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Unicwu. Septemben 1907.

 
PRACTICAL

FARMING

A Treatise on Present
Farming Conditions and

H ow to Improve Them

BY

SAMUEL W. ALLERTON

RAND, MCNALLY & COMPANY

1907

 
Copyright. 1907, by Samuel W. Allerton

 
“He 10/20 s/zowet/z lzz's nag/lbw
lzow to éettar existing condi-
12'0723 is a [éulzlz'c benefactor."

 
 
Preface

Coming from Nebraska recently, my son
said to me, “Father, you should write a
book on farming, for you have given me
lessons in farming, and I raise double the
amount of oats and corn the farmers do in
Illinois, and my land is no better than my
neighbors’. If you can write a book and
show the farmers how they can improve
their systems of farming, you will be a
great public benefactor. While traveling
in the Old World, particularly in India and
China, I saw the table lands worn out and
abandoned. Will this not happen in our
country unless the farmers change their
systems of farming and study how to
improve their land? If you could show the
farmers how to improve their land in a
practical way instead of making it poorer,
wouldn’t it be the best work of your life?”

Influenced by this suggestion, I submit
my ideas. Having lived on a farm for
twelve yearsA—from the time I was fourteen
years old to the twenty—sixth year of my
life—having plowed, mowed, cradled, and
done every kind of work connected with a

 
 

farm, and having owned and operated
farms practically all my life, I feel that this
experience gives me some knowledge of
farming, and enables me to present some
practical ideas to those who may be inter—
ested in my conclusions. I notice that the
rich farmers are the men who have systems
and keep their land in a high state of culti—
vation. The farmer with no system and
land worn out is the poor farmer.

I feel that it is the duty of every man
who has had any experience in cultivating
soil to give publicity to his efforts and
progress along this line, and thus add to the
success of the American farmer.

It is a well—established fact that Illinois,
as a corn State, is the richest natural body
of corn land in the United States. Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,Wisconsin, Nebraska,
and Missouri constitute the corn belt.
All are great states and naturally very rich,
productive land. We see, however, that
the great State of Illinois averages only
about thirty—three bushels to the acre in a
good corn year. What does this indicate?
That the land has not been properly culti—
vated and kept in a, suitable condition to
raise large crops of corn.
Every farmer knows that his land is
steadily being reduced in fertility, and is
wondering What can be done to restore it.
I met some farmers last year who lived east
of Bernent, on the Wabash road, Who said
they raised only thirty bushels of corn and
oats to the acre. They raise corn one year
and oats the next year; this they call rota—
tion of crops, but they return nothing to
the soil, and wonder Why they can’t raise
as big crops as they used to. This is very
rich land——no better in the State of Illinois
——and should raise sixty bushels of oats per
acre and eighty bushels of corn per acre,
if they would rotate their crops, keep part
of it in grass; keep some live stock*cattle,
sheep, or hogs—and use some phosphate.

SAMUEL W. ALLERTON.
Chicago, September, 1907. \

 
.

 
 

  

. GRADUALLY KILLING THE LAND

Every man familiar with raising corn
knows that eighty bushels per acre can be
raised as easily as thirty bushels per acre,
if the land is properly treated. With all
the big crops we raise—corn, oats, wheat,
rye, barley, and flaX*under our present
system of general farming (there are excep—
. tions), we are reducing the production 2
per cent yearly. Professor Hopkins of the
University of Illinois claims that the great
rich State of Illinois will be a desert within
one hundred years unless we change our
system of farming. How does he prove it?
He has a plot of ground which he has
planted to corn for the last twenty—eight
years. In a few years it will be exhausted,
and will raise neither corn nor clover. He
estimates that it will take forty—eight years
to exhaust the soil of phosphorus. He has
two other plots, and raises corn on one and
oats on the other every other year. This
is the system that most of our farmers

9

 

  
  

 

IO Practical Farming

follow—plow their oat stubble in the fall,
plant corn the next year, and sow their
oats on the corn stubble.

These two strips are as fine land as there
is in Illinois, and yet raise only thirty
bushels of corn per acre and thirty bushels
of oats, and lose about 2 to 3 per cent every
year in producing a crop, and, obviously, in
thirty years will be exhausted. He has
other plots where he plants clover one year,
corn the next year and oats the third year,
and in this way raises sixty bushels per
acre; he has still other plots where he
plants clover, corn, and oats in rotation,
with fertilizer, and raises ninety bushels per
acre. These facts have been demonstrated
by the State Agricultural Society at Cham—
paign. These being facts, has not the time
come when the farmers of the great North—
west should do a little thinking and study
how to improve their land?

In the State of Maine, where the soil is of
a very poor quality, they raise a greater
quantity per acre than we do in the great
State of Illinois. These facts must cer-
tainly convince every intelligent farmer

 
 

 

F dye—F ield System I I

 

that we must return something to the soil,
and that we cannot constantly reduce it
without serious consequences. Probably
70 per cent of the corn land in Illinois has
been cultivated for the last thirty years in
this way—oats one year, corn the next year,
with really nothing returned to the soil.
FIVE-FIELD SYSTEM

Take the average farmer who has 160
acres of land. He may raise about seventy
acres of corn and seventy acres of oats.
His gross sales will not be much over $1,200.
He should divide his 160 acres into five
fields of thirty acres each, allowing ten
acres for a house, barn, and garden; keep
100 good ewes; have sixty acres in corn,
sixty acres in grass, thirty acres in rye or
oats; keep twenty good brood sows, raise
lOO pigs, and arrange to have the pigs come
in the last of February or the first of March.
In this way his land would be kept in a rich
state and he would be sure to raise seventy-
five bushels of corn per acre (unless he had
an excessively dry July and August), and
he would probably raise about thirty
bushels of rye to the acre.

 
 

 

12 Practical Farming

 

It would be better to sow rye, because
he would be sure to get a better set of clover
than after oats. If he raised 100 good mar—
ket lambs, they would be worth $500; his
wool should bring $150; he should raise 100
hogs to weigh 200 pounds, worth $1,200;
his rye crop would be worth $400 at least,
and he should raise about 4, 500 bushels of
corn, half of which he would feed to his
hogs and horses, leaving about 2,000 bushels
to sell, which would yield $800 more. This
would make his gross sales amount to $3,0 50,
and his land would be growing richer every
year instead of poorer, as it is now. His corn
fodder, properly cared for, would be much
better feed for his stock than hay. He
would have sixty acres in grass, and he
could divide off ten acres, with a temporary
fence, for a meadow.

CROP ROTATION

Hon. Secretary Wilson says we can keep
our land up by the ordinary rotation of
crops, but Professor Hopkins says not. I
have always been of the same opinion as
Secretary Wilson, that we can keep our land

 
 

F ertilize'rs 1 3

 

up by the rotation of crops under the five-
field system, but I have watched this rota—
tion of crops and am now convinced Pro-
fessor Hopkins is right. I find the straw
gets weak and lodges easily; after a few
years the corn is not plump, the ears are not
sound and firm as when we use phosphate
or potash, but with the five-field system
and phosphate, we would restore our land
to its natural fertility and keep it in a state
of high cultivation.

FERTILIZERS

Professor Hopkins advises buying T ennes—
see phosphate rock for fertilizer. Some of
our farmers have used it, but can’t really
see any benefit from its use, but that is
because they don’t use it properly. It
should be sown on the green clover or green
weeds and plowed under or mixed with
manure and plowed under. This affords
acids enough to liberate the phosphate
from the rock. Therefore, any farmer
dividing his farm into five fields, two in
pasture, one in rye, and two in corn,

 
 

 

I4 Practical Farming

 

utilizing all his manure with a moderate
amount of phosphate or Tennessee rock,
would improve his land every year, and, in
a few years, raise more corn on sixty acres of
landthan he now raises on 100 acres, and
raise a very much larger crop of rye, oats,
or wheat. I consider this system well
adapted to Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana,
Wisconsin, and Missouri. Traveling through
the old world, China or Japan, you find
that when they market their products
they always take something back to fer—
tilize their soil. Necessity has taught them
this, and should we not begin to think of
our situation with this fact before us—that
Illinois raises only thirty bushels of oats and
thirty bushels of corn per acre. This is a fact
that we cannot ignore. I know that farm—
ers sometimes get into a rut, and it is hard
work for them to change, but the only
thing to do is to recognize these mistakes
and correct them. Don’t try to plant so
many acres, but raise more corn on fewer
acres.
 

Testing Commercial F ertilz'gem 15

 

TESTING COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS

It is very, Simple to make a test to know
positively the value of the different kinds
of commercial fertilizers, by taking a strip
of land through your field and treating it
with fertilizer. Of course, you could take
several strips and try the value of all
commercial fertilizers. Naturally, there is
a great variety of soil in the different states,
and generally the farmer knows what is the
best crop to raise on his land, but take the
great states I have named, and corn and
oats are the best products. Nature’s law
has arranged things so that we can keep our
land in a state of high cultivation by the
proper rotation of crops and applying phos-
phate. I have one farm on which corn was
raised on clover sod and yielded 82 bushels
per acre. The next year this same land
was again planted to corn and yielded only
56 bushels to the acre. A farmer adjoining
me, with as fine land as there is in the State
of Illinois, has corn that will yield only 25
bushels to the acre. He is one of the farm-
ers with the system of oats one year, corn

 

 

 
 

 

16 Practical Farming

 

the next year, and never returning any—
thing to the soil.

Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agri—
culture, says that corn cobs are of no use
to any man. He is generally right, but
I disagree with him in this. The cobs and
the stalks have as much phosphate as the
corn. Stalks and cobs should never be
burned. As good a piece of corn as I ever
saw was raised on land covered with cobs.
In the old states they husband their manure
with great care. We, in the West, burn our
straw and stalks, and put little value on
the manure, which is a mistake. It should
all be saved and spread on the land and
plowed under.

TENNESSEE PHOSPHATE ROCK

Professor Hopkins has great faith in
Tennessee phosphate rock as a cheap fer-
tilizer. I have not yet had experience
enough to state its true value. I see the
Agricultural College of Ohio claims that
when it is properly mixed with manure it is
worth $50 per ton, as it will increase a crop
of corn that much.

 
 

Proving the Value 07E Fertilizers 17

PROVING' THE VALUE OF FERTILIZERS

Take one or two barrels and saw them in
two; get some sand; wash it and fill each
half barrel withthis sand. If mixed with
the proper fertilizers you can grow big corn.
This test should certainly satisfy any
farmer of the value of commercial fer—
tilizers, for the corn could not grow in this
sand without fertilizers, and should con—
vince the farmer of the importance of buy—
ing the proper fertilizers for his soil.

CHICAGO’S MISTAKE

There is no doubt in my mind but what
Chicago will realize in fifty years one great
mistake it made. We should have dug a
tunnel under the city for sewerage and
saved the fertilizer. We would then have
had drainage for the city, and fertilizer to
sell to enrich farm lands.

JAMES J. HILL
James Hill has given the American people
warning of over~confidence in believing that
our land will always produce great crops
without greater intelligence in farming.
Hill is a thinking and an observing man.

< “7321 I; i""

is
l
i

 

 
 

 

18 Practical Farming

 

He sees the rich valley of the Red River
gradually being reduced in fertility; that
they now have to summer fallow their land,
and that it takes two years to raise a crop.
In the early history of California they sowed
Wheat, and it would shell out and they
would have a volunteer crop, but now the
land has to be summer fallowed, and it
takes two years to raise a crop. Hill sees
the necessity of arousing the farmer to
realize that he is gradually wearing out his
land. It is only a question of time when
the farmer will be asking himself, “Why
can’t I raise such crops as I used to?”
Prof. Hopkins tells me he receives thou—
sands of letters from farmers making this
inquiry. His answer is, “A better system
of farming by rotating crops and applying
phosphate to the soil,” phosphate being the
most important element in raising a good
crop of corn, potatoes, oats, barley, and
clover. England, France, and Germany
buy 2,500,000 tons of phosphate yearly.
Surely they realize its value or they would
not continually increase their demand.
Shall we remain dormant and allow them to
 

W ilful Waste Afakes I/Voeful Want 19

 

take from us that which our lands are
hungering for? This is a serious question
for our farmers to consider.

WILFUL WASTE MAKES WOEFUL WANT

There is no city in the history of the
world that has grown, in a short time, so
vast in population, wealth, and importance
as the city of Chicago; but no city has trib—
utary to it so many acres of productive
land. Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota,
Nebraska, and Missouri abounded in fertile
soil. All the farmer had to do was to
break these rich rolling prairies and he had
a garden of the richest soil in the world.
Crops grew in great abundance. We' can
feed the world from these lands, and yet,
in shipping millions of bushels of grain, we
are gradually taking from the soil millions
of tons of phosphate and other elements
that made our soil so productive. No
nation has so vastly reduced its soil. The
inventor and the enterprising manufacturer
have made machinery to cultivate these
rich prairies with great economy. In fifty
years more, however, with this continual

 
 

 

20 Practical ‘Farmz'ng

 

debasing of your soil, without any thought
of restoring it to its natural fertility, what
will be the condition of the great Mis-
sissippi Valley that should be the empire
of the nation?

Unless we study how to improve our
lands, we will be hunting for bread to feed
our own people. No question is of so great
importance to the American people. How
shall be restore our land and maintain its
fertility? We know it has been reduced 30
per cent and is gradually growing less pro-
ductive, but with the aid of scientific men
practical farmers can restore it. How shall
we arouse the farmer to realize the impor—
tant position he holds, for the successful
farmer is the basis of all our great indus—
tries. VVe have fine agricultural colleges,
and yet 90 per cent of our farmers cultivate
their land as they have for the last forty
years. We read about the poor Russians
starving because their land is worn out.
We think this will never happen to us, but
if we go through the southern part of the
State of Illinois, where they used to grow
fine crops of wheat on the rolling prairies,

 
 

Important Questions 2 I

 

the land abandoned to—day and selling at
$18 to $20 per acre, we will realize our posr-
tion. Take Central Illinois, the richest land
in the world, and it will not raise half a crop.
We read about Illinois raising on an average
only half a crop of oats, and yet the farmers
who cultivate their land properly have fine
crops. We ship yearly 2, 500,000 tons of
phosphate rock to the old country when
we need it at home. How can we arouse
the farmer to buy these fertilizers and keep
them at home?

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

We have many great questions to solve
in this country. The tariff question, for
instance, which is simple within itself. If
too high, gradually reduce it a percentage
each year and let the manufacturer adjust
himself to a lower tariff.

We have men who wish to run for
President; clamoring for government owner—
ship of railroads, which means a centralized
government that will be more arbitrary
than the Russian government.

 
 

 

22 Practical Farming

 

The immigration question is of great
importance; great numbers of foreigners
coming to our land who don’t understand
the meaning of Libertyflindividual rights
with reciprocal duties. This question should
call for the best thoughts of our people.

THE GREATEST PROBLEM OF ALL
Great as all these questions are, however,
there is no question of so great importance
to the American people as how to restore
our land to its natural fertility and keep it
in a state of high cultivation.

KEEP THE LAND UP

To be prosperous and successful, the
farmer must study how to keep his land in
a state of high cultivation, for if kept in
this condition, he will raise a fairly good crop
in a bad year. If his land is run down, of
course he will raise a poor crop, and when
his land gets poor, he will grow poor.

LACK OF TILING AND CROP ROTATION

Coming from Omaha, and riding through
Eastern Iowa and Northern Illinois, I saw
a beautiful country, but I know the corn
will not average thirty bushels per acre.

 
 

 

Reclaiming Land 2 3

 

Eastern Iowa and Northern Illinois need
tiling, but I did not see a drainage tile fac—
tory anywhere in that district. No man
could wish for a more beautiful country and
richer soil. If tiled and farmed by rotation,
all this land should raise 7 5 bushels of corn
per acre. I saw no farm that seemed to be
laid out with any regard to system of lots.
The whole thing seems to be run on a hap-
hazard, go—as—you—like—it plan. On any of
these good loo-acre farms 30 cows could be
kept by being soiled, as easy as I 5 cows if
pastured, as cattle running in pasture fields
tread out more or less grass and stomp the
ground, which is bad for it.
RECLAIMING LAND

The Government is spending large
amounts of money for irrigation. If the
State of Iowa would pass a drainage law,
the same as Illinois has, issue 4 per cent
bonds whichvthey could sell, and loan the
money to the farmers to drain the Missouri
bottom by making proper canals and outlets
for the rivers, they would make more good
acres of land than the Government will by
spending millions of dollars for irrigation.

 
 

 

24 Practical Farming

 

With proper outlets for the water, the
farmers in the Missouri bottom would soon
pay back to the State all they had borrowed
to carry out this system, for then they
would possess some of the finest lands in the
world. Necessarily, the farmers must begin
to think, and send men to the legislature in
their interest and in the State’s best interest.
Wouldn’t it be better to let the farmers have
their own drainage districts and do the
work themselves, as they would probably
do the same work at one—half the cost the
State would do it for?

THE FARMER IS KING

People generally think that farming is a
laborious occupation, but by the ingenuity
of our machinery manufacturers, the bur—
den of farming has been reduced so that
very little laborious work is done on a farm.
In fact, it is the most independent life a man
can lead; and, with rural free delivery,
and by taking a good newspaper, the farmer
can know what is going on in the world.
Life on a farm gives children a good con-
stitution, and, with our free schools, their
opportunities are better than those of thc

 
The Famzer is King 25

boy raised in the city. So far as living is
concerned, the farmer is 100 per cent better
off than half the people living in cities. I
took a friend of mine down on a farm once,
and he remarked that he supposed he would
not get much to eat. I said, as he was
raised in Vermont he would probably get
along with a rind of pork, and bread
and milk. He replied he could get
along if he got plenty of good bread and
milk.. We drove up to a farm house and I
told the lady we would like some dinner.
She said it would be ready in two hours.
After my friend ate his dinner he com—
menced writing, and I asked him what it
was about. He said he was making note
of the fact that although he had eaten at
Delmonico’s and Kinsley’s, and a good
many other places, this was the finest
dinner he had ever eaten. There were
thirty—seven different dishes on the table,
and all raised on the farm, except the coffee,
sugar, salt, and spices. A good garden
every farmer ought to have. If he would
have a long garden, so he could cultivate it
with a horse, and plant his vegetables in

 
  

 

26 Practical l7arming

 

rows, he Would always have the finest
vegetables in the world, while those in the
city are, in a measure, stale.

CANTALOUPES

Cantaloupes are a delicious fruit. Plant
them in this way: Dig a small hole and put
in some horse manure; mix in some cow
manure, and put some dirt over it. Take
a half—inch board and make an open frame
six feet long and three feet wide; take some
cheese cloth and put it on the top to keep
the bugs off. After the plants get well
started, take the frames off, and if you have
some fine animal fertilizer, sprinkle it over
the Vines. This will help them and also
keep off the bugs. The Emerald Gem and
Rockyford are good; Hackensack and Osage
are better. They grow to weigh 12 to 15
pounds and are fine. T 0 get them started
early, cut a rich sod one foot square and
put it in a small box and plant your seeds.
If you have a cold frame put it in this; if
not, set your box in the garret. They will
start to grow and when the weather gets
warm set them out and this will give you

 

 
 

Dairy C ows 2 7

 

early cantaloupes. I think any man will
work better who has a cantaloupe for
breakfast. All men appreciate good food
and will respond when they realize their
employers mean to treat them well. Every
one likes to be considered. It costs a
farmer but little to have a good garden,
and it will pay him ten-fold in many ways.

DAIRY COWS

There is no doubt but what a farmer with
160 to 240 acres of land in Northern Illinois
ought to keep cows, as that is the best
stock, if he is within a reasonable distance
of the market for his milk; for with the
system I have laid out, he would keep his
land in a state of high cultivation with the
cows. I am informed that cows kept in a
barn and soiled in summer will give more
milk than those running in pasture. The
farmer should have some phosphate on
hand to mix with his manure, as it is neces—
sary to have some kind of acid to liberate
the phosphate from the Tennessee Rock.

 

 
 

 

28 .Practical gFar¢ning

 

STEERS

A farmer with 160 acres of land, living a
good distance from the market, could keep
forty steers if he soiled them in the summer.
A farmer keeping steers would need a barn
forty—two feet wide and sixty feet long,
with racks on each side of the barn to feed
lns cut corn, Chaver haga or oat strawv,anfl1
a water trough on each side and a yard on
the outside. This would give the steers a
chance to walk in the sun, which is of great
importance in fattening them. With a
12—foot loft over his cattle shed, he could
use this space to store his corn fodder in.

In the summer let him mow his green
clover and soil his cattle. On his corn
fodder cut up, a little clover hay, and five
ears of corn each day, his cattle would grow
all winter. During the months of May and
June feed them a peck of corn each day;
then he would have a lot of fat cattle, and
not feed over forty bushels of corn to a
steer. If his farm is rich Illinois land, he
would probably raise eighty acres of corn,
forty acres of clover, and forty acres of rye,

 
Steers 2 9

and, with the manure and a little commercial
fertilizer, would keep his land up in good
shape.

80 acres of corn at 75 bushels

 

 

per acre would be. . . . . . . 6,000 bu.
To feed cattle, horses and hogs
wouldtake............... 3,600bu.
Leaving to sell ........ 2,400 bu.
2,400 bu. corn at $.40 per
bushelwouldbe........,.... $ 960
40 steers should bring a profit of 1,600
100 hogs should bring ........ 1,200
30 acres of clover seed should.
produce ....... . . 270
30 acres of rve should produce . . 360
$4,390
Expenses:
Two men ................ $720
General expenses. . . . . . . . . . 200
Grocery bill .............. 200
Interest on money invested
in cattle ................. 96 $1,216

 

Leaving a net profit of $3,174

 

 
 

30 Practical Farming
As a general rule, I think a small farmer
better keep a good flock of ewes or cows
than to handle steers; but if he has a fancy
for steers and knows how to buy and care
for them, he can make money with them.

DRY FARMING

To raise a crop of corn the land should be
well cultivated before planting; it can’t
be made too fine and in too good a condition
before planting. If the ground is properly
prepared, a crop of corn can be raised much
easier, and if kept mellow, a crop of corn
can be raised without much rain. If the
land is well pulverized before planting, and
the corn planted in a furrow 2% inches deep,
it can be harrowed after it has been planted
four or five days. This starts the weeds,
and it can be harrowed the second time.
This kills the weeds and keeps the land
mellow, which should be plowed not less
than four times. I think we all plant our
corn too thick when planted in hills. Corn
will not grow under a tree in a field; it must
have the sun. If planted 4% feet apart in

 
 

Dry Farming 3 I

 

rows, in drills, one spear every nine inches,
the sun reaches the blossoms of the corn.
In this way we get 12,848 spears on an acre,
while if planted in hills we get only 10,602
spears. A spear of corn growing alongside
of another is an enemy to it when planted
in hills. You seldom get over three ears,
generally two, to each hill, but when the
spears are grown separately, you will have
an ear on every stalk and better ears. The
farmer will say it is more work to cultivate
the corn in drills than when planted in hills,
but plant less acres and keep more in grass
and raise more corn on half the land. If
the corn is planted in a furrow 2% inches
deep and the harrow used at least twice
after plowing, a crop can be raised as easily
as if planted in hills.

You have probably read about dry
farming in Colorado and Western Kansas.
The farmers plow their land as deep as
possible, and keep the top of the soil mellow
so as to retain the moisture, and in this way
they raise a crop with very little rain.

 
 

 

32 Practical Farming

$100-ACRE LAND

It is a common remark: “I can’t afford
to keep live stock on $100—acre land,” but
this is a great mistake. The farmer who
keeps his land in corn will wear out the
soil in a few years so he can raise only half
a crop, and the land will grow poorer every
year. I worked one of my farms on the
four—field system. I had 2,000 acres of corn
which only shelled out 62 bushels per acre.
One piece had been in grass for three years,
and that shelled out ninety bushels per acre;
so I am about convinced that I will have to
adopt a new system!have five fields
instead of four. Illinois as a State in a few
years would raise more corn if it only raised
half the acres, and kept part of the land in
grass. This I have no doubt of.

BEAUTIFY THE FARM

I have always felt that if the Illinois
farmers would take down their fences, set
fruit trees on the outside lines of their
farms, have only as many fruit trees as
they can care for and spray properly, have
a barn to care for their cattle, the same as

 
Trees 3 3

 

they do in Germany, and soil them, in the
spring, Illinois would be a picture beyond
description, and the barns would not cost
as much as the fences.

TREES

Every man should set out trees every
year. There is always some spot, not avail—
able for crops, on which trees can be grown.
A catalpa tree will grow a trunk suitable to
make a fine post in eight years, a railroad
tie in fifteen years. Such timber will be of
great value to future generations. The
hard maple is one of the prettiest trees
grown in our country, but a slow grower.
Trees that are early to bud in the spring,
such as peach trees, should be mulched after
the ground has frozen in the fall so as to
hold the frost in the ground until spring
weather is settled; then take the mulch off
and good peaches can be raised in most any
climate. Trees beautify the country and
we all love to see them. Let everybody,
then, plant them.

 
 

 

34 Practical Farming

THE GOOD FARMER

Sam Jones, the great evangelist, used to
say he could always tell a good farmer.
If he saw him leaning on the south side of
the barn in March waiting for the sun to get
strong, he was sure that man would never
raise a crop. A farmer should always be
ahead of his work. He must get out early
in the spring to get his crops in; his oats
should be sown as soon as possible; then
he can plow his corn, for the more he plows
his corn, if done intelligently, the more corn
he will raise. But if he is behind in his
work, the corn will be neglected. It is very
important to keep the ground mellow if the
weather is dry, for then it will stand a
drought. ,If left hard, the sun cracks it,
and it will not hold the moisture; but if
kept mellow and in fine condition, it will
stand a drought better, and a crop of corn
can be raised if well tended and kept in
proper shape. Don’t plow too deep the
last time for fear of cutting off the roots.
Every farmer should try to plow his land
very deep every four years, so as to make a
deep soil. In traveling through Italy,

 
 

Tiled Land 35

 

where they have very small farms and not
much of anything to fertilize their land,
I observed that they spade the land two
feet deep, and thus make a deep soil.

TILED LAND

A hill of corn growing on top of tile will
always be the biggest hill. Central Illinois
is fairly well tiled, but still could be
improved With more. When I was a boy
an Englishman bought a farm in Ontario '
County, New York, on the banks of Lake
Geneva, which was considered a high, dry
farm. He hauled tile all Winter to tile his
land. The people said he was crazy, that
his land did not need tiling; but he tiled
it, ridges and all. In those days we were
troubled with the weevil getting into the
heads of wheat, but the Englishman’s
wheat was always ripe before the others,
and he raised a fine crop. His farm gained
such a reputation that he sold it for a
nursery at a very high price.

In riding from Lake Geneva, Wis, to
Chicago, I find that one—fourth of the land
is wet and unproductive, and not of much

 
 

 

 

36 Practical 17arming

 

value. If the farmers would get together,
hire a surveyor, find the proper outlet and
make an open drain, they could then tile
their land to it. It makes me sick to see
their cows knee deep in the mud, eating
bog grass—no nourishment. If some of the
young men who have been raised on farms
and educated in our free schools would take
up this matter and get surveyors to find
the natural outlets, they would add much
to the value of their farms. The drainage
law in Illinois is good, and I hope Wisconsin
has as good a one. If not, the Legislature
of Wisconsin should pass equally as good a
drainage law. Experience teaches me that
farmers cannot tile too much. To me it
is a real pleasure to take a bad piece of land
and make it into a garden.

SHEEP

For a small farmer I think sheep are the
best stock, if he keeps the right kind and
knows how to care for them. Good market
lambs are in great demand and will always
bring from 6 to 8 cents per pound, and a
farmer should get $600 to $700 net on 100

 
 

Weeds 3 7

 

ewes. Sheep are better than cattle to keep
the land in a state of high cultivation, as
they keep the land free from weeds. Take
any of our good Illinois land and divide it
into four fields; raise 80 acres of corn, 40
acres of clover, and 40 acres of rye, sowing
the rye after the corn is cut up. Probably
a farm of 100 to 160 acres would not keep
more than 80 good ewes, but, by having a
little fertilizer, having one—fourth of the land
always in clover, I think the land could be
kept up, as he would have the manure. I
think a man working a farm on this system
necessarily would have to buy a little com—
mercial fertilizer—some phosphate rock or
bone meal.
\VEEDS

When you sow clover with your oats, rye,
or wheat, if the land is rich and you get
any rain in August, the weeds will start.
They should be mowed the first of Septem-
ber, when green, before they go to seed.
They will rot quickly and make some fer—
tilizer. The clover will have a chance to
grow in September and October and make a
good root, and will make a much better

 
 

 

 

38 Practical Farming

 

crop the next year. The bigger the clover,
the bigger the next crop of corn will be.

EARLY POTATOES

To raise early potatoes, plow the ground
in the fall. Then plow out a trench early in
the spring and fill the trench with good
horse manure; tread it down well, and put
a little dirt on the manure; plant the pota—
toes, this and will give you early potatoes.
You can plant this same ground in late
potatoes, which are better for the winter.
You can start early lettuce and radishes in a
trench of this kind, and in this way get them
two weeks earlier than by planting on top
of the ground, as is usually done.

GIVE THE CHILDREN AN INTEREST

Many farmers think they cannot afford to
give their children anything, but this is a
great mistake. Give them something to be
their own. You must do this if you want
right—thinking boys and girls, and you will
have more willing hands to help you get out
of debt. I knew a farmer living in Ohio who
gave his daughter the privilege of raising

 
 

Give the Children an Interest 39

 

chickens. She made more money in this
way than he made on his farm, and her work
resulted in his turning his farm into a chicken
farm. So you see he gained by giving his
daughter something of her own.

Give a boy an acre of corn as his own and
he will commence to think, read, and study
how to raise the greatest number of bushels.
He will find that two spears of corn growing
together are natural enemies. Let him
plant his corn in a furrow with the spears
twelve to fifteen inches apart; cultivate it
on a flat surface and at least six times. In
‘ that way it can be kept clean. If planted
in drills and in a furrow the dirt will natur—
ally work all around the corn. He will see
his father planting on top of the ground, in
hills, with three to five spears, as a rule
never getting more than three ears on a
hill, generally two. The father will be
putting the plow in deep the latter part of
June, cutting the roots of the corn, billing
his corn to destroy the weeds, and the wind
drying out the hills. He will hear his
father complain of dry weather in July and
August—corn firing. His father will say

 
 

 

40 Practical Farmzng

to his neighbor, “It is getting very dry, but
my son has an acre of corn that does not
fire, and it looks as if he would raise two
bushels of corn to my one.”

The neighbor will say, “I don’t see how
you keep your children at home; my boys
seem to dislike a farm, and want to go on
the railroad.” This neighbor, it seems,
gave his son a colt, but after it grew up the
old man sold it, and put the money in his
own pocket. Consequently, the son natur—
ally thinks the farm a poor place to live.

When I was a boy and lived on a farm, I
was considered the best boy to work in
Yates County, New York. I had a small
interest, and this gave me courage to work
for something of my own. With self-denial
I saved $3,200 and established a character
and credit so I could borrow 535 5,000 on my
name. My credit was worth as much to me
as the $3,200 I had worked twelve years to
save. No boy can succeed unless he can
build up a character and credit. I have
young men on my farm who started to
work for me by the month and now own 160
acres of good land.

 

 
 

Clay Land 41

 

CLAY LAND

A farmer having clay soil should plant
corn only on sod. If the land is good wheat
land, plant the corn 4% feet apart, a spear
for every nine inches, and then cultivate
the wheat in the corn. This is one of the
cheapest ways of raising wheat. You have
summer fallowed your land all summer by
plowing corn. In the spring sow the clover
seed, and as soon as the land is dry enough
so the horses will not sink into the ground,
drag the wheat and roll it. This will help
the wheat, as it loosens the crust formed in
the winter. You will have a fine stand of
clover, which will be knee high in the fall.
Pasture it one summer, or cut and soil it,
and put What manure you have back on the
land. The next year it will be ready for
another corn crop, but if the land is weak
and not rich soil, it should be pastured two
years. If the land is good wheat land and
fairly good corn land, it should be divided
into four fields, so as to have one—fourth in
corn and one—fourth in wheat. If good
land, it could be worked on the three—field
systen1-—corn, wheat, and clover—Jand keep
the land up.

 
 

 

 

42 Practical Farming

 

I once knew a lawyer who lived in Ontario
County in the State of New York, who had
a hard clay farm—~good wheat land. He
kept one-half in wheat, dragged his wheat
every spring, sowed his clover seed, rolled it,
and pastured his clover the next summer;
mowed part of it for hay, and kept a flock
of sheep. His clover generally grew up in
his wheat stubble in the fall, and he broke
his clover sod and sowed it to wheat. In
that way he kept one—half his land in wheat
and one—half in clover. He always raised
the best wheat in the country, and he was
a lawyer at that, and they are generally
poor farmers. Of course, a farmer culti-
vating a wheat farm in this way should keep
sheep.

SYSTEM

Generally, farmers have no system.
They fail to lay out their land into lots so
they can adopt a system of rotation. It is
of great importance to know each year
where to sow and plant corn, oats, or rye.
It is very important to get a good set of
clover. Northern Illinois raises corn and
oats, but if the land is rich, the oats will fall

 
 

The H 0g the Mortgage Payer 43

 

down—and it is a gamble whether you get
a good set of clover or not. We find by
cultivating clover in, the same as we
do oats, we get a better stand, as it gets a
bigger root and lives through the hot
weather, after the oat crop is harvested.
But to be sure of a stand a farmer should
raise one—half rye. If the rye is dragged in
the spring, and the crust broken, the clover
is sure to get a good stand. With clover
I should always sow two quarts of timothy.
Orchard grass is better, if you can get the
seed. A good many of our agricultural
societies recommend what they call a catch
crop, such as soy beans and other crops of
that kind, to be sown in with your corn.
But if you raise a crop of corn worthy of a
good farmer, a catch crop will not amount
to anything, for it will not grow in with big
corn.

THE HOG THE MORTGAGE PAYER

I have always found the hog to be the
money maker on a farm; but we all fear the
cholera. My convictions are that cholera
is produced by over—feeding of corn.

 
 

 

 

44. Practical Farming

 

Farmers should raise some barley to be
ground, for a change of feed. To raise hogs
with a profit you should have your sows
pig in February. Take 16-foot boards and
saw them in two; make a coop fastened up
tight on both ends, and have a door for the
sow to go through. Put straw around it, or
bank it up with dirt, so as to keep it warm.
Have some warm slop for the sows when
they pig, so as to make milk for the pigs.
When young, keep them growing with slop
of barley, oats, or rye, or some other grains,
and, of course, in the spring it will be well
to make a temporary fence and fence up a
few acres of clover for them to run in. If
fed a little grain while running in this
clover, they would make that piece of clover
land very rich. By having your pigs come
in February, you are enabled to get them
fat and sell them by December, and not be
obliged to feed them through the winter.
It costs money to winter pigs, although a
little alfalfa, cured nicely, will be a great
help in wintering your pigs or brood sows.
They will eat it like a steer eats hay, and

 
 

The Hog the Mortgage Payer 45

 

you can winter a brood sow on alfalfa with
very little corn. I

During all the years that I personally
lived on a farm, we never made any money
unless we had some pigs to sell. In Illinois,
they are called “mortgage payers,” which
I guess is the proper name for them. The
farmer who has some small fields to sow to
peas, some early and some late, to turn the
hogs into during the month of June, would
save his corn, and his hogs would make a
great growth and make the land rich so it
would raise a good crop of corn the next
year. In dividing up these little fields he
might have a temporary fence that could be
removed.

When my son first commenced farming,
he said, “I see one of your drawbacks is that
you lose your hogs with the cholera. When
I was in France, I found the farmers who
raised chickens made little coops and scat—
tered the chickens over the farm so as to
keep but few together.” He thought he
would make some hog coops similar in shape
but larger, and scatter them over the farm
and in this way avoid the cholera. He did

 
 

 

 

 

 

46 Practical Farming

 

this and has been very successful so far in

raising hogs. He is now raising barley to

grind and feed his hogs, for a change from
too much corn.

COUNTRY LIFE THE BEST

People in the country think living in the
city yields more pleasure than country life;
but this is a mistake. Two-thirds of the
people living in the city don’t live half as
well as those living in the country. Having
lived on a farm for twelve years of my life,
I know, and I am sure I had as much
pleasure as the people in the city. Mothers
in the country have confidence in their
daughters and sons, and are not obliged to
have chaperons. We enjoyed going to
dances, parties, socials, and sleigh rides as
well as the young people in the city. People
think that the rich get more pleasure and
happiness out of life than the people in
moderate circumstances. This is another
mistake. The rich are not the happy people
of the world. I don’t think the richest man
in the world gets as much pleasure out of
life as the young man who starts out to

 
 

Boys 47

 

establish a character and a credit, marries
some noble young woman, builds a home
he can afford, surrounds himself With true
friends, and lives a manly life.

BOYS

I say to the farmers’ boys: “You are
needed in the city, for nearly all city boys
degenerate in the third generation. But
never go to the city until you have accom—
plished something at home. If you do, you
Will fail.”

A boy raised on a farm, living in the
country, in the ‘springtime, sees Nature
putting forth all her energies; the trees
blooming and blossoming to bear fruit.

He sees in this beautiful picture a lesson, ‘

and begins to realize that this is the spring—
time of his life. As time goes on, he must
ripen to true manhood and bear fruit that
will make a place for him in the world. So
long as he obeys the laws of his country and
his God, he is as good as a king. Do not
think there is anyone better. Buckle on
the armour and, With high ambitions, strive
to be a man in the highest sense of true

 
 

 

48 Practical Farming

 

manhood. In your spare time study the
English language and you will be fitted to
fill any position. Do not forget that in this
life it requires pluck, energy, self-denial,
with industry and economy to save some—
thing and build up a character and credit—
that with these nothing can stop you from
being a man among men——respected and
honored by all. Associate with girls, as
they have a quicker conception of right
than boys, and will, as a rule, give you a
higher idea of life. Avoid saloons. They
are the great evil of our country. They
fill our land with drunkards, destroy true
manhood, and populate our land with
children brought into the world by degen—
erate parents, and raised in crime, sorrow,
and hunger. Many a poor woman is
beaten and disgraced by a drunken hus—
band, who in his earlier days was filled with
love and devotion. Never associate with
young men who patronize saloons, for if you
do, no one can tell how low you may
fall. How many promising young men
have I seen who started out, as they called
it, to be sociable and take a drink, scorning

 

 
 

Girls 49

the idea of being a drunkard, but in a few
years were rolling in the ditch of degrada-
tion‘a disgrace to themselves and their
friends. Nearly all the great men of our
country have achieved their success by
their own exertions. It is well to read the
histories of the lives of successful men, but
don’t forget that you must impress people
with your individuality, thinking for your-
self. In the winter join a debating class,
for this will help you to express yourself.

In traveling abroad and seeing how they
live in the old world, I can’t help but feel
that a child is blessed when born in Illinois,
and the country is better than the city.
Think of the children born in great cities,
living on the sidewalks and brought up in
sorrow, crime,-and hunger. Chicago arrests
I7,ooo young boys yearly, who have been
brought up in misery and never know when
they will get a full meal. Are not children
blessed who are brought up in the country?

GIRLS

A farmer’s daughter should be loved by
everyone, for she has it within her power
to win everyone by making all who come to

 
 

 

50 Practical Farming

 

her father’s house at ease. Do not com»
plain, but realize that occupation is happi—
ness; make others happy and you will
receive your share—be the sunshine of the
house and never say a word against anyone.
If you feel there are people you should not
associate with, let them go. Better spend
your time learning to cook. Many a man
has lost his heart eating a good dinner. Do
not be ashamed of your position in life, for
you are a queen. A good woman is the
great promoter of good, and men would be
brutes without them. The farmer who
does not love and appreciate his wife does
not often succeed. Girls should try to get
a good English education. If you do not
have a natural gift for music do not spend
your time trying to learn to play the piano.
It is so much precious time wasted. Do
not mourn your fate because you are not a
rich man’s daughter, for as a rule, they are
the most unhappy girls in the world. The
farmer’s daughter is far better off than
hundreds of daughters born in the city.

I once knew a farmer’s daughter who was
the oldest girl at home. She made it

 
 

Girls 51
pleasant for everyone who came to her
father’s home; she never complained, but
realized that she had a duty to perform, and
was anxious to do her part in the world.
She looked after the younger children and
made them happy, and thereby gained
happiness for herself. I fell in love with
her, and if the wealth of the world had been
offered me to forego the farmer’s daughter,
I should still have taken the daughter.
When young men call, do not be bashful,
but make them feel at ease. A bright girl,
though not so pretty, can always win a man
her equal. Do not feel above the young
men, who, although plain, are industrious
and trying to build up a character and a
credit. They are far above the men who
have money and have no motive in life.
Never marry if you are not sure you are
loved, and that the young man has a good
character. It is far better to be a single
woman, for they are oft times the most
important ones in the household.

There should be some recreation for those
living on a farm. The father should supply
his wife and daughters with a horse and

 

 

 
 

 

52 Practical Farming

 

buggy so that they can go to town and
associate with their neighbors.

KEEPING BOOKS

A farmer should always keep books to
know just what he is doing. Take an
inventory of everything on hand the first of
January and put it on the left—hand page;
under this charge all purchases of stock,
material, wages, and other expenses during
the year. On the right page credit all sales
of stock, products, etc., made during the
year. Then take an inventory of every—
thing on hand Jan. 1st, following, and place
this on the right-hand page, under the sales.
Foot both right and left hand pages, and
the difference between the two footings will
be the profits for the year.

Start the next year ’s books with the
inventory last taken, placed on the left-
hand page, and follow same method of
charging and crediting as before. The
merchant who does not keep his accounts
and sees what he is doing generally goes to
the wall. It is such a simple thing for a
farmer to know what he is doing. He has

 
Kindness 5 3

 

but a few things to inventory. By keeping
accurate accounts he will soon discover his
mistakes, which is a very important thing
to know. I never knew of but one man who
did not sometimes make a mistake. That
was a tramp who asked for some breakfast.
I told him if he would split some wood he
should have a good breakfast. He replied
that would be the first mistake he ever
made—to work.
KIN DN ESS

I learned when a boy that kindness pro—
motes good, retaliation evil. When I was
thirteen years old I used to drive sheep and
lambs, cows and calves from Amenia to
Poughkeepsie, thirty miles, which took
two days. An old Quaker, by the name of
Howland, had some fine Cherry trees. I
used to run up on his steps, break the small
limbs, and steal his cherries. I was going
home with a farmer by the name of Kline
one day who had a boy of my age. We
asked Mr. Kline if he thought Mr. Howland
would give us some cherries. He said
“yes,” and he drove up to the house and
said to Mr. Howland, “The boys would like

 
 

 

 

54 Practical Farming

 

to get some cherries.” He said to come
and get all we wanted to eat, so we climbed
up the trees and filled our ten—cent straw
hats with cherries. When I came down
Mr. Howland put his hand on top of my
head and said, “Are you not the boy who
drives sheep and runs in and breaks the
limbsof my cherry trees?” I said “yes,”
and expected he would cuff or scold me, but
instead he said, “My boy, when you come
along again, come in and get all you want,
but do not break off the limbs and steal the
cherries.” This was a lesson to me I have
never forgotten. I realized that his kind—
ness had won my respect and love. Had he
kicked me I should always have felt a spirit
of revenge. This changed my idea of life,
and set me thinking. Was it not better
to do right, and make friends rather than
enemies? I set out miles of apple trees on
the side of the road around my farm in
remembrance of this grand old Quaker.
SEED

It is just as important to have a good
seed corn as to have a good breed of cattle.
To breed corn is very simple. Take twelve

 
 

How to Secure Seed Com 55

 

good selected ears of corn; plant one row
with the corn from one ear, and the next
row with the corn from another ear. When
the tassels form, pull off the tassels from
every other row, so the row from which the
tassels have been removed will have to
breed from the next row, and in this way
the corn does not inbreed. Do this for a
few years, and you will have perfect corn
for seed.

HOW TO SECURE SEED CORN

Pick your best ears when they are good
roasting ears; leave the husks on and hang
them up where they will dry; when planted,
every kernel is sure to come up, and your
corn will be earlier. This is an experiment
I have tried, and know it is all right.

I think it is important to change your
oats. I find by planting oats grown in
Northern Wisconsin that we raise a better
crop of oats in Central Illinois. It is
always very important to have good seed of
all kinds, and I think it a great benefit to
change your seeds from the North to the
South.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

56 Practical Farming

 

MANGEL-WURZELS

I think it always pays to raise mangel—
wurzels and have a few beets to feed chick—
ens in February. This will increaSe your
egg crop. Mangel—wurzels are fine feed for
young growing pigs in September, October,
and November. They will eat them with a
relish, with a little green corn. You can
get a big growth very cheap if the ground is
properly prepared, but if the land is weedy,
better leave them for the other fellow to
raise. A few roots are always good to give
to all kinds of live stock in the winter.
Carrots and beets are better, but cost too
much to raise. Mangel—wurzels grow big
and answer the purpose and are more easily
raised.

OATS

Oats in Central Illinois should be sown.
as early as possible. If the ground can be
prepared in the fall, it would be better to
sow them in February, the same as you sow
clover and timothy. The oat crop is said to
be short this year, but oats that were sown
early are, apparently, as fine a crop as ever
grew. In Central Illinois, particularly, it

 
 

How to Get Started in the Spring 57

 

is very important to get your oats in early
so they will mature before the sun gets too
hot, and if you wish to seed after oats, if
sown early you are more liable to get a good
stand of timothy or clover.

HOW TO GET STARTED IN THE SPRING

The farmer should look over his plows
and cultivators in January and see that
they are all in good condition so when he
starts in the spring he is not obliged to go
to town and get his tools repaired. He
should buy his groceries in February, and,
if he raises rye or wheat, it is always well
to sow his clover or timothy in February.
He should always try to get his oats and corn
in early. It is said that Illinois will raise ‘
only half a crop of oats this year, but the
farmer who got his crops in the first of
March appears to have an advantage. He
should always try to plant part of his corn
as early as possible, as that gives him a
chance to cultivate his early and late corn.
This is one of the drawbacks of most
farmers—they never start early enough in
the spring. The best crop of spring wheat

 
 

 

 

58 Practical Pkuwning

I ever saw grow in Nebraska was sown in
February, and the man never got a chance
to drag it in. If the ground is in condition
it will always be well to sow your oats the
last of February.

ORANGE COUNTY BUTTER

A farmer with 160 acres of land and wish—
ing to get the most out of it, should keep 40
cows and make Orange County butter. If
good Illinois land, he should divide it
into four fields; he would need a barn 60
feet long and 42 feet wide; he should build
a cement column and have two iron rods in
this column, then bore two holes in his
posts and set the posts on the cement
column and this will hold them in place;
then make a cement floor for a foundation
and feed the cows from the sides of the barn.

He would probably have to have stan—
chions for his cows, but only to keep them
in while being milked. Give them a chance
to walk around and lie down in comfort.
Have a yard on the outside where the cows
can get water and get in the sun. Orange
County butter is made in this way: Set the

 
 

Orange County Butter 59

milk in pans or tin pails; churn the milk and
cream—one ought to have some power to
do the churning; when the butter forms,
put butter and all in a long trough, a foot
wide, made of good oak, and have a stream
of good well water running through it.
Work the butter very carefully with your
hands so as to wash out the buttermilk.» If
worked with a ladle it will make the butter
salvy, but if made in this way, with the
buttermilk taken out, and with a little salt,
the butter will keep sweet a long time, and
will always bring the highest price.

To keep your cows in the barn the year
round, you would have to have 40 acres of
clover fenced off. The cows would eat 15
acres of green clover, leaving 20 acres of
clover for hay that should be made and put
in small cocks; get some common sheeting
soaked in oil and put on top of the cocks;
let the hay set a day or two before putting it
in the barn, and in this way you will have
fine clover hay. You would have to sow five
acres in peas in drills about three inches
deep. Just before the peas come up sow
one-half bushel of oats. Drag it in on top

 

 

 

 
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60 Practical Farming

 

of the peas. After you have fed your green
clover this will make the best feed, cut
green, for the cows; it makes the best hay
for cows in the winter, and they will give
more milk fed on green peas and oats than
any other feed you can give them. You
would have to raise five acres of sweet corn
to feed after the peas are gone. To winter
your cows you would have to cut your corn
stalks; after they are cut up, put them in a
tank and pour hot water over them; put
a little bran on top to keep the heat in, and
you will have some warm feed for your cows
in the morning. You .will have 70 acres
for corn, 40 acres for clover, and 40 acres
for rye.

40 cows, 300 lbs. of butter to one cow $2,400

.100 hogs to sell ................. 1,200
70 acres of corn, sell 3,000 bushels. . 1,260
40 acres of rye, 1,200 bushels ..... 600

$5,460

You should raise a few calves from your
cows to replenish the cows that are worn
out. When you get your brand of butter
established, you should get 30 cents per

 
l/Vorkmg People 6 I

 

pound for it, and ought to get 300 pounds
of butter to a cow kept in this way.

WORKING PEOPLE

The laboring man living in the country
would never be poor if willing to work and
use a little economy. His opportunities are
so much better than those of the people
living in the city, for the laboring man in the
city must buy everything, while the man
in the country can own a cow, pigs, chick-
ens, and have a garden, which is half of his
living. Wages are higher in the city, but
what have the city people? They are
obliged to rent a house which costs five
times as much as a house in the country, and
everything they use must be bought at
double the price, and stale at that. Their
chances to save up any money are very
slim. They don’t work as many hours,
but work much harder and faster when they
do, and when out of a job, expenses go on.
In the country a man is never out of work.
The laboring man in the country is always
respected by every one and not tempted to
spend all he gets. A girl working for a

 

 
 

62 Practical Farming

 

farmer’s wife is always respected, which is
far better than living in the city where
people don’t know their next neighbor.
WHEAT

The soil of the Mississippi Valley is spongy
and the wheat is liable to freeze out when
put in shallow; it should be drilled in deep.
If the wheat is sowed shallow, the March
winds dry it and blow the dirt from the
roots and injure the wheat. Generally, we
raise a good crop of wheat if we have a wet
March. I know of a farmer in Nebraska
who aIWays raises a good crop of winter
wheat, but he always drills it in as deeply as
possible. He says it can be drilled in four
inches deep and will come up all right, but
the land should be well cultivated and pul—
verized, and in this condition, the wheat
can be drilled in deep. A good way to
raise wheat is to plant corn 4% feet apart in
drills, and drill wheat in the corn not later
than the I 5th of September.
' HOW TO THRIVE ON FORTY ACRES

OF LAND

Forty acres of good, well tiled land, with

a comfortable house, a good horse barn for

 
How to Thrive on 40 Acres of Land 63
three horses, a cow barn 30 by 30 feet, with
a 15—foot loft to store corn fodder in, ten
cows, ten brood sows, all other necessary
stock, tools, etc., ought to be bought for
$10,000. The cow barn should have a
cement floor. Buy one carload of bone
meal as a starter. Two acres for a house
and barn and two acres for a garden leaves
thirty-six acres to be divided into four
plots. Raise sixteen acres of corn, planted
in drills 4% feet apart, and drop a kernel
every nine inches. Have two acres in
drilled corn to cut to feed the cows in
August and September. Nine acres of the
corn would have to be seeded with clover
and timothy the last plowing, and fence off
five acres of clover temporarily for a hog
pasture. This would leave four acres to
mow and soil cows on in the summer.
Cows can be kept in a barn in the summer
as well as winter with a small yard on the
outside. Buy an old straw stack for bed-
ding for the cows and about ten tons of
phosphate rock to miX with the manure or
put in the cow barn. With this you would
make manure enough to cover ten acres

 

 

 

 
 

 

64. Practical Farming

each year. The five acres of Clover pasture
with the hogs would be very rich. In this
way you would manure one—third of the
land every year. Sixteen acres should
raise 1,600 bushels to feed the hogs, horses,
and cows; seven acres in cabbage, two
acres in mangel-wurzel beets, to feed to
young hogs in September and October and
have some for the hogs in the winter.

 

10 cows should produce. . . . . . . . . . . . $5 600
50 hogs should produce. . . . . . . . . . . . 500
7 acres of cabbage ................ I ,0 50
Chickens ........................ 200
$2,350

Labor ..................... $400

20 tons phosphate rock ...... 120
Family expenses............ 830 1,350
Leaving a net profit of ...... $1,000

The farmer would. not be as rich as
Rockefeller and could not play golf. He
would get his exercise in his corn fields
and on his farm, but he would be a rich
man compared with the average of mankind,
and he would be independent. If he had

 
 

How to Thrive on 40 Acres of Land 65

 

a good garden, he would live as well as any
man. He would have to work, but occupa-
tion is happiness. It would be 320 rods
around his 40 acres, but he would need no
fences. He could plant 250 sour cherry
trees, and if well sprayed and cared for,
they should produce $400 in a few years.
He ought to raise ten tons of cabbage on an
acre, and it is always worth $15 per ton.
If he knew how to make sour krout, he
could get $300 per acre. The smart man
might say, “Why not plant it all to cab-
bage?” But in that way he would soon raise
very poor cabbage and have no manure to
mix with his fertilizer and keep his land
rich. He should have ten coops for his
hogs and always have the pigs come in not
later than the first of March and have
plenty of soft coal on hand for them to eat.

SOFT COAL FOR HOGS

The object of feeding soft coal to hogs is
to keep them in a healthy condition and
free from worms. Hogs will eat common
screenings if you put a little salt on them.
The sulphur in the coal is What helps the

 

 
 

66 Practical Farming

 

hogs. My son fed 105 tons of soft coal to
his hogs last winter and they were always
healthy. Soft coal is a cheap preventative
of diseases.

He should feed the pigs a little slop so
after three weeks they would learn to eat,
and the hogs would be ready to sell in
December. He might be a little short of
hay for his horses, but if he is a hustler,
he could get hay on shares from some of his
neighbors. The sixteen acres of corn cut
up with a corn cutter would winter his cows.

HOW TO GET A START

The young man says, “This is all right
for the man who has his own farm, but what
am I to do? I have nothing but my hands
and good health.” I will tell you. Hire
out to some farmer, by the year, for $250
and board; save $200 of it and deposit it in
a good bank until you can invest it safely.
Keep on until you have $1,500 saved, and
then rent a farm. You would then have
a character and credit, and would have no
trouble in renting a farm. With good
health, nothing could prevent you from
owning a farm. Get married when you
have enough to start in life with.

 
How I Got Started in the World 67

 

HOW I GOT STARTED IN THE WORLD

In 1849, when I was 21 years old, I owned
three horses, a lumber wagon, five cows,
eighty sheep, and ten brood sows. I
rented a farm comprising 120 acres, 20
acres in timber and 20 acres in stumps and
stone, but very good pasture land, which
left 80 acres of plow land. I took posses-
sion of this farm in February. The manure
had not been hauled out of this farm for
four or five years, so I hauled it out the last
of February and first of March. I raised
40 acres of corn, 20 acres of barley, 10
acres of oats, and IQ acres of clover, and
kept 80 sheep. I sowed my barley and
oats the last of March and broke 20 acres of
my sod for corn. We did not have very
good tools in those days, but I cultivated
this land well and furrowed it out with a
one—horse cast iron plow, 3% feet apart each
way. I had an Irish boy working for me
at $9 per month and hired a boy at 25
cents per day to drop the corn. I soaked
the corn every night in warm water; took
some tar and boiling water; coated the
corn with a little tar rolled in plaster and

 

 
 

 

68 Practical Farming

 

set it back on the stove to sprout; While
the boys were planting one 20 acres, I
broke the other 20 acres, and was all
through planting before my neighbors got
started.

40 acres corn, 50 bu. to the acre,

 

2,000 bu... . . $.I, 300
20 acres barley, 40 bu. per acre,

800 bu. at 60 cents ........ . ..... 480
Sold 40 stock hogs. . 240
Sold 15 steers at Christmas at $100

per head ...................... I, 500
Sold products of 80 sheep ......... 240

$3,760

Bought 15 steers at $60 apiece,
got them home the first of
Oct., fed them pumpkins,
topped my corn, and fed them
green corn through October” $900
Fed them 400 bu corn through

November and December ..... 260
Rent... . . . . . 260
One hired man for 9 mos, at
$10 per mo .................. 90
Extrahelp..................... 60
Household expenses ............ 1 50
——— 1,720

 

 
The F armer’s Political Duties 69

 

THE FARMER’S POLITICAL DUTIES

I have always believed that the success
of this great Republic depends largely upon
the intelligence of the American farmer, as
great cities become more or less demoralized,
and are always scheming to obtain some-
thing for nothing, advocating socialism,
and Municipal and Government Ownership,
which would concentrate the powers of the
Government. The party in power would
always remain in power; the people would
lose the benefit of the elective franchise,
and thus destroy the principles this Govern-
ment was founded on, viz.: Individual
rights with reciprocal duties. In fact, we
would soon be a Government as arbitrary
as the Russian Government. The man in
power would wield so great an influence
that he could not be removed. With
Municipal Ownership of street railroads,
waterworks, and gas plants the employees
would all have to be politicians. They
would control a power greater than money.
They, of course, all have friends, and when
we have an election they would say, “If
we don’t elect the party in power we will

 

 
 

70 Practical Farming

 

lose our jobs,” and in this way they would
control every election. The same with.
Government Ownership. An ambitious
President of the United States would have
the power to renominate himself. As it is
to—day, he may not be elected; but give
him control of all the railroads and he
would elect himself.

We better stand by the principles our
forefathers laid down: “Give every man
a chance to do something,” to build up
some industry, something that would bene—
fit mankind, instead of making every man
subject to the dictation of someone in
power. I fully realize the danger of con—
centrating the powers of this great free
country into a few men’s hands, and I
believe every man who loves the principles
of our country has a duty to do in trying
to prevent this. Abraham Lincoln said our
Government is “a Government of the people,
by the people, and for the people.” If we
had Government Ownership and Municipal
Ownership, the party in power would
remain in power. Would it then be a
Government of the people, by the people,

 
The F owner’s Political Duties 71

 

and for the people? Would it not become
an arbitrary Government controlled by a
few who are in power? I think it is wise
to shun political parties who advocate
Government Ownership and Municipal
control, if we wish to have a free Govern—
ment controlled by the people.

I think the farmers should take a great
interest in politics. The politician who
tries to divide our people into classes by
appealing to prejudices and jealousies is a
dangerous man. I have heard men say
that a national debt is a national blessing.
But a nation in debt is not different from a
farmer in debt, for the debt must be paid.
In the old world at least one—half the peo-
ple’s earnings or income must go to the
Government; consequently, it is hard for a
young man to get started in life in his own
country. The bright ones generally come
to our country. We now have politicians
clamoring for Government Ownership and
Government control. What will the result
be? A great national debt will be piled up.
As an illustration, think what it costs the
Government to do any public work. The

 

 

 
 

 

72 Practical Farming

 

Government has been fifteen years digging
the Hennepin Canal, which is only ninety
miles long and sixty feet wide—and no boat
can draw over four feet—and is costing
millions of dollars.

The farmers of Henry County are digging
a ditch 22 miles long, 100 feet wide, and II
feet deep for $400,000. They could have
dug the ‘Hennepin Canal in two years for
one—fourth the amount it will cost the
Government to do the work. Politicians
are circulating a petition to get Congress to
appropriate money to build a ship canal
down the Illinois River, which would fill up
with sand every spring and be another
Hennepin Canal, and practically of no use
to anyone.

Canals are obsolete. ’ Every intelligent
man knows that a double-track electric
freight railroad, to run at the rate of twenty
miles per hour, would haul the products
from Chicago to New Orleans for less than it
would cost to tow a barge up the river
against the current. A double—track elec—
tric road would not cost one—tenth as much
as a ship canal, and this would be business

 
The F armer’s Political Duties 73

 

—~not sentiment. When they had the ship
canal completed, costing untold millions,
with its locks and water-power, people
would want bread. The locks would pro—
hibit the reclaiming of millions of acres of
the richest land in the world. These locks
would have to come out.

A great national debt means taxation.
Government Ownership and Government
control means that the individual energy of
the nation will be broken.‘ We would be
retrograding—would be a nation of. tax—
payers controlled by Government officials,
and our individual independence would be
destroyed.

The great men of our nation have been
running our Government on sentiment for
the last ten years. Out of sentiment we
commenced war with Spain to defend
Cuba. We spent millions and sacrificed the
lives of our soldiers, and, through sentiment,
said to Cuba, “You may have your inde—
pendence.” An English statesman would
have said, “You may get under the old flag
and ,be onezof us, but if you wish to be an
independent nation, you must give us

 

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74 Practical Farming

 

bonds for what we have spent in defending
you.” We should possess Cuba for a
national defense, but can we afford to spend
millions to protect it when it is of no use to
us during a war? We bought the Philippine
Islands, and are now spending $50,000,000
to educate its people, some of whom have
twenty wives, which means a good many
children for us to educate. We did not
need the Philippine Islands—far better
for us to take care of our own people. In
our large cities no less than 100,000 boys
(brought into the world by degenerate
parents, and raised in crime, sorrow, and
hunger) are arrested yearly—and we send
them to reformatory prisons to be pushed
on downward. Is it any wonder that our
land is filled with criminals?

We are spending millions to build the
Panama Canal. It will probably take forty
years to build it, and it will cost one thou-
sand millions of dollars. This is being done
by public sentimentfinot good judgment.
We could build good docks on each side,
with proper facilities for loading, unloading,
and transporting the products across the

 
Select Yonr Representatives Carefully 7 5

 

isthmus, for one-tenth of what it will cost
with a lock canal.

We may stand it now that we are young
and rich, but future generations will have
to pay the debt. If we continue to run the
nation on sentiment, we will burden our—
selves with such a national debt that a
farmer will not be able to buy a plow with—
out having the Government stamp on it,
and we will have a nation filled with Govern-
ment officials to collect taxes.

SELECT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
CAREFULLY

Every man who loves the success of this
great Republic—a land of equal rights to all
—must see that professional politicians are
not the right men to administer the affairs
of this nation. The judges who have
served the people faithfully for fifteen to
twenty years are the ones who should be
honored by being sent to the Senate and the
House of Representatives.

 

 
 

 

76 Practical Farming

 

CORN BREAD

One cup and a half of White cornmeal;
a pinch of salt, and butter the size of a
large walnut; pour on boiling water, and
stir until you have a thick batter; then drop
in the yolks of three eggs and the beaten
Whites; add a teaspoonful of baking pow—
der. Bake three-quarters of an hour.

 
 

 

 

 

 

ILLINOISLSOILS IN RELATION TO SYSTEMS

OF PERMANENT AGRICULTURE
BY CYRIL G. HOPKINS

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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Agricultural Experiment Station

URBANA. FEBRUARY, 1907

CIRCULAR NO. 108

ILLINOIS SOILS IN RELATION TO SYSTEMS
OF PERMANENT AGRICULTURE *
BY CYRIL G. HOPKINS

To permanently maintain profitable systems of
agriculture is our most important material problem,
not only in Illinois, but in the United States of
America. It is necessary that agriculture as an
industry shall be self—supporting, and agriculture
must in large measure support our other important
industries. Every form of agriculture rests pri-
marily upon the fertility of the soil, Whether it be
grain farming, fruit growing, dairying, or live—stock
husbandry.

Some small countries can derive their support
largely by conducting commerce and manufacture
for other countries, being enabled from the profits
of their enterprise to purchase food and other

 

*An address read before the Illinois State Farmers’ Institute at
Quincy, February 20, 1907.

 

 

 
 

 

80 Practical Farming

 

necessities from their colonies or from other agri-
cultural countries; and some forms of intensive
agriculture, as market gardening, can be supported
in restricted areas by the waste fertilizing materials
from nearby cities, but we may well remind our—
selves that the American Nation and the general
agriculture of America must be self—supporting;
for we can never hope to draw upon our colonies,
nor upon other countries for our support.

If we succeed in Illinois in discovering, and in
demonstrating, and in practicing, permanent sys-
tems of profitable agriculture, this State will be the
first example in the history of the world to adopt
agricultural methods that will maintain the fertility
of the soil without the purchase of food and ferti-
lizer from foreign countries. '

RAPID LAND RUIN

Among all the nations of the earth the United
States stands first in rapidity of soil exhaustion.
The improvement of seed, the use of tile drainage,
the invention and immediate adoption of labor—
saving agricultural machinery, the wonderful
development of cheap and rapid means of trans-
portation, and the opening of the world’s markets
to the American farmer, have all combined to
make possible and to encourage the rapid depletion
of American soils, until agricultural ruin already
exists, practically, over vast areas in the older
parts of this new country, the United States of
America, while it is common knowledge that even

 
 

Rapid Land Rum 81

in this new rich State of Illinois the lands that have
been under cultivation for half or three—quarters of
a century are much less productive now than they
once were. '

In our prosperity and abundance we almost for-
get the present famine in Russia ;* can scarcely
realize that much of the time more people are hun-
gry in India than live in the United States; and
will not remember to-morrow the call of to-day from
President Roosevelt and from our state governors
for help to relieve the widespread famine and actual
starvation now existing in China. Meanwhile,
shall we go on, as a people, ignorantly, carelessly,
or wantonly robbing our soil of its fertility and
American posterity and our children of a rightful
heritage?

The almost universal practice of the civilized
world to this date has been to ruin land, and then
to seek out newer lands on which to repeat the proc-

*Kazan, Russia, Feb. 20—“The correspondent of the Associated
Press has returned here after a twenty-five days trip through Kazan,
Samara, and Ufa. three sample provmces of the twenty affected by the
famine. The correspondent investigated the situation in all directions,
traveling 500 miles by sleigh 1n districts remote from railroads where the
distress is most acute.

“The population everywhere was found absolutely dependent on
outside relief. The present state of affairs is characterized by slowv
starvation and extreme misery. The government’s allowance of 36
pounds of rye per person, per month, is most inadequate and this
amount is cut by 18 or 20 pounds by the cost of transportation and
milling. Men and even women between 18 and 55 are excluded from
receiving the government ration. In the province of Ufa there is
scarcely half the quantity of grain necessary for ordinary subsistence of
the people, and peasants are in such weakened physical condition as the
result of succession of bad harvests that supplementary assistance is
necessary for thousands to make it possible for them to survive until
spring and have strength enough to plant their new crop. The reports
from other districts are practically the same, the burden of all being
intense suffering and gloomy outlook for the future. " (From a dis-
patch in the daily newspapers of February 20,1907.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

82 Practical Farming

 

ess even more quickly. There is extreme poverty
among the people of the world almost wherever
they are dependent for support upon the agri—
cultural resources of ordinary land that has been
under cultivation for two centuries.

I repeat that, if it is possible, and if we shall suc—
ceed in Illinois in discovering and adopting into
general agricultural practice systems of farming
that will restore our soils to their virgin fertility and
permanently maintain a high productive capacity
for these Illinois lands, it will be the first time for
this to be accomplished anywhere in the world over
such an area.

If we are ever to adopt systems of soil improve—
ment it must be done while we are prosperous.
People living in poverty on impoverished lands
have no money to invest in the improvement of
their farms, no matter how great returns such in-
vestments would promise in future years. Soils
that have been running down for a century cannot
be built up economically in'a year, so as to pay an
immediate profit on the improvements.

While many Illinois farmers are already begin—
ning to adopt methods of permanent soil improve—
ment, by far the most common practice in the
State, if continued, must inevitably result in land
ruin. The only kind of soil treatment in common
use that is even believed to benefit the soil is crop
rotation, including an occasional clover crop. It is
a fact, however, that crop rotation is a means of

 
Rapid Land Ruin 83

 

depleting the fertility of the soil, and clover used in
this way in grain farming serves only as a most
powerful soil stimulant, leaving the soil poorer with
every passing rotation until crop yields become
reduced, clover being the first crop to fail in this
system. It is at this point in the process of soil
depletion that land values usually begin to decrease,
and as a rule this decrease is rapid. Under the
successful clover system of grain farming the land—
owner may receive one—half of a sixty—bushel crop
of corn, which at 35 cents a bushel will provide 50
cents an acre for taxes and still leave $10 an acre,
which is sufficient to pay five per cent interest on
$200 land. But ten or twenty years after the
clover system fails, the landowner may be receiving
only one-third of thirty bushels of corn per acre,
which with the same price and taxes would leave
him only $3.00 an acre, or sufficient to pay five
per cent interest on $60 land.

There are now on file in my office at the Univer-
sity about ten thousand letters relating to soils,
written by Illinois farmers and landowners during
the past six years. From this mass of corre-
spondence alone, I feel that I know the opinion of
the most progressive and observing farmers in
Illinois regarding the tendency of crop yields under
present systems of farming. The following extract
is taken from a letter received from Plainfield,
Illinois, since the preceding paragraph was written:

“Will County is a rich agricultural part of Illinois,
naturally; but fifty to sixty years of cropping, with

 

 

 
 

 

84 Practical Farming

 

no systematic and scientific effort to keep up soil
fertility, has resulted in a decrease in yield of crops
from 25 to 35 per cent. If this continues another
generation, it will be proportionately worse, and
farms now held at $125 to $150 per acre will be
held at $65 to $80, of necessity.”

PLANT FOOD IN RICH SOILS

Lands that are valuable produce large crops.
Soils that produce large crops are rich soils. Rich
soils contain a large store of plant food. If we are
to maintain Illinois lands in a high state of pro—
ductiveness and at a high value, we must maintain
in our soils a large supply of every essential element
of plant food.

It is worth while to remember that there are
ten essential elements of plant food. If the
supply of any one of these elements fails the crop
will fail. These ten elements are carbon and oxy-
gen, taken into the leaves of the plant from the air
as carbon dioxid; hydrogen, a constituent of water,
absorbed through the plant roots; nitrogen, taken
from the soil by all plants and also secured from the
air by legumes; potassium, phosphorus, mag-
nesium, calcium, iron, and sulfur, all of which are
secured only from the soil.

The soil nitrogen is contained in the organic
matter, or humus, and to maintain the supply of
nitrogen we should keep the soil well stored with
organic matter, making liberal use of clover or
other legumes which have power to secure nitrogen
 

Plant Food in Rich Soils 85

 

from the inexhaustible supply in the air, the clover
being plowed under either directly or as a farm
manure.

It is interesting to know that an acre of soil
seven inches deep, if it possessed the average com-
position of the earth’s crust, would contain suffi-
cient iron to meet the needs of one hundred bushels
of corn every year for 240,000 years, sufficient
calcium for 61,000 years, magnesium for 7,600
years, sulfur for 2,100 years, and potassium for
2,400 years, but sufficient phosphorus for only 120
years.

These numbers are based upon the average com-
position of the earth’s crust, as estimated by Pro—
fessor F. W. Clarke of the United States Geological
Survey. They are certainly significant to the stu-
dent of soil fertility, although perhaps no soil
possesses exactly the ‘average composition of the
entire crust of the earth.

It is also of interest to know that the nitrogen
resting on an acre of the earth’s surface is sufficient
for 100 bushels of corn every year for 700,000 years,
although the nitrogen contained in the plowed soil .
of an acre is rarely sufficient for more than fifty
such crops.

Only two essential elements of plant food are
becoming deficient in ordinary Illinois soils. These
are nitrogen and phosphorus, neither of which is
contained in the plowed soil of our commonest
lands in larger quantity than would be required for
maximum crops during the full time of one life.

 

 
 

 

 

86 Practical Farming

 

There are some soils whose fertility can be main-
tained at low—yielding power by crop rotation alone.
This is on sloping land whose surface soil is washed
away at least as rapidly as the fertility is removed
by crops and whose subsoil is as rich or richer than
the surface in mineral plant food.

I have found some places where soils of this
topography, with subsoils rich in mineral plant
food, have been cropped for centuries with the pro—
duction of two or three grain crops every ten or
twelve Years, the intervening years providing for
the accumulation of nitrogen by legumes while the
land is kept in pasture. These lands are valued at
about $10 to $20 an acre and so far as I can see
this value can be maintained indefinitely without
the application of farm manures or other plant food
materials.

But I cannot comprehend how it is possible to
maintain the common Illinois prairie and level
upland timber soils at their present value and pro-
ductive power if we continue to remove from these
lands larger amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen
than are returned.

During the past year I have had some very inter—
esting correspondence with Doctor W. E. Macklin
of Nankin, China, who has spent many years of
his life as a student of Chinese and Japanese con—
ditions.

On September I, 1906, I wrote Doctor Macklin
as follows:
Plant Food in Rich Soils 87

 

“It Would also be of much interest and value to
me to learn the conditions on approximately level
upland plains—lands which are not subject to
erosion by surface washing and which do not re-
ceive deposits of soil material washed from higher
lands. If there are such lands in China, it seems
to me that if they have been cultivated for
thousands of years and the crops largely removed
they must have become exceedingly unproductive. ”

On October 6, 1906, Doctor Macklin replied as
follows:

“I think you have struck the problem of China#—
how to make the table and upland soils productive
...... I know a place ten miles in diameter of
such land as you mention where no one lives ......
There is lots of such land in China and even in
North Japan where I have traveled. ”

This letter from China only confirms a common
observation in all old agricultural regions so far as
I have seen them; namely, that without the return
of plant food in some form the level uplands must
ultimately become practically worthless and barren,
while the sloping hill lands maintain a very low
grade of permanent agriculture.

It is certainly good farm practice, and usually the
best farm practice, to remove the largest possible
quantities of plant food from the soil, for the simple
reason that large crops require large quantities of
plant food; but it is no less important to restore to
the soil, when needed, even larger quantities of
plant food than are removed—by turning under
legume catch crops and crop residues not removed
from the field, by returning manures produced on

 

 

 
 

 

88 Practical Farming

 

the farm, and so far as necessary by the purchase
of commercial plant food, such as phosphorus in
bone meal or rock phosphate, or, if needed, potas-
sium in concentrated potassium salts.

EFFECT OF CROP ROTATION

Let us consider in further detail the effect of
crop rotation on soil fertility. Suppose we are
practicing a four—year rotation, including corn for
two years, oats with clover seeding the third year,
and clover for hay and seed crops the fourth year.
Let us assume such crop yields as have been pro-
duced and as can be produced, in normal seasons
on the richest, best treated land, with good seed and
good farming; namely, IOO bushels of corn per acre,
Ioo bushels of oats, and four tons per acre of
clover, including perhaps three tons in the hay crop
and one ton in the seed crop. If we do not succeed
in securing these yields we should at least try to
make such yields possible and we should approach
as near to them as we can. (On the best treated
land at the University, 87 bushels of corn per acre
have been produced as an average of the last five
years, and on three different soil experiment fields
in the State we have harvested more than 90
bushels of oats per acre.)

Let us first consider the phosphorus required for
this rotation. The two crops of corn will each re—
quire 2 3 pounds, I7 for the grain and 6 for the
stalks; the oat crop will require 15 pounds of phos—
phorus, about I I for the grain and 4 for the straw;
 

Efiect of Crop Rotation 89

 

and the 4-t0n crop of clover will require 20 pounds
of phosphorus. Thus we see that 81 pounds of the
element phosphorus will be required for the rota-
tion. If we leave the stalkscn the land the re-
quirement is reduced to 69 pounds of phosphorus,
or to about 17 pounds a year per acre.

Suppose the soil contains in the first seven inches
1,200 pounds of phosphorus per acre, which is about
the average of the principal type of soil in the Illi-
nois corn belt; how many years would be required
to remove this amount from the land if it could be
drawn upon at this rate? Only seventy years.
On the other hand, suppose with this crop rotation,
we can secure from the soil the equivalent of only
1 per cent of the phosphorus contained in the first
seven inches. This would be only twelve pounds
of phosphorus a year, which would necessarily
reduce the crop yields much below the amounts
suggested above, and, with the further reduction
in the total amount of phosphorus year by year,
the crop yields must be reduced accordingly.

On the ordinary soils of Illinois ultimate failure
is the only future for this system of farming, even
if we consider the phosphorus alone; although, as
stated above, the phosphorus may be returned in
bone meal, in rock phosphate, or in sufficient
amounts of farm manure.

If we consider the element nitrogen in this sys—
tem of farming we find that 200 bushels of corn
require about 200 pounds of nitrogen, aside from

 

 

 

 

it
E
E

I

 
 

 

90 Practical Farming

 

that required for the stalks, and the stalks must be
returned to the land without burning, otherwise
the 96 pounds of nitrogen required for the two crops
of stalks will also be removed from the land. The
oats crop will remove 90 pounds of nitrogen, mak—
ing 290 pounds per acre for the corn and the oats.

The four tons of clover will contain about 160
pounds of nitrogen and the clover roots and stubble
about one-half as much as the tops, or 80 pounds
per acre. If all of the nitrogen contained in the
entire clover crop is taken from the air, the rotation
would add only 80 pounds of nitrogen to the soil
while the corn and oats would remove 290 pounds.

How then is it possible to maintain the supply of
nitrogen by this rotation? It is not possible.
Under such a rotation with all crops removed ex-
cept the corn stalks, the supply of nitrogen grows
less and less. Where this rotation is successful for
a time it is due to the fact that the soil nitrogen has
been drawn upon year by year While the chief
effect of the clover has been to extract phosphorus
from the soil for its own growth and for the use of
succeeding crops.

There is another point to be considered in refer-
ence to nitrogen. On land that is capable of fur—
nishing sufficient nitrogen for even a 50—bushel crop
of corn, the clover crop will undoubtedly draw a
third of its nitrogen from the soil and not more than
two—thirds from the air. Consequently, since two—
thirds of the nitrogen in the entire plant is removed
 

Eficect of Crop Rotation 91
in the tops, the roots and stubble will leave no
more nitrogen in the soil than the plant takes from
the soil. How then can we maintain the supply of
nitrogen in the soil? By plowing under sufficient
clover or by applying sufficient farm manure, or
better, by using both of these means.

If all the crops grown in the rotation are fed,
including the corn stalks, containing a total of 526
pounds of nitrogen from four acres, and if three—
fourths of this, or 395 pounds, are returned in the
manure, we have sufficient to replace the 386
pounds removed in the corn and oats crops, and
we may assume that the 160 pounds of nitrogen
removed in the clover came from the air. Of
course some additional nitrogen will be saved in
the straw and stalks which are used directly for
bedding and not for feed.

How shall the grain farmer maintain the nitrogen
in his soil? Possibly this can be done by plowing
under everything produced except the grains and
the clover seed, preferably only one corn crop being
grown in the rotation.

The problem of maintaining the nitrogen be—
comes easier if we extend the rotation to include
about two years of pasture, using a mixture of red
clover, alsike, timothy, and red top instead of seed—
ing red clover only, with the oats. In this case
three grain crops, as corn, oats, and wheat, or corn
two years and oats one year, could be grown during
the six-year rotation, the land being kept in mea-
dow’andpasture one-half of the time.

 

 

 
 

92 Practical Farming

USE OF FARM MANURE

Farm manure always has been, and without
doubt always will be, the principal material used in
maintaining the fertility of the soil; but it is an
unquestionable fact that the greatest source of
loss to American agriculture to-day is in the enor—
mous waste of farm manure.

If corn were worth $1 .05 a bushel, then the aver—
age annual value of the corn crop of the United
States for the past ten years, including 1906, would
be equal to the average value of the total farm
manure annually produced in this country. This
statement is based upon the careful estimates of the
United States Department of Agriculture, placing
the average annual corn crop at nearly 2% billion
bushels, and the average value of the manure
annually produced by 20 million horses and mules,
61 million cattle, 47 million hogs, and 52 million
sheep, at more than 2% billion dollars.

The evidence is sufficient to fully justify the
conclusion, and practical, observing farmers will
agree, that at least one—third of the manure pro-
duced is wasted on the average American farm.
If this is true, then the total value per annum of
all commercial fertilizers used in the United States
(amounting to about $75,000,000) is equal to only
one—tenth of the annual waste of farm manure.
This is no argument against the intelligent and
profitable use of commercial plant food by those
who make, and save, and use, farm manure to the

 
 

\ Value of F arm M (1111476 93

 

greatest possible practicable extent, but it serves
only to emphasize the tremendous loss to the coun—
try from the waste that is permitted.

The opinion is sometimes expressed that the
manure made from the crops grown on the farm
should be sufficient to maintain the fertility of the
soil. I have made diligent inquiry at many far-
mers’ institutes in various parts of Illinois for men
who own farms of 160 acres or more that have ever
had manure applied over the entire farm made
only from crops grown on the farm. I have found
only one such man; and I believe that one-half of
the land on 90 per cent of the farms of Illinois has
never received a dressing of farm manure.

VALUE OF FARM MANURE

It is one thing to say that farm manure has a
value, but quite another thing to say what that
value is or to what it is due.

The positive or intrinsic value of farm manure
lies in the amounts of valuable plant food which it
contains. It also possesses an important indirect
value as a soil stimulant, due to its power as it fer-
ments and decays, in contact with the soil, to
liberate from the soil plant food that would not
otherwise become available so quickly. There is
still another distinct value in farm manure due to
the fact that it makes the soil more porous and
spongy and thus increases the power of the soil to
absorb and retain moisture and to resist surface
washing. In other words, this third value of farm

 

i:

4“1: M “3.744,;le

 
 

 

94 Practical Farming
manure is due to improvement in physical con-
dition.

The value of farm manure for its physical im-
provement of the soil is commonly fully appre-
ciated, and frequently overestimated, by popular
agricultural writers, while its value for the plant
food which it supplies and for that which it liber-
ates from the soil is sometimes almost ignored.

There is no good excuse for erroneous teaching
regarding these different values because there
exists a vast amount of positive information both
from practical experience and from exact scientific
investigations.

Thus, organic matter from peat beds hauled out
and spread on the land and incorporated with the
soil produces nosuch effects on crop yields as are
produced by good farm manure. Why? Because
the peat does not decay readily so as to furnish
plant food either by its own decomposition or by
liberating it from the soil; and yet the peat has as
great power as farm manure for physical improve—
ment of the soil.

Manure made from clover hay and heavy grain
rations has much greater value than manure made
from wheat straw. Why? Is it because they
affect the physical conditions of the soil in dif—
ferent ways? No. The great difference’in value
is due to the difference in plant food and in rapidity
of decay.

At the famous Agricultural Experiment Station
at Rothamsted, England, on a field to which no

 
Value of Farm J'Iazmre 95
manure and no plant food have been applied, the
average yield of wheat has been 13.1 bushels per
acre for more than half a century. Land treated
with a heavy annual application of farm manure
has produced 35 .7 bushels of wheat per acre as an
average of 51 years. Another field treated with
commercial plant food without organic matter has
produced 37.1 bushels of wheat per acre as an
average during the same time. The latter field
received a little less plant food than was furnished
in the manure, thus furnishing ample proof of the
value of plant food supplied in manure, and show—
ing that the physical effect of the farm manure was
by no means so important.

Nevertheless, the physical effect should not be
overlooked. Under certain seasonal conditions
this physical value may be Very important. Thus,
in the Very dry season of 1893 at Rothamsted the
land fertilized with commercial plant food pro—
duced only 21.7 bushels of wheat per acre, while
the farm manure plot produced 34.2 bushels the
same year.

In semi-arid regions the physical condition of
the soil and its power to absorb and retain moisture
may be the controlling factor in crop yields, but
where the average annual rainfall is 28.21 inches
(as at Rothamsted) or 37 . 39 inches (as in Illinois),
with a fairly uniform distribution during the grow—
ing season, the physical conditions of the soil in
relation to crop yields may be compared to the
shelter and other physical surroundings provided

 

’-'~r

,
g ,
l
\
n;
w
21.3
4‘
l‘

‘i .3: :9

 

 

 
 

 

96 Practical Farming

 

for live stock. In other words, under normal con-
ditions the controlling factor is food, for crops as
well as for live stock.

While manure has some value for physical im-
provement and a larger value of its power to liber-
ate plant food from the soil, it should be clearly
understood and always borne in mind that the
great value of farm manure, especially in profitable
systems of permanent agriculture, is due to the
plant food it contains, and that the greatest prob-
lem in the handling of farm manure is to prevent
the loss of plant food.

The value of average fresh farm manure is about
$2.25 a ton either when determined by chemical
analysis on the basis of present market values for
the plant food contained in the manure or when
determined by the value of the increased crop
yields produced when the manure is applied to the
fields in ordinary crop rotations.

This means that a pile of average fresh farm
manure containing 100 tons is worth about $22 5.
If exposed to leaching from heavy rains during
only two or three months in the spring the value
will be reduced as a rule from $225 to about $150
by the loss of plant food without much reduction
in total weight. Indeed, the total weight is fre—
quently increased under such conditions because
the rainwater that remains in the manure may be
in greater amount than the urine that has been
washed out. Fermentation and additional leach-
ing during the summer may easily reduce the
value to $100 or less.

 
Selling Fertility 97 '

 

There are two satisfactory methods for handling
manure:

One of these is to haul and spread the fresh ma-
nure daily, or at least two or three times a week.
For this purpose a manure spreader, or at least a
wagon used for this work only, is very useful and
almost necessary.

The other method is to allow the manure to
accumulate in the stall or covered feeding shed
while it is constantly tramped by the animals and
kept moist by the liquid excrement, sufficient bed—
ding being used to absorb the excess and to keep
the stock clean, and then to haul and spread it on
the land when conditions permit. It should not be
left, however, to dry out and heat and decompose
in the stalls or sheds long after the animals have
been turned out to pasture.

SELLING FERTILITY

Every system of farming should be so planned
as to be both profitable and permanent, which re-
quires that the productive capacity of the land
must be maintained. We must understand then
what the soil contains, what materials are required
to produce crops, in which parts of the crops these
different materials are deposited, so as to know
what part of the produce may be sold and what
part should be retained on the farm; also what is
done with these important plant food materials
when the crops are fed to live stock.

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

98 Practical Farming

 

The older prairie and upland timber soils of
Illinois are exceedingly rich in potassium, but
relatively deficient in both nitrogen and phosphorus.
In the worn hill lands nitrogen is usually more
deficient than phosphorus, while in the average
long-cultivated prairie soil phosphorus is more
deficient than nitrogen.

When grain crops are produced, as corn, oats,
and wheat, about two—thirds of the nitrogen and
three—fourths of the phosphorus but only one—fourth
of the potassium required for the crop are stored
in the grain or seed; while about one-third of the
nitrogen, one-fourth of the phosphorus, and three‘
fourths of the potassium are stored in the straw
or stalks.

Thus, a large crop of corn (Ioo bushels to the
acre) will contain about 100 pounds of nitrogen in
the grain and 48 pounds in the stalks; 17 pounds
of phosphorous in the grain and 6 pounds in the
stalks; 19 pounds of potassium in the grain and
52 pounds in the stalks. Quite similar relations
exist between the grain and straw of other crops.

Now, with these facts in mind it is plain to see
that a system of farming in which the grain is sold
and only the stalks and straw are kept on the farm
and returned to the soil carries off in the grain
much of the nitrogen and phosphorus, in both of
which these soils are more or less deficient and
which should be returned to the land; while the
potassium, of which the soil contains an inexhaus—

 
 

Selling Fertility 99

 

tible supply (enough in the first seven inches for 100
bushels of corn per acre every year for seventeen
centuries), is largely returned in the straw and
stalks.

It should be remembered that legume crops, as
clover, cowpeas, and soy beans, are rich in both
nitrogen and phosphorus, 3% tons of clover hay
containing as much phosphorus, and 40 pounds
more nitrogen, than 100 bushels of corn.

If the crops are fed to live stock, it is Well to
know that about one—fourth of the nitrogen and
one-fourth of the phosphorus are retained in the
flesh and bone of the animal, while three—fourths
of the nitrogen and phosphorus and practically all
of the potassium are returned in the solid and
liquid manure.

Thus we have another process of separation by
which part of the needed nitrogen and phosphorus
leaves the farm with the animals, while the potas-
sium is again returned, even though it may not
be needed.

It should be a plain fact that manure made from
animal excrements with straw or stalks for bedding
must be deficient in nitrogen, and still more defi-
cient in phosphorus, but rich in potassium, as com-
pared With the requirements of the crop; and this
is especially noteworthy when the manure is to be
-used on land already deficient in nitrogen and
phosphorus, but well supplied with potassium.

In the case of nitrogen the difficulty can be over-

 

 

 
 

100 Practical Farming

come by making a liberal use of clover or other
legumes in the crop rotation and as catch crops,
turning under these crops and crop residues so far
as practicable. Legume crops may also be used
in pastures to a considerable extent, thus securing
nitrogen from the air to balance the deficiency in
the manure.

'With the phosphorus, the difficulty is greater,
because the proportion contained in the manure is
less, and there is no such ever—present inexhaustible
supply as in the case of nitrogen.

INCREASING THE VALUE or FARM hlANURE‘

It must be apparent that to increase the value
of farm manure we should add phosphorus to it.
Thus we can balance manure and when used on
soils rich in potassium in rotations with nitrogen—
fixing legume crops we can provide plant food in a
balanced ration to meet the needs of the maximum
crop yields. By these means we can check the
progress of soil exhaustion and even gradually
increase the fertility and productive capacity of
the land. Indeed, we can thus profitably enrich
such land even beyond its virgin fertility.

By far the cheapest form of phosphorus is fine—
ground raw rock phosphate. This material is but
slightly available for the use of crops if applied to‘
soils deficient in decaying organic matter; but,
if applied in intimate connection with rotting

 
Increasing the Value of Farm Alan/lore 101

 

manure, it is thus made soluble and available for
plant growth.

Certainly one of the most profitable, and prob—
ably the very most profitable, method of main—
taining the necessary supply of phosphorus in the
soil is to put back into the manure in the form of
fine-ground raw rock phosphate somewhat larger
amounts of phosphorus than the animal has re-
tained in his bones. It is Well for a time at least
to put back larger amounts than the animals retain,
because the soils are already deficientiin phosphorus
and also because there may be some waste of ma—
nure.

These statements are based both upon the chemi—
cal analysis of soils and crops and manures, and
also upon carefully conducted field experiments
covering many years.

The Maryland Experiment Station furnishes
some valuable data from probably the earliest
systematic investigations still beii g continued,
and a large amount of information is rapidly ac—
cumulating from our more extensive work in Illi-
nois; but the most complete experiments of long
duration are reported by the Ohio Experiment
Station. W'here 40 pounds of fine—ground rock
phosphate, costing about 16 cents, were added to
each ton of manure and 8 tons of manure per acre
were applied for a three—year rotation of corn,
wheat, an d clover, the value of the increase in crop
yields was equal to $2.66 for each ton of manure

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

102 Practical Farming

 

used, in case of yard manure (which was worth
only $1.64 per ton without the phosphate); and,
in case of the stall manure, its value was increased
from $2 . 22 a ton to $3.42 by the addition of the
16 cents’ worth of rock phosphate, these results
being the average of nine years’ experiments on
threedifferent series of plots, based upon increased
yield valued at 35 cents a bushel for corn, 70 cents
for wheat, and $6 .00 a ton for clover hay.

If we deduct the cost of the phosphate used, we
still have what might be termed a net value of $2. 50
for the phosphated yard manure and $3 . 24 a ton
for the phosphated stall manure.

Of course it would be equally appropriate, and
possibly more so, to speak of “manured phosphate ”
instead of “phosphated manure,” because the rock
phosphate actually furnishes the needed and defi—
cient element, phosphorus, while the manure helps
to make it available. On this basis We may say
that the value of 40 pounds of rock phosphate is
increased from 16 cents to $1.02 by mixing with a
ton of yard manure, and from 16 cents to $1 . 20 by
mixing with a ton of stall manure, after deducting
the value of the untreated manure in each case.

The most important fact to keep in mind, how-
ever, is that both the manure and rock phosphate
are much more valuable when used together than
when used separately, because manure is deficient
in phosphorus and rock phosphate does not act
except in connection with rotting organic matter.

 
 

Normal and Abnormal Soils 103

 

As a rule it is better to use sufficient rock phosphate
with each ton of manure so as to supply about 200
pounds of rock phosphate per acre for each year
in the crop rotation. (A good grade of raw rock
phosphate costing $8 to $10 a ton delivered in Illi—
nois contains at least 12%; per cent of the actual
element phosphorus. It is as rich as steamed bone
meal, twice as rich as acid phosphate, and four
times as rich in phosphorus as ordinary “complete ”
commercial fertilizers costing $20 a ton.)

There are two very satisfactory methods of mix-
ing the rock phosphate with the manure. One is
to sprinkle the phosphate over the manure from
day to day as it is being made in the stall or covered
shed. The other method is to fill the spreader part
full of manure, then sprinkle phosphate over it
sufficient for the load, finish loading with manure,
and drive to the field and spread.

This produces an intimate mixture and a very
uniform distribution, and requires practically no
extra work to get the phosphate on the land.
Care should be taken that the manure is not too
dry when the phosphate is sprinkled over the load,
otherwise the dry rock dust may get into the gear-
ing or bearings of the spreader and cause them to
wear rapidly.

NORMAL AND ABNORMAL SOILS

There are some extraordinary or abnormal soils.
Thus, there are soils exceedingly rich in nitrogen
and well supplied with phosphorus, but very defi-

 

 
 

 

104 Practical Farmng

 

cient in potassium; as, for example, certain peaty
swamp soils on which the application of potassium
produces an increase in the corn crop usually
amounting to more than thirty bushels per acre,
and on which Illinois farmers are already using
about $20,000 worth of concentrated potassium
salts annually, and with a net profit of more than
200 per cent.

There are soils exceedingly rich in phosphorus
and well supplied with potassium, but deficient
only in the element nitrogen, and which require
only a liberal use of legume crops to be turned
under as green manures or returned to the soil as
stable manure in order to render them highly pro—
ductive and profitable soils. Abnormal soils of
this class exist in considerable areas in the geologic
neighborhood of phosphate regions, as in certain
sections of Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.
Some of these soils contain twenty times as much
phosphorus as the average Illinois corn belt soil.

But, when we consider the ordinary, normal
upland timber and prairie soils of Illinois, there are
two substances always to be kept in mind, and
always to be provided in abundance, for any and
every system of permanent agriculture to be prac—
ticed on these soils. These two essential substances
are phosphorus and decaying organic matter,
which will, of course, also supply the nitrogen.

It is not of so great consequence by what meth—
ods or in what forms these materialsware supplied.
 

N ormal and Abnormal 501715 105

 

Phosphorus can be purchased in grain, or in
other concentrated foodstuffs, to be fed with clover
hay, it may be, and then applied in the form of
farm manure; or phosphorus may be applied in
the form of bone meal, which is also a farm product,
or it may be obtained from the great phosphate
mines of our southern states, as we obtain coal from
our extensive mineral deposits.

The decaying organic matter may be supplied
in farm manure, or in sufficient quantities of leg—
ume crops not harvested and removed from the
land, but turned under as green manures, includ-
ing the use of rotation pastures, or still better and
more easily, and usually more profitably, by a
combination of these methods.

But there can be no permanent agriculture for
these soils by any system under which the phos—
phorus is removed and sold in grain and bone in
larger amounts than are returned to the soil, nor
under any system by which the organic matter of
the soil is worn out or destroyed more rapidly than
it is replaced.

On the other hand, systems of permanent agri-
culture for these soils are not only possible, but
they are more profitable than any system under_
which the soil grows less productive.

Let us consider some of the results already ob-
tained on soil experiments fields in different parts
of Illinois on a few important types of soil.

 

 

. v -»- -,~——... --—"._4-: 5-}..9-5—3

 
 

 

 

 

106 Practical Farming

 

SOILS DEFICIENT IN NITROGEN

Normal soils on sloping hill lands are usually
most deficient in the element nitrogen. They can
be improved by growing clover or other legumes
and turning these crops under either directly or in
the form of manure. In some places, more especi-
ally in Southern Illinois, these soils are more or less
acid, and this acidity must be corrected by lime or
ground limestone in order to grow legume crops
successfully.

On the Vienna soil experiment field in Johnson
County, where corn is grown in a three—year rota—
tion, 118 bushels of corn per acre have been pro-
duced as a ‘total for the past four years on untreated
rotated land. The turning under of legume crops
and catch crops without lime has produced only
six bushels total increase. Where lime has been
applied with this legume treatment, the produce
has been 168 bushels in four years, a gain of 50
bushels of corn, or 12% bushels a year. No further
increase in corn has been made as yet by phos—
phorus or potassium.

Four wheat crops on untreated rotated land
(wheat being grown on the same land once in three
years) have produced 12 bushels, averaging three
bushels a year. Where legumes have been turned
under the four crops of wheat amounted to 24
bushels, and with legume—lime treatment 47 bush—
els of wheat have been obtained, averaging 12
bushels a year

 
 

Soils Deficient in Nitrogen 107

 

Thus, legumes without lime increased the aver-
age yields by 1:12— bushels of corn and three bushels
of wheat; and legumes with lime increased the
average yields by 12% bushels of corn and nine
bushels of wheat. Phosphorus and potassium
have further increased the yield of wheat, but not
sufficiently as yet to justify their use when all crops
grown are considered.

Some pot culture experiments conducted with
soil from worn sloping timber land in Henry County
furnish results that still further emphasize the need
of nitrogen in this class of soils. It should be
understood that pot cultures are carried on under
perfect control and with almost ideal conditions
for the highest yields possible with the soil used.

Oats were grown in these pot cultures and they
yielded at the rate of 21 bushels per acre on un-
treated soil. With potassium applied the rate of
yield was 2 3 bushels, with phosphorus 31 bushels,
and with nitrogen applied the rate of yield was 22 5
bushels ofoats per acre.

Sand soils are also markedly deficient in nitrogen
as a rule. On the Green Valley soil experiment
field in Tazewell County, as an average of three
tests each year, nitrogen produced 31 bushels per
acre increase in corn in 1902 and 43 bushels increase
in 1903; also an increase of 27 bushels of oats per
acre in 1904 and 18 bushels of wheat per acre in
1905; and in 1906 four plots not receiving nitrogen
yielded 18 bushels, 10 bushels, 8 bushels, and 18

 

 
bushelS, respectively, of corn per acre, while four
other adjoining or intermediate plots, whose treat—
ment differed from the first four only in the appli—
cation of nitrogen, produced, respectively, 63
bushels, 71 bushels, 75 bushels, and 66 bushels of
corn per acre.

(')n similar adjoining land, where nitrogen had
been supplied only by growing and turning under
cowpeas, four plots produced 58 bushels, 43 bush-
els, 46 bushels, and 54 bushels of corn per acre,
respectively.

SOILS DEFICIENT IN POTASSIUM

Peaty swamp lands are commonly exceedingly
rich in nitrogen, well supplied with phosphorus,
but very deficient in potassium. On the Momence
soil experiment field, in Kankakee County, corn
has been grown every year for five years on one
series of plots. Three plots in this series not treat—
ed with potassium have produced 14.3 bushels,
10.0 bushels, and 10.6 bushels, respectively, of
corn per acre as a total for the five crops, the aver—
age annual yield being 2 .4 bushels per acre of corn
of very poor quality. On three adjoining plots of
Similar land, whose treatment differed only in the
application of potassium, the total corn produced
in the five crops is 221.9 bushels, 242.8 bushels,
and 233.7 bushels, respectively, thus making an
average annual yield of 46.6 bushels of corn per
acre.

 
 

Soils Deficient m Potassitmz

109

As an average of the five years at 35 cents a bush-
el for corn the average annual net value of the in—
crease produced by potassium amounts to $12 .06
an acre after paying for the cost of the potassium
applied.

\Vhile peaty swamp lands are very abnormal in
composition, they are abundant in northern Illinois,
and their improvement with the use of potassium
is becoming quite general. Indeed the annual prof-
its from the use of potassium on these peaty swamp
lands in Illinois is already known to be far above
the total annual appropriation for the investigation
of Illinois soils.

But of far greater interest and importance to
Illinois are the results obtained from the improve—
ment of the ordinary prairie and upland timber
soils, representing the most abundant soil types
of the state.

Counting 35 cents a bushel for corn, 25 cents for
oats, 70 cents for wheat, and $6 . 00 a ton for clover
hay, for the increases produced in these crops by
the different elements of plant food applied, we
may summarize in a very brief and satisfactory
manner the results thus far secured from a suffi—
cient number of the soil experiment fields on these
important soil types to furnish a clear understand—
ing and a reliable basis of opinion concerning the
relative and actual value of these plant food ele-
ments during the first five years.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

110 Practical Farming

 

METHODS OF SOIL INVESTIGATION

It should be understood that most of the results
reported in this paper have been secured from
What we term “complete fertility” experiments,
which were designed for the one purpose of securing
information as quickly as possible concerning the
needs of the soil. ~

Thus, in order to learn quickly and certainly if
the soil needs more nitrogen we have applied nitro-
gen liberally in one of the best and most expensive
forms. Other experiments are in progress to
ascertain how rapidly and how economically we can
secure nitrogen from the air by legumes in crop
rotation.

Again, in order to learn if the soil needs phos-
phorus we have applied phosphorus in steamed
bone meal, which is known to furnish it in a very
good and readily available form, although at three
times the cost of natural rock phosphate. Other
experiments are in progress to ascertain how rapidly
we can make rock phosphate available under
various conditions.

We have also applied the element potassium in
the ordinary commercial salts, as potassium sulfate,
and potassium chlorid, in order to learn if this ele-
ment of plant food applied in readily available
form will increase our crop yields. Other experi-
ments are being carried on with the hope of ascer-
taining the best methods of liberating sufficient

 
 

Methods of Soil Investigation I I I

 

potassium from the immense supply naturally
contained in most soils.

It will be understood then that while the infor—
mation already secured, both by soil analysis and
by pot cultures and field experiments, shows con-
clusively that certain soils are deficient in certain
plant food elements and that the addition of these
elements produces large increases in crop yields,
the investigation is by no means complete as to the
most profitable means of supplying these difierent
plant food elements in systems of permanent agri-
culture.

If the total supply of any element in the soil is
limited, as is the case with nitrogen and phosphorus
in most soils, it seems certain that no system of
agriculture can be permanently successful unless
we return to the soil as large or larger amounts of
that element as we remove in crops. It is because
of this apparently self—evident fact that our stan—
dard application of phosphorus is slightly more
than the amount removed in very large crops, so
that under this treatment the soil must grow richer
and richer in phosphorus.

One other very important point should always
be kept in mind in considering the effect of soil
treatment on crop yields. This is the fact that the
material in which the plant food element is applied
may produce an indirect effect which may cause
an increase in the crop yield not due to the element
in mind for its own sake, but due to some stimu—

 

 
 

112 Practical Farming,

 

lating action of the applied substance upon other
elements already in the soil. Soluble salts, such
as sodium nitrate, acid phosphate, and potassium
salts, are known to produce some very marked
indirect or stimulating effects, similar to the effect
of that powerful soil'stimulant, landplaster. Ma-
terials used for this purpose which do not supply
in themselves the deficient plant food element in
sufficient amount to fully meet the needs of the
crop are to be used with caution and with full un—
derstanding that they tend to make the soil poorer
and poorer in the element liberated. Light and
infrequent applications of farm manure and only
occasional crops of clover act to a greater or less
extent as soil stimulants, if they liberate plant food
from the soil, and thus enable the crops to remove
much larger amounts of fertility than are actually
supplied by the manure or clover.

In the case of nitrogen and phosphorus we have
tried to avoid these indirect or stimulating effects
by using dried blood and steamed bone meal in
place of any soluble salts, as sodium nitrate and
acid phosphate, which are very commonly used for
such experiments; but there is no satisfactory
insoluble readily available form of potassium, and
consequently we could not avoid using a soluble
potassium salt; Thus, in considering the results
reported below, we may have confidence that the
effects produced by nitrogen and phosphorus are
properly to be credited to those elements for their
Soils Deficient in Phosphorus and N litrogen I I 3

 

own value as plant food, but the effects on crop
yields produced by potassium salts applied to soils
naturally rich in that element are undoubtedly due
in part at least to an indirect or stimulating action.

The actual cost per acre per annum for the mater—
ials used in these complete fertility experiments is
about $15 for 100 pounds of nitrogen in dried blood,
$2 . 50 for 25 pounds of phosphorus in 200 pounds of
steamed bone meal, and $2 .50 for 40 pounds of po—
tassium in 100 pounds of potassium sulfate. Thus,
for five years the cost per acre is $75 for nitrogen,
$12.50 for phosphorus, and $12.50 for potassium.

SOILS DEFICIENT IN PHOSPHORUS AND NITROGEN

On the Antioch soil experiment field, in Lake
County, on timber soil, where nitrogen has been
applied in dried blood the value of the increase in
five years amounts to $6.04 an acre; Where phos-
phorus has been applied in steamed bone meal the
value of the increase is $33 . 73 an acre in five years;
and where potassium has been used in addition to
both nitrogen and phosphorus, under the most
favorable condition, the value of the increase by
potassium is $12.12.

On the Bloomington soil experiment field, in
McLean County, on prairie soil, the increase pro-
duced by nitrogen alone is worth $1.77 in five
years; where bone meal was applied the value of
increase by phosphorus is $22.77; and where

 

 
 

 

 

114 Practical Farming

 

potassium was applied, under the best conditions,
the increase in crops was worth $10 . 50.

Of greatest interest is the increase produced on
this typical corn belt land where both nitrogen and
phosphorus were provided. This amounted to
$36 .49 in five years. These results show that this
soil needs both phosphorus and nitrogen, but it
needs phosphorus first. Thus, the nitrogen with—
out phosphorus was worth only $1 .77, but in addi-
tion to phosphorus the nitrogen was worth $13.72
an acre in five years. On the other hand, the phos—
phorus alone was worth $22.77; but when used
with nitrogen the phosphorus was worth $34.72
above what the nitrogen alone was worth.

In a somewhat different rotation on the Sibley
soil experiment field in Ford County, on prairie
land, the value of increases produced in five years
has been $2 .45 for nitrogen, $12 .99 for phosphorus,
$27 .47 for nitrogen and phosphorus together, and
20 cents for potassium when applied in addition
to nitrogen and phosphorus.

PHOSPHORUS AND CLOVER

As was anticipated when these experiments were
begun, we are securing information more rapidly
where we are applying nitrogen in commercial
form at an annual cost of $ 15 or more per acre than
where we depend entirely upon legume crops grown
in the rotations. While phosphorus is usually the
most deficient element in the prairie soils, that ele—

 
 

Phosphorus and Clover I I 5

 

ment cannot increase the yield more than 10 to 20
bushels as a rule until nitrogen becomes the limit-
ing element; and where we use phosphorus with-
out nitrogen the nitrogen limit of yield grows lower
and lower until ultimately it sinks below the phos-
phorus limit, after which phosphorus has no power
to increase the yield until the supply of nitrogen is
increased. The very marked increase in clover
produced by phosphorus is due to the fact that for
this crop there is no nitrogen limit because if the
available soil nitrogen is insufficient the clover
plant can draw upon the atmospheric nitrogen for
enough to balance its own ration.

Thus, on the Bloomington field in 1906, phos—
phorus increased the yield of clover from . 58 ton to
1.65 tons, a gain of 1.07 tons per acre by phos-
phorus; and, as an average of the last three years
on the experiment field at Urbana, phosphorus has
increased the yield of clover from .73 ton to I .75
tons per acre, the gain for phosphorus being more
than one ton of clover hay per acre as an average
of three successive years, all weights reported being
for thoroughly air—dried hay (not merely field
cured).

The importance of phosphorus and clover is very
well illustrated by considering the yields from two
plots in the three-year rotation on the university
field at Urbana, which differed in yielding power
by only three bushels of corn per acre as an average
of three years previous to the beginning of treat—

 

 

 
 

 

116 Practical Farming

 

ment. One of these plots has been receiving phos-
phorus since 1902, while the other receives no phos—
phorus. Otherwise the two plots are treated alike
in every respect.

In 1903, the yields of corn were 71 bushels and
84 bushels, making 13 bushels in favor of the phos-
phorus-treated plot. ‘

In 1904, the yields of oats were 48 and 60 bush-
els, a gain of 12 bushels for phosphorus.

In 1905, the yields of clover were .87 and 1.83
tons of thoroughly air-dry hay, a gain of .96 ton,
showing that the phosphorus more than doubled
the yield.

In 1906, corn was again grown on these plots and
it was to be expected that the corn would be bene-
fited, not only by the phosphorus applied, but also
because of the larger amount of clover roots and
residues left on the phosphorus plot. The yields
of corn in 1906 were 58 and 84 bushels, a difference
of 26 bushels in favor of the phosphorus plot. The
value of the increase for the four years is $22 .41,
while the phosphorus cost only $10 in steamed
bone meal, and the same amount of phosphorus
can be purchased in raw rock phosphate for $3.20.

On the Virginia soil experiment field in Cass
County, nitrogen is already the limiting element,
being more deficient than phosphorus.

The value of the increase produced by nitrogen
in five years is $6.94; that by phosphorus alone is
only $1.78, but where nitrogen and phosphorus

,V/Afi'h‘. ”—3.42‘1‘2... . 3.17:2“ a. ,rA" u.» ”.7 _ ,.. __._,. .44-.

 
Soil Problems in Southern Illinois 117

 

are applied together the increase is worth $13.89.
Potassium produced $4 . oo worth of increase under
the most favorable conditions.

It is known that the untreated check plots on the
Virginia field were somewhat better than the other
plots in the field when the experiments were begun.
This has been a rather heavy handicap against the
soil treatment, although the treated land has over—
come this handicap and made some additional
gains, as shown by the data given.

If we consider nitrogen under the most favor-
able conditions, as we have regularly done with
potassium, we shall probably have a more trust—
worthy opinion of its importance on the Virginia
field. Where nitrogen has been applied in addi-
tion to both phosphorus and potassium, the value
of the increase by nitrogen is $31.80 an acre from
the five crops.

 

SOIL PROBLEMS IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

If we turn to the experiment fields on the South—
ern Illinois prairie lands, we may summarize the
results in a similar manner, but we shall find addi—
tional problems peculiar to those soils, some of
which will doubtless require much further investi-
gation for correct and final solution.

First of all we should emphasize the fact that the
common soil in this great area is acid, or sour, and
that some form of lime must be applied to the land
in liberal amount as a part of any system of im-

 
 

 

118 Practical Farming

 

provement for this soil, especially for the benefit of
clover and other legume crops which are so essen-
tial in good crop rotations.

Ground limestone promises to be both the best
and the most economical form of lime for this pur-
pose, and definite arrangements have already been
made, under the direction of the Governor and the
Board of Prison Industries, to have the State fur—
nish this material to the farmers at cost.

Information thus far secured indicates that finely
ground limestone will be delivered at the railroad
stations in Southern Illinois at a cost varying from
$1.00 to $2.00 a ton, that two to four tons per
acre will be sufficient for an initial application, and
that 50 cents an acre a year should be ample to
provide for subsequent applications sufficient to
keep the soil sweet.

As an average of 56 tests made during the past
three years on crop rotations including cowpeas,
clover, corn, oats, and Wheat, the average annual
value of the increase in crop yields from the use
of lime or limestone on these soils has been more
than five times this estimated average annual
expense.

These soils are not only deficient in lime, but
they are also very deficient in phosphorus and in
decaying organic matter needed to make available
for plant growth the potassium and other mineral
elements naturally contained in the soil in very
large quantities, also to keep the phosphorus in

 
Soil Problems in Southern Illinois 119

 

available combination, and ultimately, of course,
to furnish nitrogen, which, however, at present is
less effective when applied than either phosphorus
or potassium, as will be seen from the data given.

As an average of duplicate tests on the Du Bois
field in Washington County, nitrogen alone has
produced 352 . 19 increase in five years; the increase
from phosphorus in bone meal has been $20.74;
while potassium applied under the most favored
conditions, has produced increases valued at $9 .93.

It is noteworthy, however, that the efiect of
potassium on certain very important crops, as
corn, clover, and cowpeas, is more marked in the
later years; and it is becoming evident that until
we are able to increase the supply of decaying
organic matter in those Southern Illinois prairie
soils, We may find some profit in using potassium,
best supplied in kainit, perhaps, probably for its
combined effect as plant food and as a soil stimu—
lant, possibly serving in part to make phosphorus
more available under the existing conditions.

In this special connection, the results obtained
from the use of potassium salts and of other salts
as well in investigations extending over half a cen—
tury at the Rothamsted Experiment Station are of
great interest and value:

Where Wheat was grown continuously without
organic manures, the yield was increased 5 .6 bush—
els per acre, as an average of the first 24 years, by
the application of 200 pounds per annum of po»

 

 

 
 

 

120 Practical Farming

 

tassium sulfate. This might seem to be conclusive
proof of the need of potassium in the Rothamsted
soil, but such was not indicated by the soil analysis.
Furthermore, when, instead of the potassium sul—
fate, an application of 280 pounds of magnesium
sulfate was substituted, exactly the same increase
was produced as an average of the 24-year period.

During the second 24—year period the potassium
salt increased the average yield by 8.8 bushels,
while the increase by magnesium sulfate was only
6. 6 bushels.

In the case of barley grown continuously on the
same land for 48 years, the application of sodium
salts without potassium produced a larger average
increase than when potassium was included in the
application.

These results certainly emphasize the fact that
the effect produced by potassium salts on lands
rich in native potassium may be due largely at
least to its power as a soil stimulant and that the
same effect may be secured by applying other less
expensive soluble salts or probably still more econo—
mically by means of deCaying organic matter,
which, however, must be first produced before it
can be turned under.

On the Cutler experiment field in Perry County,
nitrogen has produced no increase; phosphorus
alone in bone meal has made only $4.85 in five
years; while potassium used alone has returned
only $1.2 3 in the five years.
 

Soil Problems in Southern Illinois 121

 

Under the most favored conditions for each ele-
ment in turn, nitrogen has produced no gain, phos—
phorus a gain worth $15. 54, and potassium a gain
worth $13.82. When phosphorus and potassium
were used together the gain was $25 . 56 per acre in
five years, when applied in bone meal and potas-
sium sulfate.

Some extensive experiments are in progress on
this soil in which these elements are brought to-
gether at much less expense, the phosphorus being
supplied in rock phosphate and the potassium in
smaller amount in kainit, which, however, also
carries some other salts which may produce the
indirect or stimulating effect. The object of this
as of other soil investigations is to find some system
of permanent agriculture that shall also be profit—
able on this Southern Illinois soil, and it is to be
hoped that the use of this soluble fertilizer and
stimulant can soon be replaced by manure or other
organic matter from the increased crops.

 

On the regular rotation field at Cutler where
nitrogen is secured only by growing legumes, the
five-year increase by phosphorus and potassium
together is $18.34, of which $9.12 were secured
during the first three years, while $9.22 were
secured during the last two years.

Likewise on the Odin soil experiment field in
Marion County, the average increase for the first
three years does not pay for the cost of treatment,
but the increase produced on three series of plots

 
 

 

 

122 Practical Farming

 

during the last two years on two crops of corn, two
of wheat, one of cowpeas, and one of clover, slightly
more than paid the cost of the bone meal and
potassium sulfate.

The average yields produced on these best
treated plots were 57 bushels of corn, 33 bushels
of wheat, I . 3 tons of clover, and 2 .4 tons of cowpea
hay.

On one division of the Edgewood soil experi-
ment field in Effingham County, where the land
has been tile—drained for six years, and where the
soil has been treated with one application of ten
tons of ground limestone and the regular amounts
of phosphorus and potassium, the following yields
have been secured:

Clover, 2 .69 tons per acre in 1904;
Corn, 87 bushels per acre in 1905;
Oats, 73 bushels per acre in 1906.

The value of the increase produced by the lime,
phosphorus, and potassium, over the untreated
land, is $17 .96 for the last three years, averaging
$5 .99 per acre per annum.

It should be understood that the present value
of this land is at least $100 an acre less than that
of the ordinary corn belt land; that with proper
treatment this land should continue to improve,
and with the crops now being produced consider—
able manure will be made which can be returned
to the land to further increase the crop yields and
 

 

Pcrmanent Agricz/tltu‘re on Every Farm 12 3

 

at the 'same time permit some decrease in the
purchase of commercial plant food, especially of
potassium.

Furthermore, it should be kept in mind that
systems of soil improvement must be adopted
even for the corn belt land in order to maintain
its present value and productive power.

Time will not permit the discussion of other
Southern Illinois problems concerning which we
have some information and need very much more,
including the effect and feasibility of tile drainage
and subsoiling, the special value of farm manure on
these lands, and the crops and crop rotations best
adapted to the profitable improvement of Southern
Illinois soils.

PERMANENT AGRICULTURE ON EVERY FARM

In conclusion, I beg to repeat a suggestion which
I made at your annual meeting four years ago, to
the effect that every landowner adopt a system of
permanent soil maintenance or of soil improvement
on at least an acre strip of land across every im-
portant cultivated field, making his plan for this
from his own knowledge combined with all of the
information obtainable from the soil experiment
fields and other soil investigations.

Whatever treatment is decided upon should be
applied and repeated with every rotation with any
modifications justified by accumulated knowledge
and results, until it is demonstrated upon the

 

 

 
 

 

124 Practical Farming

 

individual farm that there are systems of perma—
nent profitable agriculture of unlimited application
that can be practiced in Illinois.

When making these plans for our most common
normal prairie lands in Northern, Central, and
Southern Illinois, it may well be kept in mind that
our three greatest problems are:

(I) To secure nitrogen from the inexhaustible
supply in the air.

(2) To liberate potassium from the practically
inexhaustible supply in the soil.

(3) To return phosphorus to the soil in some
form in as large or larger amounts than are re—
moved in crops.
Through the courtesy of Professor Hopkins, I
have given his experiences in scientific farming.
Professor Hopkins is doing a great work, and
striving to arouse the farmers to a better cultivation
of their land, and he fully realizes the importance
of a better system of farming.