The First Book of Farming

In the use of fertilizers it should always be remembered that small crops are not always due to lack of plant food, but may be caused by an absence of the other conditions necessary for root growth and development. The soil may not be sufficiently moist to properly supply the plants with water. Too much water may check ventilation. Poor tillage may check root development. Unless the physical conditions are right the possible effects of additional plant food in the form of fertilizers are greatly diminished. The farmer who gets the largest return from fertilizers is the one who gives greatest attention to the physical properties of the soil. He makes use of organic matter and is very thorough in his methods of tillage. Every farmer should apply to his State Experiment Station for bulletins on the subject of fertilizers.

Plants, although they require the same elements of plant food, take them in different amounts and different proportions.

Plants differ in the extent and depth of root growth and therefore take food from different parts of the soil. Some are surface feeders while others feed on the deeper soil.

Plants differ in their power to take plant food from the soil; some are weak feeders, and can use only the most available food; others are strong feeders, and can use tougher plant food.

Plants vary in the amount of heat they require to carry on their growth and development.

THE ONE CROP SYSTEM

We are now ready for the question. What effect has the continuous cultivation, year after year, of the same kind of crop on the soil conditions necessary to the best growth and development of that crop or any other crop? Suppose we take cotton for example.

How does cotton growing affect soil humus?

How does cotton growing affect soil texture?

Cotton growing wastes soil humus and therefore injures soil texture by making the lighter soils more loose and open, and the heavier soils more dense and compact.

How does cotton growing affect soil water?

By wasting humus cotton growing injures soil texture and so weakens the water holding and water pumping power of light soils and weakens the water absorbing power of heavy soils. Therefore the continuous cultivation of cotton weakens the power of the soil over water, that most important factor in crop growth.

How does cotton growing affect soil ventilation?

Continuous cotton culture, by wasting humus, injures texture and therefore injures soil ventilation, causing too much ventilation in the lighter soils and too little in heavier soils.

How does cotton culture affect plant food in the soil?

Continuous cotton growing wastes plant food:

Because it wastes organic matter which contains valuable plant food, particularly nitrogen.

Because by wasting organic matter it increases the leaching of the lighter soils and the surface washing of the heavier soils.

Because its roots occupy largely the upper soil and do not make use of much food from the lower soil.

Because it is a weak feeder of phosphoric acid, and can use only that which is in the most available form. In applying fertilizer to cotton it is necessary for best results to apply at least twice as much phosphoric acid as the crop can use, because it can use only that which is in the most available form and the remainder is left in the soil unused.

Continuous cotton culture then has an injurious effect on all the important soil conditions necessary to its best growth and development, and the result is a diminishing yield or an increasing cost in maintaining fertility by the use of fertilizer.

How does continuous cotton culture affect the economics of the farm?

The injury to the soil conditions necessary to root growth diminishes the yield and therefore increases the cost of production.

The poor soil conditions tend not only to diminish yield but also to diminish the quality of the crop, which tends to lower the price received for the cotton.

Keeping the land constantly in cotton tends to increase the insect enemies and the diseases of the crop.

The continuous growing of cotton does not permit the constant employment of one set of laborers throughout the year.

The same is true with reference to home supplies. Very few vegetables are grown for the table and there is little milk, butter or eggs for home use or exchange for groceries or drygoods at the store.

Thus we see that the continuous growing of cotton on the soil, year after year, has a bad effect on conditions necessary to its best growth and development and also on the economics of the farm.

These facts are true to a greater or less degree in the case of nearly all of the farm crops. The grain crops are often considered as humus makers because of the stubble turned under, but Professor Snyder, of Minnesota, found that five years' continuous culture of wheat resulted in an annual loss of 171 pounds of nitrogen per acre, of which only 24.5 was taken by the crop, the remaining 146.5 pounds were lost through a waste of organic matter.

THE ROTATION OF CROPS

Now, suppose that instead of growing cotton on the same soil year after year, we select four crops—cotton, corn, oats and cowpea—and grow them in regular order, a rotation practiced in some parts of the South.

We will divide the farm into three fields and number them 1, 2 and 3, and will plant these crops as indicated by the following diagrams:

Plan for planting.

What effect will such a system have on the conditions necessary for plant growth? Suppose we follow the crops on Field 1. Cotton, corn, and oats are humus wasting crops but the pea crop which is grown the third year is plowed under, and largely, if not entirely, remedies the loss by furnishing a new supply of organic matter, and the ill effects which we noticed would follow the loss of organic matter due to the continuous growing of cotton are avoided, soil texture is preserved, soil ventilation is not injured, and the power of the soil over water is preserved.

What is the effect on plant food in the soil?

Before answering this question let us see what amounts of plant foods these crops take out of the soil.

We will assume that the soil is a good loam at the start and will produce:

One bale of five hundred pounds of lint cotton per acre, sixty bushels shelled corn per acre, thirty bushels oats per acre, or two tons cowpea hay per acre.

Now suppose we sell the lint of the cotton, keeping all the rest of the plant, including the seed, on the farm and turning it back into the soil.

Of the corn suppose we sell one-half the grain and keep the other half and the fodder for use on the farm.

Suppose the oats be made into oat hay and be fed on the farm and the cowpeas be turned under.

Assuming that the cowpeas take half their nitrogen from the air.

This will mean that in the course of three years we take out of the soil of each acre in the crops:

but we return to the soil in crop refuse and manure from the stock:

The plant food charged to animal products is twenty per cent. of that in the grain and forage fed to the stock.

At the end of the three years the plant food account will balance up with:

This result is of course approximate. There will be some loss of nitrogen through leaching and denitrification. Some of the potash and phosphoric acid will be converted into unavailable forms. This can be made good by applying to the cotton a fertilizer containing twenty pounds of nitrogen, sixty pounds of phosphoric acid and twenty pounds of potash.

Additional nitrogen and organic matter can be grown to turn under by planting crimson clover in the cotton at the last working for a winter cover crop to be turned under for the corn, and by planting cowpeas or soy beans between the rows of corn.

If commercial fertilizer is used on the cotton, it would be a good plan to apply the manure from the stock to the corn.

To follow our crop on Field 1 through the three years we will have, first, cotton drawing large amounts of plant food from the soil and diminishing the humus of the soil.

Growing a winter crop of crimson clover, turning back all the cotton refuse except the lint and oil, and applying the barn manure will furnish ample plant food for the corn and replenish the organic matter.

The corn is a rather stronger feeder of phosphoric acid than cotton and will be able to get sufficient from that left by the cotton.

The oats will be able to get a full ration after the corn, and the cowpeas will readily take care of themselves on the score of plant food and will put the soil in fine condition for cotton again.

The peas may be left on the ground to turn under in the spring at cotton planting time, or they may be plowed under in the early fall and a crimson clover or vetch cover crop planted, which will be plowed under for the cotton.

These same facts will be true of each of the three fields. The humus and, therefore, texture will be taken care of; ventilation, soil temperature and plant food will be controlled to advantage.

BENEFITS DERIVED FROM ROTATION OF CROPS

Rotation of crops economizes the natural plant food of the soil and also that which is applied in the form of manure and fertilizer. This is because:

Crops take food from the soil in different amounts and different proportions.

Crops differ in their feeding powers.

Crops differ in the extent and depth to which they send their roots into the soil in search of food and water.

Crops differ in the time of year at which they make their best growths.

Rotation helps to maintain or improve the texture of the soil because the amount of humus in the soil is maintained or increased by turning under green manure and cover crops which should occur in every well-planned rotation.

Rotation tends to protect crops from injurious insects and diseases. If one kind of crop is grown continuously on one piece of land the soil becomes infested with the insects and diseases which injure that particular crop. If the crop is changed, the insects and diseases find difficulty in adapting themselves to the change and consequently diminish in numbers.

Rotation helps to keep the soil free from weeds. "If the same kind of crop were grown year after year on the same field, the weeds which grow most readily along with that crop would soon take possession of the soil." For example, chick weed, dock, thistle, weeds peculiar to grain and grain crops tend to increase if the land is long occupied by these crops.

Rotation helps the farmer to make a more even distribution of labor throughout the year. This is because crops differ as to the time of year at which they are planted and harvested.

Rotation of crops enables the farmer to provide for his stock more economically. Live stock fares better on a variety of food, which is more cheaply secured by a system of rotation than otherwise.

THE TYPICAL ROTATION

A typical rotation for general farming should contain at least:

One manurial crop which is a soil enricher.

One feeding crop which diminishes fertility only a little.

One cleansing crop, a hoed or cultivated crop.

CONDITIONS WHICH MODIFY THE ROTATION

There are certain conditions which tend to modify the rotation or to influence the farmer in his choice of crops. They are as follows:

First of all the climate will set a limit on the number and varieties of crops from which a choice can be made for a given locality.

The kind of farming which he chooses to carry on, whether stock raising, grain farming, truck farming, or a combination of two or more of these, or others.

Kind of soil. Certain soils are best adapted to particular crops. For example, heavy soils are best suited to wheat, grass, clover, cabbages, etc. Light, sandy soils to early truck, certain grades of tobacco, etc.

The demand for crops and their market value.

Facilities for getting crops to market, good or bad country roads, railroads and water transportation.

The state of the land with respect to weeds, insect pests and plant diseases.

A few general rules may be made use of in arranging the order of the crops in the rotation though they cannot always be strictly followed.

Crops that require the elements of plant food in the same proportion should not follow each other.

Deep-rooted crops should alternate with shallow-rooted crops.

Humus makers should alternate with humus wasters.

Every well arranged rotation should have at least one crop grown for its manurial effect on the soil, as a crop of cowpeas, or one of clover, to be turned under.

The objection often made to this last rule is that, aside from the increase in fertility, there is no direct return for the time, labor and seed, and the land brings no crop for a year. It is not necessary to use the entire crop for green manuring—a part of it may be used for hay or for pasture with little loss of the manurial value of the crop, provided the manure from that part of the crop taken off is returned and the part of the crop not removed is turned under.

LENGTH OF THE ROTATION

A three-course rotation, popular in some parts of the country, is wheat, clover, and potatoes; potatoes being the money crop and cleansing crop, wheat a secondary money crop or feeding crop, and clover the manurial and feeding crop.

A popular four-course rotation is corn, potatoes or truck, small grain, clover; the potatoes being the chief money crop, corn the feeding crop, the small grain the secondary money or feeding crop, and clover the manurial and feeding crop.

On many New England farms near towns, hay and straw are the chief money crops. Here the rotation is grass two or more years, then a cleansing crop and a grain crop. A Canadian rotation is wheat, hay, pasture, oats, peas. A rotation for the South might be corn, crimson clover, cotton, crimson clover; this rotation covering a period of two years. A South Carolina rotation is oats, peas, cotton, corn—a three-year rotation. It might be improved as follows: Oats, peas, crimson clover, cotton, crimson clover, corn.

In some lands the surface water does not appear as free water standing on the surface. In such cases:

A need of drainage is indicated by the curling and wilting of the leaves of corn and other crops during dry, hot weather. This curling and wilting is due to the fact that during the early growth of the crop free water stands so high in the soil that the crop roots are confined to a shallow layer of soil. When dry, hot weather comes, the free water recedes, the upper soil dries out, and the roots cannot get sufficient water to supply the demands of transpiration, hence the curling and wilting of the leaves.

If drains are placed in this soil, the free water will be kept at a lower level in the spring and the plant roots will develop deeper in the soil, where there will be constant supply of film water during the dryer and warmer summer weather.

The wiry and spindling growth of grass and grain crops may indicate too much water.

The growth of moss on the surface of the ground and the cracking of the soil in dry weather are also indications of too much water.

DRAINS

How can we get rid of this surplus free water?

Drains may be classed as:

Surface drains which are shallow, open channels made in the soil with a plow, hoe or other tool, to carry off surface water. They are temporary and need frequent renewing.

Open-ditch drains are deeper, more permanent water passageways around or across the fields.

Surface and open-ditch drains take only surface water. They also carry off surface soil and manures washed into them. They frequently become choked or stopped by trash and soil, and are in the way of cultivation and harvesting operations.

Lowering the free water allows a deeper penetration of air and, therefore, a deeper root development and enables crops to better resist dry periods.

Influence on soil temperature.

Lowering the free water in the soil influences soil temperature:

By diminishing the amount of water to be heated.

By checking evaporation.

By letting warm showers sink down into the soil.

By increasing ventilation and therefore permitting the circulation of warm air in the soil.

The cropping season is lengthened by causing the soil to be warmer and drier earlier in the spring and later in the fall.

Influence on plant food in the soil.

Covered or under drains check losses of plant food that occur with surface and open ditch drains. They render available more plant food, for lowering free water and increasing ventilation:

Deepen the feeding area of the roots.

Aid the process of nitrification.

Aid chemical changes which make plant food available.

Check denitrification.

LOCATION OF DRAINS

As gravity is the force that is to take the surplus water from the soil, the outlet of the drainage system should be at the lowest part of the area to be drained.

The lateral drains, if surface or open ditch drains, should run across the slopes; if under drains, they should run up and down the slopes.

Grade or slope of the drain.

The grade of the drain should be sufficient to cause a flow of the water. In the case of open ditches it should not be steep enough to cause too rapid a current and a consequent serious washing of the banks of the ditch. Large, deep ditches will carry water with a grade of one inch to a hundred feet.

Tile drains.

A lateral tile drain should enter a main at an acute angle to prevent too great a check in the current.

In putting in a drainage system the first thing to be done is to make a plan of the ground and determine the slope of the land and the grade of the drain. The ditches are then staked out and the digging proceeds. In digging the ditches plows are sometimes used to throw out the top soil, then the work is finished with spades and shovels.

Acid, a chemical name given to many sour substances.

Albumen, a nitrogenous organic compound.

Albuminoid, a nitrogenous substance resembling albumen.

Ammonia, a gas containing nitrogen produced by the decay of organic matter.

Annual, a plant that lives only one year; corn and sunflower are examples.

Anther, the part of a stamen that bears the pollen.

Available, that which can be used.

Bacteria, very small plants, so small that they cannot be seen without the aid of a powerful microscope. They are sometimes called "germs." Some of them are beneficial, some do great harm and some produce disease.

Biennial, a plant that lives two years, usually producing seeds the second year.

Bordeaux mixture, a mixture of copper sulphate, lime and water used to prevent plant diseases. It was invented in Bordeaux, France.

Bud, an undeveloped branch.

Calyx, the outermost part of a flower.

Cambium, the active growing layer between the bark and the wood of a tree.

Capillary, Hair-like. A name given to very small spaces through which water flows by the force of capillary attraction.

Carbohydrate, an organic substance made of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon, but containing no nitrogen; cellulose or woody fibre, sugar, starch are examples.

Carbon, a chemical element. Charcoal is nearly pure carbon.

Catch crop, a crop growing during the interval between regular crops.

Cereal, a name given to the grain crops that are used for food.

Chlorophyl, the green matter in plants.

Commercial fertilizers, materials containing plant food which are bought and sold in the markets to improve the soil.

Compost, a mixture of decaying organic matter used to enrich the soil.

Cross pollination, the pollination of a flower by pollen brought from some other flower.

Cover crop, a crop to cover the soil during the interval between regular corps.

Cultivator, a farm implement used to loosen the surface of the soil and to kill weeds after a crop has been planted.

Cutting, a part of a plant placed in moist soil, water or other medium with the object of its producing roots and making a new plant.

Dormant, said of plants when they are resting or inactive. Most plants are dormant during the winter season.

Drainage, the method by which surplus water is removed from the land.

Element, a substance that cannot be divided into simpler substances.

Fermentation, the process by which organic substances are broken down or changed and new substances formed.

Fertility, that state or condition of the soil which enables it to produce crops.

Fibre, long thread-like structure.

Flocculate, to make crumbly.

Free water, standing water or water which flows under the influence of gravity.

Function, the particular action of any part of an organism.

Furrow slice, the strip of earth which is turned by the plow.

Germinate, to sprout.

Grafting, the process of inserting a cion or bud in a stock plant.

Green manure crops, crops intended to be plowed under to improve the soil.

Harrow, an implement used to pulverize the surface of the soil.

Heavy soils, soils that are hard to work; stiff, cloddy soils.

Horticulture, that branch of agriculture which deals with the growing of fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants.

Humus, partially decayed animal and vegetable matter in the soil.

Hydrogen, a gaseous, chemical element, one of the constituents of water.

Inter-tillage, tillage between plants.

Irrigation, the practice of supplying plants with water by artificial means.

Kainite, a potash salt used in making fertilizer.

Kernel, a single seed or grain.

Leaching, passing through and going off in drainage water.

Legume, a plant belonging to the bean, pea and clover family.

Light soils, soils which are loose and open and easy to work.

Loam, a mixture of sand, clay and organic matter.

Mould board, the curved part of the plow which turns the furrow slice.

Mulch, a covering on the soil. It may be of straw, leaves, pulverized soil or other material.

Nectar, a sweet substance in flowers from which bees make honey.

Nitrate, a soluble form of nitrogen.

Nitrogen, a gas forming four-fifths of the air. Nitrogen is a very necessary food of plants.

Organic matter, substances produced by the growth of plants and animals.

Osmose, the movement of fluids through membranes or thin partitions.

Oxygen, a gas which forms one-fifth of the air. Its presence is necessary to the life of all green plants and all animals.

Ovary, the part of the pistil that bears the developing seeds.

Ovule, an immature seed in the ovary.

Perennial, living through several years.

Phosphoric acid, an important plant food found in phosphates.

Pistil, the part of the flower which produces seeds.

Propagate, to increase in number.

Pollen, the powdery substance produced by stamens.

Pollination, the transfer of pollen from stamens to pistils.

Potash, an important plant food.

Pruning, removing parts of a plant for the good of what remains.

Retentive, holding, retaining, said of soil which holds water.

Reverted, said of phosphoric acid in the process of becoming insoluble.

Rotation of crops, a change of crops in regular order.

Sap, the juice or liquid contents of plants.

Seed bed, the earth in which seeds are sown.

Seedling, a young plant just from the seed. Also a plant raised from a seed in distinction from one produced from a graft or a cutting.

Sepal, one of the parts of the calyx.

Slip, a cutting placed in water or moist soil or other substance to produce roots and form a new plant.

Soil, that part of the earth's crust into which plants send their roots for food and water.

Stigma, the part of the pistil which receives the pollen.

Stomata, breathing pores in plants.

Subsoil, that part of the soil which lies beneath the soil that is worked with the tillage tools.

Sap root, a main root that runs straight down into the soil.

Tillage, stirring the soil.

Transpiration, the giving off of water from plants.

Tubercle, a small nodular growth on the roots of plants.

Under drainage, drainage from below.

Vitality of seeds, the ability of seeds to grow.