Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1908 — Loss of Fertility by Leaching. [ARTICLE]

Loss of Fertility by Leaching.

Land kept constantly as a garden loses much of its fertility by leaching A clover rotation Is the best preventive of this. There should be at least two or three garden spots on each farm kept rich enough so that one year’e extra manuring will bring it into the finest possible condition for garden truck. If farmers could always plant gardens on two-year clover sod they would raise better crops and with less stable manure and other fertilizers than they now require. The clover does much more than furnish green manure to ferment in the soil. Its roots reach down infto the subsoil, thus not only saving and bringing to the surface plant food that would otherwise be wasted, but also by enlivening the subsoil, allowing the roots of crops to go deeper. Clover sod to begin with, if well enriched, is best for such crops as cucumbers and melons, that are always most liable to suffer from drought It is quite impossible to make a good garden crop, unless the land has previously been enriched by * series of heavy mannrings. The fertility lost by leaching must be con stoutly renewed.