most farmers. The fact that 
 shallow and level cultivation is an advantage in the reten- 
 tion of moisture in the soil and as a preventive of damage 
 to the roots, has led to the implement termed the weeder, 
 similar in general form to a hay rake but with flattened 
 
Tillage and Its Purposes 141 
 
 teeth. This implement takes a wide space of soil and 
 during the earlier stages of the crop can be used to great 
 advantage since its small teeth can work right up to and 
 among the growing plants and thus keep down the young 
 starting weeds. By taking care to have corn rows run 
 very straight, the weeder can be used through the whole 
 cultivation of the crop by taking out the teeth that strike 
 two rows and thus enabhng the operator to cultivate the 
 whole of one row and the halves of the others at once pass- 
 ing, and by thus rapidly going over the ground the work 
 can be repeated more frequently, and when rains are fre- 
 quent advantage can be taken of the short intervals to keep 
 the forming crust broken until the corn gets so tall that the 
 final cultivation must be done with the single cultivator. 
 
 No matter what sort of a plow is used 
 Harrows and ;, . • r ^ i ^ ^ 
 
 Harrowing ^^ preparation of a proper seed bed de- 
 mands that the upper surface of the soil be 
 made fine. For this purpose we use a harrow. Harrows 
 are made in a legion of forms, every one of which has some 
 advantages for special work. Most of the older forms 
 of harrows depended for the pulverization of the soil on 
 an array of projecting spikes in a heavy V-shaped frame. 
 In the further development of the spike harrow the teeth 
 were made of steel instead of iron and of a smaller size, 
 and the frame is so contrived that the teeth can be made 
 to slant backward making what is known as the smooth- 
 ing harrow, an implement of much value for the final 
 smoothing of the surface or the breaking of a forming 
 crust before the plants are above the ground, or for cov- 
 ering grass and clover seed. 
 The various forms in which the spike harrow has been 
 
142 Practical Farming 
 
 fashioned are almost innumerable, but of late years the 
 attention of inventors has been toward other forms not 
 dependent on straight spikes for their work. One of the 
 best of the modern harrows is the spring-tooth harrow, 
 in which the teeth are curved steel springs with pointed 
 teeth. These do excellent work in ground where there 
 is no sod or rough matter turned under, as they tear 
 and cultivate the soil very thoroughly. 
 
 Then came the harrow known as the Acme, which con- 
 sists of a long row of small moldboards attached to a com- 
 mon bar, which merely turn and pulverize the surface 
 without dragging anything out. This is an excellent 
 implement for fining the surface over a buried sod. 
 
 But for deeper cutting the disk principle was adapted 
 to the harrow, and the disk harrow came into use. The 
 deep cutting of the disks gave them an advantage, while 
 they, too, have no tendency to pull out buried trash. 
 Finally a modification of the disk came into use, known 
 as the cutaway, from the fact that the outer perimeter of 
 the disks are cut into teeth. This form cuts still deeper 
 than the disk and both are the last development of soil- 
 preparing implements. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE WASHING OF SOILS AND METHODS OF PREVENTING 
 THIS LOSS 
 
 ONE of the chief sources of loss in hilly soils, es- 
 pecially the hill lands of the South, is the wash- 
 ing of the surface soil during heavy rains. The 
 upland soils of the South, owing to their peculiar compo- 
 sition, and the [imprudent practice of keeping them in 
 clean culture in cotton year after year, aided by the shal- 
 low plowing which has been the rule, have been wasted 
 and washed into gullies until in some places the land is 
 utterly irreclaimable. Efforts bave been made to check 
 this washing by running a system of horizontal banks 
 with narrow ditches above them to carry off the water 
 slowly. While this for a time checks the downward 
 rush of the water the result finally is that the hillside 
 ditches gradually become gullies. In North CaroHna a 
 better system has been adopted to a great extent. They 
 make broad banks around the contour of the hills with 
 plow and horse scoop and give these a very shght fall, 
 with a broad leveled space on the upper side to cause the 
 water to spread out and move slowly down the slope. 
 The broad banks are cultivated just as the rest of the land, 
 and not allowed to grow up in grass and weeds like the old 
 hillside ditch banks. 
 
 143 
 
144 Practical Farming 
 
 But even these are not always effective, for at times 
 there will come a flood of rain large enough to swell up 
 and overflow the banks and the result is a worse wash 
 than if there was no bank there, because of the gathered 
 head of water. The real cure for the trouble can only be 
 made by a total abandonment of the methods of culture 
 which are responsible for the washing, the shallow plowing 
 and the constant working of the land in clean hoed crops. 
 When these hills were first cleared from the forest the 
 land did not wash because it was full of humus and the 
 fibrous matter from tree roots. But year after year only 
 a few inches of the loose surface soil were stirred, the humus 
 was used up, and the soil became more compact and in- 
 clined to run together and bake, and when the shallow- 
 plowed surface got filled with water and was reduced to 
 a creamy condition, while the clay below remained per- 
 fectly hard, it naturally ran down the hill carrying off all 
 the plowed surface and leaving the hard red clay exposed 
 to the action of the rain and the frosts of winter, and every 
 rain took off all that the frost had heaved up, and a gall 
 and gully were formed. 
 
 It has been seen that the so-called terracing 
 
 How Shall Qf ^Yi^ Southern hills has been but a partial 
 
 We Prevent . . 
 
 this Washing remedy, and that in spite of the banks the 
 
 soil continues to wash; it is evident that the 
 only real cure is to return the land to the conditions that 
 existed when it was freshly cleared, and to plow the land 
 so deeply that it will retain a great deal more water with- 
 out running. Crop rotation, then, in which the legumes 
 come frequently on the land as a means for the restoration 
 of the humus, accompanied by deep plowing and subsoil- 
 
The Washing of Soils 145 
 
 ing, will do more to check washing, not only in the South- 
 ern uplands, but in hill soils anywhere than terracing. 
 The Southern farmers have long since learned that it will 
 not do to plow straight furrows up hill and down, but 
 in many sections further North, where the soil does not 
 tend to wash so badly as the Southern soils, this practice 
 of straight furrows on hill lands is working serious 
 damage. In the South the furrows invariably follow the 
 contour of the hills, and it would be wise for farmers in 
 all hill lands to adopt this plan, not only because of its 
 lessening the tendency to wash, but because it is easier 
 for the team than to plow straight up a hill. 
 
 The red clay soils of the Southern uplands show hardly 
 a trace of difference in color between the surface soil and 
 the subsoil, and in fact the red clay of these uplands is all 
 of uniform character all the way down to the fast rock, 
 and will all become good arable soil if exposed to the 
 action of the air and frost. In the improvement of these 
 hills that have been only scratched over for a century or 
 more the turning must be gradual and not too much of 
 the unused soil exposed at once. But this does not pre- 
 vent at once a deep loosening of the soil, for below where 
 any good plow should run the subsoil can be loosened by 
 a subsoil plow following in the same furrow. With the 
 soil loosened to a depth of fifteen to eighteen inches it 
 will take a complete cloudburst to start the soil to running 
 down hill, and when to this deep breaking we add the 
 burying of the roots of peas or clover we still further check 
 the tendency to wash. Then, if in every hoed crop like 
 cotton or corn there is sown some crop as a winter cover, 
 crimson clover or rye, so that there will be a cover of green 
 
146 Practical Farming 
 
 vegetation on the surface all winter to prevent the leaching 
 away of plant food and the winter washing of a bare soil, 
 and furnishing also vegetable matter to turn under in the 
 spring, we increase the fibrous material in the soil and still 
 further check the tendency to wash. The one-horse plow 
 and the clean and constant cultivation in cotton have been 
 the cause of the bad gullies in the Southern hills, and the 
 puny attempts to dam back the water have done little 
 good. So long as the continuous cultivation of the land 
 is practiced and the one-horse plow is the means for break- 
 ing the land for crops, the washing will never be checked, 
 no matter how elaborate the terracing may be made. 
 
 Deep breaking, subsoiling and rotative cropping, with 
 a cover crop always on the land in winter, will do far more 
 to check the washing of the Southern hills than all the 
 terraces that were ever constructed. Then, when the land 
 is in clean crop, the common practice has been not only 
 to break the land on the contour of the hill, but the rows 
 are laid off in the same way, which is all right so far. 
 But the practice followed in the cultivation of the crop has 
 of itself led to a great deal of the washing. Instead of 
 working the soil shallowly after the planting of the crop, 
 and keeping it as level as possible, the practice has been to 
 hill up the soil to the rows of cotton or corn, and when the 
 rains descend the furrows thus formed soon get filled. 
 The upper ones overflow and those further down the hill 
 continue to gather head and overflow till a torrent is 
 formed rushing down and a gully starts. If the crops 
 had been worked shallowly and level there would have 
 been no hollows to gather a head of water, but it would 
 have been spread out and largely sunk in the soil, and if 
 
The Washing of Soils 147 
 
 deep plowing had been practiced there would never be 
 any great gathering of water on the surface to rush down 
 in one torrent. Then, added to the deep breaking and 
 the proper rotation and cover crops we need the shallow 
 and level cultivation to prevent a head of water gathering. 
 We need the shallow cultivation, too, to preserve the mois- 
 ture in the soil by checking the evaporation at the surface 
 and not turning up the moist soil below to be dried out. 
 
 But there is another sort of washing that is going on in 
 all parts of the country where there are hills and running 
 streams. The banks of the streams have been completely 
 cleared and cultivated to the margin, and when the freshets 
 come the banks cave in and the soil is washed away to 
 choke the rivers. After every rain storm one can see the 
 result of this washing in the soil-burdened waters that go 
 flowing to the great rivers and choking the harbors. This 
 has been the result of the clearing of the lowlands right to 
 the borders of the streams instead of leaving a bordering 
 of small trees and shrubs to bind the banks. Streams in 
 every part of the country are thus wasting the soil, most 
 of which could be prevented by setting willow cuttings 
 along the banks, and keeping the tops cut back annually 
 to prevent too tall a growth to shade adjoining crops. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 CROP ROTATION — ITS PURPOSE AND PRACTICE 
 
 IT has been found that where the same crop is grown 
 on the land year after year, no matter how well sup- 
 l)lied with fertilizers, the yield cannot be kept up 
 prolitably, and often the soil refuses to produce that crop 
 at all. 
 
 No crop is ever entirely removed from the soil. The 
 roots at least remain there to decay, and it seems that 
 plants soon get tired of feeding on their own decay. Some 
 have supposed that there are deleterious excreta thrown 
 off by the growing roots of plants, and that these are poi- 
 sonous to that particular plant while not so to plants of a 
 different character. But no true excretory process has 
 ever yet been discovered in plant life, though it is believed 
 that the roots do exhale carbon dioxide in the soil. But 
 tliis would only tend to render the insoluble plant food in 
 the soil more available, and would not be at all poisonous 
 to plants. 
 
 In the experiments at Rothamsted, England, conducted 
 by Lawes and Gilbert, they cultivated Irish potatoes on a 
 piece of land continuously for a long series of years until it 
 finally refused to produce any potatoes. But when it was 
 sown to barley it made a crop of seventy-five bushels per 
 acre. The cause of this probably was that plants select 
 plant food from the soil dilTerently. Irish potatoes call 
 
 148 
 
Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 149 
 
 for a large percentage of potash, and in the series of years 
 they had been grown on the land they had so reduced the 
 content of potash in it that potatoes could no longer be 
 made, but there was still enough left to make a fine crop 
 of barley, the food requirements of which are very different. 
 In our native forests we find that there is usually a very 
 great diversity of plants, and a great difference in their 
 root development. The pine tree sends a deep tap root 
 into the soil and gets food below where the spreading roots 
 of the oak feed, and it takes food of a different composition 
 from the oak, and the leaves of all the trees fall and decay 
 and furnish each with what it wants, so that in the forest 
 there is really a rotation of crops going on all the time. 
 
 We have seen that humus, or organic de- 
 Economical ^ jg ^ ^^.j-y important constituent in a 
 A /jvfl utflcrcs of 
 a Rotation of fertile soil. Long clean cultivation of the 
 
 Crops land in a hoed crop exposes the soil to the 
 
 sun in summer and the winter rains till 
 the humus is used up and the plant food is leached away 
 from the soil. This can readily be seen in the cotton belt 
 of the South, where this continuous clean cultivation has 
 been the rule for many years until the land refuses to give 
 a fair crop and only makes a moderate one by the use of 
 commercial fertilizers. 
 
 This has been the result of an impression that cotton 
 was the only crop it paid the farmers to grow, and that 
 they could buy corn and hay cheaper than they could grow 
 it. But they overlooked the fact that the crops that should 
 properly form their rotation would, if properly arranged, 
 tend continually to increase the productiveness of the 
 land in cotton. 
 
IT)!) Practical Fdrniiiif; 
 
 It has been well said that sand and clay form but the 
 skeleton of a soil, and that humus, or organic decay, is its 
 life. A rotation, then, in which crops of clover or peas 
 are grown, tends through these, and their feeding to live 
 stock, to restore to the soil the humus which long clean 
 culture has used up. If the humus furnislied no plant 
 food it would increase the cajjacity of the soil to produce 
 the money crop through the improvement it makes in the 
 physical condition of the soil, making it more mellow and 
 more easily cultivated, less liable to crust and bake hard, 
 and also retaining water better. But the humus also does 
 furnish i)lant food through the agency of the bacteria that 
 find their home in it and transform the nitrogen contained 
 in the organic matter into nitrates that plants can feed 
 upon. 
 
 While, directly, the auxilhary crops may not return as 
 much cash as the cotton crop, their indirect elTect on the 
 cotton crop will well warrant the rotation. The same is 
 true of any other money croj) grown in this country. The 
 wheat lands of the Northwest have deteriorated from their 
 former productiveness, while the old lands in Maryland 
 and other parts of the winter wheat growing sections 
 have, through a proper rotation of cro]), greatly increased 
 in the production of wheat, till in some sections where 
 formerly they made ten to fifteen bushels per acre, the 
 tlioughtful and progressive farmers now average forty 
 bushels per acre. 
 
 In the South there are also a few farmers who have 
 realized the value of a proper rotation of crops, and have 
 grown legumes for forage and the improvement of their 
 soil, who produce two bales of cotton per acre, while the 
 
Crop Rotation — Its Piirposc and Practice 151 
 
 general average of the cotton belt is about 200 pounds of 
 lint per acre with the general ail-cotton practice. 
 
 The adoption of a systematic rotation of crops in the 
 South and the use of the cow peas for the feeding of stock, 
 would open up a profitable industry in the stock feeding, 
 and would result in the making of larger supplies of home- 
 made manure to relieve the farmer from the constant pur- 
 chase of commercial fertilizers. Then, too, the getting of 
 the fibrous matter from the pea roots and the humus from 
 the manure, accompanied by deeper plowing and level 
 cultivation, would check the great tendency of the South- 
 ern uplands to wash into gullies, for the clean culture of 
 generations, with the shallow plowing of the one-horse 
 plow, has been the means for great waste in this way, as 
 we have shov^i in the preceding chapter. The adoption 
 of a short rotation and the growing of the legume crops 
 would enable the Southern hill farmer to dispense with 
 the expensive terracing now found necessary to check 
 the washing of his lands. 
 
 „^^ ^ Of course, no hard and fast rules can be 
 
 What ' 
 
 Rotation is laid dovm that will apply to every farmer's 
 
 Best for the conditions. But the following have been 
 
 Cotton found admirably adapted to the needs of the 
 
 Farmer 
 
 upland cotton farmer. Beginning with corn 
 
 on the land, he should sow peas among the com, at last 
 
 cultivation of the crop. The corn should be cut and 
 
 cured in shocks, and if the peas have made a rank growth 
 
 they can be mown for hay, and the surface then finely 
 
 chopped up with a cutaway harrow to prepare the land 
 
 between the shock rows for wheat or winter oats, and 
 
 after the shocks have been removed the spaces they occu- 
 
152 Practical Farming 
 
 pied may be sown to oats later. Cut these oats and im- 
 mediately after harvest break the land well and sow cow 
 peas broadcast for a hay crop to be cut as soon as the first 
 pods begin to turn yellow. Then crimson clover seed 
 should be sown on the pea stubble as a winter cover. 
 This clover can be turned in the spring and the land pre- 
 pared for cotton, using on the cotton only the mineral 
 fertilizers, acid phosphate and potash, for the clover and 
 peas preceding will give all the nitrogen needed, and fully 
 half the cost of the fertilizer will thus be saved. At the last 
 working of this cotton sow the crimson clover seed again 
 at the rate of fifteen pounds per acre among the cotton. 
 Now, during the winter haul out and spread with a manure- 
 spreader on this clover all the home-made manure from 
 the feeding of the pea forage and the corn fodder, and 
 when the clover blooms in the spring turn it under deeply 
 for corn again. Cultivate this corn level and shallow, 
 and repeat the sowing of peas among it and then repeat 
 the general rotation. Following this method a few years 
 will soon show a great increase, not only in the cotton 
 crop but in the corn and small grain crops as well. One 
 young farmer whom we had induced to adopt this rota- 
 tion for cotton, wrote to me enthusiastically that he had 
 found that cotton was not the only crop that would bring 
 him money, for he had made seventy-five bushels of winter 
 oats per acre and then had made two tons per acre of cow 
 pea hay on the same land the same season, and that the 
 hay was salable at $20 per ton, so that the crop of oats 
 and hay were worth a great deal more than a crop of cot- 
 ton ; that the oats and the feeding of stock gave him cash 
 at different seasons so that he was able to run his cotton 
 
Crop Rotatio7i — Its Purpose and Practice 153 
 
 crop for cash and hold it if the price did not suit him. 
 Systematic rotation of crops and the feeding of stock are 
 needed more in the Southern cotton belt than anywhere 
 else, for there is no money crop in the country that 
 offers a better prospect for profitable culture than cotton 
 with good farming, while there is none that keeps the 
 fa,rm and farmer poorer than the all-cotton practice, 
 with commercial fertilizers bought on credit and paid for 
 out of the cotton crop. 
 
 In the wheat-growing sections of central 
 Crop Rotations and southern Pennsylvania especially, the 
 for the Winter ^y practice in wheat growing — a practice 
 tions of the which is still common in many of the less 
 Middle States progressive sections — has been to break an 
 old sod for the corn crop, and the follow- 
 ing spring to seed the com stubble to oats. The oats 
 stubble after harvest is plowed and prepared for wheat, 
 with which the land is seeded down to timothy, and in 
 spring has some clover seed sown on it. The grass is 
 mown for a number of years and then pastured and 
 finally broken again for com. 
 
 This involves a long rotation, an enormous amount of 
 fencing, and a depletion of the soil before the rotation is 
 renewed by the breaking of the sod, which has been 
 allowed to remain till no longer profitable for hay or 
 pasture. Gradually the best farmers are discovering that 
 a shorter rotation and more frequent use of clover or cow 
 peas is far better for the development of the production 
 of the sale crops. In this shorter rotation the oats crop is 
 abandoned as a commercial crop and only grown for the 
 supply of feed for the farm horses, as we will note. 
 
154 Practical Farming 
 
 A Modern In ihc ncighborbood of the larger cities, 
 
 Short Rotation ^]^£j.e there is constant demand for timothy 
 for a Wheat , , • , • i , 
 
 Farm ^^1 ^^ good prices, the temptation has al- 
 
 ways been to allow the land to lie in grass 
 so long as a moderately fair crop of hay can be made 
 from it. But it is far better to get two to three tons 
 per acre of hay in one year than to get a ton or half 
 a ton for several years. There is no reason why a farmer, 
 who is situated near a good hay market, should not sell 
 hay as well as any other crop grown, provided he takes 
 other means for keeping up the humus-making material 
 in his soil. Whether the rotation shall be a three-year or 
 a four-year one will depend on the conditions and environ- 
 ment of the farmer. If his main object is to get large 
 crops of wheat and corn, and to use up all the roughage 
 of the farm in feeding stock, the three-year rotation and 
 the entire abandonment of timothy will be best. It is 
 hard to rid farmers in the Middle States of the notion 
 that no matter how short the rotation is they must sow 
 some timothy seed when they sow clover. The fact is 
 that only clover is needed in such a rotation. Various 
 circumstances are gradually forcing the Eastern farmer 
 into new methods and shorter rotation of crops. The 
 increasing scarcity of timber, and the consequent cost of 
 fencing is destined to bring about a change which will be 
 of great benefit to the farms. This change is the entire 
 abandonment of pasturing the cultivated fields, and hence 
 the abandonment of fences that pasturing makes neces- 
 sary. The modern grain farm should always have an 
 area set apart as a permanent pasture, on which care is 
 taken to maintain the sod in good order and free from 
 
Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 155 
 
 weeds by annually top-dressing it liberally with commer- 
 cial fertilizers, and an occasional going over with the hay 
 rake to scatter the droppings of the animals. 
 
 This permanent pasture will be the only part of the 
 farm needing a fence, since in most states they no longer 
 pass laws about what sort of a fence is a lawful one to 
 keep other people's stock off your land, but have gone back 
 to the sensible common-law doctrine that every one is 
 responsible for his stock and not for that of other people, 
 and that hence he is obliged to fence his cattle in, but not 
 to fence other people's cattle out. This change has come 
 about largely from the recognition of the fact that every 
 farmer owns the fee simple to one-half the highway in 
 front of his farm, and that he has only dedicated this to 
 the public as a means for travel, but still owns whatever 
 grows on the land, and hence owns the pasturage, which 
 the public has no right to use and compel him to fence 
 their straying cattle out. This abandonment of fences 
 over large sections will gradually become the rule every- 
 where, and with it must come a great improvement of 
 the cattle and live stock in general, and a more rapid im- 
 provement of the land through the abandonment of pas- 
 turing on the fields devoted to crops. 
 
 Having the permanent pasture, the laying 
 An Improving ^^ ^^ ^^ ordinary farm is usually easy, es- 
 Three-year . „ , . , , , i . 
 
 Rotation pecially when we mtend to run the whole m 
 
 but three general divisions. It may not 
 
 always be practicable to make each section or field of 
 
 exactly the same size, but it is desirable that they shall 
 
 be as nearly equal as the character of the land will permit. 
 
 We will assume that we have a field in sod, another, 
 
156 Practical Farming 
 
 which was in corn the year before, will be in wheat, and 
 a third from which wheat was taken last year, will have a 
 stand of clover to be cut for hay. Starting then, in the 
 spring we will plow that sod deeply after having appUed 
 to it all the manure that can be saved from the stock fed 
 during the winter, and hauled on the sod whenever it was 
 fit during the winter and spring, always remembering 
 that manure kept on hand is always losing value, and the 
 least loss is when it is spread on the field. If the land 
 had been long in sod it would have been better to have 
 plowed it the fall before, and to have run a subsoil plow 
 after the turning plow to deeply loosen the land, and then 
 to have sown rye as a winter cover and to catch the fleeting 
 nitrates that form even in the winter. But starting in the 
 spring, all we can do is to give the sod a deep breaking 
 and thorough preparation for the corn crop. But having 
 deeply plowed the land and turned down the sod, the sub- 
 sequent cultivation of the corn crop should be as shallow 
 and level as possible. From Pennsylvania southward it 
 is a good practice to sow some of the Southern cow peas 
 among the corn at the last working, and later, as these 
 ripen and the leaves are falling, to sow seed of crimson 
 clover among them, letting all remain as a winter cover if 
 the corn is to be followed by oats in spring and the rotation 
 made longer. But in the three-year rotation we are be- 
 ginning we will cut the corn as soon as well glazed and 
 will shock it in rows as wide apart as practicable. Then, 
 if the peas have made a heavy growth they may be mown 
 for hay, but if not very heavy they can be chopped up with 
 the cutaway harrow and the surface made for and seeded 
 to wheat. Now, as this wheat will have ready for it a 
 
Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 157 
 
 good deal of nitrogen from the decay of the sod and the 
 manure apphed to the corn, and also from the growth of 
 the peas, it will not be wise to apply a complete commercial 
 fertilizer, that is, one containing nitrogen, since the tend- 
 ency of an excess of nitrogen is to make too rank a 
 growth of straw, and consequently a risk of lodging and 
 failure of the crop. But the perfection of the grain crop 
 demands that there shall be an abundance of available 
 phosphoric acid and potash present. Therefore, it will 
 always be found profitable to apply about 400 pounds 
 per acre of acid phosphate and muriate of potash mixed 
 in proportion of six parts of the first to one of the latter 
 material. 
 
 The soil having become well settled from the spring 
 plowing and cultivation of the corn, it will be far better 
 for the wheat that only the surface shall be chopped fine 
 with the cutaway, since a well-settled soil is needed for 
 the wheat. The fertihzer will of course be harrowed in 
 the preparation of the land. The com and stover are 
 gotten off during the late fall and winter, and in spring 
 the shock rows can be sown to oats, and the whole land 
 seeded with clover, using the medium red clover as the 
 best for general purposes. After the wheat harvest, and 
 as soon as the ever-present rag weeds start, run the mower 
 over the stubble to cut them off and give the young clover 
 a chance to develop. 
 
 The following spring, before any growth is apparent 
 in the clover, spread on it twenty bushels per acre of 
 freshly water-slaked hme, and run the smoothing harrow 
 over to spread it evenly and to mix it v^th the soil. 
 
 The clover should be cut twice during the summer, the 
 
158 Practical Farming 
 
 second crop containing Ihc seed, and if your land is clean 
 of weeds you can keep it so better by sowing clover seed 
 of your own growth than by buying it and getting other 
 people's weeds. This completes the rotation, and you 
 now have a clover sod on which to haul and spread ma- 
 nure as fast as made until spring, when it should again be 
 turned for corn and the rotation repeated. By practicing 
 this rotation, lands that formerly made ten bushels of 
 wheat and forty bushels of corn per acre now make forty 
 bushels of wheat and seventy-five bushels of com per acre. 
 In sections where the crop of Irish pota- 
 How this ^Qj,g j^^ -^^ made a profitable part of the 
 
 Rotation May . "^ . ^ , , r , 
 
 Be Varied farm croppmg, a part or even half the sod 
 
 land devoted to corn may be used for the 
 potato crop. If this is practiced, it will be better, on the 
 part used for the potatoes, not to apply the barnyard 
 manure, which is apt to encourage the scab, but to give 
 the potatoes a hberal dressing of acid phosphate and 
 muriate of potash, mixed as suggested for the wheat crop, 
 but in at least double the amount and mainly in the fur- 
 rows before planting, since the potato does not spread its 
 roots widely like the corn. This potato crop will put the 
 land in the best possible condition for the wheat crop fol- 
 lowing, and in the next round of the rotation the part of 
 the clover sod that was last plowed for potatoes should be 
 used for corn, and in this way both corn and potatoes will 
 come on the land but once in six years, and the manurial 
 needs of each will be best served. 
 
 The idea in the above suggestions is to so arrange the 
 rotation that the wheat, which will be the main sale crop, 
 will have the best chance. Corn, being a gross feeder. 
 
Crop Rotation — Its Ptirpose and Practice 159 
 
 can better be used to consume to some extent the food 
 supplied by the turned-under sod with its coarse manure, 
 and the cultivation of the corn and potatoes will put the 
 plant food in the soil in the best possible condition for 
 the wheat, aided by the mineral fertilizer applied, and the 
 soil also will be in the best mechanical condition for seed- 
 ing the wheat crop without replowing, so that if the 
 land is well broken for the corn or the corn and 
 potato crops there will be but the one breaking in three 
 years, and a great deal of labor will be saved while 
 the crops will be benefited. 
 
 I do not mean those sections of the Mid- 
 Where Clover ^^^ ^^^ Northern States where clover for- 
 Does Not 11. 
 
 Thrive Well merly throve, and where it has now become 
 
 difficult to get a stand, but the more Southern 
 sections of the wheat-growing area in which clover has 
 seldom been a success through the long summers. Here 
 a similar rotation can be practiced with crimson or the 
 annual winter-growing clover, and cow peas used as the 
 legume crops for the making of hay and the improvement 
 of the soil in nitrogen. Assuming that we start with a 
 growth of crimson clover sown the fall before and on which 
 the farm manure has been spread during the winter and 
 spring, we will plow the whole growth under when the 
 clover is in bloom, and prepare the land for corn, sowing 
 peas among the corn at last working as before. These 
 peas are to be mown for hay and the land prepared for 
 wheat or winter oats, and at once, after harvest, the land 
 is again well plowed and cow peas again sown, using not 
 less than one bushel of seed per acre broadcast. When 
 the peas have reached a proper state of maturity, as shown 
 
160 Practical Farming 
 
 by the pods turning yellow for ripening, and the stubble 
 well disked and again seeded to fall grain, which the fol- 
 lowing summer is again followed by peas for hay, and 
 the stubble disked and seeded to crimson clover, on which 
 the farm manure is to be again spread during the winter 
 and turned under for corn again in the spring. 
 
 In this rotation we have an abundance of forage crops 
 for feeding and making manure, and if each pea crop is 
 dressed with 300 to 400 pounds per acre of the phosphoric 
 acid and potash mixture heretofore advised for wheat, 
 the forage will be greatly increased, and the means for 
 stock feeding also, so that a large amount of manure can 
 be raised on the balanced ration of the pea hay combined 
 with the corn stover either used dry or as ensilage. In 
 the three-year rotation there will be two wheat crops, one 
 after corn and another after peas, which will usually be 
 the best one, and there will always be a green manure 
 crop for the corn. It will be seen that in these rotations 
 there is no purchase of artificial nitrogen, and in any 
 grain or cotton farming the peas and clover will furnish 
 all the nitrogen needed, and will thus make a great saving 
 in the purchase of fertilizers. 
 
 The need of an improving rotation of 
 
 A Rotation crops is greater perhaps in the cotton belt 
 
 for an Upland , . 
 
 Cotton Farm ^^^^ ^^ ^^7 other section of the country. 
 
 The practice of planting cotton year after 
 year on the same land, and depending on complete com- 
 mercial fertilizers only for the making of a crop, has re- 
 sulted disastrously all over the Southern uplands. The 
 soil, deprived of humus and plowed very shallowly with 
 one-mule plows, has washed into gullies, and with the shal- 
 
Crop Rotation— Its Purpose and Practice 161 
 
 low plowing the terrace banks erected to stop the washing 
 have been generally ineffective when extra rainfalls occur, 
 since they often fill and cause a heavier washing by the 
 accumulated head of water in them. Terracing is only a 
 partial preventive to the washing, and the only real and 
 permanent preventive to the tendency of the land to wash 
 is deep breaking and a restoration of the vegetable matter 
 which the long clean culture in cotton has used up. 
 
 In no section of the country will deep subsoiling work 
 greater benefit than on the red clay hills of the Southern 
 cotton country. The summer rains come in great floods 
 and cloudbursts, and the soil being plowed but three or 
 four inches deep, with a hard clay subsoil right below, 
 the shallow plowed surface gets into a creamy state and 
 must run down hill, since there is nowhere else for it to 
 go. But if the land is plowed more deeply and the sub- 
 soil plow follows in the same furrow so as to loosen the 
 whole surface to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, it will take an 
 enormous rainfall to move the mass. And more than this, 
 the deeply broken mass will retain the water that would 
 otherwise be washed down hill, and by shallow and level 
 cultivation can be retained in the soil to carry the crops 
 through the long droughts that are about as common as 
 the floods of rain. Deep plowing and shallow and level 
 culture to form no furrows to gather a head of water, will 
 be far more effectual in preventing washing and gully for- 
 mation on the Southern uplands than any terraces that 
 can be contrived with the shallow plowing that has been 
 the rule. When these lands were first cleared from the 
 forest they did not wash, because they were full of humus 
 and fibrous vegetable matter. They were mellow and 
 
162 Practical Farming 
 
 easily cultivated, and were retentive of moisture. But 
 year after year the soil was exposed to the sun in the 
 cleanest of cultivation which the crop of cotton demands, 
 till the vegetable decay was used up and the soil began 
 to crust and bake, became harder to cultivate till the plow 
 became a necessity for working the hard soil. 
 
 The remedy is to restore the new-ground conditions 
 through getting back the wasted humus by a systematic 
 use of a short rotation aided by the growing of forage crops 
 and the feeding of live stock. It is hard to get the South- 
 ern farmers to realize that the subsidiary crops used in a 
 rotation can of themselves be a source of profit while in- 
 creasing the capacity of the land for the production of the 
 staple money crop. They have so long been accustomed 
 to look to the cotton for all the money they want and im- 
 agining that they cannot afford to grow other crops needed 
 for the stock, that there has been in many sections an 
 entire abandonment of cattle-feeding, and no animals are 
 kept but the mules that cultivate the crop, and the cotton 
 is expected to pay for all, to buy the mules themselves, 
 pay for hay and grain to feed them with, pay the fertilizer 
 manufacturer a long price for credit on the fertihzers used, 
 while the farmer, with all depending on the single crop 
 is at the mercy of the whole. For generations the South- 
 ern farmers were taught that their money crop was not 
 adapted to rotative farming as practiced by good farmers 
 in other sections, and they have gone on in the blind faith 
 that cotton was the only thing that could be made to pay 
 in the South. 
 
 But a change is gradually coming, and here and there 
 farmers who are studying and endeavoring to improve. 
 
Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 163 
 
 are showing the value of a rotation of crops that is designed 
 for the improvement of the soil for the money crop. When 
 one farmer at least, to our knowledge, has succeeded in 
 an average season in producing two bales of lint-cotton 
 per acre in a section where the average crop is less than a 
 fourth of a bale, and has done it with less use of the com- 
 mercial fertilizers than his neighbors who make the 
 smaller crops, it must finally dawn on the Southern cotton 
 grower that his crop, as much as any other crop, is adapted 
 to a diversified farming system. 
 
 It is important in devising a rotation for a cotton farm 
 to consider the situation and the soil. In the upper or 
 Piedmont country, the land of the red clay hills, wheat 
 should be the small-grain crop mainly, though a portion 
 of the small-grain area can well be used for the production 
 of fall-sown oats, which are often very productive. In 
 the more level and sandy sections nearer the coast, the 
 true cotton soils, the small-grain crop should be oats 
 entirely, since in these lands the winter oats will soon de- 
 velop into great productiveness, while the sandy lands are 
 not well suited to wheat. Enthusiastic but inexperienced 
 advisers of Southern farmers in the Southern press often 
 tell the farmers that they should grow everything they 
 need that can be produced in the cUmate. The effort to 
 do this would not be systematic farming, but merely a 
 heterogeneous collection of many things. What is needed 
 in the development of a cotton farm is a system of few 
 crops all tending to develop the capacity of the land for 
 the production of cotton, while of themselves yielding the 
 farmer a profit. The rotation would vary hardly at all 
 whether in the rolling upper country or on the coastal 
 
164 Practical Farming 
 
 plain except that on the level coastal plain there will not 
 be the same need for the deep subsoiling that is needed on 
 the hard red clay of the hills, except where there is a hard 
 clay subsoil in reach of the plow. While wheat may be 
 the better small-grain crop for the hills and winter oats 
 in the plain, the crops may vary to this extent, but the 
 preparation and cultivation of the soil will be identical. 
 
 While every farmer must in every section 
 A Successful |^g ^t^^ judge of what is best for his particular 
 Rotation needs, and suggestions for rotations of crops 
 
 must be largely suggestive, so no one can 
 lay down hard and fast rules for the adoption of every 
 one, we have known the following rotation to be adopted 
 with great success in the South. 
 
 Starting with a cotton crop, which has been fertilized in 
 the usual manner with a complete fertilizer of rather low 
 grade in the furrow, we will add to this a good dressing of 
 a high grade commercial fertilizer in the middles between 
 the rows of cotton, for the cotton plant, like the corn plant, 
 sends its roots far and wide. We will plant that cotton 
 flat, harrowing down the beds after putting in the fertil- 
 izer. The first cultivation will be with a smoothing har- 
 row before the cotton comes up, so as to break any crust 
 that may have formed. Then, after the cotton is up we 
 will work it both ways with the weeder, and thus com- 
 pletely keep a crust from forming around the plants to 
 make them ''sore shinned" in the wind while young and 
 tender. Of course, the weeder will tear out some plants, 
 but not near as many as will have to come out in chopping 
 and will save a great part of the chopping. 
 
 Then all the subsequent cultivation will be done with a 
 
Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 165 
 
 fourteen-tooth cultivator, running as shallow as possible, 
 or with a two-horse riding cultivator with small teeth and 
 arranged so that the operator may shift the teeth from 
 side to side and regulate the depth with hand levers. 
 This is a far better implement and a greater labor saver 
 than the ordinary one-horse cultivator, and is as far 
 ahead of that as the one-horse cultivator is ahead of the 
 cotton sweep, so largely used in the South. 
 
 The growing scarcity of labor in the South will compel 
 the use of labor-saving implements, and as one man riding 
 with two horses can do far more work than two men with 
 two horses worked singly, the lack of the men will of 
 itself soon compel the use of the labor-saver. 
 
 At the last working of the cotton we will sow, while the 
 soil is freshly stirred, fifteen pounds per acre of crimson 
 clover seed to act as a winter cover on the land. Now, 
 during the winter we will get out on this clover all the 
 manurial accumulation and spread it broadcast, preferably 
 with a manure-spreader in order to make it go as far as 
 possible and as evenly as possible. When the clover is in 
 bloom we will plow all under for the com crop, and this, 
 too, we will cultivate shallowly and level like the cotton, 
 after breaking the soil very deeply and thoroughly. Among 
 the corn we will sow at the last working cow peas, and 
 work them in. We will cut and shock the corn for curing 
 as soon as well glazed, and will mow the peas and put the 
 stubble in order for the fall crop of oats, on which we will 
 apply a dressing of acid phosphate and potash mixed six 
 parts of the first to one part of the last named, and use 
 about 300 pounds per acre, well harrowed in in the prepara- 
 tion of the soil. These oats can either be grown as a grain 
 
166 Practical Farming 
 
 crop or harvested as hay. But in either event the land 
 should be replowed as soon as possible after harvest, and 
 one bushel of cow peas sown per acre, using on them the 
 same appHcation advised for the oats. Cut the peas for 
 hay as soon as properly matured, and sow crimson clover 
 again on the pea stubble without any preparation. A little 
 rye sown at the same time will not be amiss, as there may 
 be a poor stand of clover in the first practicing of this rota- 
 tion, but which will improve as the soil gets inoculated 
 with the bacteria that hve on the clover. These legumes 
 will give you all the nitrogen now needed by the cotton, 
 and we can now start with only the broadcast application 
 of the phosphoric acid and potash, planting our cotton 
 flat and working it always as shallow and as level as pos- 
 sible. With each round of this rotation you will find the 
 crops of cotton, corn and oats improving in yield if you 
 feed all the corn fodder and the pea hay. With the 
 amount of forage produced the cotton farmer with such a 
 rotation should soon be able to raise enough manure to 
 cover his entire corn planting, and this with the peas and 
 clover following the oats crop will make the farmer 
 annually more and more independent of the fertilizer 
 factory. Following this rotation several years, one far- 
 mer made a crop of seventy-five bushels of oats per acre 
 and made two tons per acre of pea vine hay after the oats 
 were cut on the same land the same season, and he found 
 that this double crop was of far more commercial value 
 per acre than the cotton crop which he had been taught 
 to consider the only money crop in the South. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 CROPS AND CROPPING 
 
 IN the succeeding chapters I propose to take up the 
 practical method of cultivating the various American 
 farm crops. I hope to give somew^hat in detail the 
 best methods adopted in the various sections where these 
 crops are grown. Of course, any series of instructions for 
 any crop cannot be made hard and fast rules for every 
 condition. It is assumed that the reader will be able to 
 take the suggestions and adapt them to his own conditions. 
 
 Many of these crops are grown in different climates 
 and on a great variety of soils. While the soil on a farm 
 may not be the ideal one for a certain crop, it will be found 
 that no farmer can afford to entirely ignore the crop that 
 for various reasons has become the chief money crop of 
 the section. 
 
 Many Northern farmers in changing to a location in 
 the South, see the wasted condition of a great deal of the 
 soil in the tobacco and the cotton regions, and at once 
 jump to the conclusion that the culture of cotton or tobacco 
 has been ruinous to the soil, and they conclude that if they 
 are to restore the fertihty of the soil they have located 
 upon they must ignore these crops. 
 
 But long experience has shown that in some sections 
 the soil is well adapted to the cultivation of some of the 
 
 167 
 
168 Practical Farming 
 
 different types of tobacco, while over a large part of the 
 Southern States the cotton crop is the natural money crop, 
 a crop in which that section has the advantage of all the 
 rest of the world. Hence, it would be a mistake for any 
 one going to a new section to assume that the farming 
 there is entirely wrong, and that he should abandon the 
 crops that he considers responsible for the depleted con- 
 dition of the soil. Such a notion is superficial. It is not 
 the fault of the tobacco or of the cotton that the lands 
 have become unproductive, but it is the result of long- 
 practiced and erroneous methods of cultivating these 
 crops. The true policy, therefore, for a comer into a 
 new district is to accept what nature and long experience 
 has estabUshed as the money crop of the section, and then 
 undertake to grow it better by improved methods of 
 farming. 
 
 While in the greater part of the cotton belt, for instance, 
 the practice of depending on the one crop, and cultivating 
 the land year after year in cotton, has reduced the pro- 
 ductivity of the soil to a very low ebb, there is no more 
 profitable money crop grown on the farms of America 
 than the cotton crop when used in an improving rotation 
 designed for the restoration of the wasted humus that long 
 clean cultivation has burnt out of the land. 
 
 Another error that farmers make is moving southward 
 or eastward from the fertile lands of the West, as many are 
 now doing. This is to charge the waste to the use of com- 
 mercial fertihzers and declaring that these are only stimu- 
 lants. Commercial fertilizers have been very wastefully 
 and injudiciously used in the South, especially by the 
 cotton farmers. But we must not jump to the conclusion 
 
Crops and Cropping 169 
 
 that the use of commercial fertiHzers is a mistake. The 
 all-cotton man dribbles a little in the furrow for the crop, 
 all of which is at once taken up by the crop, and a fur- 
 ther draft is made on the store of plant food in the soil. 
 The result is that the land grows poorer instead of better. 
 
 At a farmers' institute in a Southern State, a chemist 
 stated in our hearing that the only purpose of the com- 
 mercial fertiHzers is to make crops, and that they cannot 
 be used for the permanent improvement of the soil. I 
 combated this statement at once. This is what the cotton 
 farmers have always practiced and have grown poor in 
 doing it. My idea is that the true purpose of the com- 
 mercial fertiHzers when properly used, is to start the im- 
 provement of the land through a proper rotation of crops 
 and the growing of the legumes. Some have imbibed the 
 error that a good rotation of crops is in itself a method of 
 improvement, when in fact a rotation is designed to get 
 more out of the land by increasing its humus contents and 
 thus rendering available much that would otherwise not 
 be gotten from the soil. 
 
 As we have shown, a short rotation in which the legume 
 crops come in frequently on the land as a means for get- 
 ting the use of the free nitrogen of the air and also of in- 
 creasing the humus-making material in the soil, demands 
 that we keep up the supply in the soil of the mineral mat- 
 ters, phosphoric acid and potash, for, while the legumes 
 will get us the nitrogen and combine it in organic matter 
 to be brought into use for the succeeding crops, they are, 
 at the same time, the most greedy consumers of the min- 
 eral elements. 
 
 Therefore, while an injudicious use of commercial fer- 
 
170 Practical Farming 
 
 tilizers combined with continuous clean culture of one 
 crop, has resulted in wasted fields, and a great waste of 
 money for what the farmer in a good rotation can get 
 without buying, the proper and Hberal use of the mineral 
 forms of plant food is the most rapid and profitable 
 method for improving the condition of the soil. 
 
 We have often urged that in any ordinary grain or cotton 
 farming the farmer who farms right will never need to buy 
 any nitrogen in any form, for the legumes will give him 
 plenty for the succeeding crop and will give him also 
 forage, which, fed to stock, will enable him to make more 
 manure at home and thus have less and less need for a 
 complete fertihzer. But all of our older cultivated soil 
 has become deficient, from the carrying off of crops, in 
 phosphoric acid and potash, especially in phosphoric acid. 
 There is no way in which we can get these back to the 
 soil from the air as we can the nitrogen, and hence, they 
 must be restored in some artificial way. 
 
 In recent years there has been a great deal said and 
 written about a little farm near Philadelphia where Doctor 
 Detrich made the soil so fertile that he supported thirty 
 cows, so far as hay and roughage was concerned, on less 
 than fifteen acres of land, and the soil became so fertile 
 that he not only did this but had hay to sell. Doctor 
 Detrich boasted that he used no commercial fertilizer. 
 
 But he bought liberally of grain for the cows. This 
 grain was grown on some one else's land, and the Doctor 
 was simply transferring the fertility of other people's land 
 to his own. He had a near market for dairy products at a 
 good price and, therefore, could afford to do this. 
 
 But there are few general farmers who can afford to buy 
 
Crops and Cropping 171 
 
 the fertility of other people's land in this way, and these 
 must get what their land needs in some other way. The 
 most ready way is through the use of commercial fer- 
 tilizers. 
 
 There has been so much experimentation with com- 
 mercial fertihzers on various crops by the experiment 
 stations all over the country that farmers in many sections 
 have imbibed the notion that for every crop grown they 
 need a specially adapted fertilizer mixture. 
 
 In the discussion of the various crops we will endeavor 
 to show what we consider the proper use of these fertihzers 
 in the growth of the money crops through their use more 
 directly on the crops that feed the stock, feed the land, 
 and increase the humus of the soil. In order to treat 
 more fully of the crops that do these things we will follow 
 the chapters on the leading farm crops with one especially 
 devoted to the various legume crops that are so important 
 in the improvement of the soil, for, as we have often 
 stated, in our opinion the farmer of the future must be a 
 legume farmer, and must depend more and more on this 
 class of plants for feeding his stock and feeding his soil. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE INDIAN CORN CROP 
 
 THIS is the great cereal crop of the United States. 
 Wheat may rank higher as an export crop direct, 
 but the corn crop is the great feed crop of 
 America, and while not so largely exported as grain, the 
 results of feeding it to cattle and hogs make the export of 
 beef, pork, etc., a very important item. Owing to the wide 
 range of climate to which Indian com has become adapted 
 it has become the most important forage and feed crop of 
 America, thriving, in its numerous varieties from Maine 
 to Texas. Through the central Western States we have 
 what is called the great corn belt, where, owing to the 
 virgin fertihty of the soil, its cultivation on a large scale 
 has made these states the great stock, dairy and pork 
 producing sections of the country. 
 
 But corn is naturally a plant of the tropics, and the 
 longer seasons of the cotton belt make this section pe- 
 culiarly adapted to the cultivation of the crop since there 
 is never any risk from early frosts catching it as there is 
 in a large part of what is called the corn belt. But in the 
 South, the exclusive devotion of the farmers to the cotton 
 crop has led to careless cultivation of corn, and in many 
 sections to a dependence on the West for all the corn 
 needed. Added to this, the careless selection of seed, 
 which has allowed the plant to attain the natural devel- 
 
 172 
 
The Indian Corn Crop 173 
 
 opment of stalk common to warmer climates, so that the 
 general notion has arisen that corn in the South must be 
 planted very wide apart to give it air, and with a single 
 stalk in a hill five to six feet apart each way, a large crop 
 is out of the question, especially since the tall corn has 
 long since, through this same careless selection of the 
 biggest ears in the crib, gotten to produce but a single 
 ear on a stalk. 
 
 Much has been written of late years in 
 Good Seed regard to the selection of the seed of the 
 
 Selection Indian com plant. Methods of selection 
 
 Important in ^ 
 
 all Sections should, however, be adapted to some ex- 
 tent to the conditions of soil and climate 
 where the crop is to be grown. In the more Northern 
 sections it is important that the crop ripen early so as to 
 avoid danger from the early frosts in the fall. Hence, 
 the Northern planter needs to select in the first place corn 
 that has been produced in his climate, for there is no crop 
 grown that is so much influenced by being transferred 
 far north or south of the section where the crop is to be 
 produced. On the more Northern limit of com culture 
 the long-eared, eight-rowed, flint corns are essential to 
 success, while coming into more southerly climates the 
 dent corn in numerous varieties takes the place of the 
 flint, and in the fertile lands of the southern river bottoms 
 the horse-tooth or gourd-seed corns find a congenial home, 
 and if any of these are transferred northward or south- 
 ward they take some time to become acclimated to new 
 climatic conditions. 
 
 Therefore, in the improvement of our seed com we 
 should avoid sending off north or south of our locality 
 
174 Practical Farming 
 
 for seed, but should take at the start the corn that has been 
 long cultivated in that particular section, and through care- 
 ful selection, year after year, breed it to the ideal of what 
 we consider the plant should be. 
 
 The great fault in what has been called corn breeding 
 of late years has been the taking of the ear as an individual 
 unit for the starting point. The ear of com is a great 
 aggregation of individual fruits borne on a common recep- 
 tacle, the cob. Every fruit or grain is the result of the 
 impregnation of a separate pistillate or female flower by 
 the male element or pollen. The so-called silks consti- 
 tute the pistils or female part of the flower, and each pistil 
 is attached to an ovary in which are certain ovules that 
 are transformed into seed or grain when the pistil is im- 
 pregnated by the pollen. This pollen, or male element, is 
 produced in what is called the tassel. Those who have 
 noticed a solitary com plant growing at a distance from 
 any other corn plant have doubtless observed that it sel- 
 dom produces well-filled ears, because little of the fine 
 dust-Hke pollen falls directly on the protruding pistils, 
 or silks, but is blown away from it, and the silks that 
 receive no pollen fail to develop grain. 
 
 But where a large number of corn plants are growing 
 together the vast abundance of pollen blown about in all 
 directions in apparently wasteful abundance is pretty cer- 
 tain to reach all the silks, and the result is a full ear or 
 ears on each. We see, then, that the plant that produced 
 the grain is seldom the one that fumishes the pollen for the 
 perfection of the grain, but that the pollen from the thou- 
 sands of stalks around constitutes the male parent of the 
 grains on the ear. It is, therefore, perfectly possible that 
 
The Indian Corn Crop 175 
 
 each fruit or grain on the general receptacle may have had 
 a different male parent, and from its male parent may 
 inherit very different tendencies. 
 
 And right here is where the popular score-card selection 
 fails. The student is instructed to select ears of a par- 
 ticular shape, grains of a particular shape, and cob of a 
 certain character, all making up what is considered an 
 ideal ear. But there is no certainty that these ideal ears 
 will reproduce similar ones, since, as we have said, every 
 grain on the ear may have inherited different tendencies 
 from its male parent. The essential thing, therefore, in 
 the effort to improve the corn plant, is to start with the 
 true unit of improvement, the grain, and to regard each 
 grain as an individual, and endeavor to make the envi- 
 ronment such that all the grains of the ears will inherit 
 the same or similar tendencies. 
 
 What the farmer should want in any breeding of seed 
 is the increase of his crop per acre. He wants bushels of 
 corn per acre rather than pretty ears and fewer bushels, 
 and mere selection by score card will never advance him 
 much. Then, too, in the breeding of any plant the paying 
 of attention to one feature of the plant is not true breeding. 
 It is Uke some of the fads that stock breeders have at times 
 been carried away with, such as breeding animals to a 
 particular color without regard to the qualities that make 
 them valuable for either dairy or beef purposes. The 
 breeder often got the color but with inferior traits for the 
 purpose for which he is raising stock. 
 
 So, also, in breeding grain. If we take the ear of com 
 as the sole object of our attention, we may succeed in get- 
 ting a very uniformly fine ear but on a plant illy adapted 
 
176 Practical Far mm i^ 
 
 to our needs. In the South it will be long-legged and 
 single-eared, and in the North may have characteristics 
 that make the plant undesirable and unproductive in 
 bushels per acre. What we need at the start is a proper 
 ideal of what, in our particular section, should be the ideal 
 corn plant. In the North, earliness is of prime imi)ort- 
 ance. Then we want proliiicacy, and a stout, short- 
 jointed plant that bears its ears as near midway the stalk 
 as possible. Selecting by a score card in the barn will 
 never tell us anything about the plant on which the ear 
 was borne. It will never tell us what sort of plants sur- 
 rounded it and furnished to the pistils the pollen needed 
 for the perfection of th(^ grain, and this sort of selection 
 tends to decreased productiveness since the pretty ear 
 selection will eventually result in the production of a 
 single ear on a plant. 
 
 Heredity is one of the strongest forces in nature, and 
 the constant and long-continued selection toward a well- 
 considered ideal plant will gradually establish a hereditary 
 tendency to come true to seed, as the saying is. That is, 
 we establish a family or strain of common ancestry and 
 common inherited tendencies. 
 
 Then, of course, it follows that the proper selection of 
 corn for seed must be made in the field by close attention 
 to the character of the whole plant during the entire sea- 
 son of growth. If we wish our pretty ear to become 
 fixed in its tendencies to reproduce such ears, we must 
 see that the plant does not get pollen from plants that 
 produce inferior ears. If we want to increase the number 
 of ears on the plant, and so increase the yield of the crop 
 per acre, we must sec that the plants that have the pro- 
 
The Indian Corn Crop 177 
 
 lific tendency are the ones to furnish the pollen for the 
 whole. 
 
 In short, we must select the plants that come nearest 
 to the ideal we have formed of what we want in a corn 
 plant, and then must see that it has all disturbing ten- 
 dencies removed from it. We must not allow the ears on 
 a prolific plant to be set by pollen from a plant that pro- 
 duces a single ear or none. In the corn crop of this coun- 
 try it has been estimated that lo per cent, of the stalks in 
 every field make no ear. But these barren stalks will 
 produce pollen, and this pollen will impregnate the pistils 
 of the plants all around it, and thus the tendency to pro- 
 duce barren stalks is perpetuated. And selection by 
 score card tells us nothing about this, and it may be, and 
 often is the case, that grain on an inferior nubbin may 
 be better seed than the grain on a large and handsome 
 ear, simply because of better male parents. 
 
 Plant, from the best seed obtainable. 
 
 How Shall We y^j^j^^j^ ^g^s hccn produced in the same local- 
 Select Our . 
 Seed Corn ^^Y' ^ separate patch for seed. Plant as 
 
 usual for a crop, and give the patch the best 
 
 possible cultivation. Then, having formed in mind the 
 
 ideal corn plant you desire, watch the growth during the 
 
 season. When the plants show signs of making tassels 
 
 and silks, go through the patch row by row, and pull out 
 
 the tassels from all stalks that show no signs of ears and 
 
 from all inferior and weakly stalks, so that the pollen for 
 
 the impregnation of the silks will all be borne on plants 
 
 that come nearest to the ideal you have formed. You 
 
 want plants that are stout, leafy, and short jointed, and 
 
 which bear the ears, two or more, at a convenient distance 
 
178 Practical Farming 
 
 from the ground. In short, the ears should be nearly 
 half-way between the tassel and the ground. 
 
 From this patch select the best ears, taking those 
 especially good, and from the most productive plants, for 
 the seed patch the next year, and use the remainder for 
 the general crop. By persevering in this way, year after 
 year, you will establish a heredity so that your corn will 
 come annually nearer and nearer to a fixed type. When 
 the hereditary tendency to produce prolific plants, and 
 few or no barren ones has been fixed, it will be time 
 enough to look after the particular style of ear you may 
 prefer. Of course, in selecting seed for a northern locality, 
 you must pay attention to the earhness of the plants and 
 select with that in mind. But from Virginia, southward, 
 there is no necessity for particular earliness, and that may 
 be left out of the calculation since the climate is adapted 
 to the full ripening of any variety, and the earHest are 
 not always the best for the South. 
 
 Indian corn is the grossest feeder of all 
 The Place in ^^ crops grown on the farm, and hence is 
 for the Corn ^^^ °^^ ^^^^ adapted to use the rough ma- 
 Crop nure of the farm to get it into the best con- 
 dition for the following crops of small grain. 
 Hence, in a rotation where wheat is the money crop, and 
 the rotation is a short one, the com should come on the 
 clover sod from which the hay was cut the year before. 
 This clover sod furnishes a ready place for the regular 
 hauUng of the home-made manure as fast as it accumu- 
 lates. The manure should be gotten out and spread, 
 preferably with the manure-spreader, all during the fall 
 and winter. No loss of any amount need be feared from 
 
The Indian Corn Crop 179 
 
 letting the manure lie on the surface during the winter, 
 for it will lose far less there than if kept in the barnyard, 
 and the absorptive power of the soil will hold on to its 
 valuable constituents. In the spring the sod and manure 
 are to be turned under deeply, the land thoroughly pre- 
 pared with the harrow and planted. The planting will 
 depend largely on local conditions. On level land it is 
 the common practice in the Middle and Northern States 
 to plant in hills about three and a half to four feet apart 
 each way, so that the cultivation may be in both directions, 
 leaving two or three stalks in the hill, and with the more 
 dwarf-growing flint corns sometimes four stalks in the hill. 
 In the South, and particularly in the Southern hill lands, 
 where there is danger of washing, all rows for cultivation 
 must run on the contour of the hills, and hence corn is 
 always planted in continuous rows with a single stalk in 
 each place. On the level lands of the cotton coast belt, 
 the tall growth of corn has led to planting it very thinly 
 — one stalk in a hill, five to six feet apart each way. No 
 effort is made to breed the natural tall growth of the corn 
 down to a more moderate stature, and the general opinion 
 is that the wide planting is necessary there. But where 
 there has been attention given to the proper breeding of 
 the plants, com can be planted much closer, and a more 
 prolific strain established. Plants that produce but a 
 single ear in single hills six feet apart cannot produce a 
 large crop no matter how fertile the land, and therefore 
 it is of especial importance to attend to the breeding of 
 the corn in the South. We have found that on the hill 
 lands of the South corn properly bred can be planted in 
 rows less than four feet apart and fifteen inches in the rows, 
 
180 Practical Farming 
 
 and produce maximum crops tried by the scale of any 
 section. 
 
 But whatever the method used in planting, the after cul- 
 tivation should always be level and shallow, except in low 
 flat lands lliat need drainaj^e, where it may be necessary 
 to plant on ridges and to keep the middles clear to assist 
 in the drainage. But these lands are exceptional. The 
 first cultivation of the corn crop should be made before 
 the grain germinates, and the best implement is the smooth- 
 ing harrow to merely break the crust and allow the grain 
 to germinate easily and uniformly. Then follow with the 
 weeder, going both ways. A j)lant here and there may be 
 damaged by the weeder, but there is nolliing that will help 
 the young corn plants to start off ahead of the weeds so 
 well. After the corn gets six or eight inches high the two- 
 horse riding cultivator, which enables the operator to 
 cultivate both sides of a row at once, is the imi)lement to 
 use. The linal cultivation, after the corn gets tall and 
 shows signs of tasselling, is the small tooth one-horse cul- 
 tivator or the spring tooth single harrow. Cultivated in 
 this way there will be no furrows to catch a head of water 
 to start a wash down hill, and the shallow cultivation will 
 retain the moisture in the soil, especially if the cultivation 
 is kept uj) in dry weather and a loose blanket of soil is 
 kept on the surface. Worked in this way the roots are 
 unharmed and the moisture kept right where they seek it. 
 
 The common practice, especially in the Middle and 
 Southern States, is to throw a furrow to the rows with a 
 turning plow as the "laying-by" cultivation. This tears 
 the feeding roots olT and gives a serious check to the corn, 
 and at the same time turns up the soil to dry out and thus 
 
The Indian Corn Crop 181 
 
 still further injures the crop. Many farmers think that 
 this earthing up helps the stalks to withstand the wind 
 better, when in fact it weakens them. Corn plants on a 
 level surface throw out strong brace roots, which are 
 nature's means for holding it erect. If these are covered 
 they arc made soft and weak, and the effort is made to 
 throw out others above the ground, which do not find a 
 good foothold on the sloping ridge, and the corn blows 
 down worse for the hilling. 
 
 We have dwelt so fully upon the cultiva- 
 Uses of the . , . . r ., i 
 
 Corn CroD ^ improvement of the corn crop be- 
 
 cause it is the greatest of all forage crops not 
 only in this country, but the greatest crop for the feeding 
 of live stock that can be found in any country. It has 
 placed this country in the van in the production of beef 
 and pork for the markets of the world. Hence the uses 
 that the American farmer can make of the crop and the 
 most economical and profitable uses are important matters 
 for study. While corn is of course used largely as human 
 food, the object of the present work is to point out its 
 most profitable use in the feeding of our domestic animals. 
 In too many sections there is a great waste of valuable 
 food in the corn crop. This is especially the case in what 
 is called the great com belt of the Central West. There 
 it is common to gather only the grain and then turn cattle 
 into the field to glean the fodder that, standing in the frost, 
 has become practically worthless. The cattle strip the 
 stalks of the leaves and leave the remainder. And this is 
 not the only mischief. The cattle ranging over the soft 
 and wet ground puddle and pouch the soil, and do serious 
 injury to it in the future cultivation. 
 
182 Practical Farming 
 
 Then, too, the land is left bare all winter, and loses 
 fertihty in the winter rains, when it should have a green 
 winter cover crop to catch the fleeting plant food and hold 
 it to be returned to the soil in the spring. 
 
 Carefully made experiments have shown that the stalks, 
 leaves and husks of the com have a feeding value equal 
 to the grain. Hence, in this way for using the crop nearly 
 half of its feeding value is sacrificed. Of course, in a 
 large part of the corn belt the sale of the matured grain 
 is an important matter, and few feed to stock all that they 
 grow, though in most cases this could be done with profit. 
 But even where the grain is largely sold the fodder can be 
 saved in a way that will make it far more valuable as stock 
 food. Letting the stalks stand till the grain is mature 
 enough to gather and store, leaves the stover of very httle 
 real value. 
 
 But if the corn is cut while the fodder is still good and 
 untouched by frost, that is, as soon as the ears are well 
 glazed, and is cured in shocks, the fodder is of far more 
 value for feeding. Modern machinery has greatly lessened 
 the labor of cutting and shocking the com. We now have 
 machines that cut and bind and shock the corn. Then, 
 when it is cured, we have the buskers and shredders that 
 separate the corn from the stover and tear up the whole 
 stalk and leaves into such a shape that not only is a far 
 larger portion eaten, but the waste part is in such a shape 
 that it makes a more valuable bedding material and ab- 
 sorbent for the manure liquids. 
 
 The clearing of the land from the stalks leaves it in 
 shape for the sowing of small grain that should follow, 
 and even where it is the practice to follow the corn crop 
 
The Indian Corn Crop 183 
 
 with oats in the spring, the sowing of a winter cover crop 
 even of rye, is an important matter to prevent loss of fer- 
 tility in the winter and to add humus in the plowing in 
 spring for the oats crop, and the shredded fodder can be 
 stacked and kept in perfect condition, and will make a 
 far better feed than the cattle could get by ranging the 
 stalk fields in winter when they should be comfortably 
 housed and regularly fed. 
 
 „, „., But the most important and valuable in- 
 
 The Silo , . . . , , 
 
 vention m connection with the corn crop in 
 
 recent years has been the invention of the silo, into which 
 the green corn is cut and preserved in a succulent state 
 for feeding in winter and for tiding over a drought in sum- 
 mer when the grasses fail in the pastures. For the man 
 whose interest is in live stock, either as a beef feeder or as 
 a dairyman, the silo is indispensable. Through its use he 
 can make his farm carry profitably far more stock than 
 he could profitably feed on the dry food. 
 
 A silo is merely a building made as nearly air tight as is 
 practicable at bottom and sides and freely ventilated above, 
 into which the corn is cut by machinery made for the pur- 
 pose into half-inch pieces when it is in the green or roast- 
 ing ear state. The fermentation that ensues drives out 
 the air and the green feed is preserved in a succulent 
 state closely resembling the green forage of the pastures. 
 In the first introduction of the silo in this 
 of the Silo country, and the development of the ensi- 
 laging practice, it was common to make the 
 silo under ground by excavating and walhng up a great pit. 
 It was also the practice to plant the com very thickly in 
 the rows, literally sowing it in furrows. This resulted in 
 
184 Practical Farming 
 
 a very immature product with few ears and little grain. 
 Then, when this immature corn was put into the silo it 
 made a very sour silage, and many formed a prejudice 
 against the whole practice from this quality of the prod- 
 uct. It was also thought important that the cut corn be 
 packed very tightly as the silo was filled, and when the 
 filling was completed a board cover was [)laced over the 
 top and tons of rock or bags of sand were piled on it to 
 still further compact the mass. 
 
 The result was a slow fermentation and a very sour 
 article of feed, and though cattle soon got fond of it the 
 odor was not pleasant and the milk was apt to absorb 
 some of it, so that the companies engaged in making con- 
 densed milk refused to take the product from cows fed 
 on silage. 
 
 Another difliculty was found in the use of the under- 
 ground pits. This was the labor and cost of hoisting out 
 the feed, and the large amount of spoiled silage from the 
 constant condensation on the cold cement walls, and in 
 the corners where it was hard to exclude the air. In 1886, 
 after thinking seriously over the defects in the then com- 
 mon practice, 1 came to the conclusion that we were mak- 
 ing a mistake in the tight board cover and the weighting 
 of it with rocks. I had also come to the conclusion that 
 corn planted so that it would make good ears would be 
 more valuable as ensilage. Therefore, that season, for the 
 first time, I had well-matured corn and cut it in the silo in 
 the state a little too hard for roasting ears but still quite 
 green. After filling the silo I covered it with a foot of cut 
 straw to catch the mold that always gathers near the top. 
 The result was the best and sweetest ensilage I had ever 
 
The Indian Corn Crop 185 
 
 made up to that time. But I still found that in my under- 
 ground pits I had a great deal of spoiled silage next the 
 walls and in the corners. Added to this was the great labor 
 of hoisting the material out for feeding. 
 
 About this time came the experiments in overground 
 silos, and we were all soon using the wooden silos above 
 the ground. These did better than the underground ones, 
 but still the square corners were a trouble. We cut these 
 off and made octagon silos, which were better. Then fol- 
 lowed the practice of making doors all the way down on 
 one side, fitting tight with the pressure from within and 
 being taken out, one by one, as the material reached a 
 lower level. These doors made the loading and unloading 
 easy. 
 
 Finally, since the octagon seemed so much better, some 
 bright man developed the notion to make the silo after 
 the manner of the water tanks of the railroads, only that 
 the sides should be perpendicular. Hence, of late years 
 :he evolution of the silo has been in the direction of im- 
 proving on the circular stave type, which has become the 
 universal style, though some large silo users are now con- 
 structing them in the cylindrical shape, but of reinforced 
 cement or concrete construction. But where the making 
 of good ensilage is the main object the wooden stave silo 
 is the best ever invented, for the concrete construction has 
 some of the faults of the old underground silo in the cold 
 cement walls causing a great deal of condensation and 
 resulting in more spoiled ensilage than in the wooden 
 ones. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE WHEAT CROP 
 
 WHEAT is the chief grain exported from the 
 United States, both as grain and as manu- 
 factured flour. Two classes of wheat are pro- 
 duced in this country in general, the winter and the spring 
 varieties, and in recent years there has grown up a third 
 class in the semi-arid West, the Durum or Macaroni 
 wheat. Under the former methods of manufacture all the 
 finest flour was made from the white winter wheats of the 
 Middle and Upper Southern States. But for many years 
 past the improved methods of making flour by the roller 
 process have shown that the finest flour is made from the 
 hard grained spring wheat of the Northwestern States. 
 
 While winter wheat is sown in the fall months and the 
 spring wheat is sown in the spring, the methods of culti- 
 vation and the preparation of the soil for the crop are 
 identical. Therefore, we will treat mainly of the winter 
 wheat and its place in an improving rotation. Formerly 
 it was thought important for the best results that wheat 
 should be sown on a clover sod plowed early in summ.er 
 and kept harrowed or cultivated during the remainder of 
 the season till seeding time. But of late years this sum- 
 mer fallowing practice has been largely abandoned, since 
 the decreased price of the product has made it necessary 
 that more economical methods should be adopted, so that 
 
 i86 
 
The Wheat Crop 187 
 
 now the wheat crop usually follows a summer hoed crop, 
 
 either corn or tobacco. 
 
 In some sections of the country, especially in the central 
 
 states, farmers still adhere to the practice of following the 
 
 corn crop with oats in the spring, and then to prepare the 
 
 oats stubble for wheat. But the best farmers are rapidly 
 
 learning that this following of two small grain crops in 
 
 succession is not the best for the land, and while good 
 
 crops arc important, the progressive farmer should never 
 
 lose sight of the maintenance of the fertility of his soil 
 
 and its increase in productiveness. Therefore, the most 
 
 advanced farmers have found that where wheat is the 
 
 money crop, a short rotation, in which the legumes, 
 
 mainly red clover, come in frequently, is the best not 
 
 only for the land but for the gradual increase in the yield 
 
 of the wheat crop. 
 
 In any system of farming, the crop on 
 
 Various which the farmer mainly relies for income, 
 
 Rotations for , r i r i i i , 
 
 Wheat ^^^ money crop of the farm, should have 
 
 that position in the farm rotation that tends 
 
 to increase the yield of the crop while maintaining and 
 
 increasing the fertility of the soil. 
 
 In the more northern part of the winter wheat region 
 the main crop of Irish potatoes shares with Indian corn 
 in importance as a hoed crop, and the cultivation of either 
 of these makes the best of a summer fallow for the wheat 
 that is to follow both. 
 
 Adopting a three-year rotation, the practice would be to 
 take a clover sod for the corn and potatoes. On that part 
 to be devoted to the corn crop all the manurial accumula- 
 tion of the farm should be spread during the fall and 
 
188 Practical Farming 
 
 winter, and the more rapidly it is gotten out and spread 
 after being made, the better, since any way of keeping 
 manure in barn or barnyard will result in far more loss 
 than spreading it on the field. 
 
 On that part to be devoted to the Irish potato crop it 
 will be better to use commercial fertilizers liberally, since 
 the use of barnyard manure directly on the potato crop 
 tends to encourage the growth of the scab fungus. If this 
 course is adopted, when the field comes around again in 
 corn and potatoes, the part planted in corn should be used 
 then for potatoes and that in potatoes for corn. In this 
 way each of these crops will come on the land but once in 
 six years, and the land will be alternately manured from 
 the barnyard and with fertilizers. 
 
 The sod for potatoes and corn is turned deeply in the 
 spring, and the cultivation of both should then be as we 
 have indicated for the corn crop, shallow and level and 
 rapid. The deep breaking is an important matter both 
 for the com and for the crop of wheat that is to follow 
 the hoed crops. The corn is, of course, to be cut and 
 shocked for curing, and may be shredded and husked or 
 used in the silo as the farmer thinks best in his particular 
 conditions. 
 
 Neither the com land nor the potato land should be 
 replowed after the crops are off, but the soil should be left 
 settled from the deep spring plowing, and only the surface 
 made fine by repeated harrowing with the cutaway or 
 disk harrow. The more complete this fining and tramp- 
 ing of the surface is made the better the chance for the 
 wheat. This is especially true if the autumn weather is 
 dry, as it is apt to be, for the establishment of a fine dust- 
 
The Wheat Crop 189 
 
 blanket over the surface will tend to keep the moisture in 
 and will promote the germination of the grain. 
 
 Of course, in that part where the corn has been grown 
 there will be wide spaces where the corn shocks stand in 
 rows which cannot be sown to wheat. But these spaces 
 can be utilized in spring, after the shocks have been re- 
 moved, for getting the farm supply of oats for feeding, 
 and on most farms where wheat is the money crop, the 
 oats crop is only of importance as feed for the farm 
 horses and is seldom an important sale crop. 
 
 The date for sowing the winter wheat 
 
 SowLg^Wheat ^^°P ^^^^ ^^"^^ ^'^'^^ ^^^ cUmate of the 
 locality. What would be early sowing in 
 one part of the winter wheat belt would be late sowing 
 in another. Too early sowing must be avoided because 
 of the danger that the crop will be attacked by the 
 Hessian fly in the fall. Hence, we have always advised 
 that the first appearance of a hoar frost should be the sig- 
 nal for wheat sowing, as after that there will be little dan- 
 ger from the fall fly, and there will still be time enough for 
 the crop to get strong enough to pass the winter in safety. 
 This rule would make the sowing from early September 
 on the northern limit of the winter wheat belt to November 
 on the southern side. 
 
 From Pennsylvania, southward, we would 
 Clover Crop 3,lways sow red clover seed in the fall at 
 wheat seeding. In the northern part of this 
 section it may at times fail from a hard winter following, 
 but in that case there is always another chance to sow in 
 the spring, as most farmers now do. In the northern part 
 of the winter wheat belt, the clover is best sown in early 
 
190 Practical Farming 
 
 spring when the soil freezes at night and thaws the next 
 morning, so that the seed will be covered by the thawing. 
 But further South this spring sowing is fully as risky as 
 the fall sowing. There, a warm spell may ensue and the 
 clover seed will germinate, and then a return of cold when 
 it is in a very tender state, may destroy it entirely, as I 
 have had happen in my own experience in Virginia. 
 
 Therefore, in the more southern sections, if the fall 
 seeding should fail, the spring sowing should not be made 
 till freezing is past. Then a light smoothing harrow run 
 over the wheat will prepare the soil for the seed, and the 
 spring rains will soon cover it. 
 
 Of the general complaint in all the winter wheat sec- 
 tions of the failure of clover in late years, we will speak 
 more fully in the discussion of the clover crop itself. 
 
 After getting a good stand of clover it can be mown for 
 hay one season or left for two seasons, as the conditions of 
 the farmer seem best. If mown but one season it will be 
 better for the crops of wheat and corn, and the rotation 
 will then be three years, clover, potatoes and corn, and 
 then wheat and oats. 
 
 From Virginia, southward, red clover is a 
 Wheat in the ^^^ uncertain crop, and there the cow pea 
 South with .„ , , 1 , T 1 ., 
 
 Cotton "^^^^ "^ ^^"^^ °^^^ legume. In the true cotton 
 
 belt, the level sandy soils of the Atlantic 
 coast and Gulf regions, wheat is of minor importance, 
 and there the winter oats will largely take the place of 
 wheat in the rotation. But in the upper or Piedmont 
 sections of the cotton belt wheat can be profitably grown 
 in a good rotation with cotton. There, too, the wheat 
 should follow the corn crop among which cow peas have 
 
The Wheat Crop 191 
 
 been sown at last working, and arc thoroughly chopped 
 up with the disk harrow in preparing for wheat. After the 
 wheat, on which an application of acid phosphate has been 
 made, the land is well broken and sown to cow peas at the 
 rate of one and a half bushels per acre. These are to be 
 cut for hay, and crimson clover sown at once on the 
 stubble. The clover is turned under in spring for cotton, 
 planted on the level and worked level and shallow, and at 
 last working of the cotton, crimson clover seed are again 
 sown to be plowed under in spring for corn, after all the 
 manurial accumulations of the farm have been spread on 
 the clover during the winter. This will give a three-year 
 rotation that will soon result in heavy crops of wheat and 
 heavy crops of cotton, and the forage grown from the peas 
 and com will enable the Southern farmer to feed more 
 stock and make more manure at home, and so get gradu- 
 ally independent of the fertilizer factory except for phos- 
 phoric acid and potash. 
 
 Rotative cropping and the feeding of live stock are the 
 great needs of the South, and system like this will soon 
 develop the fact that in all the Piedmont region of the 
 South the crop of wheat and pea vine hay the same season 
 will be worth more really than the cotton crop. But of the 
 cotton crop in general we will treat in a separate chapter. 
 Single cropping in any region and with 
 
 Wheat Crop ^^^ ^^^P ^'^^ finally result in soil exhaustion 
 and poverty to the farmer. It has had this 
 result in the cotton country, and many tobacco sections of 
 the South, and it is rapidly having this effect in the spring 
 wheat sections of the Northwest. While in the old soils 
 of the winter wheat section of the East the farmers in 
 
192 Practical Farming 
 
 some sections have, through a good rotation of crops and 
 a wise use of the cheaper forms of commercial fertilizers, 
 got their lands up to the production of forty or more 
 bushels of wheat per acre, the lands of the fertile plains of 
 the Northwest in Minnesota and the Dakotas have fallen 
 in production to about fifteen bushels per acre, simply 
 through the continual growing of wheat on the same land. 
 The Minnesota Experiment Station has showTi that a 
 good rotation is as important in the production of spring 
 wheat as in that of the winter wheat, and it is evident that 
 the days of the great bonanza wheat farms must soon be 
 passed and the farmers must go to farming instead of 
 merely sowing wheat. There the crop of Irish potatoes 
 will be a very important one as a preceding crop to wheat, 
 and the rotation should be one long enough to establish a 
 sod for turning for this crop and for corn of the earlier 
 flint sorts that can be grown there. 
 
 Seeding to grass with the wheat, the spring wheat 
 farmer should mow the land two seasons, feed the hay 
 and fodder and probably the corn, too, and return the 
 manure to the land for the corn crop, and the following 
 spring back to wheat again. But the thoughtful student 
 farmer must devise a rotation that suits his particular 
 needs, and in this section the flax crop may be of interest 
 and must be provided for. In fact, no iron-clad rules 
 can be laid down for any section, and what we are advising 
 here in regard to farm rotations are merely suggestive and 
 for farmers to study out for themselves. 
 
 The requirements of the wheat crop for food in the 
 soil will be the same, no matter where the crop is grown 
 or whether it is winter or spring wheat. On the virgin 
 
The Wheat Crop 193 
 
 Fertilizers for soils of the prairies of the Dakotas the 
 
 the Wheat wheat growers have hardly reaHzed the fact 
 Crop , , ... -^ , . , . 
 
 that they are rapidly approaching the time 
 
 when they will be confronted with the same need for fer- 
 
 tihzing the soil that the Eastern wheat growers have found. 
 
 In fact, the investigations of the experiment stations in 
 that section of the country have shown that the productive 
 capacity of the soil has already been greatly decreased by 
 the practice of growing wheat continuously, and already 
 the winter wheat growers in the Middle States have, 
 through better systems of farming, increased the produc- 
 tion of wheat on their old lands to more than double the 
 crop that the Dakotas average. 
 
 But in the older states there has been one bad effect 
 from the work of the experiment stations. These stations 
 have studied so much the manurial requirements of the 
 soil and the crops grown, and have devised so many for- 
 mulas for the mixing of artificial fertilizers suited to various 
 crops, that farmers, especially in the Southern States, have 
 come to the conclusion that for every crop planted they 
 must have a specially devised formula of a fertilizer. 
 They have treated commercial fertilizers simply as a 
 means for increasing the immediate crop to which they 
 are applied, instead of showing how the productiveness of 
 the soil may be maintained and increased through a 
 proper use of some of the forms of concentrated plant 
 food known as commercial fertilizers, and the farmer be 
 saved from buying what he does not need to buy. 
 
 We have for many years been trying to impress upon 
 the wheat farmers and the cotton farmers the fact that 
 where the farm is worked in a short rotation, and legume 
 
194 P met lea/ fuirmlni:; 
 
 crops arc brought in frc((uenlly on the land, fed to stock 
 and the manure carefully saved and returned to the soil, 
 the farmer never needs to buy nitrogen or ammonia in any 
 form, since the legume crops will give all the nitrogen the 
 succeeding crop of small grain needs, and that, if then, the 
 small grain crop is liberally su])plic(l with phosphoric acid 
 and potash, these will be the only fertilizers needed, and 
 these will be needed only on the one small-grain crop that 
 is the money crop, or on the cotton in the cotton farm. 
 
 In fact, it will often be found that if these forms of i)lant 
 food arc given to the preceding legume crop the result on 
 the following croj) will often be better than if they had been 
 aj)plie(l to the crop itself, while the increased yield of the 
 legume crop will not only give an increased amount of 
 feed for stock and the making of manure, but will result 
 in an increased amount of nitrogen fixing by that crop. 
 
 Since the nitrogen in any complete fertiUzer mixture 
 usually costs as much as all the rest, it will be seen that 
 double the amount of phosphoric acid and j)otash can be 
 bought without any increase of expense, while the result 
 in the improvement of the soil will be far greater than 
 where the farmer depends on a complete fertilizer merely 
 to produce a crop to sell off the land. 
 
 In the southern part of the winter wheat belt the wheat 
 should be preceded by a crop of cow peas. If these are 
 sown among corn, and wheat follows the corn it will be 
 well to chop the whole growth in with the cutaway harrow 
 so as to leave the vegetable matter on the surface as much 
 as possible. Then, assuming that the previous corn crop 
 was planted on crimson clover manured in winter and 
 turned under in the spring, there will be an amount of 
 
The Wheat Crop 105 
 
 nitrogen in the soil that will call for a liberal application 
 of phosphoric acid and potash to balance the plant food 
 ration, since without this there might be such an excess of 
 nitrogen as to cause the straw to be heavy and weak and 
 hence the crop will fall and lodge. Under these conditions 
 we would use for the wheat an ajjplication of 400 pounds 
 I)er acre of acid phosphate and twenty-five pounds of 
 muriate of potash. 
 
 If the wheat is grown in the cotton belt, where the chief 
 money crop is cotton, it will be well to lengthen the rota- 
 tion somewhat, and to put winter oats after the corn, and 
 at once, after these arc harvested, to break the land 
 and sow cow peas at rate of one bushel per acre, to be 
 made into hay for stock feeding, and then prepare the 
 pea stubble with the cutaway for wheat. And this crop 
 of wheat will be helped more if the same fertilizer is 
 used on the peas and not directly on the wheat, and the 
 farm will benefit more through the increased crop of 
 forage. Then in the same manner this wheat should be 
 followed by peas for hay, and the peas by crimson clover 
 in the fall to be turned under in spring for the cotton 
 crop, among which at last working the crimson clover is 
 again sown, and all the farm manure spread on it during 
 the winter to be turned for corn again, and the rotation 
 repeated. 
 
 Farming in this way the cotton farmer would need to 
 buy only the cheaper forms of plant food in acid phos- 
 phate and potash, and could at the same cost of a com- 
 plete fertihzer give each of the pea crops a liberal dressing 
 and then let the peas make the wheat and the cotton, too, 
 and that they will do it well has been shown in the ex- 
 
196 Practical Farming 
 
 periencc of those who have been induced to try a rotation 
 for cotton. 
 
 In the great wheat-growing sections of the Middle States 
 red clover will be the crop that is manured and turned 
 for corn, and the wheat should follow the corn, the land 
 being prepared with the cutaway and not rcplowed and 
 the same fertilizer mixture applied to the wheat. Then 
 instead of fifteen to twenty bushels of wheat per acre, the 
 farmer would soon fmd that forty bushels can easily be 
 made in a favorable season. 
 
 This would eliminate the oats crop preceding wheat 
 which is a common practice in Pennsylvania. Two small- 
 grain crops succeeding each other will never result in large 
 crops of wheat, and where the wheat is the money crop 
 the oats crop should be eliminated or confined to the 
 shock rows where the corn stood at wheat seeding time, 
 where enough oats for the use of the farm can be pro- 
 duced. 
 
 What wc are trying to show to the student is that the 
 great deficiency of most of our old soils is in phosphoric 
 acid especially and in most of them in potash, too, and 
 that if these are liberally supplied and the legume crops 
 used as they should be, the fertility of the soil can be in- 
 creased and the crops increased without buying nitrogen 
 in any form, and that through the growing of these legume 
 crops, and the making of liberal supphes of forage the 
 farmer will not need to buy any artificial fertilizer for his 
 com or other hoed crops. 
 
 In fact, it has been shown in our own experiments and 
 in those made at experiment stations in various states, 
 that a complete commercial mixture of fertilizers never 
 
The Wheat Crop 197 
 
 pays a profit on the corn crop. The appHcation will, of 
 course, increase the crop, but where a comparison is made 
 with a plot left without the fertilizer it will be found that 
 the increase has not paid the cost of the fertilizer used. 
 
 The com crop is the one in all of our rotations that can 
 make the most profitable use of the sod and the home- 
 made manure, and with these the com crop makes the best 
 of all summer fallows for wheat. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE OATS CROP 
 
 AS a market crop in most sections of the country the 
 / \ oats crop is of minor importance. In the Middle 
 X JL and Northern States and the Pacific Northwest 
 oats are always a spring-sown crop, while in the South, 
 from central Virginia, southward, fall-sown varieties are 
 the only oats that make a crop that will come up to the 
 market standard in weight. Spring oats, even in the 
 southern parts of the Middle States seldom reach the 
 perfection that they do further north. 
 
 The varieties of oats used for fall sowing in the South 
 are few in number. The two varieties, the Texas Red 
 Rust Proof and the Virginia Gray Winter Turf oats, 
 being almost exclusively the varieties used. These are 
 far more hardy than the spring oats sown in the North, 
 and even for spring sowing in the South these hardy sorts 
 are better than the northern spring oats. 
 
 The fall oats are better suited to the sandy coast lands 
 of the cotton belt of the South than wheat is, and in these 
 sections they should take the place of wheat in the rota- 
 tion, while in the Piedmont country of the cotton belt they 
 can be used as we have before suggested, as a crop to fol- 
 low com and to be followed by peas for a preparation 
 for wheat. 
 
 As a rule, the winter oats are sown too late all over the 
 South. Early September is the time for sowing fall oats, 
 
The Oats Crop 199 
 
 and by this time in all parts of the South the com crop 
 
 should have been cut and shocked and the land ready to 
 
 be prepared with the cutaway to chop up the pea vines 
 
 that should have been sown in the com at last working. 
 
 Oats need more nitrogen than the wheat 
 
 Manunal crop, but sown after a manured crop of 
 
 Needs of the ^' . , . , , , , 
 
 Oats Crop ^^^*^ ^^ which peas have been sown, there 
 
 will be no more need for buying nitrogen 
 
 than there will be for the wheat crop, and in fact after a 
 
 manured com crop, oats that are to be followed by peas, 
 
 and the peas fertilized with the appUcation of 400 pounds 
 
 of acid phosphate and twenty-five pounds of muriate of 
 
 potash per acre as a preparation for wheat, will not need 
 
 any fertilizer at all. 
 
 Grown in this way, the oats have produced in the South 
 crops of fifty to seventy-five bushels per acre, and when 
 followed by a fertilized crop of peas they make, with the 
 crop of pea hay, a very valuable money crop to help out 
 the cotton crop and to enable the cotton farmer to get on 
 a cash basis. 
 
 In mentioning the varieties of winter oats we should 
 have said that recently there has been introduced a variety 
 known as the Appier oats which has been found more 
 productive than the old varieties grown. It would be 
 easy, however, for the progressive farmer to improve any 
 variety by simply using the fanning mill effectively to blow 
 out all light grain and to use only the heavier oats as seed. 
 The varieties of oats sown in spring are 
 Q^^g almost innumerable, and we will not at- 
 
 tempt to detail the series. Every year the 
 enterprising seedsmen bring out new sorts that are claimed 
 
200 Practical Farming 
 
 to be great advances on the older ones. But, as we have 
 said in regard to the winter oats, the progressive farmer 
 may take any good variety and greatly improve it for his 
 own use by thoroughly eliminating the light grain and 
 sowing only the heavy and plum oats. 
 
 Oats arc usually the first grain crop sown, and it is im- 
 portant that they should be sown early, for later sown 
 oats are apt to suffer from the advancing heat of the 
 summer. But in their anxiety to get oats in early, many 
 farmers do serious damage to their land by plowing it 
 when too wet. The land is then cloddy for the whole 
 season and when, as is common in some sections, the 
 wheat crop follows on the oats stubble, it is impossible 
 to get the land into that fine and well-compacted condition 
 that the wheat crop demands. Better be a httle late than 
 plow wet soil. If the preceding crop of com was well 
 prepared and properly cultivated, there will be no need 
 for replowing it in the spring for the oats crop. In fact, 
 it will be far better to use the cutaway harrow only, but 
 to use it thoroughly till the surface is fine. This can be 
 done more rapidly than by replowing, so that the farmer 
 need not rush into wet land for the crop. Then sow two 
 bushels per acre with the grain drill, a disk drill working 
 much better on the corn stubble than a hoe drill. 
 
 Over a large portion of the Middle States 
 
 Oats and ^]^^ ^^ ^^ Canada peas and oats can well 
 
 Canada Peas 
 
 for Storage ^^^^ ^^^ place of the Southern cow pea as a 
 
 forage crop. By sowning two bushels of 
 
 oats and one of peas the oats will sustain the pea vines, and 
 
 the whole crop cut when the oats are passing out of the 
 
 milky stage will make a valuable feed and one that is be- 
 
The Oats Crop 201 
 
 coming more and more appreciated in the North. The 
 Canada peas, however, are very uncertain south of central 
 Pennsylvania, and on the southern tier of counties in that 
 State the Southern cow pea will be a better forage crop. 
 Through its inteUigent use the soil may be restored to a 
 condition in which clover will thrive, which is a desir- 
 able end to attain, since in all parts of the country there is 
 a growing difficulty in getting clover to thrive. On the 
 crop of Canada peas and oats the fertilizer mixture 
 advised heretofore of acid phosphate and potash will be 
 found profitable in increasing the yield of forage and in 
 getting a better preparation for the wheat crop that fol- 
 lows in many sections. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE COTTON CROP 
 
 THE cotton crop is the chief of all the export crops 
 from the United States. It is the one crop that 
 keeps the balance of exchange in favor of this 
 country, and is the one crop in the world of which we 
 have the practical monopoly. Other countries have tried in 
 vain to produce cotton on a scale suflEicient to compete 
 with this country. And yet there is no crop grown in this 
 country the cultivation of which has felt the march of 
 improvement so Httle as the cotton crop. Its continuous 
 cultivation on the same land, year after year, by the aid 
 of commercial fertilizers has led to the exhaustion of the 
 soil over large areas, the washing of the clean cultivated 
 lands into hideous gulHes, and the hopeless ruin of thou- 
 sands of acres of fertile uplands in the South. 
 
 It was long assumed that while a rotation of crops was 
 all right for the grain-growing sections North and West, 
 the cotton crop was the one crop that would not fit into a 
 systematic rotation. The fact is that there is no crop 
 grown that so readily responds to a good rotation of 
 crops, and none with which good systematic farming will 
 give better returns to the cultivator. With the system at 
 present used in most parts of the cotton belt the crop is 
 grown at too large an expenditure of human labor and too 
 
The Cotton Crop 203 
 
 little of improved machinery that would replace the costly 
 human labor with that of the horse or mule. 
 
 As an example of the present method, we recently saw 
 in a cotton field six men, each with a single mule and a 
 plow, going through the rows cultivating the crop. Each 
 man had to go twice in a row. Three men each with two 
 mules on a riding cultivator would complete the cultiva- 
 tion of a row with one passing through, and hence three 
 men would have done, and done better, twice as much 
 work as the six were doing. 
 
 The cotton crop needs to-day to be brought into the 
 
 modern methods of cultivation, and it could thus be 
 
 grown at less than half the cost that its cultivation demands 
 
 in the present method. 
 
 The improving farmer in the cotton belt 
 
 Rotation must be, Hke the improving farmer in the 
 
 Suited to the . , , •, r 1,1.^1 
 
 Cotton Crop g^^^^ b^^^' ^ legume farmer, only that the 
 
 legumes he uses will differ to some extent 
 from those used in the North. All over the cotton belt 
 the great forage legume and soil improver is the cow pea. 
 In the best cotton-growing sections, the coastal plain of 
 the South Atlantic and Gulf States, red clover, the great 
 legume of the Middle and Northern States does not flour- 
 ish, and the cow pea becomes the clover of the South. 
 With it the Southern cotton grower can do all for his soil 
 that the farmer of the North can do with clover, and can 
 do it in one-fourth or less time. 
 
 The great lack of Southern soils is humus or organic 
 decay. The long and clean cultivation of cotton has 
 almost cleaned the older soils of this important part of a 
 fertile soil, and its restoration is the most important 
 
204 Practical Farming 
 
 part of the work of the improving farmer in the cotton 
 belt. 
 
 Another great lack is the almost entire neglect of live- 
 stock husbandry. The entire devotion to cotton, and 
 the lack of forage crops, made it impracticable to feed 
 stock to any extent, and the first care of the improving 
 farmer should be to cure this defect in the farming of 
 the cotton belt. Live-stock husbandry necessarily in- 
 volves the cultivation of forage crops, and the forage crop 
 best suited to the feeding of stock is the crop also best 
 suited to the improvement of the soil, the cow pea. There- 
 fore, any system of farming in the cotton belt that ignores 
 the growing of forage crops and the feeding of live stock 
 is a vicious and unprofitable system. 
 
 The devotion to the single crop of cotton has developed 
 the credit system to an extent unknown in the North. 
 The farmer depends on the cotton for everything else, 
 for food for his stock and his family, and even for the mules 
 that cultivate the crop, and getting all these on credit, de- 
 pending on the coming crop, he pays exorbitant prices 
 for all that he gets, and this vicious system of credit still 
 further increases the cost of the crop that is already costly 
 because of the laborious methods of cultivation. 
 
 The system of rotation that should be used on a cotton 
 farm will depend to some extent on the section in which 
 the grower fives. A rotation that is best suited to the 
 needs of the crop on the level sandy soils of the coastal 
 plain, and the methods of fertilization there, will differ 
 to some extent from those best suited to the rolling up- 
 lands of the Piedmont country, the red clay soils of the 
 South. 
 
The Cotton Crop 205 
 
 Cotton Should Years ago many of the more thoughtful 
 
 Always Follow farmers in the South came to the conclu- 
 
 a Legume . , , , . . r 
 
 (-.j-Q sion that the cultivation of cotton, year 
 
 after year, on the same land was injurious, 
 
 and they adopted the plan of what they termed "resting" 
 
 the land. That is, they allowed the field on alternate 
 
 years to lie fallow and grow up in weeds and grass. Of 
 
 course, this was better than cultivating it continuously, 
 
 for it did restore some organic matter to the soil. But 
 
 the reason given, that the soil gets tired and needs rest 
 
 was the fundamental error. 
 
 The soil is a great chemical laboratory in which con- 
 stant changes and new combinations are going on. Crops 
 get tired of continually living on their own decay and food 
 elements needed by the crop become deficient, and must 
 be supplied in some way. The most expensive way to 
 supply them is through the purchase on credit prices of 
 the complete commercial fertilizers. The cheapest way 
 is to supply the most costly element, the nitrogen, through 
 the agency of the crop that will enable the farmer to feed 
 stock and make manure, and through having money com- 
 ing in at different seasons of the year, to get on a cash 
 basis. 
 
 The rotation then that is best suited to the level sandy 
 soils of the coastal plain should be one that contains the 
 auxilliary crops not only best suited to the soil and cli- 
 mate, but best suited to increase the productiveness 
 of the soil in the staple crop. We will suggest one that 
 has worked well in that part of the cotton belt. 
 
 For this section of the cotton belt, where, as a rule, the 
 soil and climate are not well suited to wheat, the best 
 
200 Practical Farming 
 
 Cotton i\)lation is a Ihrcc-ycar one. Beginning 
 
 Rotation on ^^,j^j^ ^j^^, ^^^^ ^,|^j^}^ ^j^^^^j^^ ^^^ ^,^j^j_ 
 
 the South , , „ 
 
 Atlantic Coast ^'^t*-'*^' 'I'l^ ^n"'^! sliallovv, as we have shown 
 Plain in treating of this crop, just before the 
 
 last cuUivation sow one bushel of cow 
 peas i)er acre among the corn and work them in with the 
 last cullivalion. As soon as the corn is well glazed, and 
 while the fodder is still good, cut it and shock for curing. 
 Then, if the peas are heavy, mow them for hay, and chsk 
 the land well and sow a bushel and a lialf of winter oats 
 per acre with a disk drill. As soon as the corn shocks can 
 be removed from the rows where they stand for curing, 
 prepare and sow the shock rows also. 
 
 When the oats are harvested remove them from the 
 land and store or stack for threshing, and break the land 
 well and harrow in 300 pounds of acid phosphate and 
 fifty pounds of the muriate of potash per acre, and sow 
 one bushel to one and a half of cow peas per acre. When 
 these are w^dl podded and the pods turning yellow, mow . 
 them and cure for hay, and on the stubble sow in Sep- 
 tember iifteen i)ounds of crimson clover seed per acre 
 without any further preparation of the land. 
 
 During the winter get out and spread, preferably with 
 a manure-spreader, all the home-made manure on this 
 clover, and by the first of April there will be a fine growth 
 and usually in bloom. Turn this all under deeply and 
 prepare the land for cotton perfectly level. Having two 
 legume crops preceding it, the cotton will not need any 
 nitrogenous manure, especially if much manure is apphed. 
 But it will fruit all the better with an application of 400 
 pounds of acid phosphate and twenty-five pounds of 
 
The CoUon Crop 207 
 
 muriate of potash per acre, all spread broadcast and har- 
 rowed in before j)lanling the cotton. In this way the land 
 will all be uniformly fertilized alike, and as the cotton 
 roots run far and wide they will always fmd fresh food. 
 
 Instead of the old style of putting fertilizer 
 
 The Cultiva- j^^ furrows and then bedding on it, and plant- 
 
 tion of the . , i i i i i 
 
 Cotton Crop ^^^ ^'^ ^'"^^ elevated bed, the modern cotton 
 
 cultivation demands perfectly level ]>reixi- 
 ration and planting on the level, to be followed by shallow 
 and level cultivation as advised for the corn crop. The 
 distance between the rows will vary with the fertility of 
 the soil. Ordinarily, on thin sandy soils the practice has 
 been to make the rows three feet ay)art and then chop out 
 to about a foot. But on highly improved land, where the 
 plant grows larger, it will be necessary to give it more 
 room, and it will be found that four feet between the 
 rows and two feet in the row is none too far apart. 
 
 The first cultivation should be with the weeder, running 
 lightly crosswise the rows to break any crust that may 
 form before the plants appear, and at the same time to 
 destroy the weeds that are germinating. Then, when the 
 plants are well above ground, go over crosswise again with 
 the weeder. This, of course, will tear up many plants, 
 but no more than should come out in any event, and the 
 crust about the young plants will be completely broken, 
 so that they will not be chafed by the wind and made 
 "sore shinned" as often happens with the old method of 
 cultivation. Now, start the two-horse riding cultivator 
 which works both sides of a row at one passing, and has 
 small shovels that merely stir the soil without throwing 
 a furrow of any size. All subsequent cultivation should 
 
208 Practical Farming 
 
 be done with this implement, and a large part of the human 
 labor that has usually been appHed to the crop will be 
 saved. We have frequently seen six men, each with a 
 mule and plow, working in a cotton field, and each one 
 going twice in a row. Three men, each with a pair of 
 mules and a riding cultivator would do twice as much 
 work in the same time as the six do in the old style way. 
 There is nothing that the cotton growers need to learn 
 more than the economy of human labor and the use of 
 improved implements and horse power. 
 
 At the last cultivation of the cotton, and while the land 
 is still freshly stirred, sow fifteen pounds per acre of 
 crimson clover among the cotton as a winter cover for the 
 land and a preparation for the corn crop. Then, after a 
 couple of rounds of the rotation, and the soil getting into 
 better heart, instead of applying the home-made manure 
 in the winter preceding the cotton crop, apply it on this 
 seeding of clover that is to be turned for corn, for a con- 
 tinued application of manure in connection with two 
 legume crops will tend to make the cotton grow too rank, 
 and as it is termed make too much "weed." But the corn 
 crop can use to better advantage the coarse manure of the 
 barnyard, and in the cultivation of the corn crop it will get 
 so assimilated with the soil that it will give a far better 
 chance to the oats crop that follows. 
 
 Therefore, finally, the rotation will be corn with peas 
 among it, oats followed by peas after harvest and these by 
 crimson clover, cotton, with crimson clover sown among 
 it, on which all the manure is to be spread in preparation 
 for com, and the clover turned under in bloom for the 
 corn crop, and the rotation repeated. 
 
The Cotton Crop 209 
 
 If all the cotton farmers in the sandy soils of the coast 
 section were working their land in this way, and were 
 feeding all the pea hay and corn fodder, crops of two 
 bales of cotton per acre would soon be common. 
 
 In all the red clay uplands of the South, 
 Rotation for wheat should have a place in the cotton ro- 
 p. . . tation, since in these lands, when well 
 
 Uplands improved, as large wheat crops can be 
 
 produced as in any part of the country. 
 Then, too, in these lands the rotation should be somewhat 
 longer than in the level lands of the coast plain, so that 
 clean hoed crops do not so often come on the hill lands 
 that are inclined to wash. 
 
 The hill lands of the South, as well as the coast lands, 
 should always have a winter-growing crop on them, and 
 should never be left bare in winter, since there is always 
 some formation of soluble nitrates, which, in the ab- 
 sence of a growing crop will be washed out by the winter 
 rains and lost. With a green winter cover crop, even if it 
 is only rye, these nitrates will be taken up and can be 
 restored to the soil by plowing under the cover crop in 
 preparation for a spring planted crop, thus saving possible 
 loss and adding humus-making material to the soil. 
 
 In fact, in any rotation that may be devised, this res- 
 toration of the humus-making material should never be 
 lost sight of, for, as we have heretofore seen, it is the 
 great lack of the Southern upland soils. What the red 
 clay hills need also is deep plowing and subsoiling to pre- 
 vent the tendency to wash into gullies by furnishing a 
 deeper bed of loose soil to retain the water. Deep break- 
 ing, and level and shallow cultivation of the hoed crops 
 
210 Practical Farming 
 
 will do far more to prevent the washing of the red clay 
 hills than all the terrace banks that were ever constructed. 
 
 The constant addition of humus-making material will 
 also have a great influence in preventing the washing. 
 These uplands did not wash when newly cleared from the 
 forest, and only became liable to destructive washing after 
 the humus had been worn out and the soil baked and ran 
 together after a rain. 
 
 Of course, all plowing on these hills should be on the 
 level contour of the hill, but every effort should be made 
 to avoid the making of deep furrows to catch water and 
 form a head to break over and start a gully. The ridging 
 up of the crops of cotton and corn in the last cultivation of 
 a season has been responsible for a great many of the gul- 
 lies that now damage the Southern hills. These furrov/s 
 between the rows soon fill with water in a heavy rain, and 
 one after another breaks over adding more and more vol- 
 ume, till a torrent rushes down the hill and a gully is 
 started. If the plow is rigidly kept out of the cotton crop, 
 and level and shallow cultivation is adopted, the water 
 will be spread out and will be more largely retained as is 
 needed instead of running off and making gullies and 
 leaving the land dryer in the drought. 
 
 While a good rotation is important, the proper cultiva- 
 tion of the cotton crop is equally important when the 
 future well-being of the land is considered. The best ro- 
 tation will avail little if the cultivation of the hoed crops 
 is bad and the land is allowed to lose its fertility by wash- 
 ing in winter and summer also. 
 
 The following rotation will be found a good one for the 
 upland sections: Corn, with peas sown among it; winter 
 
The Cotton Crop 211 
 
 oats, followed by peas after harvest and stubble prepared 
 for wheat; peas to follow wheat and mown for hay, and 
 crimson clover sown on the stubble, and then the clover 
 turned for cotton among which at last working the crimson 
 clover is again sown, and then back to corn. This will 
 make a four-year rotation in which the legumes come in 
 every year. 
 
 Beginning with corn, properly bred for closer planting, 
 on a clover sod that has received during the fall and winter 
 all the manure made from feeding the pea hay and com 
 stover, we will sow just before the last level cultivation, 
 one bushel of cow peas per acre. The corn will be cut 
 and shocked to cure and the stover shredded for feeding. 
 The corn stubble and peas will be thoroughly chopped up 
 with the cutaway harrow, and oats sown in open furrows 
 as a winter protection, and after the shocks of corn are 
 removed the shock rows also sown in oats. The oats can 
 be allowed to ripen and be harvested as grain or can be 
 cut green and used as hay, and the land at once plowed 
 thoroughly and a liberal amount of the mixture of acid 
 phosphate and muriate of potash mixed five parts of the 
 first to one of the latter, well harrowed in and one to one 
 and a half bushels of peas sown. 
 
 These are to be harvested and cured for hay in Sep- 
 tember or October, and the pea stubble at once disked 
 thoroughly and made as fine as possible without replow- 
 ing, and wheat sown after the first white frost, using five 
 to six pecks per acre, gradually reducing the amount of 
 seed as the soil increases in fertility. 
 
 Following this crop of wheat, plow and prepare the land 
 again for peas and harrow in 300 pounds per acre of the 
 
212 Practical Farming 
 
 phosphate and potash mixture. These peas are also to be 
 saved for hay, and crimson clover seed at rate of fifteen 
 pounds per acre sown on the stubble in September or 
 October. 
 
 This clover is to be turned under in the spring and the 
 land prepared as we have suggested for cotton. At the 
 last working of the cotton, and while the soil is still fresh, 
 sow again the same amount of crimson clover seed. 
 
 On this clover haul out and spread with a manure- 
 spreader, all the manurial accumulations during the fall 
 and winter and up to the time for turning the clover for 
 corn. Then plant corn and repeat the rotation. It is 
 easy to see that by this rotation we are constantly adding 
 some humus-making material in the pea stubble and 
 clover turned under, and also in the manure applied. 
 
 It will be noted that we advise the use of commercial 
 fertihzers only on the peas, and only the mineral elements 
 phosphorus and potassium, since on the success of the pea 
 crop the future improvement of the soil largely depends. 
 With the constant succession of peas and clover, aided 
 by the manure that is made from feeding the peas and 
 corn stover, no nitrogenous fertihzers will be needed to 
 be bought. 
 
 But the cotton farmer has another source of nitrogen in 
 the seed produced by the cotton crop. He should not sell 
 the seed off the land entirely, but if near an oil mill should 
 exchange the seed for a fair proportion of meal and hulls. 
 The meal, fed in moderate quantity to balance the ration 
 fed to the cattle will greatly improve the character of the 
 manure made, and all that cannot be used in this way 
 should be returned to the soil to aid the manure in the 
 
The Cotton Crop 213 
 
 production of the corn crop. If the peas that follow the 
 wheat are heavily fertihzed with acid phosphate and pot- 
 ash the cotton that follows them can be produced without 
 direct fertilizer appHcation, though in the earher rounds 
 of the rotation it will pay for a time to use some acid phos- 
 phate and potash on the cotton also, if spread broadcast. 
 But, finally, if stock enough are kept to consume all the 
 roughage, such as pea hay, cotton-seed hulls, and corn 
 stover, it will be found that it is only necessary to fertiUze 
 the peas. 
 
 Then, as the humus increases in the soil, and it becomes 
 more retentive of moisture, it will be found that the phos- 
 phate and potash can be used more liberally, since the 
 moisture will dissolve it and the peas will get it. Then it 
 will soon be found that the peas will grow too rankly 
 among the corn and they may there be omitted so that 
 the land can be more easily prepared for the oats crop in 
 the fall. The clover and manure turned under for the 
 corn will abundantly feed the oats, and the fertilized crop 
 of peas following the oats will restore any loss of nitrogen 
 that has taken place, so that the wheat will have an 
 abundance of plant food. 
 
 Following this practice rigidly, lands that now make 
 less than a quarter of a bale per acre can easily be brought 
 up to the production of two bales per acre on one-fourth 
 the land, or fully as much if not more cotton than is now 
 made on the whole area, while the increasing crops of oats 
 and wheat will become equally profitable with the cotton, 
 and the stock fed on the abundance of food will bring in 
 cash at a time when cash is badly needed for the cotton 
 crop season, and will thus, through putting the farmer on 
 
214 Practical Farming 
 
 a cash basis, enable him to grow cotton for one-fourth the 
 cost under the old practice of all cotton and a gambling in 
 complete fertilizers bought on credit. 
 
 The varieties of cotton that have been 
 ane les o produced are almost innumerable. The 
 ease with which the cotton plant yields to 
 proper selection of seed has led to a great many varieties 
 being put into commerce before their character was 
 well fixed, and the result has been that most of the im- 
 proved varieties have been short lived, and while still 
 planted by the original names, they have, through care- 
 less selection of seed, been allowed to degenerate into 
 something very different from the variety originally sent 
 out by the first improver. 
 
 Like the corn crop, the selection of cotton seed has been 
 most careless, while intelligent selection will speedily in- 
 crease the crop as much as the improvement of the soil 
 will. On the northern limit of the cotton belt, just as on 
 the northern limit of the corn belt, earliness in the crop 
 is of prime importance. Earliness has also become an 
 important matter in the far South, where the cotton boll 
 weevil has become a menace to the cotton growers. There, 
 the cotton must be early to get a crop ahead of the time 
 that the weevil is destructive, and on the northern limit 
 earliness is important in order to get as large a proportion 
 of the crop matured before frost as possible. 
 
 Therefore, in the improvement of cotton, earliness is 
 very important, since there is a demand for seed from the 
 weevil sections for the seed produced in the northern sec- 
 tions of the cotton belt. Hence, every cotton farmer 
 should be a seed breeder, and instead of buying seed of 
 
The Cotton Crop 215 
 
 this, that, or the other variety, let him take the best seed 
 at hand and go to work to develop a plant that is suited 
 to his conditions. 
 
 There are two general classes of the upland short staple 
 cotton, the large and the small boiled. It has been found 
 that bolls of extra size are almost invariably associated 
 with lateness in the crop, and while the crop may be 
 larger in a very favorable season its lateness is a drawback. 
 What is especially needed in the upper South, and the 
 weevil-infected sections of the lower South, is a cotton 
 plant of a compact habit, bearing bolls about two inches 
 apart on the stems, and hence a very short-jointed variety. 
 Bearing bolls in pairs or twins may increase the yield, but is 
 usually accompanied by very short staple, and the increase 
 in length of staple is one desirable character to introduce. 
 
 The Department of Agriculture at Washington has for 
 years had expert plant breeders at work on the cotton 
 crop, and it would be well for intelligent breeders to get 
 home of the Department's improved seed to start with. 
 Then plant a seed patch, and keep ever in mind through 
 the season the ideal cotton plant you wish to produce, 
 and from the patch eliminate all inferior plants and select 
 seed only from the plants that come nearest to your ideal 
 both in habit and earliness. 
 
 Then, instead of taking this cotton to the general gin- 
 nery have a small hand gin for the seed crop and you will 
 then be sure to get no mixture. Plant your crop with the 
 selected seed, and also plant another seed patch, always 
 looking toward the ideal plant and saving seed only from 
 the earliest ripening bolls, throwing all the rest into the 
 general crop. 
 
216 Practical Farming 
 
 By following this practice, year after year, the fanner 
 will soon have a variety suited to his conditions, and not 
 only this, but he will have a demand for the seed, for the 
 men who will take the proper care in the selection of seed 
 of any plant are always in the minority and the majority 
 of growers will always be looking for improved varieties 
 rather than improving them themselves. 
 
 We therefore do not give a list of the varieties on the 
 market though so far as we have observed the variety 
 known as the King cotton has generally proved to be an 
 early and good variety. In addition to the selection of 
 the ideal plant it is well to select especially for the seed 
 patch the longest stapled bolls every year. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE TOBACCO CROP 
 
 THERE is no crop grown which varies so much in 
 character and quaUty in various soils and under 
 various cHmatic conditions as tobacco. This 
 fact has become so well known that growers have found 
 that in their sections only certain kinds can be grown, 
 and hence they have adhered to the kinds that are best 
 produced in their soil and climate. Therefore, in the 
 treatment of the culture of tobacco we will take up the 
 different sorts that are produced in this country separately. 
 It has become the almost universal prac- 
 th° Pit ^^^^ ^^^^ tobacco growers in all parts of the 
 
 country to prepare their beds for the growing 
 of the plants by selecting a piece of land near the forest 
 that is purely virgin soil, and that is sheltered from the 
 colder winds. A sunny southern exposure is preferred so 
 that the plants may be brought forward as early as practi- 
 cable. The soil should be one that is well darkened by an 
 abundance of humus or vegetable decay, the dark color of 
 which renders it more absorbent of heat and also retentive 
 of moisture. All growth is cleared from the land and the 
 roots grubbed out. Brush and fire wood are then piled 
 over the spot and fired long enough to bum the upper 
 layer of the soil to a reddish-brown color, and to entirely 
 destroy the seeds of grass and weeds that may be in it. 
 
 217 
 
218 Practical Farming 
 
 The soil is then deeply dug and made perfectly fine, work- 
 ing the ashes well into the general mass. Beds of con- 
 venient width are then marked out and a fertilizer high 
 in nitrogen and potash is intimately mixed with the soil. 
 
 A heaping tablespoonful of seed is well mixed with plas- 
 ter to enable the sower to distribute it more evenly, and 
 that amount of seed will sow loo square yards of bed. 
 Boards are set on edge around the beds and cotton cloth 
 stretched over as a protection. 
 
 The burning is done at any time in the latter part of the 
 winter and seed are sown in late February or early 
 March in the central part of the country and even as 
 early as late January in the South. The sowing should 
 be done with great care so as not to get the seed too thick 
 and have the plants grow up crowded. 
 
 The above method is that generally prac- 
 
 Better Way ^[^^^ \^^^ jj^ q^j. q^^^ experience and in the 
 to Grow the '. . , ^, , , 
 
 Plants experience of many who have recently been 
 
 led to try it, it has been found that the 
 
 use of glass hot-bed sashes and regular frames pays 
 
 well in the production of better plants and greater safety 
 
 from the changes of the spring weather. In this way, 
 
 the soil is burned over in the same way as described, 
 
 and a portable frame is set on the beds that is about six 
 
 feet wide so as to accommodate the sashes which are 
 
 three feet by six feet. The use of cloth is not only less 
 
 of a protection to the plants than the glass, but it results 
 
 in getting the plants drawn up slender by reason of the 
 
 shade, while under the glass sashes the plants have the 
 
 full sunshine, and can be easily exposed to the weather in 
 
 bright days or when warm rains occur, by sliding the 
 
The Tobacco Crop 219 
 
 sashes down. The full exposure to the light results in 
 stout and stocky plants that live far better when trans- 
 planted than the weakly and slender plants that are often 
 the result of keeping the cloth over the beds too closely. 
 
 Another advantage in the sash-covered frames is that 
 the sowing need not be done so early, for with the aid of 
 the glass the plants can be brought on as soon as it is 
 safe to set them out by sowing the seed the middle of 
 March or even later. 
 
 The same care should be taken in the sowing of the seed 
 not to get them too thick so that the plants will be crowded. 
 Our practice has been to sow in rows crosswise the frames 
 about six inches apart, making very shallow furrows for 
 the purpose, and beating the soil down smooth with the 
 back of a shovel. In the rows it can soon be seen whether 
 the plants are coming too thickly, and they can be thinned 
 at an early stage of growth as soon as a fair stand is se- 
 cured. We usually thinned to about two or three inches 
 apart and always had fine stocky plants at an earlier date 
 than those who used the old method. 
 
 After long and careful experimentation 
 f T b ^^ have found that the chief manurial needs 
 
 of the tobacco crop are for nitrogen and 
 potash, and phosphoric acid in smaller percentage than 
 manufacturers of fertilizers usually use. The source from 
 which the fertilizing elements arc secured is also of more 
 importance to tobacco than any other crop grown. While 
 the crop demands a liberal amount of potash to be avail- 
 able in the soil its quality is very much impaired if the 
 potash is applied in the form of a muriate or chloride. 
 Hence, in compounding a fertilizer for tobacco the potash 
 
220 Practical Farming 
 
 should always be in the form of a high-grade sulphate. 
 While the potash in the crude form of kainit is a sulphate 
 it is associated with such a large percentage of salt that 
 it acts as a chloride. Hence, only the high-grade sul- 
 phate that is comparatively free from chlorides should be 
 used in the preparation of a tobacco fertihzer. 
 
 Of course, the amount of a fertilizer to be used will de- 
 pend very largely on the fertility of the soil, but the pro- 
 portions of the materials will be the same in any event. 
 We have seen a formula proposed for tobacco growers 
 which contains 8 per cent, of phosphoric acid, 2 per cent, 
 of ammonia, and 10 per cent, of potash. This is a badly 
 constructed formula, for while the percentage of potash is 
 all right the percentages of phosphoric acid and ammonia 
 are wrong. Two per cent, of ammonia would be a very 
 small percentage of nitrogen, since ammonia is a hydride 
 of nitrogen. The nitrogen should appear as nitrogen 
 and not as ammonia, for we want the actual amount of 
 nitrogen rather than that of ammonia to be stated. Then 
 the percentage of phosphoric acid is too high. The effect 
 of an excess of phosphoric acid in a tobacco fertilizer will 
 be shown in what the growers call a "bony" leaf. The 
 plant needs nitrogen to some extent in the immediately 
 available form of a nitrate to start it off early, and the 
 greater part in the form of organic nitrogen to keep up 
 the growth by becoming available during the growth of 
 the crop. 
 
 The following formula is the result of long and pa- 
 tiently investigated experiments, and in practice in the 
 bright cigarette types of tobacco, has proved to produce 
 the highest priced tobacco of the season: 
 
The Tobacco Crop 221 
 
 Acid Phosphate 900 pounds 
 
 Nitrate of Soda 100 pounds 
 
 Dried Blood 600 pounds 
 
 High Grade Sulphate of Potash 400 pounds 
 
 This will make a ton of 2,000 pounds. On the best 
 light soil of the bright tobacco belt in North Carolina this 
 formula has been used with great success at the rate of 700 
 pounds per acre. The same formula, used to this amount 
 in the dark and moist soil of the coast plain section of 
 North Carolina resulted in too rank and heavy a growth. 
 Therefore, as we have said, the amount of the fertilizer 
 to be applied will depend on the natural fertility of the 
 soil. 
 
 In the strong soils of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
 for instance, 700 pounds of this mixture would be entirely 
 needless, while the proportions of the ingredients will be 
 all right for the best quahty of their seed tobacco if used 
 in smaller amount. 
 
 Freshly cleared land in any section or for 
 Tobacco ^^y ^\nA of tobacco is to be preferred to old 
 
 manured soils. This simply means that hu- 
 mus is favorable to the production of fine crops. With a 
 proper rotation of crops on the old soils and the use of 
 legumes therein the new ground conditions can be brought 
 about in the oldest soils. In the bright tobacco sections of 
 North Carolina there is a prejudice among the tobacco 
 growers against the use of clover and cow peas in a rota- 
 tion for tobacco, the growers claiming that the legumes 
 injure the peculiar color and quality of their leaf. This 
 has usually been brought about by neglecting to observe 
 the influence of the legume crop on the soil. The nitrogen 
 
222 Practical Farming 
 
 content has been largely increased. Then, following this 
 increase, the grower uses as large a percentage of nitrogen 
 as he did without it and finds that his tobacco grows 
 too rank and late. Following a crop of peas or clover, the 
 bright tobacco grower will need far less of the organic 
 nitrogen in the form of dried blood, since the legume will 
 furnish that, and he simply needs the nitrate, with the 
 same proportions of the mineral elements as before. In 
 the bright yellow tobacco sections in North and South 
 Carohna it has been found that this type of tobacco can 
 only be grown successfully on a gray and somewhat 
 sandy soil. A red clay soil changes the character of the 
 leaf and darkens the color, and the tobacco either becomes 
 a mahogany, well suited for making plug tobacco, or a still 
 darker shipping tobacco. 
 
 In fact, there is no crop grown in this country the char- 
 acter of which is so controlled by the soil conditions as 
 tobacco. Therefore, the different types of tobacco are 
 being grown in the soils and sections that have been found 
 by experience to be best suited to them. In the strong 
 mellow loam soil of southern Pennsylvania a fairly good 
 quality of cigar leaf is grown. In Ohio the tobacco known 
 as the Zimmer Spanish is grown and used as filler for 
 cigars. On the limestone soils of Kentucky the White 
 Burley has become the sole type grown, and is mainly 
 shipped abroad as is also the tobacco of the greater part 
 of Virginia and Maryland, though in a limited section of 
 Virginia a very fine black wrapper tobacco is grown and 
 used for the making of what is known as Navy Plug. 
 
 In Connecticut the seed leaf tobacco has become fa- 
 mous as cigar wrappers and until the introduction of the 
 
The Tobacco Crop 223 
 
 Sumatra tobacco was the chief source of the wrappers for 
 domestic cigars. Of late there have been some experi- 
 ments made in growing the Sumatra tobacco in Connecti- 
 cut under shelters of cotton cloth. But thus far they have 
 not been very successful. In Florida the culture of the 
 Sumatra under cloth has been more successful, and a 
 very good quality of cigar wrappers is produced. And 
 in Texas in a Hmited section it is believed that the tobacco 
 of Cuba can be grown to the same quality and character 
 as in Cuba itself. 
 
 For this class of tobacco a strong friable 
 Preparation clay loam is best suited. The best prepara- 
 o e 01 or ^j^^ £^j. ^Y^^ ^^^p j^ ^^ grow a crop of clover 
 
 ping Tobacco o^" COW peas on the land the previous season. 
 Turn this late in the fall and sow rye on the 
 land, to be in its turn plowed down in the early spring 
 after having served its purpose as a winter cover to pre- 
 vent loss of nitrates from the soil. If stable manure is to 
 be had, give the land a good dressing during the winter 
 on the rye to be turned under with it. Otherwise use the 
 fertilizer formula already given, at rate of 500 to 700 pounds 
 per acre, broadcast. The fall plowing is useful, not only 
 for the decay of the vegetable matter plowed under, but 
 also for the destruction of the cut worms that are apt to 
 infest a clover sod. The rye is to be turned under as 
 early in March as is practicable, and the land put into fine 
 tilth with the cutaway harrow and the smoothing harrow. 
 Potash being a very important thing in the feeding of 
 the crop of tobacco, all the accumulation of wood ashes 
 can be profitably added to the land in the fmal prepara- 
 tion. A part of the fertilizer can profitably be reserved 
 
224 Practical Farming 
 
 for use in the hills at planting time. One hundred and 
 fifty pounds will be sufficient for this purpose. 
 
 The common practice is to check the land 
 ^ out each way with a small plow and at the 
 
 intersections to apply the fertilizer kept for 
 the hills and on it to make with the hoe a broad flat hill, 
 mixing the fertilizer well with the soil. If the land is 
 newly cleared there will be need of a smaller amount of 
 fertihzer broadcast, but with this class of tobacco heavy 
 fertilization will always pay well, as well as on the thinner 
 soils devoted to the yellow cigarette leaf. The plants are 
 set in the dark tobacco districts about the first week in 
 May, taking advantage of the moisture in the ground 
 after a rain, but never when the land is mucky from too 
 heavy a rain. In that case wait till the surplus water has 
 had time to soak in or evaporate. One hand can drop 
 plants for two setting them, and the implement used is the 
 ordinary dibble. Machines have recently come into use 
 that enable two rows to be set at once by planters sitting 
 on the machine, the machine watering them as set. For 
 large plantations these planting machines are great savers 
 of labor. 
 
 The modem practice of shallow and flat culture is as 
 well adapted to the tobacco crop as to any other, though 
 
 the majority of the growers still adhere to 
 The Cultiva- ^j^^ j^^ ^^^ ^lOQ hilHng. As soon as the 
 tion of the , ^ ° 
 
 QJ.QP plants are established from the transplanting, 
 
 run the weeder through to loosen the surface 
 and to destroy any weeds just germinating. All subse- 
 quent cultivation can be best done with a small tooth 
 two-horse riding cultivator going in both directions. In 
 
The Tobacco Crop 225 
 
 this way very little if any hoe work will be needed, and 
 in these days of labor scarcity on the farm it is important 
 that tobacco growers should learn the greater economy of 
 horse labor over that of the human hand. Rapid cultiva- 
 tion to break the forming crust after every rain is impor- 
 tant, and the two-horse cultivator will enable the grower 
 to do this more rapidly and economically than by the old 
 method with plow and hoe. But never work the soil when 
 land or plants are wet. After the crop develops to a size 
 that prevents the use of the cultivator, hand hoeing must 
 be resorted too, for there is no crop that demands the 
 weeds to be eradicated more completely than tobacco. 
 
 A few leaves next the ground are ' * primed" 
 CroD ^^' ^^ ^^ ^^ called, and the ten to a dozen 
 
 leaves above are left and the bud at the top 
 of the stem is pinched out. It is not absolutely necessary 
 to prime off the lower leaves, but the practice arose from 
 the necessity of getting a clear stem for hilling, and hilling 
 not being necessary it matters very httle whether the lower 
 leaves are pulled or not so long as enough are left above 
 them. Pinch the bud at the leaf that hangs directly over 
 the second one next the ground. The topping is done to 
 throw all the growth into the leaves and to save the growth 
 that would be used in the development of the bud and 
 flowers. 
 
 After topping, the plants being checked in their upward 
 growth, will start the buds in the axils of the leaves. If 
 
 these were allowed to grow it would diminish 
 Suckerine ^^^ growth of the leaves on which the crop 
 
 depends. Therefore, suckering, or the re- 
 moval of the shoots that appear in the leaf axils before they 
 
226 Practical Farming 
 
 attain more than an inch or two in length is a very impor- 
 tant matter, and must be attended to all through the 
 growth of the crop to maturity. The quaUty of the leaf 
 depends very largely on the assiduity of the grower in the 
 removal of the suckers. 
 
 But the most important matter in the growth of tobacco 
 is the fight against the worms, the larvae of the hornblower 
 moth. This is one of the largest of our moths, being 
 almost as large as the ruby-throat humming bird. It has 
 a long proboscis that is kept rolled up like a watch spring 
 when not in use, but when in use it enables this moth to 
 reach down in the corolla of a deep flower, hke that of 
 the tobacco plant, to get nectar. 
 
 This moth lays its eggs on the tobacco leaves, where they 
 hatch into a green caterpillar which at once begins Hfe 
 and growth by eating the leaves, and if let alone will to 
 a great extent destroy the value of the whole crop. Three 
 broods of this insect are hatched during the summer, 
 though it is commonly supposed there are but two. For- 
 merly, tobacco growers in their fight against the pest 
 depended on hand picking, running turkeys in the tobacco 
 field and on poisoning the moths with cobalt and sweet- 
 ened water placed in the corolla of the flower of the Jimson 
 weed, or in a painted imitation flower of the same. 
 
 In recent years, however, it has become the common 
 practice to spray the plants with Paris green mixed in 
 water, one-fourth of a pound of the poison being used to 
 a barrel of water and applied with a spraying pump and 
 nozzle. This is all right for the early brood of cater- 
 pillars, but for the later brood we are of the opinion that 
 the poison should not be used, as there may some of it 
 
The Tobacco Crop 227 
 
 remain on the matured leaf and be dangerous. There- 
 fore, we would depend on hand picking and the turkeys 
 for the late brood. 
 
 The bright tobacco section was formerly 
 The Bright confined to a few counties in the northern 
 Yellow pg^j.|- Qjf North Carolina. But in recent years 
 
 jjq^^j^ it has been found that the sandy soils of the 
 
 Carolina coast plain of that State and the upper Pine 
 
 Belt of South Carohna are equally adapted 
 to this kind of tobacco. A light sandy soil of a gray color 
 is preferred for this class of tobacco, which is used both for 
 cigarettes and for making Hght-colored plug tobacco for 
 chewing. 
 
 While it is generally admitted that a new soil abounding 
 in humus is the ideal tobacco soil, there is a great prejudice 
 among the growers of the gold leaf tobacco against im- 
 proving the humus content of their soils through the use 
 of legume crops such as clover and the cow pea. Many 
 growers declare that they cannot grow tobacco of fine 
 quality after peas or clover. The main reason has been 
 that they forget that the peas and clover have largely 
 increased the nitrogen in the soil, and they use the same 
 kind of fertilizer high in nitrogen that they have been 
 accustomed to use on thinner soil. The result is that the 
 tobacco grows too rankly and late and is of a coarser 
 character. But a good rotation of crops and the improve- 
 ment of the soil by the use of the legumes is fully as im- 
 portant to the growers of the gold leaf tobacco as it is to 
 those who grow the dark shipping leaf and the White 
 Burley. But after the turning under of a large growth of 
 cow peas or a sod of clover, some other crop should come 
 
228 Practical Farming 
 
 in between it and the tobacco crop in order that the vege- 
 table matter shall be more completely decomposed and in 
 the condition of the natural humus of the new ground 
 that they find so useful. 
 
 The tobacco now known as the "White 
 
 The White Burley originated from a selection from the 
 
 Burley 
 
 Tobacco ^^^ Burley, made in Ohio about 1864. It 
 
 is now produced in larger quantity than any 
 other variety of tobacco grown in this country. Its cul- 
 ture is largely confined to the State of Kentucky, though 
 still grown to a great extent in Ohio, the area of culti- 
 vation lying on both sides of the Ohio River, and including 
 twenty-four counties in Kentucky, three in Ohio, and 
 parts of other counties in Kentucky. In brief, it is a 
 Blue Grass country tobacco, and is strictly a limestone 
 land tobacco. Even there the quality varies greatly, 
 the north slopes of the hills producing a heavier crop 
 but inferior in quality to the Ughter soils and south 
 exposure, while the alluvial bottoms make a coarse 
 and "bony" leaf. It is now used very largely as a 
 material for plug tobacco, having almost entirely taken 
 the place of the Virginia tobacco formerly used for this 
 purpose. 
 
 In the culture of White Burley the growers have largely 
 abandoned the practice of making hills for the plants, but 
 set the plants on the side of the furrow made in marking 
 out the land, and then throw earth enough to them as they 
 start to grow to make the soil level. Thereafter level cul- 
 ture is practiced. In fact there is now little hilling up of 
 tobacco except among the growers of the gold leaf in the 
 South, who still stick to the practice. 
 
The Tobacco Crop 229 
 
 The Black In the mountains of the Blue Ridge in 
 
 Tobacco of the Virginia, especially in the county of Nelson, 
 
 Virginia i 
 
 Mountains there is a limited culture of a very dark 
 
 wrapper tobacco that is used for Navy Plug. 
 The growers there have a blood-red soil of granitic 
 origin and have adopted a three-year rotation for 
 their tobacco, using no manure or fertilizer whatever, 
 but depending on clover to make the crop. The tobacco 
 is followed by wheat on which clover is sown. The clover 
 stands one year and is then all turned under for tobacco 
 the following season. No crop but wheat, other than 
 tobacco, is sold or used from the land devoted to tobacco. 
 This turning under every third year of the entire clover 
 crop results, of course, in a soil abounding in humus, and 
 the crops of wheat and tobacco are, as a consequence, 
 very fine. But while the soil is rich in mineral matters, 
 especially in potash, from the decomposition of the feld- 
 spathic rocks, this practice is rapidly robbing it of the 
 phosphorus content, and ere long it will be necessary 
 to supply this especially for the wheat crop. So far, the 
 practice has resulted well, but the growers should stand 
 ready to supply any lack of phosphoric acid and with this 
 addition they have a very profitable rotation for the black 
 wrappers. 
 
 Under the names of Seed Leaf, Broad Leaf and other 
 names, tobacco is grown in the valley of the Connecticut 
 
 and Housatonic Rivers for cigar wrappers. 
 Tobacco '^^^ ^°^^ ^^ these valleys makes a fine thin 
 
 wrapper of a mild flavor that is much used 
 to wrap cigars having a Havana filler. Experiments 
 have of late been made in Connecticut to grow the Su- 
 
230 Practical Farming 
 
 matra tobacco under cotton cloth covers, and though so 
 far the culture has not been profitable the growers still 
 have faith in making it so. But the culture of this leaf 
 has become so common and profitable in Florida that it is 
 probable that the Sumatra wrappers in this country will 
 be largely grown there. But many smokers still prefer the 
 Connecticut Seed Leaf and the Broad Leaf wrappers to 
 the Sumatra. One manufacturer told us that his brands 
 of cigars cannot be made with the Sumatra leaf. 
 
 In Ohio a variety known as Zimmer Spanish has come 
 into use for mixing with Havana as a filler in the cheaper 
 grades of cigars to which it imparts a sweetness that is 
 favored by many smokers. 
 
 The methods of harvesting and curing 
 Harvesting tobacco vary greatly in the different districts. 
 Tobacco -'■^ *^^ bright tobacco of the South Atlantic 
 
 coast section, and in the White Burley sec- 
 tion, tobacco is not cut off at the ground as is done in 
 Pennsylvania and Connecticut and the North generally, 
 but the leaves are pulled separately as they mature and 
 are then strung on short sticks for curing by heat in flued 
 barns. At the beginning of the harvest four or five of the 
 lower and riper leaves are pulled in the morning after the 
 dew is off. Some growers string them on the curing sticks 
 in the field, while others load in wagons and haul to the 
 curing bams where women and girls do the stringing with 
 cotton twine and needles, or by using a peculiar turn of 
 the twine around each midrib. The barns are commonly 
 built of logs, and are much taller than broad. The sticks 
 on which the tobacco leaves are strung are arranged on 
 cross beams from the top of the house downward, closely, 
 
The Tobacco Crop 231 
 
 till the barn is full. Sheet iron flues connected with a 
 brick furnace — sometimes two — run around the house 
 The furnace is fed from the outside, and as soon as the 
 barn is filled the fire is started, and the curer stays by it 
 night and day till the curing is completed, watching the 
 thermometer and the tobacco continually. This flue cur- 
 ing is not practiced in the White Burley section but is con- 
 fined to the Gold Leaf region, though the harvesting in 
 both sections is similar. The degree of heat and the varia- 
 tions in temperature are governed by the experience of the 
 operator and vary with the kind and condition of the 
 tobacco in the house. No attempt to describe the proc- 
 ess can by any means make a skillful curer. Practical 
 experience under a skilled curer is the only way to learn 
 flue-curing. Gathering the leaves instead of cutting the 
 whole plant has the advantage that the tobacco is all of a 
 uniform maturity, and the different grades and quaHties 
 are more easily kept separate and much time is saved in 
 the grading and assorting for market. Then the crop is 
 cured more safely and in a shorter time, and less barn 
 room is needed, as barn after barn can be refilled as the crop 
 matures and is cured. The stringing on the curing sticks 
 requires some skill, for the leaves must hang face to face 
 or back to back, since if strung back to face they will enfold 
 in curing and be damaged. In the Gold Leaf district a 
 crop of 900 pounds per acre is a fairly good one, while in 
 the tobacco section of Pennsylvania and Connecticut 2000 
 pounds are often grown, but until recent years the Gold 
 Leaf brought the highest price in the country, the farmers 
 of late years complaining of the monopoly of the American 
 Tobacco Company. 
 
232 Practical Farming 
 
 Harvesting The curing houses used by the Coiinecti- 
 
 and Curing ^^^ ^^^ Pennsylvania tobacco growers are 
 
 the Seed Leaf 
 
 Tobacco ^^^y different from the rude log houses used 
 
 in the South for flue curing. The curing 
 being entirely air curing a proper regard must be 
 had to ventilation in the tobacco bam. This is the 
 most important matter in air curing. Prolonged dry 
 weather is dreaded by the tobacco growers after the crop 
 is in the house, for a proper degree of moisture is essential. 
 That is, there must be an alternate dampness and drying 
 to prevent too rapid a curing by prolonged dry weather. 
 On the other hand, too much moisture induces mold, 
 while a proper amount is necessary for the complete color- 
 ing of the leaf. The tobacco house is made with a series 
 of shutters that can be closed or opened, as needed. These 
 shutters extend from the ground to the eaves on the sides 
 of the house. When there is an excess of moisture in the 
 outside air these shutters can be tightly closed. Some use 
 horizontal shutters on each tier of plants and prefer them 
 to the old style of upright shutters. An abundance of air 
 is given when the tobacco is first housed for several weeks, 
 care being taken to close when too windy and dry, and 
 opening at night to admit the moist night air. Other 
 growers keep the ventilators open night and day for two 
 weeks after the tobacco has been housed, claiming that 
 the moisture of the night air will thus regularly neutrahze 
 the effect of the dry day air. This method of curing re- 
 quires about twelve weeks. After all signs of green have 
 disappeared from stalks and leaves the crop is taken 
 down when the weather is so moist that the leaves will be 
 soft enough to handle. 
 
The Tobacco Crop 233 
 
 The leaves are then stripped ojEf and packed in boxes 
 lined with paper, under which cords are passed at inter- 
 vals. These boxes are a foot deep and wide and three 
 feet long. The tobacco is packed on the paper lining 
 with the butts of the leaves to the ends of the box and lap- 
 ping in the middle. The paper is then folded over the 
 top and the strings are tied across loosely. The bundle 
 thus formed is then Hfted out and packed in piles with 
 other bundles made in the same way. 
 
 The packers buy the tobacco in this shape from the 
 growers, the price being determined by the percentage of 
 good wrappers in the bundles. The packers sort the 
 leaves into first and second class wrappers, binders and 
 fillers. In sorting, the leaves are tied into hands of six- 
 teen leaves each. These are packed in bulk with the 
 butts out and the leaves lapping within on platforms ar- 
 ranged for a circulation of air beneath. The bulks are 
 four feet wide and as long as desired. The tobacco in 
 bulking should be quite moist, and the bulks are made 
 about four feet high. It is then covered with blankets 
 and weighted down. After remaining in bulk for a short 
 time it is ready for boxing. The boxes will average about 
 twenty-eight inches wide by three and a half feet long for 
 wrappers, and shorter for other grades. The tobacco is 
 placed lengthwise in these boxes and enough of pressure 
 is applied to make the boxes run from 325 to 375 pounds. 
 Loose head boards are used in the ends of the boxes to 
 keep the butt an inch from the ends of the box. Pack 
 when in medium "case," that is medium state of moisture. 
 Lap the tops well and never put any tobacco crosswise the 
 box. The boxes are nailed up and placed on their sides 
 
234 Practical Farming 
 
 and left to ferment and sweat. This begins in June and 
 is carried on for several months, and the tobacco often 
 reaches a temperature of 150 degrees or more. This 
 sweating process is necessary to ripen and bring out the 
 full flavor of the tobacco. If kept over to the second 
 year it will again ferment and improve in quality. When 
 the sweating is completed the end of the box can be opened 
 and the samples drawn from different parts to get a fair 
 sample of the contents for sale. 
 
 The harvesting and curing of tobacco, it will be now 
 seen, varies greatly according to the different characters 
 of the crop and the purposes to which it is to be applied. 
 The bright yellow gold leaf of the South is very rapidly 
 cured and bulked by the growers, sorted by them and put 
 on the market by the time the crop of the seed leaf is being 
 cut. Hence, the proper curing of the different kinds of 
 tobacco is an art that can only be learned by the handling 
 of each kind under the instruction of an expert and on the 
 spot. 
 
 While a man can, by reading and study, become expert 
 in the growing of tobacco, no amount of mere reading and 
 study will make an expert curer. He must learn this 
 from doing it. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE IRISH POTATO CROP 
 
 IN nearly every section of the country the crop of 
 Irish potatoes has become one of the leading farm 
 crops, and the production of early potatoes for the 
 northern markets has developed into one of the leading 
 interests with the southern market gardeners. 
 
 Hence, the main or late crop of potatoes comes into the 
 regular crop rotation in the Middle and Northern States, 
 while the early crop is interesting mainly to the truckers 
 or market gardeners in the South. Therefore, in any 
 improving farm crop rotation in the North the potato 
 crop can be made one of the leading sources of income 
 along with the corn crop. Of the potato crop thus con- 
 sidered we will treat later in this chapter. 
 
 In the South, especially in the South 
 The Early Atlantic Coast States, from the southern 
 
 Potato Crop in . r -^.r ^ ^ i i 
 
 the South section of Maryland southward to Florida, 
 the production of the early potato crop in 
 succession as the season moves northward, has become of 
 vast importance and the selection of seed and the vari- 
 eties best adapted to their use are matters 
 The Seed ^j ^^^^^ interest to thousands of growers. 
 
 Potatoes for -r , n i ■, r ■, ■, 
 
 the South ■'-^ the first development of the culture of 
 
 the early potato crop in the South it was 
 thought essential that seed potatoes for their planting 
 should be grown in the North, and for years there was a 
 
 235 
 
236 Practical Farming 
 
 discussion as to the respective merits of the potatoes grown 
 in New York State and those grown in New England. 
 Each had its favorites among the growers, and every win- 
 ter the southern-bound steamers were loaded '^with seed 
 potatoes to be planted in the South. 
 
 But about twenty-five years ago some of the Norfolk 
 growers got to experimenting with the planting of seed 
 late in summer from the crop of the same year, and grad- 
 ually it was found that good crops for the winter use could 
 be grown in this way. The first idea in the production of 
 this crop was to obtain potatoes for winter use that would 
 keep in that climate, since it had been found impracticable 
 to keep the early grown crop. Finally, some one tried 
 these late grown potatoes for planting the early crop of 
 the following year, and it was found that they possessed 
 advantages over the potatoes brought from the North. 
 
 They are dug in early December, and can in that climate 
 be easily kept over winter in heaps covered deeply with 
 earth, and as they are planted from January to March, 
 according to the latitude, they have had no chance to sprout 
 and become weakened. The northern potatoes, dug in 
 the fall and kept in cellars, sprout more or less in winter 
 and have the sprouts rubbed off. This sprouting is a 
 deterioration of the food material stored in the potato, and 
 as the potato is simply a mass of starchy matter stored 
 around a bunch of shoots, the rubbing off of the sprouts 
 takes off the terminal bud of the shoot, which is always 
 the strongest grower. Then, when these potatoes are 
 planted the growth comes from lateral and weaker buds, 
 usually making a bunch of shoots rather than one strong 
 one from the terminal bud. 
 
The Irish Potato Crop 237 
 
 On the other hand the late second crop potatoes in the 
 South that is dug late in the fall or early winter, keeps 
 without any sprouting, and when it grows it is with the 
 strong growth of the terminal bud, and with an undimin- 
 ished supply of food for the plant. It is hence found 
 that the growth of these potatoes is much stronger and 
 more robust and can stand untoward spring conditions 
 better than the plants from the northern seed. In fact, 
 it has been found that a spring frost that will cut to the 
 ground the shoots of the northern seed potatoes will but 
 slightly scorch the home-grown ones, owing to their stronger 
 development. Since these facts have been proven there 
 has been a great increase in the production of the second 
 crop, and now few growers ever plant the northern-grown 
 seed potatoes at all. 
 
 Some years ago, when I, the writer, was Horticulturist 
 of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, I 
 made arrangement for a co-operative test of seed potatoes 
 in connection with the Cornell, N. Y., and the Maine 
 stations. They were to send me some of their early seed 
 potatoes to plant, and from these I was to grow a second 
 late crop the same season and send to them for planting 
 the following year, while they were to send me more of the 
 same stock sent the previous year, to plant alongside of 
 my late crop from their seed of the year before. 
 
 The experiment went as far as the second year. I 
 planted my seed and alongside planted more of their 
 northern seed. The difference was apparent as soon as 
 the tops developed. The northern potatoes made a bunch 
 of shoots, while mine made a sturdy single shoot from the 
 terminal bud and no others grew. The growth of mine 
 
238 Practical Farming 
 
 was so superior to theirs that I took a photograph of two 
 adjoining rows to show it. Then at digging time I piled 
 up and photographed the crop from fifteen hills of each, 
 and the difference in the yield was very apparent, in fact, 
 the potatoes in the crop from the northern seed would 
 have been graded as cullings in the other lot. 
 
 The experiment proved so much that my northern 
 friends sent no more seed potatoes. 
 
 In eastern North Carolina the early crop 
 How the of Irish potatoes is ready for market early in 
 
 Second Crop t ^^^^ ^^^ f^^i matured. Those in- 
 
 Potatoes are 
 Grown in the tended for the late crop are let fully mature. 
 
 South They are then dug and cut in two pieces, 
 
 since it has been found that they sprout 
 more readily when cut. But they are simply cut in half 
 and not into the usual pieces for the spring planting. The 
 cut potatoes are then placed in httle winrows in furrow 
 and either covered with earth or with a thick layer of pine 
 leaves. There they remain till August, and then, as they 
 show signs of sprouting, they are planted in deep furrows 
 but covered very hghtly till the green leaves appear, after 
 which the soil is worked to them gradually till level, and 
 all subsequent cultivation should be perfectly level and 
 shallow in order to retain the moisture needed at that 
 season. The crop grows until frost cuts the tops and is 
 then dug and stored for the winter. This is usually 
 about the first week in December. Planting is done in 
 February in eastern North Carolina and earlier in Florida 
 and the states south of North CaroHna. 
 
 The second crop potatoes are, as we have said, placed 
 in heaps and covered with soil. This keeps them looking 
 
The Irish Potato Crop 239 
 
 Early perfectly fresh, and during the winter, when 
 
 ermudas ^^^ potatoes from Bermuda make their 
 
 appearance in the markets, the growers who have a 
 
 surplus of these potatoes have found that they can 
 
 take them up and barrel them fresh in double-head 
 
 barrels and ship them to New York, where they are sold 
 
 as New Bermuda potatoes. The only fraud is that they 
 
 did not grow in Bermuda, for they are really better than 
 
 the true Bermudas. The red skin BHss is the potato 
 
 used for this purpose, as the Bermudas are red skinned. 
 
 The great crop of early Irish potatoes in 
 
 Planting and the South has been brought about largely 
 
 r wing e |^ ^^^ increase in the manufacture and 
 Early Crop m -^ , 
 the South quahty of commercial fertilizers. And yet, 
 
 while it is known that the earliest and clean- 
 est crop can be grown by the use of these it is also well 
 known that it is important for the crop that the soil be 
 well supphed with humus. This is especially important 
 as a means for preserving the moisture in the soil so 
 essential to the perfection of the potato crop. The best 
 soils for the crop are the sandy soils common to the coast 
 country of the South Atlantic States, and the getting into 
 these soils, where deficient, a full supply of organic matter 
 to decay and form humus is an important matter. In 
 some parts of this section there are large areas of soils 
 reclaimed from the peaty swamps where there is a super- 
 abundance of this vegetable decay, and the lack is mainly 
 for the mineral elements phosphorus and potassium. 
 But on the lighter soils it has been found essential to grow 
 the previous season a legume crop to furnish not only the 
 organic matter but the nitrogen largely that is needed for 
 
240 Practical Farming 
 
 the potato crop. Hence, a crop of cow peas sown after 
 some early crops of the previous season and left to die on 
 the soil is one of the best preparations for the potato crop, 
 since it not only furnishes the humus-making material 
 but saves the purchase of part of the nitrogen, which is 
 essential to the early production of this crop, much more 
 so than with the main crop grown in the North. 
 
 Having such a crop to turn under, the grower prepares 
 his land as soon as possible after New Year's. The ques- 
 tion with these growers is not how little of the commercial 
 fertilizer they can use but how large an application they 
 can make pay. One of the largest growers uses from 
 I, GOO to 1,500 pounds per acre of the following mixture 
 to make a ton: 
 
 Acid Phosphate 900 pounds 
 
 Fish Scrap 600 pounds 
 
 Nitrate of Soda 100 pounds 
 
 Muriate of Potash 400 pounds 
 
 Part of this is well mixed in the soil in the furrows by 
 the planting machine and part of it is spread broadcast. 
 The crop is always planted with a machine that opens 
 the furrows, places and covers the fertilizer and opens 
 again and plants the potatoes. The furrows are about 
 three feet wide and the sets are planted about fifteen 
 inches apart. 
 
 The cultivation is done entirely with the cultivator, 
 after a first harrowing to level the soil before the potatoes 
 appear, till the final cultivation, which is done with a small 
 plow throwing a furrow to each side of the row, since it 
 has been found that the early crop is benefited by this, 
 as the sun warms the ridge in the early season better than 
 
The Irish Potato Crop 241 
 
 on flat land. The crop is dug also by machinery. Shipping 
 is done in barrels covered with burlaps, and the crop is well 
 culled in the field and only first-class potatoes shipped un- 
 less the price is so high that it pays to ship culls separately. 
 Some use the cullings for planting the second crop, 
 but the best growers use only the best potatoes for this 
 purpose as they fear a deterioration of the seed otherwise. 
 Since the advent of cold storage it has 
 
 o° J T^°/^^^ been found that the second crop seed can 
 Seed Potatoes ^ 
 
 be kept till June and then planted in the 
 
 South to make a perfectly matured crop better for table 
 
 use than the usual second crop of the same season. For 
 
 this crop a sod of clover is a good preparation turned 
 
 under early in the season to decay before the planting of 
 
 the crop. This crop should be planted in deep furrows 
 
 and cultivated in the same way as the second crop from 
 
 seed of the same season. It needs liberal fertilization, 
 
 but not necessarily as heavy as for the early crop, since 
 
 the turned-under sod will furnish a large part of the food 
 
 needed, and will also help to keep the moisture needed in 
 
 the soil. Flat culture and no hiUing should be the rule, 
 
 as the crop is grown during the hottest part of the summer. 
 
 This crop will mature completely and be far better for 
 
 table use than the second growth of the same season. 
 
 The Irish potato crop may very well come 
 
 The Main into the improving farm rotation in the Mid- 
 
 rop o ^1^ ^^^ Northern States, for the wheat crop 
 
 Potatoes in ' ^ 
 
 the North follows well after both corn and potatoes. 
 
 Where a farmer is practicing a good short 
 
 rotation of crops the best plan is to make the potato crop 
 
 occupy a part of the field with the corn crop. 
 
242 Practical Farming 
 
 The corn crop following a turned-under clover sod will 
 occupy not only the best position in the rotation for the 
 corn, but the same turned-under clover sod is the best 
 possible preparation for the potato crop. In this case 
 the farm manure should be appHed to the part of the sod 
 devoted to corn, and commercial fertilizers should be used 
 on the potato crop to avoid the danger of encouraging the 
 growth of the scab fungus with the manure. Then, in 
 the next round of the rotation the half of the field that was 
 in corn the last time should be put in potatoes, so that 
 each part may have the humus-making effect of the stable 
 manure. 
 
 Corn and potatoes both will come off in time to prepare 
 the land for the wheat crop, so that there is no gap or 
 lengthening of the rotation to introduce the potato crop. 
 With the late crop of potatoes planted on the turned-under 
 sod, which will furnish nearly enough of nitrogen, as the 
 nitrification of the organic matter will be going on all 
 during the summer, there will be less need for heavy 
 applications of commercial fertilizer than on the Early 
 potato crop of the southern trucker. Especially will there 
 be less need for the nitrogen these growers use so freely 
 to force an early crop. 
 
 The preparation of the soil should be of course of the 
 most thorough character, and where grown on a large 
 scale the use of an effective potato planter will be 
 essential. With one of these modern implements the 
 fertilizer can be applied in the row with the machine 
 ahead of the dropping of the potatoes, and the whole 
 operation of planting can be done in the most rapid 
 manner. 
 
The Irish Potato Crop 243 
 
 There are numerous fertilizer mixtures sold as special 
 potato fertilizers which differ very little in their composi- 
 tion from the specials made by the same manufacturers 
 for other crops. The chief manurial demands of the 
 Irish potato crop are for phosphoric acid and potash, 
 and with a clover sod plowed under the grower will have 
 nearly or quite enough nitrogen for the crop. But it may 
 be well to use for starting the crop a small percentage of 
 the readily available nitrate of soda to nourish the growth 
 till the organic nitrogen comes into use with the warm 
 weather. We would, therefore, with such a crop prepare 
 a mixture somewhat after the following: 
 
 Acid Phosphate 1500 pounds 
 
 Nitrate of Soda 100 pounds 
 
 Sulphate of Potash 400 pounds 
 
 We name the sulphate of potash here instead of the 
 muriate used in the production of the early southern crop, 
 because in that crop the mealy quality of the potatoes is 
 of less importance than it is with the crop that is to be 
 kept for winter use, and the muriate is generally a little 
 cheaper. 
 
 But where high quahty for winter table use is to be 
 desired, the sulphate should always be used, as experi- 
 ments have repeatedly shown that a far drier and more 
 starchy potato is produced through the use of the sulphate 
 than of the muriate. The early crop from the South is 
 mainly consumed in an immature state as "new potatoes," 
 and such are not expected to have the dry and starchy 
 character demanded in the winter supply of fully matured 
 tubers. 
 
244 Practical Farming 
 
 Keeping In the Middle and Northern States the 
 
 Potatoes in general place for storing potatoes is in the 
 cellar. In the cellar of a dwelling, where 
 the heating is done by the modem furnace, there 
 will be no proper place for potatoes, since total 
 darkness and a cool atmosphere are essential. The 
 potato cellar should be either under the bam or some 
 other outbuilding, or a structure to itself. It should be 
 totally dark and at the same time have means for ventila- 
 tion. Few reahze that the temperature at which water 
 freezes will do no harm to potatoes. In fact, they will 
 keep a great deal better where a temperature just above 
 thirty-two degrees is maintained. The cellar should be 
 provided with slatted shelves so that the potatoes may be 
 placed not over two feet in depth. After they are first 
 stored there will always be some sweating of the tubers, 
 and while the weather is mild there should be free ventila- 
 tion without admitting hght. Where it is practicable it 
 is well to admit air to the cellar through underground 
 terra-cotta pipes, and to have a ventilator overhead also. 
 After the first sweating process is over it will be found 
 that there is some slight rotting and the potatoes should 
 be overhauled and all decayed ones removed. Plaster or 
 air-slaked lime scattered among them at this time will be 
 an advantage. 
 
 After this during all nights when the outer temperature 
 is about, at, or shghtly above freezing, keep all the under- 
 ground and overhead ventilators open, but close up at 
 once as the sun rises in the morning, always excluding 
 light and day time air. By following this practice you 
 will find that the temperature of the cellar will always 
 
The Irish Potato Crop 245 
 
 remain cool even into the warm weather of the spring, 
 
 and there will be little tendency to sprout. 
 
 There are two forms of fungus disease 
 
 Diseases and that affect the potato crop so far as the tops 
 
 nsec s a ^^^ concerned, and another form that 
 Affect the ' 
 
 Potato affects the tubers only. For the first two 
 
 diseases, the early and late bhght, spraying 
 
 with a good fungicide is essential to the success of the crop. 
 
 The foliage of the potato is also subject to the attacks 
 of the Colorado potato beetle, and if preventive means 
 are not used, this insect in most parts of the country will 
 totally destroy the crop in some seasons. The fungus 
 disease that affects the tubers only, the scab, demands 
 special treatment of the tubers before planting, of which 
 later. 
 
 The most generally used preventive of the blights is the 
 mixture known as the Bordeaux mixture. There are sev- 
 eral formulas for making this, but the one we have most 
 generally used for the potato crop is as follows: Dissolve 
 five pounds of copper sulphate in a cask with twenty-five 
 gallons of water. In another cask slake five pounds of 
 fresh lime as for whitewash, and after slaking add water 
 enough to make this twenty-five gallons. Strain these 
 slowly into a third cask, stirring all the time. The mix- 
 ture is then ready for use. The spraying is done with a 
 spraying pump, of which there are numerous kinds, large 
 and small. One of the best is a cask with a pump on a 
 four-wheeled wagon with four nozzles arranged to spray 
 four rows at once. Where the crop is grown on a smaller 
 scale the spraying can be done with a knapsack-sprayer 
 carried on the shoulders of the operator. 
 
246 Practical Farming 
 
 The spraying should begin as soon as the tops of the 
 potatoes are a few inches high and should be repeated 
 every second week. As the beetles appear add to the 
 fifty gallons of the Bordeaux mixture one-fourth of a 
 pound of Paris green or a pound of arsenate of soda, the 
 latter the better. It is well to use this as soon as the mature 
 beetles are seen, for while they do not eat much, they do 
 eat, and the more of these that are killed the fewer eggs 
 will be laid and the fewer of the ravenous larvae we will 
 have to destroy. 
 
 For the prevention of the scab, which spoils the appear- 
 ance of the tubers, we should always have the acid effect 
 of the turned-under and fermenting sod. We should 
 avoid land on which potatoes have grown scabby, and if 
 we are obliged to plant scabby potatoes we should treat 
 them before planting with a fungicide. For this purpose 
 the best is to make a solution of formaldehyde, commonly 
 sold under the commercial name of Formalin. One 
 pound or pint of this in thirty gallons of water will answer. 
 Put the potatoes in a sack and suspend them in a cask 
 containing the solution and let them soak for an hour, 
 and then spread out and dry them. The solution is good 
 so long as enough remains, but it is better to add to it a 
 freshly-made solution of the same strength. The same 
 solution can be profitably used for soaking seed wheat 
 and oats to prevent the smut and rust. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE HAY CROP 
 
 THERE has long been a notion that the man who 
 sells hay is certain to reduce the fertility of his 
 soil, and doubtless hay making and selling has 
 been practiced and still is practiced by many farmers with 
 this result. But there is no reason why a farmer who 
 practices the proper rotation of crops, and is situated 
 near a good hay market, should not make hay his money 
 crop profitably for himself and his land. 
 
 But in many sections near the large cities the practice 
 is to run the land, year after year, in timothy until it will 
 no longer make a paying crop, and then plow for corn. 
 This practice is certain to reduce the fertility of the soil, 
 especially where such farmers are making milk for the 
 city in addition to selling hay. 
 
 At a farmers' institute in one of the best counties adja- 
 cent to the city of Philadelphia, we noticed that the 
 farmers were mowing their lands for years before turning 
 back to hoed crops, I urged that they should adopt a 
 shorter rotation and grow more clover. But they told us 
 that it was no use, as they could not grow clover as they 
 once did. The reason was perfectly plain. They had 
 run their land in timothy till it was deficient in the mineral 
 matters that clover needs and had gotten it into an acid 
 
 247 
 
248 Practical Farming 
 
 condition in which the bacteria which enable the clover 
 to get nitrogen from the air, could not thrive. 
 
 I urged that it was not the part of a good farmer to give 
 up without investigating the causes that made it difficult 
 to grow clover where it once throve well, and told them 
 that they not only needed a shorter rotation but hme to 
 restore the alkalinity of their soil associated with the 
 mineral plant foods that they had been selhng off their 
 farms in hay and milk. 
 
 Heavy crops of hay, hke heavy crops of other things, 
 pay better than poor crops, and the only way to make hay 
 growing profitable is to keep up the fertihty of the soil, 
 and right there is where the commercial fertilizers come 
 in most profitably if they are used not merely for the 
 production of crops direct but in the growing of those 
 crops that feed the land and the stock at same time. 
 
 A farm where hay is one of the money 
 
 Rotation for -n r -v. u r u 
 
 „ ^ crops will of necessity be a farm where 
 
 a Hay Farm ^ , , •' , 
 
 the small grain crop is of importance, and 
 wheat can well be associated with hay as a market 
 crop. 
 
 On such a farm I would devote the entire corn crop to 
 the making of silage for feeding on the farm, and I would 
 not be tempted by a high price for straw to sell the wheat 
 straw, but would consider it one of the important materials 
 for increasing the manure and the humus in the soil, for 
 no matter what is the sale crop the keeping up of the 
 humus-making material in the soil is essential to success. 
 And no matter how important the sale of hay may be it 
 is equally important that some form of live stock industry 
 should be carried on. 
 
The Hay Crop 249 
 
 Fertilizers will prove a great help, but fertilizers do not 
 furnish any humus-making material, and hence it is essen- 
 tial that some feeding be done. Where hay is a profitable 
 crop in the immediate vicinity of a large city, beef or 
 dairy products will also be profitable, and butter making 
 will be found to be clear of the drain on the land that 
 milk selhng is, since it leaves the mineral matters to be 
 returned to the soil through the feeding of the skim 
 milk. 
 
 On a farm so situated the farmer who is to some extent 
 a dairyman, can afford to buy grain to balance up the 
 silage ration, and should have an abundance of straw 
 for bedding and manure making. 
 
 Starting then with a sod to be plowed for com, on 
 which all the manurial accumulation has been spread in 
 the best manner with a manure-spreader, for we assume 
 that no progressive farmer will in this day be without this 
 essential machine for saving labor and getting the best 
 results from his manure, we will turn the sod deeply and 
 plant and cultivate the corn crop shallow and level, and 
 cutting the entire crop from the land for the silo we will 
 have a stubble that can be put into the best condition for 
 the wheat crop by the thorough use of the cutaway har- 
 row, for at that season the deep rebreaking with the plow 
 will be a disadvantage to the wheat crop. But the cuta- 
 way must be used in both directions frequently enough to 
 put the few inches of the surface into the best possible 
 tilth. 
 
 With this wheat we would seed timothy, after having 
 worked into the soil in the preparation or in the driUing 
 of the wheat, about 400 pounds per acre of acid phosphate 
 
250 Practical Farming 
 
 and twenty-five pounds of muriate of potash. I would 
 seed liberally, for there is a great waste in thin seeding of 
 any grass or clover. Use not less than ten pounds of seed 
 per acre. The following spring sow clover at same 
 rate. 
 
 After the wheat is harvested, and the rag weeds start, 
 run the mower over the field to stop the weed growth. 
 But start out with the determination that no pasturing 
 whatever is to be done on the cultivated fields, but have a 
 standing pasture for the stock, and on no account ever 
 pasture a stubble that has been set in grass and clover. 
 
 The following spring, before growth starts, apply a 
 light dressing of lime, say 800 to 1,000 pounds per acre, 
 and run a smoothing harrow over to completely spread it. 
 The hay that season will be largely a clover mixture of 
 course. The second growth may be mown for feeding 
 on the farm or left on the land. 
 
 The next spring give the grass a dressing of a high- 
 grade fertihzer strong in ammonia, or topdress with nitrate 
 of soda alone after growth starts, at rate of 100 pounds 
 per acre, and it will show well in the hay crop. The next 
 winter get out on the sod all the home-made manure 
 again, but do not Hme till the next round of the rotation. 
 Do not be tempted to run the sod longer for hay. You 
 will get far better crops by practicing a short rotation and 
 making but one clear hay crop annually and another 
 mixed crop. 
 
 Then, by feeding the entire corn crop on the farm in 
 the shape of ensilage, and balancing it with bought grain 
 and making a gilt-edged butter, you will be annually 
 increasing the productivity of the land and will soon be 
 
The Hay Crop 251 
 
 getting hay crops that will be the envy of your neighbors 
 
 who run their land to exhaustion in hay. 
 
 For the dairyman or stock feeder who is 
 
 Making Hay ^^^ especially interested in the sale of hay, 
 
 from Legumes , . , „ 
 
 Qjjj^ the various legume plants oiier a hay far 
 
 superior for his use to the usual grass hays. 
 
 Not only are they far superior as hay, but the growing of 
 
 these plants should be the main reliance of the general 
 
 farmer for the nitrogen he needs for the succeeding crops. 
 
 And while for the hay market the legumes are not so well 
 
 adapted as the grasses, there is a growing interest in them 
 
 in the markets, and those who keep family cows in villages 
 
 and towns are more disposed to seek these in preference 
 
 to the grass hays as better suited to the feeding of cows. 
 
 _ , ^. The chief of all the legume crops over a 
 
 Red Clover , . , ^ ^ . „ . 
 
 very large part of the country, especially in 
 
 the Middle and Northern States, is red clover, trijolium 
 pratense. What is known as the medium red clover is the 
 kind most generally used. As we have noted heretofore 
 there has been in all sections of the country where clover 
 formerly thrived, an increasing complaint of the failure 
 to get a good stand, or a failure after a stand has been 
 secured to get the crop to survive the first summer. We 
 hear from various parts of the country of what is called 
 clover-sick land. In some sections of the Middle South, 
 especially in Tennessee, trouble has been had with a fun- 
 gus disease that affects the plant seriously. But as a rule 
 the failure of clover is due to one or both of two causes, 
 the exhaustion or rather the deficiency in the soil of the 
 plant foods that clover especially needs, phosphoric acid 
 and potash, or soil acidity that prevents the success of the 
 
252 Practical Farming 
 
 bacteria that live on clover roots and enable the plant to 
 get and combine the free nitrogen from the air. In many 
 of the older sections both of these causes exist. 
 
 The practice of running land in grass for hay year after 
 year with no help from manure or fertilizers till the hay 
 crop fails, not only exhausts the jilant food of the soil but 
 brings it into an acid condition. Liming will restore the 
 alkalinity of the soil, and then the use of fertilizers carry- 
 ing phosphoric acid and potash will restore the plant food 
 needed by the clover crop. 
 
 There has long been a notion that the continued use of 
 phos])hatic rock dissolved in sulphuric acid has been 
 the cause of the acidity of soils. This acidity can hardly 
 be charged to the acid phosphate direct, for no manu- 
 facturer intentionally leaves any free acid in his product, 
 since that would prevent its drilling freely. But that it 
 has been indirectly the cause has been well shown by 
 experiments at the Ohio Experiment Station which seemed 
 to show that the result of the continued use of acid phos- 
 phate had this effect though the crops taking up the solu- 
 ble phosphoric acid and leaving free sulphuric acid in the 
 soil, which is at once combined with the lime in the soil, 
 and thus forms sulphate of lime and robs the soil of the 
 lime carbonate needed to maintain the alkaUnity. The 
 same station found that when a liberal ajiplication of com- 
 plete fertilizer was made, preceded by liming the soil, a line 
 growth of clover was had on soil where it had been failing. 
 
 It is evident, then, that the way to get back to successful 
 clover-growing is to restore the alkalinity of the soil 
 through the use of lime and then to supply the phosphoric 
 acid and potash that the plant especially needs. 
 
The If ay Crop 253 
 
 Making Hay A great deal has been written in regard 
 o Clover ^^ ^j^^ proper method of making hay from 
 
 the clover crop. The common practice of farmers has 
 been to cut clover for hay when a large part of the blos- 
 som heads have ripened and turned brown. This usually 
 results in a very dusty hay largely unfit for feeding horses, 
 because of the dried hairs of the ripe blooms. 
 
 A far better hay, and one that is lit for any animal, can 
 be made by mowing the crop at an earlier stage. The 
 common practice has been followed mainly because the 
 hay dries more readily. But when properly managed a 
 far better hay can be made from clover when the crop is 
 just in general bloom and none or few heads have 
 browned. 
 
 Clover and all hay from legumes should be cured mainly 
 in the cock and barn, and exposed as little to the sun 
 spread out on the ground as can be avoided. One of the 
 most important implements in hay making in general and 
 especially in making legume hay, is the tedder, an imple- 
 ment for tossing up the green cut hay so that it wilts more 
 rapidly. We have always used the following method with 
 success. Start the mowers as soon as the dew is fairly off 
 on a bright sunny day, and mow till noon only. Start the 
 tedder right after the mower and keep it going all the morn- 
 ing tossing the hay up lightly. In the afternoon rake the 
 hay into winrows. Next morning turn these winrows 
 over and let lie to dry off till afternoon. Then put the 
 hay into as tall and narrow cocks as will stand well. 
 
 Hay ca])s made of s(juares of twilled cotton cloth are 
 useful to protect the cocks from a change of weather and 
 should always be at hand. These are made four feet 
 
254 Practical Farming 
 
 square, or three by four, with eyelets in the corners through 
 which sticks can be stuck to prevent the wind from blowing 
 them off. But during all bright sunshine the cocks should 
 remain uncovered. As soon as you can take a handful of 
 the hay and give it a hard twist and can see no sap run to 
 the twist, the hay is ready to go into the barn. It is im- 
 portant to get it there before the leaves get crisp, as in that 
 case they will be shattered off and they are the best part 
 of the hay. Put it into the barn then while still hrap and 
 let it settle in the mow by its own weight and without any 
 tramping that can be avoided. Once in the barn, let it 
 strictly alone, for if it begins to heat, as it will, and you 
 stir it, you will let in the spores of mold that are always 
 in the air and will have some moldy hay. Let it 
 alone and it will cure bright and sweet and you will not 
 have dusty hay if the crop was mown at the right stage, 
 when just in full bloom. Clover hay should always be 
 stored under cover, as it damages badly in stacks. 
 
 This clover has been assumed to be a 
 
 Alsike or cross between red and white clover, but 
 
 Swedish . 
 
 Clover there is no direct evidence of this. It has 
 
 seemed to thrive better than red clover in 
 
 some sections, but is better adapted to northern than 
 
 Southern conditions and will thrive on land too wet and 
 
 sour for red clover. It has been found to be a dangerous 
 
 crop for horses and mules to pasture on, as it produces 
 
 sores on the animals that give a great deal of trouble. It 
 
 does not make the heavy growth for hay that red clover 
 
 does, but is probably a good crop for soil improvement 
 
 where red clover fails from lack of drainage in the land. 
 
 As a hay crop it is of minor importance. 
 
The Hay Crop 255 
 
 Crimson This plant has received a variety of names 
 
 Clover -j^ various parts of the country, such as 
 
 Scarlet clover, Italian clover, German clover and Annual 
 clover. It is strictly an annual plant, sown in late 
 summer or fall and matures in early spring from April 
 to late May according to chmate. Crimson clover is 
 mainly of value as a soil improver, since it can be turned 
 under in the spring in time for the planting of a hoed crop 
 of com or tobacco or cotton. It is harder to cure as hay 
 than any of the clovers, and if the blossoms are allowed to 
 get brown the hay will be dangerous food for horses on 
 account of the hair balls that form in the animal's intes- 
 tines. It can be made into hay if cut as soon as in full 
 bloom, but it requires frequent turning in the cocks till 
 cured suflEiciently to store. The feeding value of the hay 
 is higher than that of red clover since it has a larger per- 
 centage of protein. 
 
 In the Middle States crimson clover is very commonly 
 sown among com at last working, and progressive farmers 
 in the South sow it among cotton. Both give the soil a 
 good winter cover, which is especially important in the 
 South to prevent the wasting of fertility from the bare and 
 unfrozen ground. Farmers who think about their busi- 
 ness are gradually coming to understand the value of a 
 green crop on the land in winter that would otherwise be 
 left bare after a hoed crop. Southern farms have lost as 
 much through the wasting of the bare land in the cotton 
 fields in winter as from the cropping. 
 
 Crimson clover is not certainly hardy much north of 
 central Pennsylvania as a rule, and hence cannot be used 
 as a regular crop in the more northern sections. In the 
 
256 Practical Farming 
 
 South it can be sown with success as late as November 
 from southern North Carolina southward, but in the 
 Middle States it should be sown in July or August. 
 
 In 1889 when the author assumed a chair 
 
 e ou ern -^^ ^j^^ North CaroHna College of Agriculture 
 and Mechanic Arts, after having had experi- 
 ence with the growing of the cow pea in Virginia, he was 
 surprised to note that the farmers there had not realized 
 what this crop could do for them as a regular part of the 
 rotation for the improvement of the soil and the feeding 
 of cattle. He began to lecture on the value of the cow pea 
 at farmers' institutes and in articles prepared for the agri' 
 cultural press. The result of his efforts surprised him, for 
 not only in the South but in the Middle and Northern 
 States farmers began to inquire about the cow pea, and 
 to-day there are hundreds of acres grown where one was 
 seventeen years ago. 
 
 But there have been many who from the name pea have 
 concluded that the plant is a pea such as they have been 
 accustomed to, and we have received hundreds of letters 
 asking about sowing them with oats as is done with the 
 Canada pea. It should be understood, however, that the 
 southern cow pea is not a true pea, but more of a bean, 
 and is a tender tropical plant that thrives only in hot 
 weather. Therefore it could not be associated with oats 
 for hay since if sown when the oats should be sown the 
 seed would perish in the cold soil, and if the oats were 
 sown at the time suitable to the cow pea they would be a 
 failure. Cow peas should never be sown till the soil is warm. 
 In the South they can be sown from May to August, 
 and in the IMiddle States not till the soil is warm in June. 
 
The Hay Crop 257 
 
 On the sandy soils of the South Atlantic States, where 
 red clover does not thrive, the cow pea is really the "clover 
 of the South." The southern farmer can do with it all 
 that can be done with red clover and can do it in one- 
 fourth the time that clover needs. It is a common prac- 
 tice in this part of the South to sow the peas among the 
 corn just before the last working and then cultivate them 
 in, thus adding a fine humus-making crop after the com 
 among which crimson clover can be sown as the leaves fall 
 from the peas and make a good winter cover. 
 
 As a hay crop in the South the value of the cow pea can 
 hardly be overestimated, since it will make a fair crop on 
 the poorest of land, and on good soil will make from two 
 to three tons of hay per acre, and hay of far higher feeding 
 value than red clover hay. There has long been a notion 
 that the hay is very hard to cure, but in a long experience 
 in the making of hay from the cow pea we have demons- 
 trated that when properly done, the curing is easier than 
 that of red clover. In the curing of the hay we adopt the 
 same method we have described for red clover hay, with 
 the exception that it is left in the field a little longer in the 
 cocks, but still is put in the bam in a Hmp condition. 
 
 The proper stage in which to cut the crop is just when 
 the pods begin to tum yellow. If cut sooner, the hay is 
 harder to cure, and if left till the pods ripen the leaves will 
 fall oflf, and as these are the best part of the hay they 
 should be preserved. 
 
 Recently a different mode has been adopted in some 
 parts of the South. Stakes six feet tall are planted over 
 the field after the mower and the green pea vines are at 
 once raked and shocked around these stakes in a tall 
 
258 Practical Farming 
 
 narrow shock, and are left there to cure, and not touched 
 till completely cured. The only difficulty about this 
 method is that the greater part of the leaves are lost and 
 much of the outer part of the shocks is blackened by the 
 weather. While the peas will stand exposure to rains 
 better than clover will, it is always better to make a bright 
 and well cured hay and to save the leaves entirely, which can 
 only be done by the completion of the curing in the bam. 
 
 North of the Southern tier of counties in Pennsylvania 
 it is doubtful if the cow pea can be reUed upon as a hay 
 crop. But even much further north the cow pea will 
 come in very usefully to the dairyman as a means for 
 tiding over a dry period as a pasture crop when grass is 
 burnt up, for the cow pea, as we have said, is a hot weather 
 plant and will thrive under conditions that make the grass 
 worthless. Being one of the legume family, it has the 
 same capacity for getting nitrogen from the air that other 
 legumes have. When sowti on land where the crop has 
 not before been grown the first sowing may not be very 
 successful, as the soil will not be supphed with the bac- 
 teria. But these are carried on the seeds to some extent 
 and if the same land is sown the following season it will 
 be found that the inoculation has been made and the crop 
 will succeed. We have accounts from farmers as far north 
 as Ashtabula County, Ohio, and in Wisconsin, who have 
 found this to be the case, and on hght and warm soils 
 they have found the pea a very useful green manure plant, 
 even where the seed fails to mature. 
 
 The varieties of the cow pea are almost innumerable, 
 as the plant is one of the most variable in its character. 
 The varieties are usually distinguished by the color of 
 
The Hay Crop 259 
 
 Varieties of the seeds. But the variation is not in this 
 the Cow Pea characteristic only, for they vary greatly 
 in habit and in the length of time needed to mature 
 the crop, some maturing in sixty days, while others 
 need loo or more days of warm weather. It will 
 easily be seen then that in the more northern sections 
 only those of early maturity are suited. But from North 
 Carolina southward all the varieties mature perfectly. 
 Among the earliest, which usually mature in sixty days 
 are Warren's Extra Early, New Era and the Large White 
 Black-eye. Of these, two crops can be ripened on the 
 same land in one season in the South, and in almost any 
 section of the North where the farms are not too elevated 
 and the nights cold, any of these can be matured. But 
 these are bush varieties like the bean and do not make the 
 heaviest crops of hay, but are valuable for summer pasture 
 and for soil improvement. 
 
 Next in earhness is the variety known as Whip-poor-will. 
 This will mature in about seventy-five days, and it, too, is 
 a bush variety and one of the most productive of seed. 
 Next come the black peas. Of these there is quite a 
 groups all with jet black seed varying only in the size of 
 the peas. The one most commonly used is the large 
 black, which is commonly grown in Virginia. It is a 
 strong running variety and will climb to the top of com 
 among which it is planted, and sown alone it makes a 
 heavy crop of hay that is apt to be badly tangled and hard 
 to mow. It requires loo days of warm weather to mature 
 perfectly. The clay pea, so-called from the clay color of 
 the seed has the same habit and season as the large black 
 and can be classed with it. 
 
260 Practical Farming 
 
 The strongest runner of all the cow pea family is the 
 variety long called the "Unknown" in the South. Re- 
 cently it has been named Wonderful. Though this is the 
 most rank runner of all the varieties, and makes vines ten 
 to fifteen feet long, its early habit is to grow very erect and 
 then to run all over the tops of the plants. This makes it 
 easier to mow than the black or clay, as the mower gets 
 under it easily. 
 
 But the Wonderful is a very late pea and not adapted 
 to conditions north of east central North Carolina, as in 
 southern Pennsylvania it would not more than get in 
 bloom before frost. But for pasture and soil improve- 
 ment it will be useful on account of the wonderful mass of 
 vines it makes. 
 
 These are only a few of the leading varieties, and I 
 might fill a volume with a description of all the sorts that 
 have been produced in the South. Botanically the cow 
 pea is still something of a puzzle to the botanist. It has 
 been called by various names, but it is now generally con- 
 ceded to be Vigna catiang, and from the investigations we 
 made a number of years ago we are satisfied that the 
 species is represented by the one known as the White 
 Black-eye, and that from this variety the others have been 
 derived. The White Black-eye is largely grown in the 
 South as a table vegetable, taking the place of beans in 
 the North, and when one gets accustomed to it he becomes 
 an ardent lover of the food. 
 
 The Velvet Bean, Mucuna utilis, has at- 
 
 e e ve tracted great interest of late years as a forage 
 
 crop for the South. It is the rankest chmber 
 
 of all the legume family. In southern Georgia I once saw 
 
The Hay Crop 261 
 
 a plant that had cHmbed to the top of a tall windmill 
 derrick. The Velvet bean makes a wonderful mass of 
 forage, and is cured in the same way as the cow pea. But 
 it is a plant that requires a long season and is of little use 
 north of the lower Cape Fear river section of North Caro- 
 lina. From that section south it is a very valuable hay- 
 making crop. We have planted them eight feet apart 
 each way and had them cover the ground waist deep, and 
 though the mass was so great, we found that in the im- 
 mature state the vines were in that they cured more 
 readily than the cow peas. For the extreme South there 
 is hardly any hay crop that will make a greater yield, and 
 the hay has a high feeding value. The yield of hay and 
 seed both are heavy and few seed are needed to plant the 
 ground sufficiently. But for the larger part of the coun- 
 try, the Velvet bean has no value whatever. 
 
 This is another of the legume family that 
 
 e eggar -^^^ ^ value only in the far South, in southern 
 Georgia and Florida. It is a rank growing 
 species of the common tick seed and is botanically Des- 
 modium tortuosum. It is an annual plant growing from 
 six to ten feet high, and at the Louisiana station is said to 
 have made four to six tons of hay per acre. Experiments 
 made with it as far north as North Carolina and Virginia 
 do not show that it has much value that far north, and 
 that the cow pea is far better in those sections. But on 
 the sandy soils of Florida it flourishes finely, and has, 
 doubtless, a great value there. The family of Desmodium 
 has gotten the name Beggar Weed from the fact that they 
 grov/ on the poorest soils. 
 
 Medicago denliculata, commonly known as Burr clover 
 
262 Practical Farming 
 
 Burr Clover from the burr-like nature of the seeds, is an 
 annual plant belonging to the same family 
 of legumes as alfalfa. It has been found valuable as a 
 soil improver in the South, but is not perfectly hardy 
 northward and hence, as it must be sown in the fall, it is 
 not adapted to northern conditions. It has little value as 
 a forage plant, but as a nitrogen fixing plant it is not 
 excelled by any of the legume family. It has another ad- 
 vantage in the fact that its burr-like seeds carry with them 
 the bacteria fc the inoculation of the soil, and as this 
 form of bacterium is the same as that which lives on 
 alfalfa the burr clover forms a ready means for the inocula- 
 tion of the soil for alfalfa. 
 
 No plant in the legume family has attracted 
 more attention of late years than Alfalfa, 
 which is sometimes called Lucerne. Botanically it is Medi- 
 cago saliva, and is a perennial plant sending down long tap 
 roots into the soil and hence demands a permeable subsoil. 
 It is useless to endeavor to grow alfalfa on a poor soil, 
 or one that is in an acid condition and not well drained. 
 A mellow, clayey loam either naturally or artificially well 
 drained suits the crop. While alfalfa, Hke other legumes 
 can get nitrogen from the air, it is always an advantage to 
 give it some nitrogenous manure or fertilizer at the start. 
 For this purpose there is nothing better than good stable 
 manure. But, like all the legumes, its chief requirements 
 are for phosphoric acid and potash, and if good and 
 repeated crops are expected, the soil must be kept replen- 
 ished with these, for in the taking off of crop after crop of 
 hay, as is done with alfalfa, the mineral elements in the 
 soil are very rapidly removed. 
 
The Hay Crop 263 
 
 When alfalfa is sown in the spring the best growers have 
 found that a nurse crop hke barley is of advantage in keep- 
 ing down the weeds. But the experience of most growers 
 has resulted in finding that the best success is had from 
 late summer or early fall sowing. A good preparation for 
 the crop is the growing during the early part of the sum- 
 mer a crop of cow peas on which a good application of 
 acid phosphate and potash has been made, for no matter 
 how fertile the loam may be, any increase in humus- 
 making material will be a help. The heavy shading of 
 the peas keeps down the weeds and the peas can be mown 
 for hay, or in the South turned under after mature and 
 dry. But this would make the sowing too late in the 
 northern sections, and it would be better to pasture the 
 peas down before plowing for the alfalfa. 
 
 From the middle of August to middle of September is 
 the best time for sowing according to latitude. Care must 
 be taken to get good and clean seed, for there is a great 
 deal of seed sold that has seeds of dodder mixed with it, 
 and dodder is a parasitic plant that is destructive to 
 alfalfa. Better get a sample of the seed offered and send 
 it to your experiment station for inspection, and thus be 
 sure of getting clean seed. 
 
 Never sow less than twenty-five pounds of seed per 
 acre, and thirty pounds will be none too many. It has 
 been found that as the soil gets inoculated a smaller 
 amount of seed will do, but in the first start it is better to 
 use seed liberally. In sowing in late summer or fall, it is 
 better not to use a nurse crop, but to sow alfalfa seed 
 alone. 
 
 If a good stand is had in the fall, we have found it a 
 
264 Practical Farming 
 
 very useful practice to apply in the early spring before 
 growth starts, about twenty bushels per acre of freshly 
 water-slaked lime, and then run a smoothing harrow over 
 to completely spread it among the plants. Alfalfa, like 
 most legumes, is greatly benefited by an appHcation of 
 lime occasionally. 
 
 After sowing the seed, run a weeder over the land to 
 cover them about an inch, but do not roll the land unless 
 it is very dry. In the preparation of the land, a good 
 application of commercial fertilizer will give the plants a 
 start that will greatly promote the chances of a good stand. 
 
 The first mowing should be made as soon as a few 
 blossoms show here and there. If you wait till in full 
 bloom, the second growth will be lighter, for blossoming 
 is a weakening process to the plant. The crops can be 
 mown twice and perhaps three times the first year, and 
 thereafter, if the fertility of the soil is kept up by annual 
 top-dressings, you can mow it three to four times a season. 
 
 Rake and cock the hay as advised for clover, and store 
 it while still somewhat limp, for if too dry you will lose 
 the leaves, which as one grower says, are equal to wheat 
 bran for feeding. Being a perennial plant, alfalfa will 
 last many years if the soil is well fed. After three or four 
 years it is a good practice to disk the crop over in spring, 
 thus, splitting some of the crowns and loosening the soil 
 and greatly benefiting the growth. Several new varieties 
 of alfalfa have been introduced, but are still in the ex- 
 perimental stage. 
 
 . The Soja or Soy Bean is a leguminous 
 
 The Soja Bean 
 
 plant that has been introduced from Japan, 
 
 and in some of its many varieties has found favor with 
 
The Hay Crop 265 
 
 farmers in various parts of the country. It can be grown 
 further north than the southern cow pea as a hay-making 
 crop, and is more easily cured into hay than that plant is. 
 The plant has been cultivated as human food in China 
 and Japan, for hundreds of years, but has been introduced 
 into this country in the last twenty-five years. 
 
 In this country the crop is valued only as stock feed. 
 The crop in some of the earUer varieties can be grown as 
 far north as northern Ohio. The seed c^n be planted in 
 drills and cultivated, or can be sown broadcast for hay 
 making. The broadcast sowing makes the finest hay, as 
 those grown in rows make so much hard and indigestible 
 stalk. For hay the crop should be mown when the pods 
 are fairly formed, and before they mature, since after that 
 the stems get very woody. If grown in rows for the seed, 
 the crop will have to be cut by hand, as the seed pods 
 grow so close to the ground that the mower will leave them 
 uncut. The crop will also make good silage and when 
 planted alternately in hills with com for silage, the feed 
 will be greatly improved by the presence of the soys. 
 The crop has a high protein content and makes a very 
 valuable feed as forage, and the ripe seed are nearly as 
 rich as cotton seed, having 34 per cent, of protein. 
 
 In Kansas they made fifteen to twenty bushels per acre 
 of seed. The variety known as the medium early yellow 
 is the best for the Middle States, and the tall yellow for 
 the South. The seed should not be planted till the 
 ground is warm in late May or early June. The growth 
 is larger in some than in other varieties according to 
 height of the plants, and of the tall growing varieties, 
 eight tons of green forage have been made, which would 
 
266 Practical Farming 
 
 give I.I tons of digestible matter, of which one-sixth will 
 
 be protein. Even as high as thirteen tons of green forage 
 
 have been reported. 
 
 Hairy Vetch {Vicia villosa) belongs to 
 
 o I \j ^ 1. that class of legumes that have been known 
 Sand Vetch ^ 
 
 as "tares." The plant is perfectly hardy 
 in any part of the country. It is an annua i sown in late 
 summer or fall and mown in the spring. If the seed are 
 allowed to ripen before mowing, the plant will reseed the 
 land and come again in the fall, and if in a wheat-growing 
 section, it may become a pest in the wheat crop, the tares 
 that the enemy sowed in the man's wheat field as stated 
 in the Bible. 
 
 When sovMi for hay, the vetch should always have some 
 tall growing grain like wheat or rye sown with it to sup- 
 port the plants, which otherwise will sprawl on the ground 
 and get damaged. Sown with wheat at rate of one bushel 
 of wheat and a peck of vetch in September, a fme hay 
 crop can be made by mowing when the wheat is just 
 passing into the dough stage. In the Middle and South- 
 ern States, the mowing can be done in time to put the 
 land in corn, and the corn crop will be helped by the 
 nitrogen-gathering capacity of the vetch. 
 
 But wliere wheat is one of the staple crops it will be 
 well to a\'oid the vetch. We once grew a crop of wheat 
 and vetch hay that made nearly two tons per acre, and 
 immediately followed it with cow peas and made as 
 much more hay per acre and then got the land in 
 alfalfa the same fall. This was in North Carolina where 
 the season is long enough to make such a practice 
 successful. 
 
The Hay Crop 267 
 
 Like all other legume crops the vetch is greatly helped 
 
 by a hberal application of acid phosphate and potash. 
 
 We have treated thus briefly of the leading 
 
 e ace o icpr^jne crops that are of value as soil im- 
 the Legumes " ^ 
 
 provcrs and forage crops largely to show 
 
 that through the use of these in a good rotation one can 
 
 grow forage and improve his land for the production of 
 
 the grass hay crops for the market, and by practicing a 
 
 reasonably short rotation can through their use keep the 
 
 grass improving annually. 
 
 The legumes will furnish all the nitrogen needed and 
 by using the mineral plant foods in acid phosphate and 
 potash liberally, their growth, and consequently, their 
 power to get the nitrogen, will be greatly increased. We 
 would advise those best adapted to the making of good 
 forage for the feeding value is far in advance of their 
 mere value as manure direct, and we have no sympathy 
 with the so-called green manure idea. It is poor farm 
 economy to bury a valuable food crop as manure when by 
 feeding it and carefully saving the droppings and apply- 
 ing them to the soil we can recover more than 80 per cent, 
 of the manurial value of the crops, while getting a profit 
 from the feeding value. 
 
 Properly cultivated and the legume used as soil im- 
 ])rovers and forage, one can easily make a money crop 
 from grass hay without impoverishing his soil; in fact, can 
 make it more productive. Feed the legume crops with 
 commercial fertilizers liberally, and through their use 
 keep up the humus content of the soil and the farm is 
 certain to improve, no matter what the sale crop may be. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 HOW THE LEGUMES AID US 
 
 THE great family of plants known to botanists 
 under the name of Leguminoscp comprises 
 herbs, shrubs and large trees, and it has long 
 been known that these plants do in some way help the 
 fertility of the soil. 
 
 For years it was contended that the herbaceous legumes 
 like clover and cow peas absorbed ammoniacal gases from 
 the air and in this way added nitrogen to the soil. But 
 long conducted experiments tended to show that there is 
 no such absorption of ammonia from the air, though the 
 late Doctor Gray once said that he could not see why 
 plants should not absorb gaseous ammonia in the air, 
 but that there was no proof that they did so. 
 
 But the studies of biologists finally demonstrated that 
 the acquisition of combined nitrogen in the plants of this 
 family was the result of the growth on their roots of certain 
 microscopic plants known as bacteria. These bacteria 
 are truly parasitic on the roots and by their presence cause 
 an abnormal swelling on the roots forming small knots or 
 nodules in which the bacteria live. 
 
 It has never been proven that there are distinct species 
 of these bacteria on the roots of ditTerent legumes, but by 
 long association with certain species of legumes many of 
 
 268 
 
How the Legumes Aid Us 269 
 
 them have acquired characters that make it necessary that 
 that particular legume shall be their home and they do not 
 readily Hve on other species, though in some nearly allied 
 species the bacteria will transfer from one species to an- 
 other as it has been found that the bacteria that hve 
 on the roots of the Medicago denticulata will also live on 
 Medicago sativa, or alfalfa, and that the form that lives on 
 the roots of Melilotus alba will also thrive on the alfalfa 
 roots. The bacteria that affect the vetches will also be 
 transferred from the garden pea, and all the true clovers 
 seem to be the home of a distinct form common to all of 
 them. 
 
 A great deal has been written of late years in regard to 
 the artificial culture of the various forms of bacteria that 
 
 are parasitic on the roots of the different 
 Arti cial species of legumes. It was thought for a 
 
 time that these laboratory cultures could be 
 used in the inoculation of the seed or the soil for the 
 various legume plants with success. The Department of 
 Agriculture in Washington undertook the work of pre- 
 paring the cultures and distributing them to the farmers in 
 all parts of the country. Placed in sterilized raw cotton, 
 and with nutrient materials for promoting their growth 
 after being received by the farmers, many thousands of 
 cultures were distributed. 
 
 But unfortunately, it was found that the bacteria on the 
 cotton were very short lived, and there were more failures 
 than successes. Hence the use of the artificial cultures 
 has been generally abandoned, it being found more prac- 
 ticable to use the soil from a field that has already been 
 inoculated by long cultivation of the particular legume 
 
270 Practical Farming 
 
 desired. Then, too, it has been found that many of the 
 legumes carry on their seeds the bacteria that Hve on their 
 roots, and that the mere sowing of the seed will after a 
 time fully inoculate the soil. 
 
 This has been found true in the case of crimson clover. 
 When this clover was first sown in the far South, it was 
 found that it did not succeed and growers jumped to the 
 conclusion that it could not be grown far South. But 
 those who again sowed on the same land found that the 
 previous sowing, though a failure as a crop, had inoculated 
 the soil so that the crop succeeded. The same is true of 
 the Southern cow pea. Sown in the north it rarely 
 docs well the first summer, but if the same land is sown 
 again the following season the crop is a success. 
 
 Then, too, it has been found that the burr-like seeds of 
 Mcdicago denticulata, or burr clover, as it is called, will 
 carry the bacteria that live not only on its roots, but also 
 on the roots of alfalfa, and the soil can be inoculated for 
 alfalfa by scattering the soil from a spot where Melilotus 
 alba or sweet clover has been growing as a weed. This 
 weed is abundant in most parts of the country, and es- 
 pecially on waste vacant land about the cities. But the 
 great value of the legumes, aside from their capacity to 
 get for us the free nitrogen from the air and combine it in 
 the organic matter for future crops, lies in the accumula- 
 tion and increase of the humus-making material in the 
 soil. As we have heretofore remarked, sand and clay are 
 the mere dead skeleton of a soil, humus is its life. 
 
 In much of the farming of the past, especially in the 
 single cropping of the cotton country, the annual clean 
 cultivation and exposure of the soil to the sun has burnt 
 
How the Legumes Aid Us 271 
 
 up and wasted the humus, and the soil is htcrally dead, 
 because the bacterial hfe that abounds in humus has been 
 starved out. The soil bakes after a rain and renders the 
 germination of seed difficult. It dries out rapidly and 
 gets so dry in long spells of drought that the plant food in 
 the soil cannot be dissolved and the crops are starved. 
 
 When the land was newly cleared from the forest, there 
 was none of these things to perplex the cultivator. It was 
 full of the dark vegetable decay, was mellow to cultivate, 
 did not bake nor wash, and retained the moisture during 
 dry spells. But with the wearing out of this dark vege- 
 table decay by constant clean cultivation, all these difli- 
 culties come in and in any system of improvement we must 
 make an effort to get back to the former new-ground 
 conditions. 
 
 For this purpose the legumes are the most efficient aid 
 we can have. It would be easy to keep up these conditions 
 if all farmers had an abundance of barnyard and stable 
 manure for their hoed crops annually, for aside from their 
 fertilizing value the droppings of our domestic animals 
 are always associated with a large amount of vegetable 
 matter used in the bedding, which is good humus-making 
 material. 
 
 But few farmers have enough of this, and here the 
 legumes, aided by applications of phosphoric acid and 
 potash, come in as a cheap substitute for the vegetable 
 matter in the manure. Not that we would under all 
 conditions advise the use of the whole legume crops as 
 manure for we have more than once said that it is not 
 good farm economy to bury a valuable food crop in the 
 soil, but that it should be used to increase the amount of 
 
272 Practical Farming 
 
 the home-made manure, and give us its feeding value 
 before we return it to the soil. 
 
 But even when the crop is saved for forage there will 
 always be a very considerable amount of the humus- 
 making material left in the roots as well as a goodly part 
 of the nitrogen which the roots have assimilated. Then, 
 too, it is not good economy to plow down a green crop, 
 even if it is not wanted for food, for so long as the crop 
 grows it is doing the work of nitrogen fixing in the soil, 
 and if we cut this short by plowing under the whole crop 
 at midsummer, we lose what the plant would have done 
 for us the remainder of the season. 
 
 In the South and in a sandy soil, there is still another 
 reason why no green crop should be plowed under in hot 
 weather. The fermentation of the green mass will often 
 so sour the soil that the growth of subsequent crops is 
 injured instead of being benefited by the turning under 
 of the green crop, and a hming is necessary to restore the 
 alkalinity of the soil. 
 
 The legume crop is the place where the commercial 
 fertilizers will pay the farmer best. If the legumes are 
 liberally fed with phosphoric acid and potash, there will 
 not only be a greater growth of forage but the increased 
 activity of the plants will result in a much greater activity 
 in the nitrogen-fixing bacteria on the roots, and the fol- 
 lowing crop will be more benefited than if the fertilizer 
 had been applied directly to the grain or cotton crop. 
 
 Whatever may be the exact way in which the legume 
 crops get the nitrogen from the air, there is evidence that 
 some of it is fixed in the soil, and is of use to crops immedi- 
 ately associated with the legume. Corn, with crimson 
 
How the Legumes Aid Us 273 
 
 clover or cow peas sown among it is not only not injured 
 by the associated crop, but is actually helped, unless the 
 season is so extremely dry that moisture is taken from it 
 too fast. 
 
 The pecuHar value of the legumes as forage and hay- 
 making crops lies in the fact that they have far larger 
 amounts of protein than the more carbonaceous grasses, 
 and hence make a more complete ration for stock, and 
 this higher feeding value is gotten from plants that also 
 feed the soil in the most costly and one of the most im- 
 portant elements of plant food, and through their culture 
 the farmer is enabled to increase his crops of the hay- 
 making grasses. 
 
 Hence it is becoming more and more evident that the 
 farmer of the future must be a legume farmer. If he finds 
 that clover fails where he formerly grew it well, he must 
 understand that it is usually his own fault, and should at 
 once study the reasons for the failure. In most cases he 
 will find that it is the result of an acidity in his soil or from 
 the deficiency of plant food or the lack of humus that 
 allows the soil to dry out in summer so that the clover dies. 
 He can cure the acidity with applications of lime; he can 
 restore the mineral plant foods that may be lacking and 
 through the use of some of the legume plants that he can 
 grow, he can restore the humus and get his land back to 
 the production of good crops of red clover. And no mat- 
 ter how many of the other legumes he may find useful as 
 catch crops, and in certain places, by far the larger part of 
 the country from Virginia northward, should depend on red 
 clover as the standard legume crop, just as the country 
 south of that should depend on the cow pea. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE GRASSES 
 
 THE great grass family includes not only the crops 
 usually known to farmers as grass, but also our 
 cereal crops, for Indian corn, wheat, rye, etc., 
 are all included in the grass family. But here we propose 
 to treat only of those that are commonly used as forage 
 and hay-making crops. 
 
 Grass is Nature's great soil cover, her means for ac- 
 cumulating humus soil where forests are lacking. The 
 great prairies of the West owe their fertility to the grasses 
 that have grown and decayed century after century, while 
 the herbage has protected the soil from the sun and thus 
 promoted the bacterial life that is constantly engaged in 
 the preparation of more food for the crop. 
 
 The farmer has broken the old sod and found a soil of 
 great fertility, and at once jumped to the conclusion that 
 it was inexhaustible, and has gone on to crop this virgin 
 soil year after year, selling off the great deposit in his bank 
 till in manv cases he finds that his balance is tretting short. 
 Constant corn growing in the corn belt and constant wheat 
 growing on the fertile plains of the Dakotas has the same 
 result in gradually diminishing crops that it has in the 
 cotton lands of the South. 
 
 The improving farmer finds that he must imitate Nature 
 to some extent and grow more legumes and more grass. 
 We have shown how the legumes may aid in the production 
 
 274 
 
The Grasses 21b 
 
 of better grass crops as well as other crops on the farm. 
 The Southern farmers have neglected the grasses under 
 the impression that their climate is not adapted to grass 
 simply because they cannot grow the great hay grass of 
 the North, timothy. But there is no part of the country 
 where unaided Nature produces a greater variety of 
 grasses than in the Southern States. 
 
 Many years ago the late Edmund Ruffin, one of the 
 most thoughtful and observant farmers of Virginia, wrote 
 a book giving a description of the coastal plain of Eastern 
 North Carolina. In that book, Mr. Ruffin said that in 
 his opinion Eastern North CaroHna was destined to be 
 the greatest stock section of the Atlantic coast, because 
 of the wonderful profusion of native grasses. This was 
 over half a century ago, and from that time down to the 
 present the farmers there have been battling with grass for 
 growing cotton continuously, while the grass still comes 
 in as soon as the cotton is left oflf, and would have made 
 the country richer if the grass had had the first place 
 instead of cotton. 
 
 In any section of the country one must study the adapt- 
 ability of his soil and climate to grasses, for there are few 
 that succeed equally well in all parts of the country. 
 Near all the larger cities of the Middle and Northern 
 and Central Western States, where the interest of the 
 farmers is in selling hay in the city markets, there 
 is no grass in this country that has or probably ever 
 will take the place of Timothy. 
 
 In all the sections named, Timothy 
 Timothy ,.. 
 
 (Phleum pratense) is the great hay grass. Not 
 
 because it makes the best hay, for in our opinion there are 
 
276 Practical Farming 
 
 grasses that make better hay, but because the market 
 demands it and the market knows it and does not know 
 other hay to any extent. And to-day thousands of tons 
 of baled timothy hay are shipped to the southern cities 
 from the central west, while the farmers right around 
 there are wasting their land in cotton where they could 
 produce better hay for their home market and get higher 
 prices for it than in any other part of the country. 
 
 Timothy is a grass for a cool climate and a moist clay 
 soil. It is a shallow rooting grass, and soon burns out in 
 a hot climate and warm soil. It is not a good pasture 
 grass, not because animals are not fond of it, for they are, 
 but because of its shallow rooting it is soon destroyed by 
 pasturing. But on suitable soils and in a suitable cHmate 
 there is no grass that gives heavier crops. While good 
 crops can be grown on strong upland loam soil, the grass 
 does not last so long there as on the moist low lands hke 
 river bottoms, which are more naturally adapted to mead- 
 ows. Timothy, from its shallow rooting character and 
 little sod-making, is more exhaustive on the soil than 
 grasses that make a larger root and return more humus- 
 making material to the soil. One of its advantages is that 
 it will wait on the farmer, for while many other grasses 
 get worthless soon after flowering, timothy still has some 
 value when near maturity, though, of course, makes better 
 hay cut at an earlier stage. 
 
 The common practice is to associate it with clover. 
 This of course helps the land, but the timothy being a 
 late grass, is not in shape for mowing till after the clover 
 has long passed its best stage. Some of the earher grasses 
 are far better to sow with clover if the clover hay is valued. 
 
The Grasses 277 
 
 Timothy lacks bottom foliage and should always have 
 some late-growing low grass like red top associated with 
 it to help out the crop. 
 
 But timothy, with all its faults has such a hold on the 
 farmers and the markets that it will probably remain the 
 standard hay grass of a large part of the country. But 
 where the hay is to be fed on the farm and is not the money 
 crop of the farm, we would grow legumes and grasses that 
 go better along with clover. 
 
 Orchard Grass {Dactylis glomerata) has 
 ^^ ^ become in many parts of the country a popu- 
 
 lar meadow and pasture grass. It is one of 
 the grasses that seems to be equally at home north and 
 south. It is better adapted to high land than timothy is. 
 It is a strong rooting grass and withstands drought better 
 than timothy, and from its strong rooting nature is a far 
 better pasture grass. Its name, orchard grass, comes from 
 the fact that it thrives well in the shade of trees. Orchard 
 grass is one of the earliest grasses, and gives a bite in 
 the pasture earlier in spring than any other grass except 
 perhaps, the meadow foxtail. After the first mowing in 
 spring, it gives a stronger aftermath than most other 
 grasses, and if this is left on the land the strong tussocks 
 that this grass makes, keep the under part green in winter 
 and affords a great deal of grazing even in the most severe 
 weather, particularly in the South. The faults of this 
 grass are its habit of growing in bunches or tussocks and 
 not covering the ground densely. Though it grows tall 
 and shows a large crop apparently the harvest is apt to be 
 lighter than the appearance owing to this scattering habit. 
 It is a very early grass, and to make good hay it must be 
 
278 Practical Farming 
 
 mown as soon as the blossom heads appear, for if left 
 later the hay deteriorates rapidly in quality. Since the 
 season for the hay harvest with this grass comes so early 
 it is apt to be a time when rains are frequent, and a farmer 
 with a large area in orchard grass will often have a great 
 deal of difficulty in saving the crop in the best condition. 
 
 Its habit of growing in tussocks can be remedied by 
 mixing it with other grasses, and for hay making we 
 would never sow orchard grass alone. For pasture pur- 
 poses we have always mixed it with red top and blue 
 grass, using ten pounds of the orchard grass, five pounds 
 of the red top, and ten pounds of the Kentucky blue grass 
 per acre, since heavy seeding is the most economical way 
 to get a dense sod. On strong clay soil, and especially on 
 a limestone soil, the pasture will finally be mainly of the 
 blue grass, and as the blue grass is slower in germination 
 and spreading, the orchard grass shelters it and favors its 
 increase, while the quick germination of the red top gives 
 some pasturage before the others are ready when the red 
 top on high land gradually passes out. 
 
 Being an early grass, the orchard grass associates better 
 with red clover than timothy does, since both are ready 
 for the mower at the same time. Orchard grass will 
 thrive, too, on land of a clayey nature that is too thin for 
 timothy, and from its strong rooting nature, it makes a 
 greater mass of vegetable matter to turn under than 
 timothy does. Its chief value, we think, is in the forma- 
 tion of permanent pastures. 
 
 Red Top {Agrostis vulgaris) seems par- 
 ticularly adapted to low land in the Southern 
 States, and while it grows well on uplands, it is not so 
 
The Grasses 279 
 
 permanent in its character there as on moist low lands. 
 This grass has a number of common names in various 
 parts of the country. In Pennsylvania it is generally 
 known as herds grass, while in some other sections that 
 name is applied to timothy. It is also known as fine top 
 and bent grass. Dairymen in many sections consider it 
 indispensable in giving a fine flavor to the butter. Being 
 a late grass, it associates well with timothy, and as both 
 thrive on moist low land, it is a good practice to sow some 
 red top with timothy to give that grass a more leafy 
 bottom. 
 
 Red top makes fine hay, but not a heavy crop. It is 
 the easiest hay to cure of all the grasses. In very hot and 
 dry weather, we have mown red top in the morning, 
 tedded it thoroughly, and put it in the stack the same 
 evening. This is an advantage in showery weather. It 
 makes a far heavier crop on bottom lands in the South 
 than it does in the Middle and Northern States, and 
 should have more attention from the Southern farmers. 
 This is the finest of all grasses for the 
 ermu a South. Botanically it is Cynodon dactylon, 
 
 and is found in warm climates all over the 
 world. Owing to the difiiculty of eradicating it when it 
 gets into cultivated grounds it has long been regarded as 
 a pest by the cotton growers. But since it seeds very 
 sparingly, it is easy to keep it in bounds and to use it on a 
 cotton farm as a permanent pasture. It is entirely a hot 
 weather grass, and browns with the first frosts, but when 
 used as a pasture it can be mixed with the Texas blue 
 grass {Poa arachnifera), which is a winter growing grass 
 and has the same running habit as the Bermuda. With 
 
280 Practical Farming 
 
 this mixture a summer and winter pasture can easily be 
 maintained in the South. This grass will not stand the 
 winters north of Virginia, and on its northern limit it 
 assumes the character of a pest to wheat growers, and does 
 not have the value that it has in the South. From central 
 Georgia south it attains great value as a meadow grass, 
 as it can be mown several times during the summer. 
 Owing to the scarcity of seed, Bermuda grass is commonly 
 grown from cuttings of the running stems, commonly 
 called roots in the South. The land is well prepared in 
 the spring, and the stems are run through a feed cutter 
 set to cut rather long. Furrows are marked out and the 
 cuttings scattered along these and covered with a small 
 plow and then rolled. These furrows should be about 
 two feet apart, and the grass will spread over the entire 
 surface the first summer. 
 
 As a pasture grass the Bermuda has the great advantage 
 that it will grow on the most sandy soil, and is perfectly 
 indifferent to the hot sun and drought. In fact it will not 
 grow in the shade at all, and hence is not adapted to shady 
 places. But it furnishes the best of pasture when other 
 grasses are burnt up and worthless, and it is adapted to 
 every kind of soil. On a sandy soil it is not hard to 
 eradicate it if necessary, as it can be plowed off entirely 
 from such a soil in great sheets and raked up and hauled 
 off. But from a strong clay soil its eradication is a diffi- 
 cult matter. In fact on such a soil, the pasture is greatly 
 improved by a spring plowing, harrowing, and rolling to 
 cure the hide-bound condition that it may get into. 
 
 The great value of this grass in the South is gradually 
 being understood, and if it were more used, the South 
 
The Grasses 281 
 
 could become as great a pasture country as the blue grass 
 
 region of Kentucky, for in summer it is far better pasturage 
 
 than blue grass anywhere. It has been found of great 
 
 value in Oklahoma and the experiment station there 
 
 advises its use as a pasture grass. But this is probably as 
 
 far north as it will have any value as compared with other 
 
 grasses. But no part of the whole country has a finer 
 
 pasture grass than the South has in Bermuda. 
 
 The botanical genus Poa includes a num- 
 
 „ ber of species that are known as blue grasses. 
 
 Grasses ^ ^ ° 
 
 The best known of these is the Kentucky 
 blue grass {Poa pratensis). This is essentially a grass for 
 limestone soils, and thrives on these soils as it does on no 
 other, though with an occasional application of lime it 
 can be kept in good condition on any good clay soil. 
 It has acquired its common name from the way it has 
 taken possession of the rich limestone soils of central 
 Kentucky, and while it thrives on similar soils in various 
 other states, its great home is in Kentucky and part of 
 Tennessee, and to the fine pasturage it gives there is 
 largely due the fame that Kentucky has acquired in the 
 raising of fine horses. Its fine hairlike roots penetrate 
 deeply into the soil, and enable this grass to recover after 
 it has been browned by a long drought, and though appar- 
 ently brown and dead, it at once starts into growth with 
 the coming of rain. 
 
 Kentucky blue grass is the best grass for lawns from the 
 close and ever-green sod it makes, and it is the favorite 
 grass for this purpose in all parts of the country where 
 there is a good clay soil. It will not thrive on the sandy 
 soils of the South, and in fact there needs some shade from 
 
282 Practical Farming 
 
 the sun even on clay soil. Sown on a southern lawn the 
 ever-present Bermuda soon drives it to the shade places 
 under the trees which the Bermuda avoids. 
 
 This grass {Poa compressa) is also known 
 Blue Grass ^^ Virginia blue grass. It has a great deal 
 of the habit of the Bermuda grass, creeping 
 by surface and underground stems. It will grow on 
 thinner soil than the Kentucky blue grass will, and will 
 also thrive on sandy soils. In many parts of Virginia it 
 has become a great pest to wheat growers. It has value 
 as a pasture grass and as a sod-forming grass to prevent the 
 washing of steep hills, but where the Kentucky blue grass 
 thrives it has little value. On thin hill lands it can be 
 profitably used as a sheep pasture, and will make a perman- 
 ent pasture on lands too thin and poor for other grasses, 
 and it thrives in all parts of the country north and south. 
 Quite an interest has of late been taken in 
 exas ^j^-g gj-g^gg jj^ ^]^g South as a winter-growing 
 
 grass. It is botanically Poa arachnijera. 
 Its specific name comes from the spider-web-like hairs 
 attached to the seeds, which make them difficult to sow. 
 It has the same creeping habit as the Bermuda, and is 
 valuable as a mixture with that grass, since, while it burns 
 badly in summer it grows green in winter when the Ber- 
 muda is brown. In fact one man in North Carolina said 
 to me that he found that the colder the weather the greener 
 the grass grew. Whether it will ever be of any value 
 North is yet to be demonstrated, but the general opinion 
 is that it is best adapted to southern conditions and a 
 mild winter climate. This grass is a native of western 
 Louisiana and eastern Texas, and it is claimed that it 
 
The Grasses 283 
 
 will be all and more for Texas than Kentucky blue grass 
 is for Kentucky. It is of stronger growth than Kentucky 
 blue grass, and one writer says that he has seen it grow 
 ten inches in ten days, and that the coldest weather does 
 not nip it. It almost disappears during the summer 
 except in shady places, but starts with the first fall rains 
 and cool weather, and will furnish green food all winter 
 in all parts of the South. 
 
 With Texas blue grass and Bermuda there is no reason 
 why the South should not become a great grazing country, 
 for both grow on all sorts of soil from sand to heavy clay. 
 Owing to the diflEiculty in sowing the seed it will probably 
 be better to plant cuttings of the running stems as in the 
 case of Bermuda. These can be had by planting bunches 
 of the seed in squares a foot apart in a sort of nursery 
 ground, and from the growth of these to get cuttings the 
 following fall, for while the Bermuda should be planted in 
 spring the Texas blue grass should be planted in the fall. 
 The cuttings can be planted in rows in the fall and other 
 rows made in the spring between them for planting the 
 Bermuda cuttings, and in one season of winter and sum- 
 mer they will take possession of the whole land. 
 
 This is another of the Poas, or blue grasses. 
 g'tIL^^^^'''^ It is often called foul meadow grass, but the 
 generally used name is that we have given, 
 and is supposed to be derived from the wild fowl having 
 introduced it in a meadow in Dedham, Mass. It is a 
 common grass in the Northern States, and is botanically 
 Poa serotina. Its chief value is from its adaptabihty to 
 low and wet soils. It makes a fine soft hay and a very 
 nutritious feed. From its growing in low lands it makes 
 
284 Practical Farming 
 
 an excellent mixture with red top on such lands. There 
 are others of the Poa genus of grasses, but the foregoing 
 include all that are of much value to the farmer. 
 
 There is no grass about which there has 
 Jo son ^^^^ g^ great a diversity of opinion than the 
 
 grass generally known as Johnson or Means 
 grass. It is closely allied to the sorghums and was long 
 known as Sorghum halapense, but of late years it has been 
 assigned to the genus Andropogon, and is Andropogon 
 halapense. It is a tall growing perennial grass that sends 
 strong underground stems in every direction and also 
 makes seed of large size freely, which are scattered by the 
 birds and the overflow of streams so that when the plant 
 once gets established in small amount in a section it 
 rapidly spreads in every direction and becomes a serious 
 pest to the hoed crops. 
 
 Johnson grass is not hardy north of central Virginia, 
 and becomes of greater value as we go southward. Of 
 its value as a forage crop, there can be but one opinion in 
 a soil and climate that suits it, for it makes a nutritious 
 hay, though rather coarse, and can be mown three times 
 or more in a season. Its aggressive nature is the one 
 fault against it. In some sections of Mississippi and 
 Alabama, where at first it was considered a curse, the 
 general opinion now seems to be that it has been a blessing 
 to the country in compeUing the farmers who formerly 
 devoted their sole attention to cotton to go into stock 
 raising. 
 
 By a thorough plowing and raking of the stems out and 
 a careful preparation of the soil, a crop of cotton can be 
 grown and the grass comes back at once after the cotton 
 
The Grasses 285 
 
 is off. The only thing that can subdue it is hard pasturing. 
 I have seen pastures in Mississippi where the whole coun- 
 try was covered with Johnson grass in which there was 
 nothing left but Bermuda grass, the pasturing having 
 driven the Johnson grass out completely. But in sections 
 where Johnson grass has not yet appeared, I would not 
 advise its introduction, since there are grasses that are of 
 value in the South which can be kept within bounds, while 
 the Johnson grass cannot be restrained from taking the 
 whole farm. Where it has become estabHshed the only 
 thing for the farmer is to make the best use of the abundant 
 forage it affords. 
 
 I was struck at the Mississippi Agricultural College with 
 the fact that alfalfa seemed to hold its own among the 
 Johnson grass. I was shown there a plot of alfalfa with 
 Johnson grass towering above it, but at the time of my 
 visit in July, they informed me that the plot had been cut 
 three times and was about ready for the fourth cutting, 
 and that the presence of the Johnson grass enabled them 
 to cure the hay more readily and that the mixture made 
 a very valuable hay. With alfalfa flourishing in spite of 
 the Johnson grass, that section certainly has a forage crop 
 that should make stock raising a very successful pursuit, 
 and stock raising is the greatest need of the Southern 
 farms. In many cases the entire farms have been aban- 
 doned to the grass and the owners are devoting their whole 
 attention to cattle and very profitably too. Therefore, while 
 I would not advise the introduction of this grass into a grain 
 or cotton section, I am ready to admit its great value as a for- 
 age crop, but I would prefer to grow what I wanted and not 
 be compelled to grow a crop that pushes itself everywhere. 
 
286 Pr actual Farming 
 
 Paspalum The gonus Faspaluni includes some grasses 
 
 Dilatatum ^^£ ^,^^^^^, ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^.^ ^j^.^^ ^^^ merely 
 
 pests. This variety, called the hairy Paspalum is a 
 native of this country from \'irginia southward. It 
 grows from two to five feet high and promises to be a 
 valuable grass both for hay and pasture in the South. 
 Tramping by cattle seems to improve it and it makes a 
 tough and enduring sod and has become greatly valued in 
 Texas. It is best increased by the running stems as the 
 seed has a low germinating power. As a pasture grass 
 for the South I consider it far inferior to Bennuda, but it 
 will make a heavier hay crop on moist land, where it is 
 best suited. 
 
 This has sometimes been called Louisiana grass, and is 
 
 found in all the Gulf States, and has crept north as far as 
 
 central North Carolina in small amount. 
 
 ai,pa um j^ |^^^ _^j^^^ ^^^^^^^^ called carpet grass from its 
 
 Platycaule ^ ^ 
 
 close matting character. It grows best on 
 
 low moist land, but is also said to stand droughty condi- 
 tions fully as well as Bermuda. It seems to be a valuable 
 pasture grass in the sandy soils of Florida and the Gulf 
 Coast, but northward the Bermuda will be a great deal 
 better. 
 
 This is an annual grass commonly kno^^'n as crab grass 
 
 and fall grass, and in all the northern parts of the country 
 
 is esteemed a pest, especially in its persistent 
 
 ^ ... habit of i:;ettinc: on the lawns in the late 
 
 banguihale ^ '^ 
 
 summer and crowding out the perennial 
 grasses. But in the South it attains a great value as a 
 hay crop. On the heavily fertilized land of the market 
 gardens in the South Atlantic States, the crab grass comes 
 
The Grasses 287 
 
 in after the early vegetable crops have been shipped and 
 often makes a crop of two tons of hay per acre without 
 any sowing. This grass is never cultivated, but always 
 appears after the crops have been cultivated in the South, 
 and is then found of value, and the hay, if cut at the 
 proper stage, is equal to the best timothy hay. It is a 
 common practice on the truck farms in the South after the 
 crop of string beans has been shipped, to plow the vines 
 under and smooth the ground and then let the crab grass 
 have possession for the fall hay crop. 
 
 This is a coarse annual grass that delights 
 Panicum -^^ ^.j^j^ moist land and is sometimes used as 
 
 Crus Galli . . , , 
 
 a hay crop, and makes a nutritive hay that 
 
 stock are fond of. Efforts have been made by some seeds- 
 men to boom a variety of this grass under the name of 
 " Billion-dollar" grass. But for the Northern States there 
 are many grasses that arc far better for the farmer that 
 are of a permanent and perennial character. This annual 
 grass may have some value in the South. 
 
 There are a number of other Panicums that may have 
 value in particular sections, but as a class they have not a 
 high forage-making value. In the high mountain section 
 of North Carolina, a perennial Panicum^ Panicum clan- 
 dcstinum has acquired a local reputation under the name 
 of fodder grass. It is a hardy but coarse-growing grass, 
 and where it succeeds better grass can be grown. 
 
 Setaria Italica, commonly known as Hun- 
 
 Hungarian garian grass or German millet, is a native of 
 
 Asia, which has been extensively introduced 
 
 in all the countries of Europe and America. It is an 
 
 annual grass of strong growth on fertile soil. It varies 
 
288 Practical Farming 
 
 greatly in character, though all the varieties belong to one 
 species. Recently a variety has been introduced from 
 Japan that has been found to make heavier crops than 
 the older sort, and we have had seed heads sent us from 
 Korea that were as large as a large ear of corn. It is 
 likely that these Asiatic varieties will generally supersede 
 the older varieties. It makes a heavy crop of hay, but if 
 the hay is to be fed to horses, it should be cut as soon as in 
 bloom, for if the seed are allowed to ripen the hay will be 
 dangerous to horses because of the indigestible nature of 
 the seed. The hay, too, is of less value if the seed ripen. 
 
 This rank-growing grass has been boomed 
 ennese um -^ ^j^j^ country at various times as a forage 
 plant under the names of pearl millet, cat- 
 tail millet, and Egyptian millet, and of late an effort has 
 been made to push the seed on the market under the old 
 obsolete botanical name of Pencillaria. It makes an 
 immense growth or green forage on rich and moist land, 
 but as a hay crop has not a great value, being hard to 
 cure and making a very heavy draft on the fertihty of the 
 soil. For the average farmer the annual legumes, like cow 
 peas and soja beans, are far superior to any of the millets. 
 
 Sorghum vulgare includes not only the 
 saccharine sorghums from which syrup is 
 made, but a great many others not of a saccharine nature 
 and known variously as Millo maize, Kaffir corn, Dourra, 
 and broom com. The variety known as Kaffir corn is 
 now largely grown in the Western States both for forage 
 and for seed. The seed has a feeding value similar to 
 that of Indian corn, and the whole sorghum family have 
 a capacity for resisting droughty conditions better than 
 
The Grasses 289 
 
 most other cereals of the grass family. Hence the Kaffir 
 corn has attained a great popularity in the semi-arid West. 
 Broom corn is the only member of the sorghum family 
 that is grown for commercial purposes other than feed, 
 and even with this the seed have a feeding value. 
 
 Of late years the saccharine sorghums have been largely 
 used as forage plants both for sowing broadcast for hay or 
 for planting for maturity and harvesting for cured stover 
 like Indian corn. All domestic animals are fond of the 
 sweet sorghums, and they should be more largely grown 
 for feeding. Cultivated to maturity, the stalks can be 
 shocked and will retain their succulent character for feed- 
 ing during the winter, though they will not cure dry like 
 corn stalks. But keeping well in the shocks they can be 
 fed during the winter with good results. For this purpose 
 the crop should be planted in rows just as though grown 
 for syrup making, and should be cut at the same stage of 
 ripeness. The stalks can be cut by machinery and fed 
 with very good results to any animals. Hogs are fond of 
 sorghum and thrive on it either mature or in the field sown 
 broadcast. 
 
 The genus Festuca contains a number of valuable species 
 
 of grasses for hay making. One of the best species is 
 
 _ Festuca elatior, known as tall meadow fescue, 
 
 The Fescues 
 
 Randall grass, and tall fescue. It is a 
 
 European grass that has long been cultivated in this 
 
 country. It is a strong-growing perennial grass growing 
 
 two to four feet high, and is much relished by cattle 
 
 green and dry. A smaller growing variety has been 
 
 called Festuca pratensis, but it is merely a variety of this 
 
 species. It is as early as orchard grass and associates 
 
290 Practical Farming 
 
 very well with it, but it thrives on low moist lands better 
 
 than orchard grass does and is at its best on such soils. 
 
 It is a very valuable grass both for pasture and hay, and 
 
 thrives excellently on hmestone soils to which it seems to 
 
 be especially adapted. Festuca ovina, sheep fescue, is a 
 
 dense low-growing tufted grass that succeeds on thin hilly 
 
 soils, and has been found well adapted to sheep pastures. 
 
 It is also useful as a mixture in lawn grasses, but is of no 
 
 value as a hay grass. 
 
 _ The Brome grasses include the Bromus 
 
 Bromus . . 
 
 secalinus which is commonly called chess or 
 
 cheat, and by many farmers it is imagined that wheat and 
 
 oats when killed down by frost will turn to cheat. But 
 
 the fact is that the cheat is a distinct grass of a very hardy 
 
 nature and the seeds germinate and grow when the cereal 
 
 is destroyed and the farmer seeing green plants there 
 
 thinks it is the grain till it heads out in its true character. 
 
 There are some of the family that have acquired a 
 reputation as valuable grasses. One of these is Bromus 
 unioloides, known as rescue grass. This is a winter- 
 growing grass in the South, and has some value there, 
 but none northward. 
 
 Bromus inermis, or smooth brome grass has of late years 
 been found to be a valuable grass for pasture in the semi- 
 arid sections of the West. It stands drought and forms a 
 dense sod. In the more humid sections of the East it has 
 not been found of much value. 
 
 The Z^/fMW5, or rye grasses, are hay plants 
 
 of much value. Lolium perenne or Italian 
 
 rye grass. Hardly in our chmates deserves the name of 
 
 perennial, as it is usually of short duration. But sown 
 
The Grasses 291 
 
 early in the fall alone, it will make a good hay crop 
 
 the following summer, but does not last much longer. 
 
 The true perennial rye grass, or English rye grass, 
 
 is far more persistent than the Italian, and is truly 
 
 perennial; but is inclined, like orchard grass, to grow in 
 
 tussocks. 
 
 Loliunt tetnulentum, or spiked darnel, is a worthless grass 
 
 that has a reputation for being poisonous to stock, and 
 
 should be eradicated. In some sections of the country, 
 
 this has the name of cheat, and is the plant that some 
 
 imagine the cereals to turn into. 
 
 Agropyrum glaucum is the blue joint or 
 Agropyrum . . , . 
 
 blue stem of the western prairies where it 
 
 is highly valued as a component of the prairie hay. It has 
 the same creeping and spreading habit of the Agropyrum 
 repens, or couch grass of the East. This last has always 
 been esteemed a pest and a weed, but it has value as a 
 hay grass, though, from its aggressive habit Uke the John- 
 son grass of the South, it should be treated as a weed and 
 not allowed to take possession of the land to the exclusion 
 of better grasses. 
 
 Commonly known as wild oats. This grass is very 
 common in California, and it has been thought by many 
 
 to be a degenerate form of the cultivated 
 Avena fatua 
 
 oats. It makes good forage when cut at the 
 
 right stage, but may become a pest in grain fields. It is 
 
 hardly worthy of cultivation, but may be saved where it 
 
 grows naturally. 
 
 We have given merely a sketch of the leading grasses 
 
 that come within the notice of cultivators in various parts 
 
 of the country. Some of these have a value in Hmited 
 
292 Practical Farming 
 
 localities or on special soils, and among them the farmer 
 can find those best suited to his use, for hay making. 
 
 For the making of permanent pastures no 
 ermanen ^^^ grass is usually best, except in sections 
 Hke the blue grass region of Kentucky, 
 where that grass takes possession almost to the exclusion 
 of others. But in all parts of the countr}- there is a grow- 
 ing impression among the best farmers that it is not wise 
 to pasture the cultivated lands, and that for the best 
 results in cropping, the fann should have a piece of land 
 set apart to be kept perpetually in grass. For such a pas- 
 ture a mixture of grasses and verj' liberal seeding should 
 be used, for the establishment of a dense sod at once is an 
 important matter. 
 
 For the South, as we have suggested, there is no better 
 mixture than Bermuda and Texas blue grass. But north 
 of lower Virginia, these grasses have not the value that 
 they have further south. Then the mixture that will be 
 best will depend very largely on the character of the soil. 
 At times the farmer ^^ishes to devote to pasture a piece of 
 low land Hable to be at times overflowed. In such case 
 we would suggest a mixture of ten pounds of tall meadow 
 fescue, five pounds of red top, and five pounds of fowl 
 meadow grass per acre. 
 
 On high and thinner soils and not on Umestone land 
 we would suggest a mixture of ten poimds of orchard 
 grass, five pounds of red top. ten pounds of Canada blue 
 grass, and five pounds of white clover per acre. On 
 strong limestone clay loam we would make the rruxture 
 ten pounds of orchard grass, five pounds of red top, and 
 ten pounds of Kentucky blue grass per acre. 
 
The Grasses 293 
 
 As a rule farmers usually find it a matter of economy 
 
 to sow grass seed with some cereal crop, either wheat or 
 
 - ^ rye, in the fall or oats in the spring. But 
 
 Nurse Crops r & 
 
 where immediate effect is wanted, as in the 
 
 case of sowing a permanent pasture, we would prefer to 
 
 sow the grass and clover alone. When grass seed are 
 
 sown with a cereal crop we would, of course, add some 
 
 red clover in the spring as a means for benefiting the land, 
 
 and making a better hay for homed cattle. 
 
 Where grass seed are sown alone, they are better sown 
 in the autumn than in the spring, and the soil should have 
 the most thorough preparation. After sowing, if the soil 
 is quite dry, a smoothing harrow should be run over the 
 seeding and then rolled, but the rolhng should be omitted 
 if the soil is moist, and on hilly land that is inclined to 
 wash, we would never use the roller, for there will always 
 be left unpressed spots that will gather the water and 
 wash in rain storms. 
 
 Permanent pastures are too often neglected and weeds 
 and briars allowed to grow. The mowing machine is a 
 useful implement for keeping the pasture in order by 
 keeping all wild growth cut off before seed are formed. 
 Then too, the fertility of the soil must be kept up, for, 
 especially when young animals are pastured, they rapidly 
 exhaust the phosphates in the soil. It will be found 
 profitable to give the pasture an annual dressing of 300 
 pounds of raw bone meal and twenty-five pounds of 
 muriate of potash per acre, and to scatter the droppings 
 with the drag harrow from time to time. In this way the 
 product of grass can be kept up and even greatly increased. 
 
 In some parts of the country the broom sedge soon makes 
 
294 Practical Farming 
 
 its appearance in permanent pastures. When young, this 
 grass makes fairly good pasturage, but it soon gets wiry 
 and worthless. It is a grass that can abide acid conditions 
 in the soil better than other grasses, and if the pasture has' 
 an occasional Hming at the rate of twenty bushels of slaked 
 lime per acre, say once in five years, there will seldom be 
 any appearance of broom sedge. In fact an occasional 
 liming is important to any grass and especially to the blue 
 grasses. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS FOR VARIOUS CROPS 
 
 FORMULAS for the making of fertilizing mixtures 
 for farm crops must in the nature of things be 
 merely suggestive, since soils vary so much in 
 their composition and needs, and crops also vary in their 
 manurial requirements. 
 
 The student-farmer will study his soil or soils, for often 
 the soils are very different in the different fields of the 
 same farm. The chemist can give Uttle aid in this matter, 
 though he can find out what the composition of your soil 
 is, but cannot tell you anything in regard to the availability 
 to crops of the materials the soil contains. 
 
 The American farmers are wasting a great deal of 
 money in the purchase of commercial fertilizers which 
 they could save by a more careful study of the needs of 
 their farms, and by using the legume crops for the getting 
 of nitrogen that costs so much in a complete fertihzer. 
 We beheve that the day is rapidly approaching when the 
 American farmers will abandon for any of the usual farm 
 crops the purchase of complete fertihzers, or those con- 
 taining the three important ingredients, nitrogen, phos- 
 phoric acid, and potash, and will by short rotations get 
 through the legume crops all the nitrogen they need, aided 
 by the home-made manures made from the feeding of the 
 legume forage, and will devote themselves in an intelligent 
 
 29s 
 
296 Practical Farming 
 
 way to the preservation of the mineral matters of their 
 soils by the use of the cheaper mixtures of phosphoric 
 acid and potash, and to a study of their soils to ascertain 
 whether they need to buy even both of these. 
 
 Any farmer can ascertain approximately the needs of 
 his soil by laying out a series of plots, reserving one on 
 which no fertilizer is to be applied, then on another apply- 
 ing phosphoric acid alone, on another potash alone, on 
 another some form of nitrogen alone. Then on other 
 plots make combinations of nitrogen and potash, nitrogen 
 and phosphoric acid, potash and phosphoric acid, and 
 then a combination of all three. Then by noting the 
 results carefully for several seasons he can come very close 
 to what the land especially needs and what he need not 
 buy. We knew one wheat grower in Maryland who did 
 this, and years ago came to the conclusion that phosphoric 
 acid was the only thing needed on his land. He there- 
 fore adopted a short rotation of crops with clover on the 
 land frequently, and in a few years found that his wheat 
 crop increased from fifteen bushels per acre to an average 
 of forty bushels year after year, while he used only plain 
 dissolved South Carolina rock phosphate on his wheat, 
 and got through the clover all the nitrogen he needed. 
 
 There are some crops Kke the Irish potato which, when 
 grown as an early market crop demand special fertiliza- 
 tion. Tobacco, too, is another crop on which we cannot 
 afford to omit a complete fertihzer. But for the ordinary 
 grain crops of the farm I feel sure that the man who farms 
 right, and works his land in a short rotation with legume 
 crops coming in frequently on the land, need never buy 
 an ounce of nitrogen in any form. 
 
Commercial Fertilizers for Various Crops 297 
 
 In one of the bulletins of the Ohio Experiment Station, 
 we find the following statement in regard to their experi- 
 ments in the maintenance of fertihty and the use of 
 fertiUzers. "While, therefore, these experiments demon- 
 strate the possibility of producing a regular and certain 
 increase in the yield of cereal crops by the use of a com- 
 plete chemical fertilizer, yet they show that if such fertil- 
 izers are to be used in Ohio in the production of cereal 
 crops with any prospect of profit and as a part of a regular 
 system of agriculture, that system must provide for the 
 accumulation in the soil of the largest possible quantity 
 of organic nitrogen, through the culture, in short rotations, 
 of plants which have the power of obtaining nitrogen from 
 sources inaccessible to the cereals." And in another of 
 their bulletins the same station added later: "At the 
 present prices of cereal crops and of fertihzing materials 
 respectively the profitable production of corn, wheat, and 
 oats upon chemical or commercial fertilizers is a hopeless 
 undertaking, unless these crops be grown in a systematic 
 rotation with clover or a similar nitrogen-storing crop; 
 and the poorer the soil in natural fertility the smaller the 
 probabiHty of profitable crop production by means of 
 artificial fertilizers." 
 
 Hence, as we have uniformly insisted, the true use of 
 the commercial fertilizers is to increase the production of 
 the humus-making and nitrogen-storing legume crops, 
 and if these are neglected the dependence of the farmer 
 on commercial fertihzers will hardly be profitable. 
 
 Many of the experiment stations have spent years in 
 the study of the manurial needs of the various crops, and 
 have devised formulas for mixing the fertilizers for each. 
 
298 Practical Farming 
 
 This has caused many farmers to imagine that for every 
 crop planted or sown they must have a specially devised 
 fertilizer mixture, and they have gotten the idea from what 
 many station directors have said that the only use for the 
 commercial fertilizers is for the increase of the particular 
 crop to which they are applied, without any regard to the 
 efifect on the future productiveness of the land. 
 
 It is against this notion that I have fought unceasingly 
 for many years. This plan of using fertilizers merely to 
 get a Uttle more to sell off the land through their direct 
 influence, has brought poverty to thousands of acres, and 
 has made thousands of farmers poor. 
 
 While investigations may show what are the special 
 food needs of certain crops, they do not mean that we can 
 always profitably supply those needs direct by the applica- 
 tion of artificial fertilizers only, nor do they show that the 
 apphcation of the needed plant food on a poor soil that is 
 deficient in humus will produce the result desired. In 
 fact, as the experiments at the Ohio Station show plainly, 
 such application can never prove profitable. While on 
 the potato crop it will pay to use a complete fertilizer in a 
 liberal manner, even there it will depend largely for its 
 results on the presence or absence of humus-making mat- 
 ter in the soil, and will have a far better effect if a clover 
 sod is turned for the potatoes. We give some of the 
 formulas advised by the experiment stations for the potato 
 crop, while those for grain crops are, we suppose, intended 
 for use where there has been no legume crop preceding. 
 
 The following formulas have been suggested by the 
 Rhode Island Station for the home mixing of fertihzers 
 for the potato crop : 
 
Commercial Fertilizers for Various Crops 299 
 
 Pounds Per Cent. 
 
 Acid phosphate 850 \ . »t,-», „„ 
 
 Nitrate of Soda lio v.VIHina Pn/.l l^ 
 
 Muriate of Potash 300 Yielding Potash ..8.0 
 
 Cotton-seed Meal 700 ) ' ^^^>^- ^^°^- A"'^- • • ^ • ° 
 
 The stations found that a higher quaHty of potatoes 
 could be made by the following, in which high-grade 
 sulphate of potash is used instead of the muriate : 
 
 Pounds Per Cent. 
 High Grade Sulphate of Potash . .325 V 
 
 Nitrate of Soda 100 | | Nitrogen 4.0 
 
 Sulphate of Ammonia 100 ) Yielding j Potash 8.0 
 
 Dissolved Bone-black 7So| I Avail. Phos. Acid. . . 7.0 
 
 Cotton-seed Meal 725 / 
 
 Or for equally good quality of tubers the following : 
 
 Pounds Per Cent. 
 
 Cotton-seed Meal 800 \ , m,>,«^»« 
 
 gi.S;.»l;a°' ^°^:::. ::::;;: vi.idi„. fS": : : : . . . : ::d:i 
 
 Acid Phosphate 700 ) ' Avail. Phos. Acid.. .5.2 
 
 Which we consider an improvement. In all fertihzers for 
 the potato crop especially on the light soil that is best for 
 that crop the main needs are for phosphoric acid and 
 potash, when a clover sod has been plowed for the potato 
 crop. In that case the nitrogen may be omitted except a 
 little readily available nitrate of soda to give the crop an 
 early start. But in no case would we make the percentage 
 of potash lower than lo per cent, of the whole. Gardeners 
 will find this last formula well suited to all vegetable 
 crops. 
 
 But as we have more than once urged, with our grain 
 crops, if a good short rotation of crops is used and clover 
 or other legume comes in frequently on the land the only 
 artificial fertihzers we would use are phosphates and 
 potash. 
 
300 Practical Farming 
 
 SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ABOUT FERTILIZERS 
 
 The mixtures on the market known as commercial fer- 
 tilizers are of use in furnishing in a concentrated form the 
 three elements that are most generally deficient in old 
 cultivated soils, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. 
 These are furnished in combination with other matters, 
 since the pure elements cannot be used. 
 
 The notion that some have formed that the commercial 
 fertilizers are merely stimulants, has arisen from the in- 
 judicious way in which they have been used merely to get 
 a little more sale crop from the soil by adding a dribble of 
 the fertilizer, which is all taken up by the crop and the soil 
 further drawn upon so that the soil is left poorer than 
 before. Where Uberally used to increase the growth of 
 the renovating and nitrogen-storing crops of the legume 
 nature, these fertilizers can be used for the increase of the 
 fertility of the soil. 
 
 Lime and plaster, the sulphate of lime, are more in the 
 nature of stimulants, since they serve to unlock plant food 
 already in the soil so that plants can use them, and they 
 bring about changes in the mechanical texture of the soil, 
 and are active in the promotion of the nitrification of 
 organic matter in the soil, and thus enable the plants to 
 get the nitrogen in an available form. Their office in the 
 soil is as reagents rather than fertilizers. 
 
 An appHcation of fertilizers to every crop grown may 
 show an apparent profit, but an accurate account with the 
 crops will show that such a course is wasteful and ex- 
 pensive, and that the true use of the commercial fertiHzers 
 is to keep up the store of phosphoric acid and potash in 
 
Commercial Fertilizers for Various Crops 301 
 
 the soil so that the legumes will do the rest, and if these are 
 well supplied with these mineral fertilizers, there will be 
 little need for other fertilizing beyond what can be done 
 by the feeding of the legumes and the appHcation of the 
 manure thus made. 
 
 Farming continuously with one clean cultivated crop 
 year after year, no matter how liberally the fertilizers are 
 used, will result in the depreciation of the soil through the 
 using up of the humus and the washing of the bare land 
 in winter. This has been the result in the cotton lands 
 of the South, and will be the result of single continuous 
 cropping anywhere. 
 
 The soils of the cotton belt have lost fertility faster 
 through the washing of the bare land in winter than 
 through the summer cultivation. No land that has been 
 in a clean cultivated crop during the summer should be 
 left without a winter growing cover crop during the cold 
 season. This crop will take up the nitrates that form in 
 the soil and they can then be returned by turning under 
 the cover crop in spring. 
 
 FertiHzers will always be more efficient on soils abound- 
 ing in humus or organic decay than in those that are 
 destitute of this, mainly because of the moisture-retaining 
 nature of the humus which causes the solution of the 
 fertiHzers appKed. 
 
 The bulletin of the Ohio Station has the following 
 remarks: "At the prices at which mixed fertilizers are 
 sold in Ohio, the attempt to furnish all the nitrogen, as 
 well as all the phosphoric acid and potash required to 
 produce increase in cereal crops grown in continuous cul- 
 ture has invariably resulted in pecuniary loss, although 
 
302 Practical Farming 
 
 very large increase of crop has been produced. The rota- 
 tion of cereals with nitrogen-gathering crops, therefore, 
 has been shown to be absolutely essential to the profitable 
 use of commercial fertilizers in any form." 
 To which we earnestly say Amen. 
 
USEFUL TABLES FOR CONSTANT 
 REFERENCE 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 USEFUL TABLES FOR CONSTANT REFERENCE 
 
 WE have compiled the following tables from 
 various rehable sources, and beheve that they 
 will be found useful for reference. 
 The experiments made at the Pennsylvania Agricultural 
 Experiment Station show the total dry matter and plant 
 food in various forage crops : 
 
 304 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 305 
 
 B 
 
 <s — r^ r~^ mvo — c^ itn 
 
 <N t^ -^ -^ O^ cr>00 00 rr\ 
 
 o 
 
 mO OOOvO tTC^O^O 
 
 — ttoo m \o c~- "^ r^oo 
 
 r2 
 'G 
 < 
 
 
 
 00 rfN n t^\0 O — VO ITS 
 G^O rrN<N O^— \0 "^t~^ 
 
 S 
 
 mvo m r^ r^oo oo rr\ o 
 
 a^ tt r^oo m rfN. c^oo i^ 
 
 rr\— (N I^'^r^— O "^ 
 <s - - ~ - - - 
 
 .a I- 
 
 an 
 
 - \0 I^ ^00 \X) rr\ - r^ 
 
 00 fAir\MvO u-^L^^■^Lr^ 
 
 J2 
 < 
 
 O — 0"^NMOO"^ 
 
 P 
 
 t-^OO r^ rrsOO O^ O ^ - 
 rr\ — (S — rATf— OOO 
 O (S rrs t^ -rr rr\ O^vo cs 
 
 C^ -^vO N t^v£) ITS TfvO 
 
 2 
 13 
 
 o 
 
 (SMO^OOvDi^O 
 
 -00 xf - vo 'too ^ "^ 
 
 — — OOO C>— ^ir\ — 
 
 
 
 
 -a 
 
 u 
 
 'B 
 
 43 
 
 
 O 
 
 B 
 
 d 
 
 (^ :: 
 
 r-<i-r\r^C^rj rrsOOO 
 -^ i>. r^ Tfoo O r^^ 
 
 1) OJ 
 
 > > 
 
 • '^ o ^ 
 
 • O. (U ^ O) o o 
 
 cj irt -^ S:* >; 7j o 
 
 ^ .§ ^ g 'S 11 
 
 Cj_ l»^ 1/1 t/1 ^ ;> ro 
 
 OOOOOOOO 
 cr>t/lt/)t/5c/^(/^(/lt/) 
 OOOOOOOO 
 
 cccccccc 
 
 Ha3 
 t3 
 
306 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 a 
 
 (U 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 >-, 
 
 
 
 
 
 en 
 
 :3 
 
 o 
 
 en 
 
 o 
 
 13 
 
 i-t 
 
 
 13 
 
 -r) 
 
 d 
 
 3 
 
 o3 
 
 O 
 
 <u 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 X5 
 
 ri 
 
 4-5 
 
 M 
 
 13 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 t/j 
 
 
 (1) 
 
 (U 
 
 
 Ui 
 
 
 o 
 
 C 
 
 fc! 
 
 
 
 <-i-i 
 
 M 
 
 ^ 
 
 (U 
 
 
 
 
 ID 
 
 o 
 
 4-> 
 
 T3 
 
 ^ 
 
 ;3 
 o 
 
 2 
 
 CI 
 
 
 (U 
 
 C3 
 
 biD 
 
 % § . 
 
 o ^ 03 
 bC.S 3^ 
 
 ^ I 
 bC_3 
 
 Oj 
 
 N 
 
 (L> 
 
 
 a, 
 W 
 
 bO 
 U 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 Oh 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 Co 
 
 \0 O^u <^ — Orr\fr\rr\t^Tj- 
 l/^ iTN ^3 rj- l/^ r^ C^v© t> O "O 
 
 d ^ - - M 
 
 
 
 O fA - 
 
 O M 
 
 o^ -rr u^ N ITS d o c^oo r-^^ 
 
 VD « <S irxiTNrrNrri— rrs(T\C^ 
 
 4-> 
 
 CL, 
 
 
 4 ^ ^ '^ rA Tf rr*^ Tt '^ « 
 
 S o 
 o< 
 
 <N — NVOOO — C^rAC^ — 
 
 - t^ c^ r^ r-- c^oo tj- tj- (s n-\ 
 
 (s - - cs m n "O 
 
 CM 
 
 
 (^ S ?^ t->vo r-. 
 c^ rt c« « r^^ 
 
 Tf (S - M 
 
 HH - f^ 
 
 t. o 
 
 r^vO i^C^<N0O rrs — 00 <S — 
 
 C^v^ LrsfTiTTirsC^Ti-vcvO ri 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 . c 
 
 Hickory. . . 
 Rock elm. . 
 Red oak. . . 
 Butternut. 
 
 Wnlnnt 
 
 Cherry .... 
 
 Pear 
 
 Plum 
 
 Peach 
 
 Quince. . . . 
 Grape trimr 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 307 
 
 i:: ^g-^ ::::::::: °^^a> 
 
 ^ ^ 2 S ::::::::: H ^ ^-S 
 o 3 ^ p • 
 
 |m |s.2 ::::::::: g^2S 
 
 fro hSo ^^^o 
 
 4=! 
 
 rn 
 
 C3 
 
 o 
 
 
 rt 
 
 o 
 
 
 9 
 
 rft 
 
 13 
 
 - 
 
 1) 
 
 M 
 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 
 -t-> 
 
 
 
 (rf 
 
 tn 
 
 rn 
 
 ^ 
 -i-> 
 
 <4-l 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 U 
 
 en 
 
 0) 
 
 0) 
 
 «+-i 
 
 bO 
 
 
 1) 
 
 a 
 
 M-l 
 
 
 (L) 
 
 o 
 
 i-i2 fair! .. ^-.dc^oi 
 
 ^2i ^^§ ::::::::: i-|8 
 
 £i| ri^--^ :::::::::^'^d-§ 
 
 ,„-S *^.aw)PH ::^::-:-s- >::?^2a; 
 
 wu^^ :SaH-^a 
 
 §.1 ^^'B ^ I a § 
 
 a. CO -iJ Jj5 6 co ^ 
 
308 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 c 
 
 (U . . . . 
 
 O bo K "^ C5 
 
 OS 
 
 !^ O O 
 
 C - - 
 a> 4-; 
 
 jj 3 u o 
 
 rt 
 
 C -C 
 
 p I- 
 
 o 
 
 rt 
 
 <u ■ 
 
 +-• 
 <L> 
 
 p3 O) O) 
 
 j= "^ "^ 
 
 
 1) (U 
 
 'bcj 
 
 lU (U 
 
 
 -o c C 
 
 <U ZI^ C ^ ^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 d 
 
 
 — X2 
 
 o 
 
 r3 
 
 >^ on 
 
 = C 
 
 o 
 rt .2 
 
 :i — — 'C CI. 
 
 E .ti .t: 3 3 
 
 
 4)< 
 
 ^'^ 
 
 c3 
 
 OhS 
 
 fA rr\ ff\00 — irs^O v£) O -^ u-\\£i tT O 
 
 ddoooooo--oood 
 
 LTN C^ Lr\ (Ts O^vD O^OO (y- rfs rf\ O — 
 
 d d d d d d d d d d d d d d 
 
 66666666000666 
 
 ^ : 
 
 rr\ • 
 
 - VO 00 N • 
 
 ^ 
 
 "T • 
 
 "^ 
 
 M M <N (S rr\ • 
 
 1-^ 
 
 -O^-VOOO — -^OOi/NNQOO 
 v^ — -.r^^l^^f^^— C^<SOO — 0000 
 
 00 (N N rr\ (S ""l- rr\\0 ir\ rf ca O >- — 
 r^OO v^ 00 vi3 t^ I>M3 r^ t>^ 00 00 00 
 
 
 O - 
 
 o § i: T3 
 
 rt 
 
 O +J 
 
 bO 
 
 ,>. vj aj ^-i L- 
 
 o 
 
 > > 
 
 > o o 
 
 o <-> <-> 
 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 309 
 
 1-. o 
 
 O vO — <S rr\ t^ (TN LTsOO O i^n "> ^ Q 
 
 d o o d o - - o d d o d o d 
 
 ooooooooo-oooo 
 
 ■^t^(S ■^(S^iJ -n""^— irs-^(S t^m 
 
 odddoodo-doodd 
 
 ^O rA ■"^ ITS 
 C^ O^ O"- "^ 
 
 O — «- « 
 
 O O — C^Qv"- ir\ir\0 OvO trvrAO 
 <S \T\CC w (-<^T^L^^(^^— -^Tl-t^— ITS 
 
 00 t^ i>oo r-^ i>.oo 00 t^oo oo t^ i> t^ 
 
 D 
 
 <U 
 
 3 
 
 c 
 
 « Cu 
 
 „ 4J <U 4J -O — 
 
 ^ CL-o X2 oj aJ ^ 
 -i: ^ ^ _, </5 ti o 
 rt ^ V. rt V. • — ^ 
 
 < u CO CO n: i:^ >- 
 
 ^ O , ,. 
 
 4) <U 
 
 he bc 
 
 OS t^ 
 
 rt i" 
 
 E 
 o 
 
 u, i:^ a- cj cj < 
 
 •4-1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 )5-S 
 
 c> o o 
 
 O rt 
 
 00 -^ I^ 
 
 
 
 V. o 
 
 0^ 
 
 O — fA 
 
 • "0 
 
 
 
 
 h< 
 
 Tt" O^ ITS 
 
 tr\ (S iTN 
 
 S^S 
 
 O O O 
 
 (^f 
 
 
 Q^ 
 
 
 -y' c 
 
 
 
 \^ rrvfii 
 
 r^o -4- 
 
 ^^g 
 
 1-^ ^-1 fci^ 
 
 x; 
 
 
 
 
 <1 
 
 
 
 — Tf rrs 
 
 c 
 
 O^ t^ ir\ 
 
 o 
 
 ■^ mvo 
 
 Wi 
 
 
 (U 
 
 
 0. 
 
 
 tJ £ 
 
 ir\ N VO 
 
 )n6 
 
 00 - o 
 
 
 
 
 r^ o^vo 
 
 
 
 fi,S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -0 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■u 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ci4 
 
 
 
 
 
 "O 
 
 
 
 
 
 g 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ss 
 
 
 W 
 
 "? o 
 
 
 & 
 
 g c 
 
 
 P 
 
 
 
 
 T3 T3 0) 
 
 
 O o -^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c c « 
 
 
 >- >- o 
 
 
 O O 0) 
 
 
 c_ 
 
 )<w 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
310 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 
 O fA N — — — <S 
 
 i)<3 
 
 O^ O i^ t^ rrsvO rA — O O <S "^vO VO "> irsOO li^ « O t^ 
 
 dddoddoooddddd ooooddo 
 
 eL,:2: 
 
 "^ fA O^OO rA r^ m ir\ ir\ rf 
 LTsfS — — \^0<sr^OrA 
 
 r» « « M N 
 
 OOO -^r^O^rAMVOOO <S tTO 
 (X) — rAirstAC^Tj-— o O^fs r>. 
 
 c5 5 
 
 0) 3 
 
 t^ rj-^D C^ ii-\ r^ lAOO rAOO rAfA— I^rAt^rA'T 
 Q> O t~>. — 00 t~>> r^-OO O 00 "^ "^ O^OO ir\ la — — 
 
 rA O^ 
 
 p 
 
 4_l 
 
 o 
 
 <u 
 
 H 
 
 rs 
 
 £ 
 
 b 
 
 o 
 
 (1) 
 
 
 in 
 
 
 OJ 
 
 4_» 
 
 c 
 
 <u 
 
 n 
 
 — 
 
 O- 
 
 
 -C >. 
 
 W tiJ3J= 
 
 
 3 3 
 
 3= OS 
 f- (/) ir ra — 
 
 S rt p x; -^ 
 
 .3.><.><'^ E 1^ g S=^ 
 
 ^ ^ ^ 
 
 ^ a; 
 o £ 
 
 bCJ= 
 ^ l5 
 
 >^ 
 
 ' .;:; u. ^ 'i' eg '*' 4> 
 
 :ho^sh:scu 
 
 3 -^ 
 
 J2 »- 
 
 1) 
 
 <U > 
 
 c o 
 
 OS 
 
 >, 
 
 
 
 •^ O "-* O 
 
 O O C O 
 
 E <u S aJ 
 
 E • - E --^ 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 311 
 
 ir\ -^vo o (s 00 O 
 
 n — « M — ~ 
 
 •-OrfN— Tt(S0000>-0 
 
 a)< 
 
 ir\ LTs t^ •^ iTN^sO ''1" "^ r^OO "H"^ 
 
 o t^ r» o 00 o r^ 
 
 rr\ a — r^ N (N O 
 
 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 
 
 (1,2; 
 
 <S 00 rr\VO O M iLr\ir\OvO00 rr\ — — O^ C^\0 N O^ — t^ 
 o o^v£) Tf— fAr^o^r^o^w — rrio ir\r^ -^vd tj- tj- t^ 
 
 — — MMMN"->-c<«Orr\— — OOOOO — — 
 
 
 
 o o 
 
 rr\ u-N rr\ 
 
 — 00 u^^ 
 
 00 — N r-< 
 
 O Tf 
 
 rfN r^ r^ 
 
 00 ^ 
 
 00 o 
 
 \^ M LTN 
 
 roi r^ (r^ -rf 
 
 \o I^ 
 
 u o 
 
 N fAr^C^cl O O itnC^O iTsvO "^00 VD ir\ — O O O O 
 <N ■^— rrstrNfTNO O^ moo vo r^"^0 irsO\^ O O^rrsO 
 
 00 r^fS O — \,0 mO r^u^o^c^— rr\(S0O I>0^— •'^u-s 
 
 O 
 
 o {H 
 
 _4J > 
 
 O <ri 
 
 
 C 
 "o 
 
 ■« 3 O 
 
 on cA) -J 
 
 ?= c c .^2 t^ 
 
 2 -a 
 0) oj aj <u aj 
 
 -^ ^ ^-^ -5 > 
 
 •5,.S. ^ t; ^ 
 
 O O O <u o 
 CO (/) CJ CO (/) 
 
 ■I-' ^ ra 2 «^ 
 
 o i; -c i: ^ 
 
 J- i/l o </> u 
 
 >. 
 
 fll <1) CT3 TO 
 ~ — OJ CD 
 
 I/) 
 
 OS rt 
 
 •C '^ *- 
 
 
 OQcQcQ:$:^Q:iOcQcj:> 
 
 D 
 
 E 
 <-> .— 
 
 O 
 
312 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 (UOi 
 
 
 
 
 
 d d 
 
 "2 
 
 VO - 00 
 
 Xi 
 at 
 < 
 
 c 
 
 o 
 
 O N - 
 
 Lr\ (T\ -^ 
 t> u^00 
 
 
 O O O 
 
 u 
 
 (U 
 
 •o 
 >> 
 
 t 
 
 1- 
 C 
 
 t^ 
 
 t- 
 
 4, 
 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 0. 
 
 C 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 •> 
 
 1- UJ 
 
 c 
 
 > 
 
 > 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 1- o 
 
 
 "^ -"^ -^ r^ N irs (S 
 
 oooooooooooooo 
 
 o o t^ o o ITS r^ rfoo 00 r^vD r^ q- 
 <s-o--oo-o-oooo 
 
 doddooddddddoo 
 
 Tt•OO-"^-0000OON•<^«O 
 66666660666666 
 
 
 000000 C^VO o o vo - - o 
 
 TTu-xt^M o — — 00 LTvOO rr\\0 00 
 000 0^(Sir\O^OOt^Orr\rr\0^ 
 
 00 c^oo 00 00 00 00 00 c^ i>oo r^oo oo 
 
 ■ taci 
 
 P3 TT 
 
 <u 
 
 OVJ VJ 
 
 ^-00 
 
 aj <D <U 03 
 
 ^ _2 D D. 55 
 
 o 
 
 C ™ 
 O O O .iS O 
 
 J3 
 >. O J= 
 
 > 
 
 D. O 
 
 O 
 
 ■k-J t^ rt OS •- 
 
 ^ .0 
 
 UCQCOcjUUCJU^O-uoHHH 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 313 
 
 ,Mi 
 
 00 — \Q CO OD — "^0^0^ rrwO rfO r-^ — O — C^O vD t^ t^ r^ 
 ■^fS N •^■^LTNTJ-fN rA'^t^tS — rr>u~\— O O — mr) rr\fS 
 
 0--000000000-OOC-000000 
 
 iu<; 
 
 — OOO — OmO — — r) — OOrAOCXD — OO — OO 
 
 do — oooooooooooooooooooo 
 
 
 ri O - O 
 
 IN 
 
 I/-. 00 
 
 
 CO 00 
 
 ^\0 VO 
 
 r^ Tfoo - 
 
 O 
 
 rr\ o 
 
 Tj-vo 
 
 r(^, C^ u~s (N 
 
 (N 
 
 
 CI 
 
 — (Ts 
 
 r^ ■- rrs 
 
 Tj- — Lr\ — 
 
 — 
 
 - Tj- 
 
 <s — 
 
 O m ii~s O 
 
 o 
 
 o o 
 
 o 
 
 o o 
 
 O O O 
 
 O O n-s O 
 
 o 
 
 O O 
 
 O O 
 
 U O 
 
 oo 
 d 
 
 ^ o 
 t--oo 
 
 o o 
 
 fS o 
 
 o o 
 
 o - 
 
 o^ o 
 o - 
 
 Tf r^ rJ-oO 00 
 
 - - o - o 
 
 8 
 
 o m o 
 
 o - 
 
 T|- C 
 O^ o 
 
 T 
 
 d 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 § § 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 (N o c^oo o o 
 
 ITS „ cv\o O CO 
 
 
 o r^ 
 
 rr\\D 
 
 
 
 O u^OCO^ C^mO^O^O ''t" irsVi) Tf 00 t^ (S M rrs — D — i — , 
 
 00 - - 00 00 00 00 r^oo c^oo c> r^ c^oo oo - o^oc^c^t^o 
 
 
 o c c 
 
 i- <u aj 
 
 < CC CQ 
 
 •B-o 
 
 ■*-' !_. to W 
 
 .2- c^ >. 
 
 03 oj O P en OJ D 
 
 3 (/J rj 
 
 3 _c 
 
 3 "C 
 
 TD 3 C 
 
 o 
 
 D- O 
 
 
 Z3 a jz 
 
 ^ O 
 
314 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 
 ir\ C^ O^ l^>. G^ O i^ O 
 
 OOOOOOOO 
 
 OOONOOOOOO 
 
 <u<; 
 
 OOOOOOOO 
 
 ooococoooo 
 
 o o 
 
 
 Tf O^ rr\ u^ C^ irv TfOO 
 r->oo - ro - - - - 
 
 oooocooo 
 
 
 
 c^ 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 o o o c 
 
 
 00 <N — rrvOO u-\ rr\ O t^^ O rA 
 t^MOO — — T}-ir\ii>O^LrsLr\-^ 
 
 fSrfNO — OOOO 
 
 O-O-^OMOOJSOOO 
 
 
 VO — O covO — O^ O 
 rr\ t^ rr\00 — O^O — 
 
 (S O u~^ O u-\00 <N v£> 
 
 r^\£) 00 vo 00 00 00 00 
 
 (T\ O^ ir\ r->. 
 
 00 r^oo 00 
 
 o 
 
 OJ 
 
 < 
 
 < < 
 
 510 
 
 C 
 3 
 
 OS 
 
 ,^ 1> (A) V. u 
 
 aj 
 
 8 = 
 
 3 C 
 
 U ~ w — 
 
 OJ 1- 
 
 lU 
 
 < < 
 
 ^ ^ "c: X x ■;:: 'c « _o js as j; j:* 
 
 — --JZ^JZJZJZ^ u. u. 3 >- >- 
 
 caoouuuuuuucjuoo 
 
 O 
 
 S 4) 
 
 0-3 
 
 t/1 t/5 
 
 C C 
 
 JZOO 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 315 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 d 
 
 ooooooooooooo-o 
 
 g^ (Nu-\tsrr\Tfr^r^M r^oo — oo c^ i^ -"^ c^ 
 
 o^. I -OfSOOOOOO-^-^rrs-cqM 
 
 ooddoooodooooo-d 
 
 
 00 
 
 o 
 
 00 vo ii~v ii~\ 
 
 d o o o 
 
 00 T}- - vo CO o 
 
 — — u-v I^ O O 
 
 - - tt - d o 
 
 — O — OO — — OOOOrTi— rrNiTNii^— O 
 
 
 O itnvO « O O O cTvOO N "^ 
 OOO <N C^O I'^fA-rr iTnOO 00 
 
 00 [^00 rr\ rf vo 
 irsOO 1^00 00 VO 
 
 O \S 
 
 O rA ltnOO 
 rr\00 (S N 
 
 •^' 2 2 ^ ^ ]2 
 
 -Q -q OS 
 
 3 C 
 
 0) 
 
 S >= 3 fe 
 
 
 
 <U <L> 3 
 - </i 4; XI -§ ■§ = 
 
 (^ c^ cd ^ 3 
 
 o) u a> ^ V. 
 
 3 
 
 C 
 
 ■*-» 4-J ^ 
 
 <U c3 CTJ P3 
 
 (U 
 
 ~ 1^ fii tij in c^ .a 
 
 D-PlhDmD-iClCXcOcoOC-D-DuOQCL, 
 
316 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 
 
 -doooo--oooooo 
 
 ■1-^' 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 !n 
 
 < 
 
 r^ 
 
 (N 
 
 o 
 
 l: 
 
 ir\ 
 
 G^ 
 
 r^ 
 
 t^ 
 
 _ 
 
 (N 
 
 o 
 
 G^ 
 
 (N 00 
 
 o 
 
 moo 
 
 1^ 
 
 00 O 00 
 
 <S 00 00 
 
 1^00 00 
 
 — 
 
 
 o 
 
 r' 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Tj- o rr\ rrs r-^ O 
 
 — — (S — Li^rA— (S(S<s — — 
 
 ir\ 
 
 • rfN • 
 
 
 kr\ 
 
 • ir\ ■ 
 
 
 r< 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 O OOO OOOOO fr\<S O t^u^l/^0 O 
 O C^OO — si3\i:i m^ro — rrsr^ c^vo 
 
 trs Tf O -"^ <S rr\00 00 "^00 "^ Tf Tf (N 
 
 rt C <y 
 
 — c -^ 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 l-n go OJ cu 
 
 ^ tz *- a • — — • •— . *-' >- ti ^ -C ^ o 
 
 
 
 ^'Z. 
 
 2. £i '5^ 
 
 Tf Tl" ir\ 
 
 OOO 
 
 ^ <p 
 
 ir\\^ r^ 
 
 
 Cv O^ - 
 
 " m 
 
 
 
 (N 00 — 
 
 
 
 0,3 
 
 
 g-a o 
 
 C C 3 
 
 v- I- O 
 
 O O 1- 
 
 U CJ O 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 317 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 c-c 
 
 •^ ITN Tj- O^ 
 
 cj rt 
 
 fr>v£) lJ^ O 
 
 vPh 
 
 O O O O 
 
 .13 
 
 
 
 
 
 <o UN r-, cs 
 
 \£) 00 u-sOO 
 
 
 
 
 O O O O 
 
 ■s c 
 
 
 
 u-nOO - 00 
 
 o O 
 
 LTSVO M O 
 
 Ui 
 
 
 u -^ 
 
 — — <s m 
 
 Oh^ 
 
 
 J3 
 
 
 
 "SS 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 c 
 
 ^ 
 
 <s 00 
 
 <U 
 
 
 
 
 «s 
 
 — <s 
 
 
 
 
 <u 
 
 
 
 a. 
 
 
 
 c"2 
 
 CA O n^ u^ 
 
 "^ (N 00 00 
 
 
 
 h'° 
 
 rr\ Tj- OsQO 
 
 (ilS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 73 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CU 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 >> 
 
 
 
 
 
 CU 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u, 
 
 
 
 C3 . 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 ^ t- o _: 
 
 
 a c rt 
 
 
 c 
 a 
 
 2 
 o 
 
 o 
 > 
 
 
 E 
 
 Oh 
 
 
 v-i o 
 
 
 u 3 
 
 o 
 
 rf\ C^ O 00 
 
 ^ 
 
 _ 
 
 O 
 
 Tf 
 
 ■<i-oo 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 C^ ITS — (-r\ 
 
 
 o 
 
 ir\ 
 
 u^ 
 
 r^ 
 
 — 
 
 (N 
 
 rA 
 
 
 M 00 00 00 00 
 
 cr> 
 
 u^ 
 
 (S 
 
 fS 
 
 „ 
 
 a^ o 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 
 l^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ~ O O ^00 VO V£J ■ " 
 
 o o d d - 
 
 o O - o - o 
 
 d d 
 
 vDOO rrsC^frNCA — 00v£> C^u^0^r>. 
 O O^rrscs Tt-O rrv<s <S0O C^M^ 
 
 0000--0<S-«S00n 
 
 irsvo O VO ir\^ 00 rrsOO v£i v^ t^ C^ 
 O — t^csmrAOM — MMO — 
 
 (S 
 
 
 rrs 
 
 CX) 
 
 <s 
 
 O 
 
 (N 
 
 l/^ 
 
 O 
 
 rr 
 
 o 
 
 00 
 
 (N 
 
 I^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 c^ 
 
 vO 
 
 ir\ 
 
 N 
 
 (TN O O 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 O 
 
 N 
 
 m 
 
 Tf 
 
 (YNVO 
 
 M 
 
 N 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C4> 
 -a ^ 
 
 </> r3 c3 
 
 b£ !aO 
 
 -a 
 
 .t: c 
 
 c c 
 
 53^ 
 
 
 
 u3:ooScQcQcdQi^^5 5 
 
318 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 
 (S:^ 
 
 U o 
 
 00 O rr\ rr\ irs — 
 
 O ----- O 
 
 fS O - - - O 
 
 SO O ir\ ir\ t~» O 
 
 
 v£) M VO iTN rr\ O 
 
 - 1^00 r^ o o 
 00 - 00 r>. -^ UN 
 
 i^ o 00 r^ o o 
 - - 00 
 
 
 c3 OS OJ rt 
 
 E E 11 ^ 
 
 T3 -O 
 
 ■(-> -(-I V5 
 
 _ o 
 
 ^6 
 
 rt 
 
 D. 
 
 U 
 
 J J a- < 
 
 
 00 a^ 
 
 rAV£) 00 
 
 S-2 
 
 o o 
 
 O O O 
 
 o o 
 
 ■ •a 
 P. 
 
 Cv o 
 
 "N r^ M- 
 
 2-vg 
 
 o o 
 
 o o o 
 
 o o 
 
 (5:2 
 
 u o 
 
 rr\vr> O 00 "N cs rr\ 
 i/N ir> T}- -^ — — o^ 
 
 O O O O O O rr\ 
 
 "N O O O O UN O 
 
 r^oo UN r^vo — — 
 
 O O O O O O «S 
 
 ir\ ir\ O r^ O UN 
 CS O UN C^ — M 
 
 00 O^ r^ C^ C^ t^ riN 
 
 1-1 
 
 E 
 
 E f 
 
 CJ CQ ::> 03 CJ 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 319 
 
 g-S tTOO m -"a- O^ -^ C^ C^ ■<^00 u^ I-^OO Tf — — (s ir\00 O M rr\ 
 o<« -(sOrf\------cs-----00000 
 
 doodddodd-ddododdododo 
 
 
 o-o-ooqoo'^-o-oooooooo- 
 0666006666666606666666 
 
 Of^^OC^Orf^O^^OC^c^OvOOOOOO — 000 
 
 
 OQQOOOOOOOOOOOO 
 000000000000000 
 
 000000 
 000000 
 
 0000000000000000000000 
 
 T3 y 
 
 n q <^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^' ^ 
 
 O v; 
 
 -^ ^ rt o 
 
 - - Xi ^ 
 0) (U 
 
 
 -a 
 15 o 
 
 "o o 
 
 -a 
 o 
 
 O t3 
 
 ^ 2 
 
 i^jnjrOo----t5J2JS tij rt ri rj <n <n 
 
 <uuQQXd::s:s:^oooooo 
 
 C- O- CU D- 
 
 c ^ 
 
 D- CD 
 
320 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 
 a;s 
 
 o o - o - o 
 
 
 CJ3 
 01 CL, 
 
 .•T3 
 
 ^£ 
 
 a V 
 (u bo 
 
 O O 
 •-I ti 
 
 O « 00 o o o 
 
 vS 
 
 rj- ir\ tT 
 
 — rr\ rr\ M (S O 
 
 
 O — N — M O 
 
 O rr\v£) mvo O 
 
 t/) 
 
 to 
 
 </i J2 
 
 t/i 
 
 uo 00 
 
 00^^^—- IT - O 
 
 t/i 
 
 § ^ S o SJ.S 
 
 K c/D -J Oa CO J 
 
 c 
 
 3 
 O 
 
 
 S'c3< 
 
 
 
 
 o o o o 
 
 o o o o o o o 
 
 tr\ o^ « O ►- kr\ t^ 
 
 (D 
 
 >_ r3 op 
 
 C O 
 
 .5 
 'c 
 
 o ^ 
 
 E "bb ^ .^ 
 
 E'^ ° -^ 
 '^ - - T? 
 
 M- T3 T3 
 O O O 
 
 5 6 2 
 
 2 ^h 
 
 go <u S S »- 
 3 a; rt ^ ^ "" 
 
 -n -o -o 
 
 +-1 1/2 
 
 O f 
 
 Z on Q Q u oa Q 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 321 
 
 ■*-> 
 u o 
 
 cr\ — 
 O O 
 
 rt«3; 
 
 
 O O 
 
 ooooooooooo 
 
 vD rf^ rr\v£) vo N I^ O <S its — 
 
 o o 
 
 C^wfi 
 
 00 mir\Ti-MVO M I^O rr\ 
 
 oooooooooo 
 
 
 o 
 
 o o o o 
 
 O O 
 
 ^ 
 
 N 
 
 rf\ 
 
 o 
 
 ■!-> 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 ir\ 
 
 l/V 
 
 
 « 
 
 _ 
 
 M 
 
 D-P. 
 
 "C lU (J 
 
 2 -^ -M 
 
 ■^ <^ <n 
 o O- B- 
 O o 
 
 U 
 
 ■3:2 
 
 c/i c/) 
 
 4J D 
 
 o 2 £ 
 
 a. D- a; js: 
 
 -^ ^1 ^ 
 
 — V) a. ^ 
 
 J2 i2 ^ o 
 
 gu U. Un CQ 
 
 x: 
 o 
 
 CL 
 >_ 
 <u 
 D, 
 
 3 
 
 — a 
 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 n 
 
 'U 
 
 ID 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 c 
 
 2 
 
 (1> 
 
 oa 
 
 C3 
 
 en 
 
 5^ ui 
 Oh *:; Q 
 
 rt 
 
 O hDW) o- 
 
 S; </^ 5 1) 4-> ■»-> ^ 
 
 "5 e^-2 ■!■§.:£ "^ 
 
 «^ « 
 
 <U (- "I 
 
322 
 
 Practical Farming 
 
 
 
 
 O Q^^ u^ O ir\ O O tr\VD m rA 1 
 
 S5 
 
 — ■<ri^rr\ir\N(NO — fS — rr 
 
 <s 00 d o o d - o d - d ri d d 
 
 u 
 
 o o 
 
 
 — ITS 
 
 s 
 
 t^ 
 
 • ir\ t^ 
 
 ■ O-'O^ rr\ O -rf rr\ 
 
 4J '3 
 
 ITN — 
 
 ■ 00 - 
 
 
 — iTS O 
 
 ■ d d 
 
 ■_ " 6 - o 6 6 6 
 
 O O 
 
 
 
 a, -^ 
 
 — ITS 
 
 
 
 ^-ojJS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 g|^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o*C 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 0, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • ojrs 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■*-»>--< o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s-s<j 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ors . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ Id n 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 0) > O 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^<£ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 O^OO 0■^"^000"^lr^OC^ 
 
 ■M C 
 
 C 4> 
 
 
 O O 
 
 
 (Ts OO — O — — OfAO — OO 
 
 fc.^ 
 
 
 O 
 
 0.2: 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 JZ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cyi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 0) • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 aJ . 
 
 
 
 
 ^ : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■23 
 
 -6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 ■io 
 
 <u 
 
 uo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ : 
 
 ?! C a> il — aj aj 
 
 
 
 . flj 
 
 -o -c -c S: 
 
 .X (/^ c/5 ^ 
 — (U 4J ^ 
 
 
 <U («q4JV-.<4-i O u t- 
 
 
 o >- 2: c 
 
 
 "~EcE .<«'*-3(U • 
 
 lA >*-<+- CT5 
 
 
 r30fc<u3rt-a3j_,^ -T33T3? 
 
 
 
 ■T3 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 
 (2^ 
 
 
 c 
 X 
 
 in 
 
 o 
 
 X 
 
 1- 
 
 o 
 
 X 
 
 r3 
 
 E 
 
 3 
 
 3: 
 
 r3 
 
 E 
 
 3 
 
 c 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 aj 
 
 JZ 
 
 o. 
 
 <U 
 JZ 
 C/5 
 
 0) 
 
 c 
 
 CO 
 
 c 
 
 CQ 
 
 
Useful Tables for Constant Reference 323 
 
 en 
 
 o 
 
 
 ■4-> 
 
 
 <4-l 
 
 D 
 
 o 
 
 k5 
 
 fl 
 
 <: 
 ^ 
 
 -(-' 
 
 
 <u 
 
 [x< 
 
 =3 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 OJ 
 
 J3 
 
 B 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 
 >H 
 
 
 M-l 
 
 Q 
 
 W 
 
 :z; 
 
 W) 
 
 < 
 
 c 
 
 c_l 
 
 o 
 
 t) 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 S 
 
 
 < 
 
 (U 
 
 
 J3 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 O 00 a^ rj - 
 rrs — <s O « 
 
 ■4J 
 
 '5 
 
 uT 
 
 •a 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 0_ 
 
 is 
 
 1 
 
 q -"too N fs 
 k6 -^ 6 6 6^ 
 
 «9- 
 
 >> 
 
 G] 
 
 Q 
 
 n V) tn V) tn 
 
 ■fcJ ■*-> •<-> •!-> -M 
 
 c c c c c 
 
 ^ ^ c^ ^ ^ 
 O <J o o o 
 
 « cs t^ O vo 
 
 I>.V£) VO 00 t^ 
 
 Q 
 u 
 
 V 
 
 & 
 
 34.1 pounds 
 67.8 pounds 
 83.6 pounds 
 74.1 pounds 
 48.8 pounds 
 
 < 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 Sheep 
 
 Calves 
 
 Pigs 
 
 Cows ': 
 
 Horses 
 
OEC 2 3^0/ 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 DDOESflbElSti