Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1908 — LAND POISONING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LAND POISONING.

Something Needed to Destroy Toxio Secretion of Roots. No one knows so well as the practical farmer how rapidly a naturally fertile soil may be exhausted by Cultivation. In this country the tobacco lands of Virginia afford an example of this rapid decline In fertility. The abandoned New England farms, too, help to illustrate the effects produced by the constant cultivation of the same fields. Lund that once yielded crops as if by magic now requires an artificial preparation before it will reward the farmer for his strenuous labor In the field. Sir Oliver Lodge, the eminent English scientist, is reported to ljare expressed his belief in the theory of the poisoning of the cultivated lands of the world. The advocates of this theory believe that the systematic rotation of crops Is needless. They believe that It Is Impossible to exhaust the ground by a crop, as the food supplies In the soil are too great to admit of such a result. Other causes, therefore, must underlie the failure of a crop in Wliat was once fertile soli, and, according to the believers In the theory, this failure is due to root poisoning. According to the poisoning theory, a crop does not do so well when it Immediately succeeds another of the same aort because it excretes an active poison which is destructive of its own germs. Artificial manures are recommended not so much as a food for the plant as a remedy against these root poisons. Very thorough. investigations have, however, recently been carried ont at Rothamsted. perhaps the most efficient scientific farm In the world, which tend to show that adherents of the poisoning theory have not yet succeeded in fully proving their case. If this theory be true manures In the true sense will no longer be necessary, but something to destroy the poisons excreted by the plants will serve a more useful purpose. As the root poi son Is admitted to exist in small quantities only, the treatment of land by any new process looking to this end should be much cheaper than under the present system of fertilization. A Serviceable Cement Bilo. The accompanying illustration shows a picture of a cement silo 18 by 40 feet, eight feet in the ground, which brings the bottom on a level with the

cow barn floor. This is probably the best and handsomest silo in Missouri. Re-enforcement was put in, iu the form of barb wire in the mortar joilit between each course. Blocks were 8 by 8 by 24 inches and made on face down machine, which made it possible to use 1 to 1 mixture for the face one-half inch thick. Belt courses arc made by mixing red mineral paint in this facing mixture. A silo thirty feet high and twelve feet lu diameter will hold about eighty tons of silage and wyi feed twentyone head of cattle 180 days, and it will take about eight acres of average corn to fill It. If the diametpr increases to sixteen feet it will hold 120 tons to feed thirty-two cattle and hold twelve acres of corn. A silo thirty feet high and twenty feet In diameter will hold 185 tons, feed fifty head of cattle and require eighteen acres of average corn to fill it. A silo thirty-six feet high and twenty feet in diameter will hold 235 tons, feed sixty-four head of cat-! tie 180 days and will require about 1 twenty-four acres of average corn. It Is better not to build more than twenty feet In diameter, and it Is better not to build less than thirty feet in height. You need the height to get the pressure to condense the silage into as small a space as possible. Twenty feet in diameter is handler to fill and handier to empty than a larger silo. Saving Corn. The annual slump in bogs has come earlier than usual this, year because corn matured early and the hogs are being finished up with as little of it as possible. The light average weight of the hogs marketed Indicates this, and so does their quality, which is inferior. Everywhere there seems to be a disposition to save corn. This is all right as far as It relates to the economical use of it, but there may be false economy in corn as in everything else. The man who rushes bis pigs to market to save corn Is in all probability practicing false economy. He Is likely to find that he could have marketed both pigs and corn In one car later on to better advantage. This early slump may Induce those who have not marketed their hogs to keep them back, make them good and In the end do better with them than if they shipped now. Unless something checks this false economy of corn that grain Is going to come to market In too liberal quantities for the good of prices.

A CEMENT BLOCK SILO