Successful farming : a ready reference on all phases of agriculture for farmers of the United States and Canada . ition of thecrop. It is also influenced by the character of the root systems. Plantswhich grow quickly generally need their food supply in a readily available COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 85 form. Those which grow slowly and take a long time to mature canutilize the more difficultly available forms of plant food. These factsexplain why plants differ in their requirements. Fertilizers for Cereals and Grasses.—The cereals and grasses (Indiancorn excepted) are similar in habits of growth an
Successful farming : a ready reference on all phases of agriculture for farmers of the United States and Canada . ition of thecrop. It is also influenced by the character of the root systems. Plantswhich grow quickly generally need their food supply in a readily available COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 85 form. Those which grow slowly and take a long time to mature canutilize the more difficultly available forms of plant food. These factsexplain why plants differ in their requirements. Fertilizers for Cereals and Grasses.—The cereals and grasses (Indiancorn excepted) are similar in habits of growth and are distinguished byhaving extensive, fibrous root systems. They require comparativelylong periods of growth, and this enables them to extract mineral foodfrom comparatively insoluble sources. As a rule, however, these cropsmake the major portion of their vegetative growth during the cool partof the growing season. During this period nitrification is comparativelyslow; consequently, such crops need readily available nitrogen and respondto fertilizers containing some nitrogen. This demands the application. Effect of Commercial Fertilizer on Wheat on a Poor complete fertilizer on the left, no fertilizer in center. of nitrogen in a readily available form, preferably just at the beginningof vegetative growth in the spring. Legumes Require No Nitrogen.—The clovers, peas, beans, vetchesand in fact nearly all the crops that belong to the family of legumes havethe power under proper soil conditions to utilize free nitrogen from theair; consequently, such crops require no nitrogen in the fertilizer. Theyuse relatively more potash than most other forage crops; consequently,the mineral fertilizers with a rather high proportion of potash are generallymost beneficial. Corn is a rather gross feeder, and since it makes themajor portion of its vegetative growth in the warmer portion of the grow-ing season when nitrification is especially active, it seldom pays to applymuch nitroge
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
