The above fertilizer suggestions are based on the experiments covering a period of more than 25 years on a limestone soil. Soils may modify materially the amount and application of the fertilizers, but not the principles enunciated. For example, a soil on which common red clover grows luxuriantly and has a prominent place in the farm scheme will require less nitrogen in commercial fertilizers in order to maintain the fertility than where legumes are raised with difficulty or do not form a part of the farm scheme.
One of the most important points to be emphasized is the fact that haphazard fertilization is not effective in maintaining soil fertility. If one starts out to establish a five-course rotation and build up his soil through a rational system of fertilization, he will obviously not obtain the full benefit of the rotation until he begins to get crops from the second round, which will be the sixth year from the beginning. It may happen, and unfortunately it has perhaps usually happened in the past, that during the first rotation the increase in crops has not paid for the cost of the fertilizers applied. In many instances a rational system of fertilization has not been introduced because the owner of the land could not afford to wait six years for his return. Profit in farming, therefore, does not consist in raising one big crop or even in obtaining a large balance on the right side of the ledger in a single year. It is both interesting and valuable to know that five tons of timothy hay, 45 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of maize and 40 tons of cabbage may be raised on an acre, but the real profit in farming only comes through a lifetime of effort. To the man of capacity who prepares for his work the results will surely come, but they will not come all at once and, as in every other business, he must pay the price in hard work and close application to details.
In this connection it may be emphasized that one of the difficulties in successful farming is to find one man both interested and capable along the various lines essential to a successful farm enterprise. The danger is that a man will ride his hobby to the detriment of the other activities of the farm. A farmer friend of the writer, who keeps a horse and buggy, cares so little for a horse that for several years he has walked two miles each morning and each evening rather than to take the trouble to hitch up his horse. If one visits a high-grade breeder of dairy cattle, he is very apt to find his pigs of ordinary character. On the other hand, a specialist in hogs is likely to keep scrub cows. A man may be an excellent wheat raiser and a poor potato grower, and the reverse. The breeder of live stock is likely to be lacking in his methods of producing farm crops, while the up-to-date, so-called general farmer is not likely to be a special lover of live stock. In like manner, the man may be a successful farmer, dairyman or horticulturist from the producing side, but be a poor salesman. In fact, those qualities of mind and heart which make for the best success from the standpoint of production, whether soil products or animal products, is not that which makes the best trader.
It is not expected that the young farmer will be materially different from his hundreds of thousands of predecessors, but the better a man is trained and the more fully he studies his own adaptabilities and deficiencies, the more likely he is to succeed in the open country. For this reason, the young man should be careful to get as broad a training as possible. It is, therefore, often more important for him to study those things which he dislikes than to study the things for which he has a natural taste.
|
There was a man in our town
And he was wondrous wise.
He knew that if he wanted crops
Hed have to fertilize. Its nitrogen that makes things green, Said this man of active brain; And potash makes the good strong straw, And phosphate plumps the grain. But its clearly wrong to waste plant food On a wet and soggy field; Ill surely have to put in drains If Id increase the yield. And after I have drained the land I must plow it deep all over; And even then Ill not succeed Unless it will grow clover. Now, acid soils will not produce A clover sod thats prime; So if I have a sour soil, Ill have to put on lime. And after doing all these things, To make success more sure, Ill try my very best to keep From wasting the manure. So Ill drain, and lime, and cultivate, With all that that implies; And when Ive done that thoroughly Ill manure and fertilize. Vivian |
CHAPTER IX
THE ROTATION OF CROPS
The two essential reasons for a rotation of crops are: (1) The possibility of obtaining for the soil a supply of nitrogen from the air by introducing a legume at regular intervals, and (2) the prevention of injury to the crops from fungous diseases, insect enemies, weeds or other causes. Other reasons are often advanced, some of which are entirely erroneous, while others are of quite secondary importance.
The rotation should be carefully studied with reference to the farm scheme as previously outlined. Reasons for modifying the rotations are: (1) To change the kind or proportion of crops grown, (2) to change the amount of labor required, or (3) to increase the crop-producing power of the soil.