Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement

Underdrainage.--There are great swamps, and small ones, whose water should be carried off by open ditches. Our present interest is in the wet fields of the farm,--the cold, wet...

Acquaintance with Terms.--The hesitation of many users of commercial fertilizer to master the few technical terms used in analyses of the goods, for which over one hundred milli...

Forms of Lime.--There is unnecessary confusion in the mind of the public regarding the forms of lime that should be used. If amounts greatly in excess of needs were being applie...

Red Clover.--Wherever red clover thrives there is no more valuable plant than this legume for making and keeping soils productive under ordinary crop-rotations. The tyro in farm...

The Soybean.--The soybean is gaining a place among the valuable legumes of the United States, and the acreage is increasing as its merits become known to all. Its northern limit...

Composition of Plant not a Guide.--It has been pointed out that a chemical analysis of a soil is not a dependable guide in the selection of a fertilizer. Years ago the theory wa...

The Unproductive Farm.--When a soil expert visits an unproductive farm to determine its needs, he gives his chief attention to four possible factors in his problem: lack of drai...

In Lieu of Preface.--This book is not a technical treatise and is designed only to point out the plain, every-day facts in the natural scheme of making and keeping soils product...

The Practice of Home-mixing.--The business of compounding fertilizers has been involved in a great deal of unnecessary mystery. Many of our best station scientists have labored...

Loss of Plant-food.--The soil is composed chiefly of material that never will enter into the structure of plants, but that serves us by affording a congenial place for plant-roo...

Controlling Factors.--The farm supply of stable manure is a carrier of plant-food, returning to the soil four fifths of all the fertility removed in the crops fed, but it is muc...

Desirable Physical Condition of the Soil.--Successful cropping of land is dependent upon favoring soil conditions. The plants to be grown must have ease in root extension, so th...

The Farm Scheme.--Notwithstanding some of the theorizing that does not commend itself to the practical man, farm management is taking on the form of a science. It involves the o...

Seeding in Late Summer.--The natural time of beginning life, in the case of timothy, blue-grass, red-top, red clover, and alfalfa is in the summer or autumn. The best conditions...

Common Source of Losses.--When we bear in mind that four fifths of all the fertility removed from the land in the grains and coarse stuffs fed on the farm may be recovered from...

Office of Organic Matter.--The restoration of an impoverished soil to a productive state usually is a simple matter so far as method is concerned. It may be a difficult problem...

A Southern Legume.--The soils of the cold north are protected from leaching during the winter by the action of frost. The plant-food is locked up safely for another year when na...

Necessity of Purchase.--The necessity of buying plant-food in the form of commercial fertilizers is a mooted question in any naturally fertile agricultural region just so long a...

Livestock Farming.--The fertility of the soil is most safely guarded in regions devoted to livestock farming. "Selling everything off the farm" is a practice associated in the p...

Value of Sods.--The character of the sods is a faithful index of the condition of the soil in any region adapted to grass. The value of heavy sods to a soil cannot be overestima...

would adopt the practice of mixing a little alfalfa with red clover whenever making seedings. Some alfalfa plants usually make growth, securing the bacteria in the dust of the s...

Value of Water in the Soil.--The amount of water in the soil each day of the growing season determines in large measure the possibility of securing a profitable crop from land....

Permanent Pastures.--There is a large total area of land that can be brought into profitable production of food only by means of pasture grasses. A small part is too low and moi...

Adaptation to Eastern Needs.--The introduction of alfalfa into the eastern half of the United States will prove a boon to its depleted soils, encouraging the feeding of livestoc...

DRAINAGE 237-246 Underdrainage 237 Counting the cost 238 Where returns are largest 239 Material for the drains 239 The outlet 240 Locating main and branches 240 The laterals 241...

"The completest existing thesaurus of up-to-date facts and opinions on modern agricultural methods. It is safe to say that many years must pass before it can be surpassed in com...

COMMERCIAL SOURCES OF PLANT-FOOD 171-187 Acquaintance with terms 171 Nitrate of soda 171 Sulphate of ammonia 178 Dried blood 173 Tankage 174 Fish 175 Animal bone 175 Raw bone 17...

CROP-ROTATIONS 149-158 The farm scheme 149 Value of rotation 150 Selection of crops 151 An old succession of crops 152 Corn two years 153 The oat crop 154 Two crops of wheat 154...

MIXTURES FOR CROPS 209-219 Composition of plant not a guide 209 The multiplication of formulas 209 A few combinations are safest 210 Amount of application 211 Similarity of requ...

THE CLOVERS 46-58 Red clover 46 Clover and acid soils 47 Methods of seeding 48 Fertility value 49 Taking the crops off the land 51 Physical benefit of the roots 52 Used as a gre...

OTHER LEGUMES AND CEREAL CATCH CROPS 108-119 The soybean 108 Fertility value 109 Feeding value 109 Varieties 110 The planting 111 Harvesting 112 The Canada pea 113 Vetch 113 Swe...

THE NEED OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 159-170 Loss of plant-food 159 Prejudice against commercial fertilizers 160 Are fertilizers stimulants? 161 Soil analysis 162 Physical analysi...

TILLAGE 220-229 Desirable physical condition of the soil 220 The breaking-plow 221 Types of plows 221 Subsoiling 223 Time of plowing 223 Method of plowing 224 The disk harrow 22...

ALFALFA 59-70 Adaptation to eastern needs 59 Fertility and feeding value 60 Climate and soil 61 Free use of lime 62 Inoculation 62 Fertilization 63 A clean seed-bed 64 Varieties...

SODS FOR PASTURES 90-97 Permanent pastures 90 Seed-mixtures 91 Blue-grass 91 Timothy 92 Red-top 92 Orchard grass 93 Other seeds 93 Yields and composition of grasses 93 Suggested...

THE USE OF STABLE MANURE 139-148 Controlling factors 139 Direct use for corn 140 Effect upon moisture 141 Manure on grass 142 Manure on potatoes 143 When to plow down 144 Heavy...

CONTROL OF SOIL MOISTURE 230-236 Value of water in the soil 230 The soil a reservoir 231 The land-roller 232 The plank-drag 233 The mulch 233 Mulches of foreign material 234 Plo...

HOME-MIXING OF FERTILIZERS 198-208 The practice of home-mixing 198 Effectiveness of home-mixing 198 Criticisms of home-mixing 199 The filler 202 Ingredients in the mixture 203 M...

THE NEED OF LIME 12-22 The unproductive farm 12 Soil acidity 13 The rational use of lime 14 Where clover is not wanted 16 Determining lime requirement 17 The litmus-paper test 1...

APPLYING LIME 23-35 Forms of lime 23 Definitions 24 The kind to apply 26 The fineness of limestone 27 Hydrated lime 27 Stone-lime 28 Ashes 30 Marl 31 Magnesian lime 31 Amount pe...

THE COWPEA 98-107 A southern legume 98 Characteristics 99 Varieties 99 Fertilizing value 100 Affecting physical condition 101 Planting 101 Inoculation 103 Fertilizers 103 Harves...

CARE OF STABLE MANURE 129-138 Common source of losses 129 Caring for liquid manure 130 Use of preservatives 131 Spreading as made 132 The covered yard 133 Harmless fermentation...

STABLE MANURE 120-128 Livestock farming 120 The place for cattle 121 Sales off the farm 122 The value of manure 124 The content of manure 125 Relative values 126 Amount of manur...

INTRODUCTION 1-11 In lieu of preface 1 Natural strength of land 2 Plant constituents 2 Organic matter 4 Drainage 6 Lime 7 Crop-rotation 8 Fertilizers 9 Tillage 10 Control of soi...

GRASS SODS (_Continued_) 80-89 Seeding in late summer 80 Crops that may precede 81 Preparation 83 The weed seed 84 Summer grasses 85 Sowing the seed 85 Deep covering 86 Seed-mix...