Chapter XVI: Part 16

Sometimes when insufficient acid has been used a part of the soluble phosphate will change into a form intermediate in solubility, between the natural phosphate and the acid phosphate, and this is said to have undergone “reversion.” The new compound being called “reverted phosphates.” The latter product is supposed to be more available to the plant than the insoluble or natural phosphate, hence, the soluble and reverted phosphoric acid taken together are known as the “available phosphoric acid.”

Sometimes, bone meal is treated with a limited amount of sulphuric acid and the product is called “acidulated bone.” This contains a much smaller proportion of its phosphoric acid in soluble form, than does the rock superphosphate. When soluble phosphates are added to the soil, they combine soon with the mineral matter and are converted, first into the reverted phosphate, and finally into the insoluble form, such as is found naturally in the soil. In this way the phosphoric acid is fixed and there is no danger of its being lost by leaching.

The soluble phosphate present in acidulated goods is generally considered the most favorable form of phosphoric acid for use as a fertilizer.

At first sight it seems useless to go to the expense of making the phosphate soluble when it is again rendered insoluble by the soil, before the plant can make use of it. The true object in making it soluble is to aid in its distribution to the soil and thence to the plant.

When an insoluble phosphate is applied it remains where it falls, except for the slight distribution it receives by cultivating. In the case of the soluble phosphate, on the other hand, the phosphate dissolves in the soil water, and is widely distributed before it becomes fixed by the soil. In the former, also, the roots must go to the phosphate, while in the latter, the phosphate is carried to the roots.

It will therefore be observed that after the soluble phosphate is distributed throughout the soil, the individual particles must be very much smaller than is the case with the insoluble phosphate. The importance of fineness of division can not be too strongly emphasized.

Too much stress cannot be laid upon the need of intelligent use of fertilizers. A little expense and effort in carefully analyzing the soil to be treated, proving its component parts and proportions, then leaving what should be added to result in the largest production of the crops desired. No guessing nor conjecture should be indulged in, it can only lead to disaster, whereas a little scientific investigation and analysis will render success certain.

Analysis alone will not suffice. Actual testing of the various classes of soil, dividing same into small blocks and using different proportions of fertilizers on some, none on others, will insure the best results.

Farmers are furnished with a great variety of so-called fertilizers of greater or less merit, and a vast variety of mixtures almost too numerous to classify, many of which I regret to state are not at all what they are represented to be, and often are worth less than one-third the price charged therefor. No one should under any circumstances be induced to purchase anything claimed to be a fertilizer, without first having had an analysis made of the same by some chemist of unimpeachable integrity. A failure or refusal to observe this precaution will be certain to defeat the purpose in view and result in loss, instead of the gain desired. There can be no good excuse given for the unfair adulteration of fertilizers, because the supply of basic material is abundant, cheap, and can be reasonably transported, leaving a good profit for all dealers, when an absolutely pure article. As the product is now sold it ranges from 1 to 3 per cent ammonia, 6 to 12 per cent phosphoric acid, 4 to 10 per cent potash.

The unit basis of purchase is a fair one to both vendor and vendee. A unit means 1 per cent on the basis of a ton, or twenty pounds.

For example, a unit of available phosphoric acid would be twenty pounds, and if the quotation was $1.00 a unit, the phosphoric acid would cost five cents a pound. The system is applied to the sale of nitrate of soda, the potash salt, blood, meat, tankage, superphosphate, etc., and in nitrogenous goods the price is usually stated as so much a unit of ammonia.

The number of units in the material is determined by chemical analysis. This system could be applied as well to mixed as unmixed goods. But home mixing would prove by far the wisest policy, as none of the frauds common to commercial fertilizers could then be perpetrated.

It is little less than idiocy to buy any mixed fertilizer for any specific tract of land, because you may be paying for an excess of many elements, when the addition of some one single acid, such as sulphuric, for instance, would double its production. Lime, marl, muck, wood or coal ashes only would at times produce better results than the most perfect and elaborate mixed fertilizer.

Apropos of this subject, permit me to call attention to a little work of great value to every farmer. None should be without it. _Viz._, A treatise on “American Manures, and Farmers’ and Planters’ Guide,” by Wm. H. Buckner, Analytical Consulting Chemist, and J. B. Chynoweth, Eng., published in Philadelphia.

The great lawyer, Theodore Cuylor, and others, give this work unqualified approval, and any farmer, after its perusal, is amply advised as to the many frauds perpetrated in the name of fertilization, and can guard against being victimized thereby.

To attempt to deal with the fertilization question without giving ample scope to the question of water supply, would be a waste of effort, as water is the most important of all elements to be considered.

Not all land is to be benefited by irrigation, but vastly more is improved than is generally supposed. There are few sections where the natural supply is precipitated at the right time, and in proper proportion, and wherever this is the case irrigation can be profitably resorted to always, providing the supply can be economically obtained and distributed.

For example, take the rich Willamette valley in Oregon, where the rainfall is excessive during the entire spring, but little or none falls during the summer months, and it has been proven that larger or more frequent crops can be raised there with irrigation, even in this “Web-foot state.”

Perfect production is only attainable when control of all the elements is possible, and this can be accomplished only in a hot house or conservatory. But the nearest approach thereto in the open, is in an almost rainless country, where the sunshine is constant by day, the soil fertile, and irrigation possible.

Where these conditions prevail, as in Sinaloa, Mexico, as many as three crops a year can be produced upon the same area, and it is safe to state that there are few regions where the irrigation of the land will not prove beneficial. In most instances the providing of irrigation carries with it the necessity for a drainage system as well. It is not the placing of water on the land which causes the benefit, but the passage of the water through the soil, carrying the fertility or plant food to the roots, hence flow must be kept up, and often this can only be insured by providing a drainage system.

Our country is so new, and our soil was so fertile originally, that abundant crops were produced thereon for many years, but this constant cropping of the same product, year after year, has exhausted vast areas and their life must be renewed.

Fertilizers are abundant and accessible in the United States and can be laid down on any farm near to lines to transportation, and if of genuine character and properly applied, crops can be doubled or better each season.

Professor Hopkins of the Illinois university more than doubled the production of wheat on a certain tract of land under this supervision. The natural yield was about twenty-four bushels; fertilized, fifty-six bushels per acre.

Although the phosphate deposits now known to exist are of vast area, it was not until 1889 that the Florida deposits were accepted as valuable and extensive.

Pebble deposits of Florida are supposed to underlie an area of about 2,000 square miles, and are on lands about 160 feet above sea level.

Over-burden:

1. Soil and subsoil, few inches to six feet.

2. A light colored sand, few inches to ten feet.

3. Stiff clay vari-colored at times, capping of sandstone color
brown to pure white.

MATRIX 212°.

Organic matter 2.40
Phosphoric acid 15.29
Carbonic acid 6.70
Lime 20.00
Iron and aluminum 13.06
Fluoride and magnesia .60
Insoluble silica and sand 41.95
------
100.00
Equivalent to tribasic phosphate of lime 32.33
Equivalent to carbonate of lime 15.20

Land pebbles average from 65 to 70 per cent tribasic phosphate of lime.

River pebbles are of the same origin, but slightly less value, 60 per cent to 63 per cent phosphate of lime. The whole Peninsula of Florida is underlaid with white limestone of the Vicsburg age (Lower Eocene), according to Professor Lyall, upper middle Eocene, according to American geologists, which is the oldest rock in Florida. Florida was submerged until the end of the Eocene period, after which its elevation occurred. Then came the Miocene submergence followed by a second elevation, next the Champlain period and submergence, when it was covered with a mantle of sand and clay, before it arose to its present elevation.

The phosphate pebbles were formed before this last submergence, and hence washed into the depressions of limestone and over same.

ANALYSIS GRAVEL ROCK.

_Many Samples._

Phosphoric acid 36.08
Carbonate of lime 2.17
Oxide of iron and aluminum 1.94
Silica 4.50
Moisture 2.50

European Analysis of some organic matter—water.

Voelker Gilbert Marat
Phosphoric acid 36.56 36.33 36.84
Lime 52.08
Oxide of iron 1.36
Aluminum 1.39
Magnesia carb. phos 7.17
Insoluble 0.85
-----
100.
Tribasic phosphate of lime 79.81 79.31 80.43

Early in this century the marl beds of New Jersey were worked and used for fertilization. This led to the discovery of similar deposits in South Carolina. One Lardue Venaxen, who made the first geological survey in 1826, discovered same, but no work was done until 1842, when Edward Ruffin of Virginia confirmed the reports of previous explorers.

First carbonate of lime only was evolved; 20 per cent up to 90 per cent, but later from 2 per cent to 9 per cent of phosphate of lime was found by Dr. C. W. Sheppard and J. Lawrence Smith, Esq.

During the war, nodules and strata of rock phosphate were found by Dr. N. A. Pratt near Ashley River.

It was not until April 14, 1868, that any systematic production of phosphate was accomplished in South Carolina, when the first cargo was shipped from Charleston and the arrival of same created a veritable epidemic of phosphate fever in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other cities.

ANALYSIS.

_Mean of many hundreds of samples._

[1]Phosphoric acid from 25.0 per cent to 28.00 per cent
[2]Carbon acid from 2.50 per cent to 5.00 per cent
Sulphuric acid from 0.50 per cent to 2.00 per cent
Lime from 35.00 per cent to 42. per cent
Magnesia traces
Aluminum traces
Sesqui oxide of iron 1.00 to 4.00 per cent
Fluoride 1.00 to 2.00 per cent
Sand and silica 4.00 to 12.00 per cent
Organic matter and water.

[1] Equivalent to 55 to 61 per cent tribasic phosphate of lime.

[2] Equivalent to 5 to 11 per cent carbonate of lime.

In 8 per cent there was shipped from

Florida 250,000 tons
North Carolina 150,000 tons
South Carolina 200,000 tons
Alabama 125,000 tons
Virginia 150,000 tons
Mississippi 50,000 tons
Louisiana 25,000 tons
Tennessee 25,000 tons
-------
975,000 tons

In Ontario there exists one area of from seventy-five to one hundred square miles, and another from fifteen to twenty-five miles wide, and 100 miles long of commercial phosphate.

It is found in many other places, but not proven.

Here it occurs in flint and has been worked by farmers in a desultory way, costing much and yielding little profit to the operators.

On the Lievre River, two and one-half miles from Highfall and twenty miles from Bushman, there was the famous Watt mine, where, from a cone-shaped mountain, a vast amount of pure apatite was mined, once called “Emerald.” Quite a number of deposits have been worked in Canada, but not any with great profit.

ANALYSIS.

Phosphoric acid 40.868
Fluoride 3.731
Chloride 0.428
Carbonic acid 0.105
Lime 48.475
Calcium 4.168
Magnesia 0.158
Alumina 0.835
Sesqui oxide 0.005
Insoluble 1.150
-------
100.823

Tribasic = 89.219

About the year 1880 a stratum of calcium phosphate was discovered near Mount Fairview, Tennessee. At first it was not believed to be of great extent, or good quality, but ere long both were abundantly proven, and a large quantity of high grade phosphates was mined.

But owing to the rush of producers in every direction, without any system or unity of action, the crazy competitors soon glutted the market, forcing the price down below cost of production.

Of recent years, a few big operators have gathered in most of the choice areas, and by introducing up-to-date methods, etc., have gradually brought the production down to a normal basis, and the price up to a profitable figure.

The volume of deposit in this region is very great, extending from about ten miles south of Mount Pleasant to the line of the Tennessee Central Railway and beyond, and a width of over fifty miles.

In and about Mount Pleasant the deposit lies under a very thin over-burden, often only the surface soil of ten feet thickness or width, a layer of from two to eight feet of white sandstone beneath this, the substratum of limestone being near the surface, and of vast thickness. Also somewhat uneven or undulating, making depressions of twenty-five feet at times, which are in turn filled with the phosphate deposit.

As the topography becomes uneven the plains cease and foothills occur, the character of the over-burden changes and that of the phosphate likewise.

As an elevation of 600 feet above sea level is reached, and exceeded, the over-burden becomes of greater thickness, and chert or flint and some limestone and conglomerate overlie the phosphate.

In and about Mount Pleasant the deposit is mixed with sand and is soft and easily excavated from the surface, whereas in the higher altitude, the same becomes hard as stone and has to be excavated by tunneling under the chert, as drift mining is done.

The protection of this latter deposit from atmospheric action and percolating waters, both, or with the compression, renders the phosphate of higher class. Although the stratum is not so thick as out in the valley, it ranges from two to six feet. Two is a fair mean. Quite an extensive area of this deposit has been bought or leased by a Cincinnati company, which plans to develop same upon an intelligent modern plan and gradually upon a large scale.

At Mount Pleasant, Mr. John Ruhm, Jr., a college-bred man of rare intellect and great capacity, has devoted many years to a study and operation of his phosphate deposits, in the most scientific manner possible. He has kept in close touch with the most advanced men of the age, such as Prof. Hopkins of the State University of Illinois, who has given more time to the study and practice of fertilization than any man in the United States. Prof. Hopkins finds it necessary to reduce the phosphates to a 100-mesh fineness to enable him to obtain the best results, and Mr. Ruhm has for years been experimenting with the grinding machinery to discover the best and cheapest for this purpose. Only this year, in July, did he discover that the “Hardinge” tube-mill is, in all respects, the best machine tested. He got 90 per cent duty from over 200 tons a day at 100-mesh, and some of this over 200-mesh fineness; 100-mesh is possible, grinding the same either wet or dry.

I had the good fortune to witness these July tests and can confirm Mr. Ruhm’s claims for his process, which he does not selfishly try to keep, but generously gives to all who ask information.

The Tennessee phosphates of commerce are not quite as high grade, and do not command as high a price as others, but this is entirely due to the careless preparation of same for market. So soon as Mr. Ruhm’s plan is followed, the grade will be raised, and price follow to topmost.

ANALYSIS.

Phosphoric acid 36.33
Lime 52.08
Oxide of iron 1.36
Aluminum 1.39
Magnesia and carbonic acid 7.17
Insoluble 0.85
-----
99.19

The above represents a mean of about thirty analyses of samples taken from over a 10,000 acre area, principally from exposed outcrop, hence a test of protected product would give larger percentages.

As the United States Geological Survey has not been extended over the area embracing a large part of these phosphate lands, one can only conjecture concerning their scope although it is safe to assume it to be very great.

I believe this crude treatment of this question will suffice to suggest two important facts:

First. That we have available in this country an abundant supply of phosphates to enable us to replenish the fertility of our soils at a reasonable cost.

Second. That this feature should be carefully studied by every farmer in the country, and the maximum result obtained from every acre tilled and every day’s labor performed.

In addition to the deposits of phosphate in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming, which only need equal transportation facilities to introduce their product, we must have others, as yet undiscovered, because few laymen, and not all engineers, recognize the deposit when found, and it is not always discoverable without excavation where it does exist.

“A little farm well tilled” can be made to produce more abundantly, more profitably, than one larger and less effectively handled, hence no matter how rich and fertile nature may have made your farm, it is hardly possible that it may not be improved and reward you abundantly for it.

During the summer of 1911, I had the good fortune to be employed to examine an area of phosphate deposit some fifty miles above Mount Pleasant in Tennessee, and, in order to better understand the subject, first visited Mount Pleasant and vicinity to note conditions, progress, etc., hence my data relative to this section is fresh and new.

I know I am justified in asserting that there is a vast field for the exploitation of this valuable deposit in this region, with ample assurance of the development of a vast area that can be profitably worked.

One thing is certain, nowhere can the deposit be more fully determined, and nowhere be more economically worked, hence this region should become the most productive of any ere long.

Over an extensive area there is spread out a layer or blanket of this phosphate rock, lying under a huge mass of chert or flint rock and resting on a bed of shale or slate, which in turn rests upon a vast bed of limestone several hundred feet deep.

The phosphate seam is from six inches to four feet in thickness and lies about 600 feet above sea level and about 150 feet above the valleys that cut through it, so that tunnels can readily be run in under the seam at any desired place, and the phosphate be stoped out _ad libitum_.

Only a very small portion of the country has been surveyed by the United States Geological Survey, hence but little is known of its contents and characteristics.

But my investigations prove that a very large area contains this deposit, extending for many miles east and west and north and south from Boma on the Tennessee Central as a center.

It is therefore quite certain that there is no dearth of this commodity, and there is not likely to be for many years to come, as other deposits are likely to be discovered as the known ones are exhausted.

Now! the moral of the foregoing: We have available at reasonable cost the elements to reënrich our soil. Hence, our farmers should first cultivate their minds, that they may be able to discover in what elements their soil is defective, or what is wanting, to enable them to get best results. A very liberal education should be obtained, if possible, for in no walk of life is a greater scope of knowledge required and profitable to a farmer. Then, the farmers should unite all over the country to endeavor to elevate and ennoble labor and the laborers, which can be done only by example, by acts and deeds, not by preaching.

Every honor, reward and benefit of every character should be open to and be given the farmer and artisan laborer, and, in the degree that each deserves credit for work well done, the reward should follow.

Why not offer prizes for workers? Why not fill all of our executive and administrative government bodies with the best farmers, business men, carpenters, etc., instead of lawyers? Just think of it. Everyone knows lawyers are proverbially poor business men. Yet our Nation, states, counties and cities all are governed principally by men who privately are considered as inferior business men.

By compelling the lawyers by some labor, some successful work, to first prove their business ability and capacity, and making labor—work—the honest, real basis for the elevation of men and women to places of trust and profit, and by this course only can labor be exalted and every child in the land be led to look with pride and pleasure upon the laborers, who are the true bone and sinew of the world.

Preaching that “labor is ennobling,” then bestowing honor and benefits upon those who never have cheerfully done a day’s hard work will not exalt the laborer.

Let us get back to the farm and honor the farmer, that our days may be long in the land that the Lord has given us, and let the laborer be truly ennobled.

If farmers “were the founders of civilization,” as Mr. Webster states, then are they also the main pillars supporting the same, and should be looked up to, be honored and rewarded as such. And far above any lawyer, merchant or millionaire, we can trust our workingmen and women. Let us try it at once, one and all of us.

ADDRESS.

BY E. G. GRIGGS, _President of the National Lumbermen’s Manufacturing Association_

It was my pleasure to attend the Second Annual Conservation Congress a year ago in St. Paul. That I am here today representing a lumber producing delegation would intimate that my interest in these proceedings is at least perennial. I deplored the introduction of politics and regretted the delay in publication of the excellent reports submitted with leave to print at the Congress. Just recently I have read the many excellent technical reports, the discussion of which I deemed of more importance to the upbuilding of the conservation movement than the political outbursts that rankle in our breasts and tend to array class against class. Conservation is education, and we all have something to learn. The experience of the older and great states of this Union should profit the younger and perhaps greater.

As a lumberman, conservation to me is not a theory. It is the proper utilization of a great heritage and the elimination of waste in the process of manufacturing and logging. What theory is more vital commercially to the lumberman than that? The establishment of values will determine to what extent conservation will be practiced and reforestation followed. When men devoted to the general welfare of these United States are giving liberally of their time and money and energy to protect the vast resources of this country from wasteful extravagance, I feel it is little enough to expect those who are actively engaged in commercial enterprises to second their efforts.

The importance of sane laws and wise legislation must be apparent to all of us. Unless the business interests of the country heed the call and guide the effort, an outraged public will some day awaken to its lost opportunities.

As an official of the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, I feel that we, as lumbermen, are vitally interested in the proceedings of this Congress. I come to you from a state that stands in the front rank as a lumber producer—a citizenship interested from its lowliest to its highest in the proper utilization of its wonderful forest growth. It is true that there is a divergence of opinion among some of our Washington state officials as to state and federal control—but to me, the important issue seems a national one. The value of our timber resources is determined altogether by the demand existing outside our own states. If conservation depends on values, then I say the price you in the Middle West must pay for lumber has a great deal to do with reforestation and utilization of our raw product. It is therefore entirely a national issue, and the question of supply and demand, that inexorable commercial law, concerns us all.

I am a strong believer in the knowledge of conditions and in the benefits of coöperation. The final outcome of the reciprocity pact, conceived, as it was, in secret, emphasizes the fact that our Canadian brethren intend to adopt a conservative policy of their own. As a lumberman, I have never agreed with our honored President in the belief that the trade was a good one for us. To a man not concerned in politics, it seemed that our Canadian traders out-traded the Yankee. Why the argument for a permanent tariff commission, non-partisan and thoroughly competent, should apply on wool, cotton, steel and not on lumber, hardly appeals to me. Now that we know where we stand, is it not high time the tariff issues be studied as in foreign countries, particularly Germany, by a body of experts permanently engaged, that Congress hear and discuss officially its report and that facts be placed before the people? I am democratic enough to still believe in the great American people.

No industry not unduly protected need fear the light or a business upheaval. Today a presidential year causes stagnation in business, either assumed or real. Our country never will settle the tariff issue right until business integrity governs. The revelation in accumulated wealth and control of millions can only be justified if our country prospers. Neither should the people be taxed to accumulate swollen fortunes. The prices at which the same commodities are sold to the people of different nations ought to determine the tariff issue. America is for Americans; let us develop our latent resources, not squander our heritage with prodigality. Golden opportunities or luxurious surroundings do not warrant idleness, but rather a higher sense of individual and national responsibilities. To get the best out of that which we have should concern us all.

Our taxation problems, the methods which have prevailed so long, do not encourage timber holding. Lumbermen have one crop and yearly taxes, while the farmer has yearly taxes and annual crops. A timber investment of $5,000, say at $1.50 per thousand, with taxes and interest compounded, in twenty years will equal $7.50 per thousand, allowing no profit at all, nor considering the fire risk. In President Taft’s address a year ago, he says that “States must legislate to protect their individual holdings from waste and private greed.” Had the Reciprocity Agreement become a law, the Nation would have been responsible for an increased competition and uncalled for development of timber resources in no way beneficial to the United States, except those speculators who have invested in British Columbia timber. The development of Canadian timber holdings will not save our trees as long as growing trees are taxed, capital invested and timber is sold on time contracts. The more competition, the more will be left in the woods, as only in the higher grades will there be profit. Lumber is constantly rising in value because of its increasing inaccessibility and the distance it has to travel to market.

Why deprive our great lumber producing states of the great purchasing power resulting from the manufacture of this resource? Over three-quarters of the cost at the mill of one thousand feet of lumber represents pay roll, and to the Western states this means outside capital. Of the money received for 1,000 feet of 2×4’s delivered on a fifty-cent rate of freight today, the railroad takes $13.00 freight money, leaving $7.00 to pay for logging, manufacturing, selling and stumpage. What your retailers charge I do not know. As manufacturers, we have no trust controlled product and do not control the price to the consumer. Suffice it to say that there is little or no margin in the price of common lumber today to the manufacturer. A comparison of the selling prices at home and abroad, with due regard for grades furnished, should determine the existence of a lumber trust, and the same reasoning applies conversely to steel and other industries. Harassed as the industry has been by government proceedings and investigation of alleged trust and monopoly, we feel that a great injustice is being done that should be righted. If the marketing through retailers is not legal, I predict a commercial upheaval is due in all lines of industry.

Reforestation will come when it is profitable—when the land is more suitable to grow trees on than to sow annual crops or build cities. The methods followed in the East will not apply to the South and West. The character of the timber must be studied to determine how it can be profitably handled. Its proximity to market, and the rail and water haul are to be considered. This was emphasized in the Congress last year and is more apparent today, as the completion of the Panama Canal approaches. It was stated that adequate and economical transportation facilities are viewed among the means of conservation, and realizing that the growth of the country has exceeded its transportation facilities, I trust a comprehensive resolution will be adopted by this Congress regarding the Panama Canal tolls. With our coastwise shipping laws and regulations governing shipments from one American port to another, the benefits of this canal will be seriously menaced unless Congress acts intelligently in the matter, and with due regard to the development of our country. If we are to have tariff revision or free trade, let us at least be consistent and give to our own manufacturers access to ships on a competitive basis.

In my judgment, it will not do to merely resolute and spread high sounding, well-meaning platitudes on the records; we should organize to actively acquaint our citizenship throughout the states with the prevailing conditions and the benefits to be derived through experience of others and knowledge of conditions. Educate the people, and a great public sentiment will demand improved conditions. The efforts of conservationists are often misjudged because considered impractical. I say eliminate the visionary and theoretical, get down to the practical and immediate remedies. We will have a movement so widespread and effective that the Nation will rejoice and problems undreamed of now will be solved by an enlightened, unprejudiced public.

We should encourage men and money in the development of our resources, but by wise supervision control their operations. This government is bigger than any of its component parts, and not only have railroads and corporations felt its guiding hand to their betterment, but the court of final resort must always and forever be the people of this, our native land.

Let us strive for the highest type of citizenship which demands the best that is in us, and we will play our part in the ascendency of the star of the greatest of empires—the American Republic.

INCREASING THE YIELD BY PROPER CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL

BY A. M. TEN EYCK, _Professor of Farm Management Kansas State Agricultural College and Superintendent Fort Hays Branch Experiment Station._

How to increase the acre yield of staple crops is the important problem which the American farmer must solve in order that the world may not go hungry, and also that his own prosperity may continue. The average crop yields in this country are too low. It is possible to double our acre-yields of staple crops by adopting better farming methods.

There are three principal factors which have to do with increasing crop yields: (1) increasing the productive power of the land by fertilizing the soil; (2) planting seed of high-bred and better producing varieties; (3) practicing proper and more thorough cultivation of the soil.

The work in testing varieties and breeding crops at the Kansas Experiment Station has shown that it is possible to increase the average yield of the standard crops in this state twenty-five per cent by the single factor of introducing and planting pure seed of well-bred and high producing varieties. To illustrate,[3] one of the improved varieties of winter wheat grown on the Kansas Agricultural College farm actually produced twelve and one-half bushels more grain per acre each year, or a net profit of nearly $7.00 per acre per annum, as an average for three years, above that produced by common scrub wheat of the same type. Farmers all over the state who have planted this improved wheat have reported similar results, the increase in yield from the well-bred wheat being often much larger than the differences secured at the station. It is hard to believe that one variety of wheat, improved by breeding and selection, will outyield another strain of the same variety, which has not been improved, as much as fifty per cent; but a large number of reports from reliable Kansas farmers indicate that this has occurred, when the two strains of wheat were grown in the same field side by side.

[3] See Kansas Experiment Station Bulletin 144.

Corn is more susceptible to soil and climatic changes than wheat, so that the well-bred seed does not always give the best results from the first year’s planting; but breeding will tell in the corn crop, as shown by experiments at the Kansas Station,[4] in which the high-yielding row, seed has produced from ten to twenty per cent larger yields per acre, and twenty-five to thirty-five per cent more good seed ears than the average corn from which the improved strain was originated.

[4] See Bulletin 147.

The possibilities along this line of increasing the yield of corn by the planting of better seed are shown by the reports which have been received from Kansas farmers, reporting sixty and eighty-bushel yields where the average for the county was twenty or thirty bushels.

The soil of our western states is abundantly fertile; but mismanagement and continuous cropping with corn and wheat have reduced its productive power. It is possible by the proper use of barnyard manure to double the yield of corn and increase the yield of wheat thirty-three per cent, as shown by the results of the experiments at the Station. A single experiment in manuring wheat land previous to planting to alfalfa increased the wheat yield thirty-three per cent, and doubled the crops of alfalfa for the first two years after seeding, making a total increase in the returns per acre of nearly $45.00 for the three years, or $15.00 net increase per annum.[5]

[5] See Kansas Experiment Bulletin 155.

It is possible by a proper rotation of crops, including alfalfa, clover and grasses, to double the productive capacity of thousands of acres of our western corn and wheat lands. This is shown by the experiments at the Kansas Station and by the reports of farmers. In 1906, a careful investigation of the corn yields of Jewell County, Kansas, made by Hon. J. W. Berry, formerly a member of the board of regents of the Kansas State Agricultural College, showed that the average yield from land previously in alfalfa was over eighty bushels per acre, while similar land on the same farm and adjoining farms, which had not been in alfalfa, yielded less than sixty bushels per acre on the average, and the average yield of corn in Jewell County for that year was less than thirty bushels per acre.

It has been shown by the experiments carried on for the last six years at the Station that it is possible to increase the yield of corn ten per cent simply by practicing better methods of preparing the seed-bed. When corn has been planted with the lister, winter or early spring plowing or listing of the ground previous to the planting has given an increase in crop as an average for six years, amounting to six bushels of corn per acre each year, as compared with ground which received no cultivation previous to planting.

Different methods of cultivation of corn, deep or shallow, etc., have not affected the yield so much as different methods of preparing the seed-bed, except where the cultivation of the corn was neglected. The lack of sufficient cultivation means greatly reduced yields or crop failure.

It is possible to increase the wheat yield of Kansas fifty per cent by practicing better methods of seed-bed preparation. As an average for two years’ trials, 1908 and 1909, at the Station the yield of wheat due to preparation of seed-bed alone varied from 21.6 to 37.4 bushels per acre, an increase of seventy-three per cent in yield due to the better preparation of the seed-bed.[6]

[6] See Kansas Experiment Station Circular, 2.

In 1911, one of the driest years which Kansas has ever experienced, this experiment was repeated with remarkable results. The most poorly prepared seed-bed (ground disked, not plowed) yielded a little over four bushels of wheat per acre, while the largest yield was thirty-eight bushels per acre from early deep plowing, which received frequent cultivation after plowing until seeding time. Ordinary loose ground, plowed late, yielded fourteen bushels per acre, while ground cultivated early with the lister plow and leveled with the disk harrow gave thirty-five bushels per acre. The better methods of seed-bed preparation employed in these experiments are such as may be successfully practiced throughout the Western winter wheat belt.

Of the three factors concerned with increasing the acre-yields, the last named, “Practicing Proper and More Thorough Cultivation of the Soil,” is the simplest and most readily applied. Probably more low yields and crop failures are due to insufficient or improper cultivation than to any other single factor over which the farmer has control in the production of any particular crop. With a soil of average fertility, the preparation of the seed-bed by the proper tillage and cultivation methods very largely determines the yield of the crop.

There are four important objects to be accomplished by cultivating the soil: 1. To secure a proper physical condition of the soil favorable to sprouting seed and promoting plant growth. 2. To kill weeds. 3. To conserve soil moisture. 4. To develop or prepare plant food.

The texture of the soil is nearly always more important than mere richness. Many “worn” lands have simply been robbed of their organic matter, often still containing an abundant supply of the mineral elements of plant food. Others have been injured in texture and hence in productiveness by careless or faulty management.

The maintenance and improvement of soil texture are more dependent upon plowing than upon any other operation of tillage. A finely divided, mellow soil is more productive than a hard lumpy one of the same chemical composition, because it affords greater feeding ground and more favorable environment for the plant roots; absorbs and retains more moisture, has better aeration, and less variable extremes of temperature. Also, because it promotes nitrification and the development of available plant food by giving favorable conditions for the development of soil bacteria, and for the decomposition and solution of the soil minerals. In all these ways and others, “mellowness” renders plant food more available and affords a more congenial, comfortable place in which the plants may grow.

Plowing, especially in the spring, tends to ventilate, warm and dry the seed-bed, and if properly done, lessens evaporation from the deeper soil by the development of a soil mulch above it.

Deep plowing brings up new stores of inert plant food, enlarges the moisture reservoir, deepens the seed-bed, gives more root room and more material for the soil bacteria to work over into available plant food. Deep plowing or subsoiling also serves to break up the plant food, to break up the “furrow-sole” or “hard-pan,” thus loosening up compact, impervious, clayey subsoils.

Plowing is an efficient means of destroying weeds and many kinds of injurious insects which prey on farm crops. Hard, clayey or “gumbo” soils are mellowed by late fall or winter plowing, and further, proper and timely plowing is the most efficient and practical means of preparing a suitable seed-bed for nearly all farm crops. Too many farmers who have allowed their land to become deficient in fertility seek to restore its productivity by application of expensive commercial fertilizers, without first putting it in good tilth. This is a great mistake. The way to treat such land is to “plow” it well, and work up a physical condition suitable for the best growth of crops. After all this is done, the application of concentrated commercial fertilizers may give profitable returns.

In order to secure the ideal condition for seed germination and plant growth, a seed-bed for planting small seeds should not be too deep and loose; rather the soil should be mellow, but well pulverized only about as deep as the seed is planted. Below the depth at which the seed is planted it should be firm and well settled, making a good connection with the subsoil, so that the water stored therein may be drawn up into the surface.

The firm soil below the seed, well connected with the subsoil, supplies the moisture to the seed, while the mellow soil above it allows sufficient circulation of air to supply oxygen and favors warming by gathering the heat of the sunshine during the day and acting as a blanket to conserve the soil heat, maintaining a more uniform temperature during the night.

The mellow soil above the seed conserves the moisture, acting as a mulch to keep the water from reaching the surface, where it would be rapidly lost by evaporation. The same condition favors the upward growth of the young shoots into the air and sunshine.

The loose, deep seed-bed is almost wholly dependent upon rains for sufficient moisture to germinate the seed and start the young plant. If the crop starts, it is very apt to be injured by short periods of dry weather, because of the rapid drying out of the loose surface soil. In such a seed-bed the crop is more apt to “burn out” in the summer, or “freeze out” in winter, than a crop grown in the “ideal” seed-bed described above.

It should not be inferred from this description of the “ideal” seed-bed that the soil should not be plowed deeply; rather, deep plowing should be encouraged, but timely, so that the soil may settle and fill with moisture, and such cultivation should be given after plowing, so as to secure a favorable physical condition of the seed-bed.

So far as cultivation is concerned there are three principal steps in the conservation of soil moisture:

1. The soil must be loosened to a considerable depth in order to prepare a reservoir to receive the rain and carry the water downward. This may be accomplished by deep plowing, by listing, or by disking unplowed lands.

2. The water which is carried down into the subsoil must be brought back again into the surface where the seed is germinating and the young roots are growing, and to accomplish this a good connection must be made between the furrow-slice and the subsoil, and this is the purpose in the use of the subsurface packer immediately after plowing.

3. Finally, in order that the water which is drawn up again towards the surface may not reach the air and be wasted by evaporation, the upper two or three inches of the soil must be kept mellow in the form of a soil mulch, and this is accomplished in the growing of crops, by frequent cultivation, which is not so practicable with wheat, and other small grains, as with corn and other intertilled crops.

The most important step in soil moisture conservation is to get the water into the soil. When this has been accomplished, the keeping it there and returning it gradually to the growing crop is a relatively simple matter. Many farmers have yet failed to learn this most important fact of dry farming, that the storing of the moisture is the first and great principle of soil moisture conservation. The firming and pulverizing to prepare the seed-bed, and the surface cultivation to maintain the mulch, are each without avail unless there has been stored in the deeper soil a sufficient amount of moisture to support the growing crop in time of drouth.

Now the moisture should be stored at all times during the season, but especially during the interval between harvest and planting. This requires early plowing so that the soil may be in condition to catch the rain and absorb it.

In order that there may be room to receive and store a heavy rain, deep plowing is desirable. If plowing can not be done early, the cultivation of the unplowed land with a disk harrow will keep the soil in good condition longer and favors the absorption of rain.

A good rule, but it cannot always be followed, is to plow when the soil is in such condition that it will drop from the mold-board in a mellow, friable condition.

Loosening the soil by deep plowing favors the absorption of moisture, but if rains do not come in time such land will suffer from drought more quickly than though it had been plowed shallow.

The loose soil dries out and capillarity is broken, preventing the furrow-slice from receiving moisture from the subsoil rapidly enough to sustain the growing crop. The depth and frequency of plowing should vary according to the nature of the soil. A light or sandy soil requires less depth of plowing and less frequent plowing than a heavy, or compact clayey or “gumbo” soil.

As a general proposition, plowing should be shallow when it precedes planting only a short time.

Plow deep in the fall, and plow deep for summer fallow.

A long interval between plowing and seeding allows the soil to settle sufficiently, while freezing and thawing mellow the raw, hard subsoil which has been brought to the surface.

The relative depths of plowing may be stated as follows:

Shallow plowing 3 to 4 inches.
Medium plowing 5 to 6 inches.
Deep plowing 7 to 8 inches.

Plowing deeper than eight inches with the common plow is not usually practicable, but the soil may be stirred twelve to eighteen inches deep with a tillage plow or subsoil plow, and in heavy soil with hard, compact subsoil, such deep stirring may occasionally be desirable.

When land is allowed to lie for a considerable period after plowing before the crop is planted, the settling of the soil, together with the surface cultivation to preserve the mulch and the cementing due to rain, usually causes it to repack and firm up to a sufficient extent to make a good seed-bed.

The use of the packer is most essential on late spring plowing, when the purpose is to plant at once. It is not so necessary to use the subsurface packer on fall plowing which is not intended to be planted until the following spring, but for sowing fall wheat, if the plowing precedes the sowing by a very short interval, the subsurface packer may be used very advantageously.

The principle involved in the use of the subsurface packer is correct, and the lighter the soil and the greater its tendency to remain loose and mellow the more necessary becomes the use of the subsurface packer or similar implement, in order to prepare a proper seed-bed.

In plowing under trash or manure, subsurface packing, by pulverizing the bottom of the furrow-slice, sifts the soil through the coarse trash and causes a better union with the subsoil below, so that the capillary water may be drawn up into the surface, whereas, if a heavy coat of stubble or manure plowed under in this way is left without packing or pulverizing, the furrow-slice is apt to dry out and the crop that is growing on the land may be injured by a short interval of dry weather.

By setting the disks rather straight and weighting the harrow, a disc-harrow may be used as a substitute for the subsurface packer, resulting in a pulverizing and firming effect at the bottom of the furrow-slice. Very often, however, early plowing, with the proper use of the common harrow, may largely accomplish the results required in preparing a proper seed-bed. It is usually advisable to weight or ride the common straight-tooth harrow in order to cause it to stir and pulverize the soil deeper and prevent the “slicking” effect which is apt to result from light harrowing.

The cultivation necessary, after early plowing, to destroy weeds, in the experience of the writer, has usually been sufficient to settle and pulverize the seed-bed. For the early cultivation after a good rain and after the weeds have started, there is no implement superior to the disk harrow. The double disk which gives two cultivations and leaves the ground level, being preferred. For late cultivation the common harrow or the Acme harrow should be used with the purpose of not loosening the ground too deeply just previous to planting or seeding.

It is very essential that sufficient and proper cultivation be given to destroy weeds. This is more important than to maintain a soil mulch, since weeds exhaust both the soil moisture and the available plant food. If a proper mulch is maintained, however, the weeds will be kept in subjection. In the ideal system of culture the purpose is to keep a mellow soil mulch on the surface of the land all of the time, not only during the growing of the crop, but also in the interval between harvest and seeding time. Thus, after the corn is planted the land is cultivated with the weeder or harrow in order to break the surface crust and prevent the loss of moisture, and following out the same principle the harrowing or work with the weeder is continued after the grain or corn is up, and during the growing period frequent cultivation is required for intertilled crops.

Again, after the crop is harvested, the cultivation is continued; the land is plowed at once or listed, or the surface of the soil is loosened with the disk harrow, and thus the land is kept continually in a condition to not only prevent the loss of water already stored in the soil, but also this same condition and mellow surface favors the absorption of rain and largely prevents the loss of water by surface drainage.

The smooth, finely-pulverized surface left by continuous light harrowing really defeats the purpose of the cultivation, since soil in such condition will shed heavy rains, causing a waste of water which should have been stored, and the surface often becomes too fine and compact, preventing the proper aeration, and producing an unfavorable seed-bed condition. Thus during the interval between crops, it is often advisable to use the Acme harrow or the disk, or spring-tooth harrow, in order to keep the surface of the soil open and mellow.

A new method for preparing the seed-bed is now coming into general practice in Western Kansas. In preparing land for wheat, the plan is to list the ground with the ordinary corn lister as soon after harvest as possible. The lister furrows are run about three to three and a half feet apart, very much the same as when the lister is used for planting corn. Later, when the weeds have started, the soil is worked back into the lister furrows by means of a harrow or disk cultivator.

Several cultivations are usually required by the harrow, and disk harrow, in order to level the field and bring it into good seed-bed condition. Once over with the disk cultivator is usually considered sufficient, the further work necessary to prepare the seed-bed being given with the common harrow or other cultivating implement.

In a dry climate this method of preparing the seed-bed has several advantages, as follows:

The cultivation of the land soon after harvest tends to conserve the moisture already stored in the soil. The furrowed land is in good condition to catch and store the rain and the later cultivation clears the land of weeds and volunteer wheat and leaves a mellow soil mulch to conserve the moisture which has been stored in the subsoil. The early and continued cultivation of the soil favors the action of the bacteria and the development of available plant food.