Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1908 — INTELLIGENT FARMING. [ARTICLE]

INTELLIGENT FARMING.

Different Treatment Is Needed for DIF ferent Soils. ■ One of the first thing* the farmer must learn is that soils differ greatly as to the kinds and quantities of the plant fopds they contain. This seem* to be one of the hardest things to impress upon the farmer. Over and over again the mistake is made of buying a fertilizer because it has given good results when applied to certain farms. In fact many of the fertilizer sellers put out literature that has for its base the testimonials • of growers showing how many potatoes were grown, or how much of other things were grown, as a result of 'the use of the fertilizer Soils differ so radically that it 1* impossible to make a fertilizer mixture that will be suited to the production of a certain crop in all places. The Supposition that such is possible is a delusion and a snare. Every farmer should try to read the reports of the investigations of soils, that he may be able to form a true conception of the needs of his soil. To show how enormously soils differ we have but to journey to different parts of the state of Illinois or to any state where a soil survey has been made and experiments undertaken. Go down into the Kankakee marshes that have been drained and brought into cultivation. They have soil so rich in nitrogen that it is a loss of time to put on nitrogenous fertilizers, and S4O of blood per acre gave no results. But a little potassium made the soil bring forth ten fold. Just the opposite may be found in another county where the land lacks nitrogen and has enough potassium. There the application of potassium had no effect while a little blood accomplished wonders. Many soils have both potassium and nitrogen, but lack phosphorus. This has to be supplied before they will give returns of any consequence. As long as men buy fertilizers because they do well in some places, so long will they throw away a large part of their money. Soils differ in different counties, and they differ sometimes on the same farm, says v Farmers’ Review. Frequently' one part of a farm is of one geological formation and another part of another geological formation. One may have been created a million years before the other was created. One may be product of the grindings of the glaciers, while another may be the result of the slow action of water depositing its silt little by little. One part of a man’s farm may be rich in nitrogen, while another is starving for it A man must know his land and what is in it