Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1879 — Fall Fallowing. [ARTICLE]

Fall Fallowing.

The practice of summer fallowing has justly fallen into disrepute, excepts ing when special reasons call for snch a costly and wasteful practice. To have land idle for one year that a double crop may be grown the second year results in no advantage, and, when the constant labor that is necessaiy to make a summer fallow effective is considered, there is a positive loss instead of any advantage. If the second year’s crop is not equal to as much as the two years' crops would have been, the loss is a serious one. Therefore, summer fallowing is rightly considered too costly for profit. But in our American agriculture this practice of summer working of the bare land, which was introduced from England, has really no place and never had. We have so many crops that require cultivation that the ground may be cleared of weeds with ease, and without cost, by growing either of them. Our corn crop is the great fallow crop, and it is a question rendered pertinent by recent discoveries if the growth of a 00rn crop does not actually make a less draft upon the fertility of the soil than the effect of two or three plowings and as many harrowings of which an effective bare summer fallow oonsists. It is now absolutely well known that a process of oxidation and nitrification is continually going on in the soil, through which organic matter containing nitrogen is decomposed and its nitrogen converted into nitric acid or ammonia. In the presence of lime this process is all the more rapid, as the lime is more caustic and fresh, and usually the nitric acid thus formed unites with potash liberated by. the effects of the lime upon the mineral portion of tbe soiL Tne nitric acid or nitrates formed by its combinations disappear almost as soon as formed, the one by washing and evaporation, and the other by solution and filtration. These facts are now well established and beyond question, and are sufficient of themselves to furnish a good reason why bare summer fallowing should never again be practiced; but at the same time they give a remarkable support to our common practice of fallowing by cultivated crops, of which oorn is the most convenient and the best suited to the circumstances of the case. For the constant production of nitric acid or ammonia in the soil, assists the growth of the crop and is taken up as fast as it is formed. It might be pertinently mentioned here that these facts

go to prove the wisdom of the practice, popular in some well-farmed districts, of applying lime to the plowed cloversod in preparation for the corn. The decomposition of the clover stems, leaves and roots is hastened by the lime, and an abundance of plant-food is furnished by the nitrification which goes on. It is interesting to find an instance of the propriety and scientific tenth of an old-established custom thus proved and justified by later discoveries, brought to light in the chemist’s laboratory and in the agricultural experiment stations. It is an example of well-founded principle that known successful practical operations in the field, although founded only upon observation, are really as tiraly scientific as though they had originated from the chemist’s investigations and the experiments of a professor. Correct practice, founded upon sufficient basis, is true science. But whil the old-fashioned summer fallow is thus out of date, and lies like an old wreck half-buried in the sand upon the verge of the great ocean of our experience, we may take the still sound timbers out of the old useless hulk, and of them construct a new and stout craft. For the useful principles which stUl remain of the ola practice apply with vital force to the new practice of fall fallowing. In this there can be no loss, because no crop can be grown, and nearly all the advantages can be secured that are derived from the exposure of the soil to tbe atmosphere through plowing and harrowing, and the consequent destruction of weeds. Thousands of stubble fields now lie oovered with pernicious weeds which are rapidly ripening seed, and the surface of those fields is’beaten and baked to a crust by the trampling of the harvesters and the late summer showers. If these fields were at once turned over by the plow, the weeds bnried under the soil, and the surface stirred by the harrow or cultivator once a week, myriads of perennial weeds would be destroyed, the vegetable matter wOuld become decomposed, or partly so, before the winter, and left in the best condition for supplying a crop with food in the spring. One or two plowings might be given, but this would depend upon the quantity of weeds and trash that was plowed under. If this was abundant it would be unwise to disturb them until the spring, when the mass would be fully decomposed. The surface could be worked with a disk < or wheel harrow, which would be far more effective than the common harrow, as its . effect is to stir the soil to a depth of five or six inches, and to throw it np into small ridges. A tough clay sou, however, would be greatly benefited by as mauy plowings as could be given, and a thorough chopping up with the diskharrow. In this way, or in other methods, which will readily suggest themselves to the practical man, the benefits of the now impossible summer fallow can be made available without any of its obvious disadvantages.— N. Y. Times.