Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1911 — SOIL FERTILITY. [ARTICLE]

SOIL FERTILITY.

Principles by Means of Which It Is Restored or Maintained. Soil fertility can be restored and maintained in any agricultural region by. the persistent practice of simple systems of farming. The growing of leguminous crops, the turning under of green manures to make humus and the systematic rotation of crops are absolutely essential. In most attempts to rebuild soils the use of the element phosphorus is equally.important With the exception of swamp or peaty types, all soils are adequately provided with potassium. Nitrogen can be secured through clover, alfalfa, cowpeas, soy beans, vetch and the like. No farmer should buy commercial nitrogen for ordinary field use. Truck farmers and gardeners require it in this form for quick action* in small areas, but farmers can obtain an abundance of the element practically without cost by growing legumes. In order to make these restorative crops attain proper growth most soils east and many tyres west of the Mississippi river must be limed. Failures with the Clovers are due almost altogether to an excess of acid in the soil. Ground limestone applied at the rate of from LOOO to IO.OOfI pounds per acre neutralizes the acid and increases the supply of available calcium, thus rendering the soil more hospitable to legumes, Inoculation to insure the presence of bacteria also is sometimes necessary, Legumes that do not form tubercles on their roots do not fix nitrogen Each legume has its own special bacteria. Soil taken from a spot in which sweet clover is established can be used in inoculating for alfalfa, these legumes having a common organism to serve them in deriving nitrogen from the air. About WO pounds of soil per acre is sufficient. * It should be obtained from a successful field or plot of the particular legume which it is desired to grow.—Breeder’s Gazette.

Homemade Land Roller. A friend of mine writes that he has lived sixty years, but has just found out how to make a land roller that actually does the business, says a correspondent of the lowa Homestead. He gets a section of round galvanized iron culvert material. jHe prefers to have it at least two feet in diameter and corrugated; The section* is as long as you wish to make the roller. It is turned on end. and an iron axle or rod of axle size is placed exactly in thecenter. The inside is then ready to be filled - with cement mortar. Let It cure for two weeks before using, wetting occasionally during that time. A frame is bolted to the axle, of course.

Potato Fertilizer Formula. One that is used by man." large potato growers in the vicinity of New York <*lty is made up as follows: Nitrate of soda, 127 pounds; high grade dried blood. 440 pounds; acid phospha pounds. The greatest profit resulted when these fertilizers were mixed and applied at the rate bf 1.000 pounds per acre in some tests at the New York experiment station.

Cooking Feed Does Not Pay. To learn the value of cooking feed for live stock extensive trials were made at the North Dakota experiment station in feeding hogs and cattle raw feed apd cooked feed. It was found that more pounds of grain were made from a given amount of feed when fed raw Potatoes were an exception, as they gave the best returns when cooked.

Dairy Doings. / It takes two-thirds of all the good cor eats to keep her alive and without less of flesh and the other third of ordinary good rations to enable her to give milk. The expense of tw>-thirds of the money earning rations has to be incurred when the cow is earning nothing. 1 1 Timothy hay is better than nothing as a feed for dairy cows, but it is worth more to sell on the market. A good supply of alfalfa will cut down the bran bills. If the cow’s teats are made sore from exposure to cold or wet weather an application of carbolized vaseline after each milking wilj remedy the trouble if used when it first appears The best hay feeds for dairy cows are clover, alfalfa, cowpeas and soy beans. They contain a large percentage of protein, which is a great milk producing element. The “world's champion milk cow produced nearly nine tons of milk last year, and advocates of dairying in preference to beef production call at tention to the fact that this cow is prepared to repeat such performances for many years, while the beef animal must go to the block to produce cash for its owner. . / v

The secret of daily success in Holland is easily understood and may be stated in a few words—efficient cows, excellent co-operation and superior quality of butter and cheese.

Busmens methods n buying and selling receive too little attectioi among farmers. The way and man net of using the income from the farm is quite as impor a t as a large yield and a good profit.

Let every farmer give h s farm Ire degree of LL D. —lime, legumes and dra ns. Rural New Yorker. - ~ •;