. Productive soils; the fundamentals of successful soil management and profitable crop production. Soils. AN OLD PRACTICE X <i7x southern California it was found that it required from 270 to 1080 pounds of nitrate of soda^ together with a green manuring crop of barley to produce as good a jdeld of corn as when a legume was plowed under. In either case the same amount of organic matter was added. In a test made in Canada, increases of twenty-eight per cent in potatoes and forty per cent in corn resulted in growing these crops following clover. In Alabama the plowing under of a legume (cowpea
. Productive soils; the fundamentals of successful soil management and profitable crop production. Soils. AN OLD PRACTICE X <i7x southern California it was found that it required from 270 to 1080 pounds of nitrate of soda^ together with a green manuring crop of barley to produce as good a jdeld of corn as when a legume was plowed under. In either case the same amount of organic matter was added. In a test made in Canada, increases of twenty-eight per cent in potatoes and forty per cent in corn resulted in growing these crops following clover. In Alabama the plowing under of a legume (cowpeas) gave a clear gain of 696 pounds of seed cotton per acre (Fig. 127). A legume crop (crimson clover) plowed under in Maryland gave an increase of twenty-seven bushels in potatoes and seven bushels in corn (Fig. 128). At the Virginia Truck Station, Norfolk, ^^ cowpeas plowed under green in the fall gave as large a 3deld of cabbage per acre as twenty tons of stable manure.'' On the better soils where good clover or alfalfa can be grown often, the need of a special green manuring crop is seldom felt. It is Necessary to Maintain Organic Matter.—Many farmers fail to appreciate the necessity of replenishing the organic matter in soils, and too often clover is left out of the cropping plans. On many farms clover does not grow so well as it used to, or fails entirely. This should be taken as a warning that something is wrong with the soil or the system of farming. When clover is left out of the cropping system, and the organic matter of the soil is allowed to become depleted, it is only a question of a few years when the other crops will cease to give paying returns. An Old Practice.—Green manuring to add organic matter and nitrogen is not a new farm practice. Its value has long been known. Twenty centuries ago Varro told the Roman farmers the following: 2 A soluble nitrogen Fig 127,—Cowpea. (U. 8. D A ). Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectsoils, bookyear1920
