THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER
Tuesday, November 17,
FERTILIZERS AITD CROP PRO-
DUCTIOIT.
acid solvents, has found the soil to
be well supplied with all theplant
food needed, but the crop failed to
Another Discussion of the Recent Agri- I make these available when only the
cultural Department Bulletin We natural solvents of the atmosphere
- Give Too Much Attention to Fertil- were available. A careful considera-
izing and Too Little to Tillage. tion of all the work done in the past
TTio PrnrrrPssJvA "Farmer has al- in advising and aiding farmers in the
readv nublished lensrthy extracts work of crop production ana practi
from the recently issued Farmers' cal application of these, has led to
Bulletin, "The Chemistry of the Soil the conclusion that other factors
as Eelated to Crop Production," and were at wor determining tne crop
w havfi also published the comments productive capacity oi iana xnan
of Dr. Henry Wallace; but the sub- hitherto deemed conciusive, and with
- j j j jt a. a
iect is so much importance and the a view xo enaeavor xo nnu oux wuui,
. - i .
bulletin so effectively rebukes the these were, a great series of expen-
f fertilizer craze from which the South ments has been conducted by the
has suffered so much that we are Bureau of Soils of the Department
glad to reprint herewith the views of of Agriculture, under the direction
mil- Virfnrfia contemnorarv. the of xrois. vvnitney and Cameron.
v v. q sr
Southern Planter. The following
editorial appears in its November
number :
T?rvT -mrt-rck TOHTQ TlQTI WP ORT TP f! fill
. i bulletin we regard as one of the most
agricultural writers, scientific au- i , AJ?x
thorities and practical farmers have
"The result of these, so far as they
have proceeded, has beengiven to the
world in a bulletin just issued by the
Department of Agriculture. This
valuable ever published. After giv
ing the results of the chemical exam
ination of the natural moisture con
tent, the true plant feeding constitu
ent of all crops, of hundreds of sam
ples of soil taken from typical soils
in various parts of this country and
abroad, the authors of the bulletin
say that the analyses show 'that there
are no wide variations in the amounts
of plant food material going into so
lution where these various soils, so
different in their other characterise
tics, are acted on by a definite pro
portion of water for a short but
definite length of time: in other
words, all types of soils furnish
about the same amount of plant food
when treated with the same propor
tion of water, othp.r conditions as
first began to realize that their lands temperature, etc., being also
m tne old country needed neip, xney .
been engaged in discussion of the
problems affecting crop production
and the discussion still proceeds even
more vigorously than ever before.
With the spread of scientific educa
tion and the realization that if farm
ing is to be made profitable it must
be conducted on scientific principles,
thousands who were formerly con
tent to follow in the footsteps of
4 111 CIA lailltlO IA.UVA AV UUOUlUlViJ
sary to give heed to the teachings of
the expert scientists as to how and
with what to feed their crops and
' iliri Vio?i lo-nrJa HPVi n A I flRnl txr
they experience in- doing this is to
- know what teaching to follow.
'In the early days when farmers
were advised by Jethro Tull that 'cul
" tivation was the fertilizer they need
ea. Jtiany accepted me advice ana
profited by it. Then investigation
by scientific chemists having demon
strated that the food plants needed
was nitrogen, phospofic acid and pot
ash in an available form, Peruvian
" 'The conclusion seems inevitable
that all our principal soil types, in
fact, all cultivable soils, contain
naturally a nutrient solution which
varies within comparatively narrow
limits with regard either to composi
tion or concentration, and which is
usuallv sufficient for nlant errowth.
guano to supply the nitrogen, the Apparently, therefore, all these soils
German potash salts to supply the i sunnlied with the neces
. potash, and superphosphate to supply ao TY1:T,0,0i sAa nA
plant foods are not in themselves a
the reach of farmers, and were found mflti nf anr, TMITI1Tnft11T1t imnor
i . i
to give good results. tflT1ft tn fha flfrT:mii for their
'Experience, in the use of these J supply as regards the plant is deter-
fertilizers ha3, however, demonstrat- mined by the supply of soil moisture
ed the truth that to secure continued which the crop can obtain from the
good results their use must, when J soil
once applied, be continued, and even " 'The chemical analysis of a soil
then their action is very uncertain, can not in itself, therefore, throw
One year they give excellent returns, much light upon the problem of fer
whilst in another year, and on the tility, but .when attempting to con-
same crop, no results can be seen, trol the factors governing crop yield,
On one piece of land- they will tell atention must be directed to the me-
immediately, whilst upon another chanical condition of the soil as af
their action will be inappreciable, fecting the supply of soil moisture
These results led to the conclusion with its dissolved mineral nutrients,
that what was needed was a chemical' to the effects of climate, to rotation,
o-naWeia ri-f Vi P soil in nrrlo-r o r1ofoi. I 1
uuui uu w-- vw "V ti I CtVJ.
mine what were the plant food con
stituents lacking therein in order
that these might be supplied.
"Experience, however, with this
laboratory analysis of soils, has not and temperature the authors of the
given such results as to warrant con- Bulletin . say that 'the effect of cli-
fidence in its use. Too often the mate is very marked, that cultivation
chemist, by means of his powerful changes the climatic conditions of
"In discussing the effect of
climate on the yield of the crop
climate in this conection being un
derstood as 'to its effect on the soil
ence,
the soil: that is, it changes the rela
tion of the soil to moisture, and
probably also to temperature. , It al
so changes the character of the at
mosphere coming in contact with the
root system. We know that stable
manure and lime, for example, have
a marked influence upon the texture,
of the soil, and therefore indirectly
upon the climatic conditions It
seems possible that other fertilizer
materials .may produce effects of a
similiar character. If fertilizers
have any influence upon the texture
of the soil or upon the movement of
soil moisture, they will not only in
fluence thex supply of water which
will be delivered to the plant,Jbut al
so the supply of nutrient materials
normally contained in this water.
"'The important practical infer-
if this is so, is that fertilizers
have, to a certain extent, the same
effect as cultivation and cropping,
but it is undoubtedly better to de
pend upon efficient methods of culti
vation and cropping than to rely up
on fertilizers, while at the same time
neglecting to give proper attention
to the physical condition of the soil.
The effect due to cultivation is also
more permanent than the effect due
to fertilizers.
" 'Furthermore.the influence of fer
tilizers on the yield of crops is not
proportional to the-amount of ferti
lizer added, as it frequently happens
that a small application is quite as
efficient as a larger application.
Discussing the effects of commercial
fertilizers on the yield of crops, the
authors remark that where the an
nual application of the fertilizer has
been discontinued, the effect is at
once apparent in the smaller yield
of crops. In other words, on a soil
which has a natural capacity for 13
or 15 bushels of wheat, as the Ro
thampstead soils in England seem to
have where wheat is grown continu
ously and fertilizers have not been
used for fifty years, the application
of certain fertilizers has increased
the -'yield to thirty bushels to the
acre, but to maintain that' yield a
constant annual application of ferti
lizer has to be given and subse
quent applications merely maintain,
but do not increase the yield. It is
recognized that in' our own soils,
when under intensive cultivation, as
in the truck and tobacco areas, large
applications- of manure and fertili
zers are often used amounting to
from two to five car-loads of manure
and 2,000 or 3,000 pounds per acre of
the f ertilizersy the maximum effect
of these is quickly obtained, and
these yields can only be maintained
by continued large applications.
" 'The results obtained in the ex
periment by the Bureau of Soils go
to show that these large annual ap
plications of stable manure or of
high-grade fertilizers do not appar
ently change permanently the chemi
cal composition of the soil as deter
mined by chemical analysis of the
water extracts, that is to say, im
mediately after the application the
influence of the fertilizer can be seen
in the soluble salt content of the soil,
but not only is this comparatively
slight, but fields that have been an
nually treated in this way for a num-
Der oi years do not show on the av
erage appreciably more water
ble plant food than adjoining
upon which no such applications
nave ever oeen made The Bulletin
discusses the influence of the texture
of the soil of rotation, and variety of
the plant, on the yield of crons
also the action and use of commerci
al fertilizers and their infhiencp nn
the fertility of the soil. These sub
jects, we will take up in a subsequent
article, together with the conclusion
to be drawn from the experiments.
The point we will now emphasup
is, that the position we have taken
up and enforced in our writing for
years, that this physical and me
chanical condition of a soil is 0f
more influence and importance in the
yield of the crop than the applica
tion of ny fertilizer, is more than
sustained by the evidence accumu
lated in the Bulletin."
Value of Spraying.
W. P. Corza, an assistant pomolo
gist of the Department of Agricul
ture, devotes most of his attention to
apples. Speaking of his personal ex
perieence and observation in spray
ing this fruit, in a conversation with
the Washington correspondent of
The Progressive Farmer, Mr. Corza
said:
"I bought a farm some thirty years
ago in Sussex County, Delaware. It
had an orchard of 250 trees. I found
that they were all Northern apples,
quite out of place in their semi
Southern home. Thereupon I top
grafted them, but I then found that
the fruit, although it set well, was
every year infested with insects. The
first year that the new grafts bore, I
got not a single perfect apple. They
commenced dropping when the size
of a walnut, stung and disfigured
by the larvae of the cooling nibth.
We tried picking up the drops two
or three times a week and boiling
them to kill theworms, then feeding
them to the pigs. But this did not
do. The entire country swarmed with
the pests my own orchard and those
of all my neighbors. Not much was
then known about spraying, but I
fixed up a kerosene barrel, with a
spraying pump and hose, at a cost
of about $5. With this I sprayed
my apple trees thoroughly with pans
green, and also loaned the pump to
all my neighbors, as I wanted them
too to get rid of the moths. I did
not know anything then about com
bining naris preen and bordeaux
I mixture, and thus killing the insects
and fungus spores at the same spray
ing. We had trouble with the brown
cedar rust, but overcame this largely
by cutting down all the cedars around
and working up a sentiment amon?
the neighbors against them. Tms
cedar rust works over from t&e
xedars to the apple leaves, wintering
on the cedar f oilage.
"If every farmer who has even
few trees would spray them he wou:
realize enough profit from it to mor
than pay for his outfit the first year
but if he has any number ol w
he is wasting money by fJ
this most important item oi w
culture."