Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1894 — "MILK CHURCH” COLUMN. [ARTICLE]

"MILK CHURCH” COLUMN.

DeToted to the Dairying interests of Jasper County. Extract from an addres delivered at the recent farmers meeting in Clinton Co., Ind., by $L H. Belknap. How to increase the fertility of the soil is not a new question. Since the days when the Egyptian Swain first wandered with his dusky maiden along the banks of the historic Nile singing orisons to the Gods for the annual gift of the waters, the fertilizing effects of which was to render the Nile land, that mysterious cradle Of. human culture, the granary from which the tribes of other lands drew their supplies of corn in times of want. Down to the day of Jethro Tulls’ dogmatic declaration that “Tillage is manure” fertility has been a vital question to the agriculturalist. It has modified, directed and controlled to a greater or less extent the processes of agriculture, all along the ages of human history.

There are but three mineral elements with which as farmers we need concern ourselves, Phosphoric acid, Potash and Nitrogen, Now the question recurs, how not only to prevent the loss of these mineral compounds* but to increase the available supply. This question is much easier asked than answered. We can do something at least that will be a long step in the right direction. We must increase our supply of barnyard manure by every means possible. The first thing on many farms will be the improvement of the stable floors.

The old, wasteful plank floors with their gaping cracks, must give place to floors of cement, or if this is not practical, plank floors laid double will be a vast improvement. Having the floors properly constructed, then with a liberal use of rock phosphate or land plaster in the stalls to fix the volatile gases, and plenty of good bedding, the quantity as well as the quality of the manure will be greatly improved. As to the handling of the various crops of the farm, the kind of stock to be kept must depend on the taste and circumstances of the farmer.

Whether should grow more straw than can be used as an absorbant in and around his stables is a question upon which we might differ, but certain it is the ffariner who has old straw piles dotting his fields or woods pasture is not living up to his opportunities. Whether the corn crop should be cut up and the stocks Carted to the barn yard, thence back to the field or let them stand until they are ripe some frosty morning, and then swipe them down with a long pole thus getting Ilia maximum of benefit-with the nniiimuiu of labor is a point each farmer must settle for himself, as the question of labor is a very important factor in- all farm operations. Of course it is not necessary to urge the imperative necessity of an intelligent system of' rotation of crops. Upon this more than upon any one thing depends all soil improvement. Neither do farmers need to be told of the importance of the clover crop in the rotation; like all the legumes, clover has the trick of fixing the free nitrogen of the atmosphere and stor-. ing it in the most available form for the use of future crops. If you take care to have a good clover crop the other crops will take carq of themselves. The rotation should be in the interest of this crop. But with the clover as with the corn-stalks and straw, every farmer will have to decide for himself whether he will cat the crop and cure it for hay and haul it to the barn and back to the field or utilize it where it grew; carting to and fro certainly adds no manural value to the clover. But (here is another factor that enters largely into this question of increasing the fertility of the soil. It is worse than useless to apply manure to wet soil. The first step towards increased fertility is thorough rainage; this with thorough tillage and liberal manureing will bring a profit out of the most unpromising farm in the county. You will see by examining the reports of Mr. Laws, of Roihenstead, England, that the application of fertilizing matter containing 87 lbs nitrogen per acre produced 37 bu. of wheat per acre. Now an acre of any of our strong soil at a foot in depth contains 15,000 to 20,000 lbs of nitrogen; as long as the soil is saturated with stagnant water it is so conservative it yields but a small per cent, of its fertility, but give it thorough drainage and thus bring to our aid the most powerful of all chemical agents, the solar rays, and by cultivation let in the air the oxygen of the atmosphere decomposes the organic matter of the soil, producing ammonia aud nitric acid ’or in other words we get available nitrogen. \Y et clay lands are never exhausted by fanning, for the man who lacks tiie enterprise to drain them lacks the energy to wear out any soil by pingThe first step toward increased feriiiity is tir- 1 ibmough drainage; second, thuuujb ullage; third, manure.

Who ever reverses this order loses his time, his labor and his money. The golden rule of agriculture is to return as much or more to the soil in matural elements as is removed by each crop grown. This may, be done by £ rowing &tock~a»4feeding all the products of the farm at home, carefully sowing and returning the manure to the soil, supplementing the inevitable loss in manural elements by the purchase and feeding such by products as bran, oil cake, cotton seed meal, or malt sprouts, or by using ground bone or such other commercial fertilizers as contain Phosphoric acid, potash and nitrogen. We all recognize the fundamental principles, we cannot get something for nothing. We all ought to recognize the vast importance of this question of fertility.