Soil culture and modern farm methods . lected. We will offer, however, a few common-sense suggestions, hoping thatthe farmer will, in view of the fact that the demand for farm products isincreasing much faster than our production, accept and enforce them,for he is the custodian of the nations larder, and we, judging from thehigh cost of living, are liable to face actual want unless the volume offood is increased. Plant Roots Scientific investigation has proven that the plant root excretes orforms deleterious substances which are a poison, in a degree, to its ownkind, but a stimulant to another
Soil culture and modern farm methods . lected. We will offer, however, a few common-sense suggestions, hoping thatthe farmer will, in view of the fact that the demand for farm products isincreasing much faster than our production, accept and enforce them,for he is the custodian of the nations larder, and we, judging from thehigh cost of living, are liable to face actual want unless the volume offood is increased. Plant Roots Scientific investigation has proven that the plant root excretes orforms deleterious substances which are a poison, in a degree, to its ownkind, but a stimulant to another plant. We know that if a piece ofground is cropped year after year with the same crop, that each year theproduction is a little less, until, finally, it will not pay for the seed andlabor expended for cultivation, when, at the same time, plant food ele-ments may exist in the same soil in abundance. In one demonstration where corn was grown on the same piece of landfor twenty-eight years, the last ten years averaged twenty-two bushels. per acre, and an adjoining field, where rotation was practiced, made ayield of over seventy bushels per acre. Another demonstrationextended over a period of seventeen years gave a yield of eleven bushelsof corn the last five years, but where rotation was adopted on anadjoining field, the jdeld was seventy-five bushels per acre. Scores oflike instances can be mentioned. We know that flax cannot be profitably grown on the same land twoor more years in succession because of a root wilt, and potatoes rarely dowell when they succeed themselves on account of scab, fungi, rot, etc. We know that land becomes wheat, oats, barley and clover-sick to theextent of being discarded as worn out, when in reality the land sim-ply refuses to produce because of mismanagement. Deep-rooting plants should be followed by those which have shallowroots; for instance, alfalfa and clover roots grow many feet into the sub-soils; they secure water and food far below the reach
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidso, booksubjectagriculture
