The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., March 19, 1910, Page 200, Image 4

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

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Short Talks About Fertilizers.
A READING COURSE.~By L E. MILLER.
XIV.—THE SPECIAL NEEDS OF DIFFERENT CROPS.
□S HAS BEEN several times
suggested in these articles,
different crops, as well as dif
ici chi soils, have certain special
needs which must be considered in
the purchase of fertilizers if the best
results are to be obtained. Some
plants can utilize plant food in forms
which are utterly unavailable to oth
er crops. Certain crops, too, require
much larger amounts of certain ele
ments, comparatively speaking, than
are required by other crops growing
on the same soil with them. The
fertilizer needed on a given soil for a
corn crop will not be the same as
that needed on the same soil by a
crop of wheat, or cowpeas, or cotton.
All these things the farmer must con
sider when he goes to buy his fertil
izers. It Is impossible to give any
exact formula which will be best for
any crop under all conditions but
tnere are a iew general principles
which should be continually kept in
mind.
Some Special Needs of Wheat and
Corn.
Corn, for example, needs an abun
dant supply of all the elements of
plant food, requiring during the
growing season especially large
amounts of nitrogen to enable it to
make a strong growth of stalk and
leaves, and thus to attain that vital
ity and vigor of growth which will
enable it later in the season to ma
ture a heavy crop of grain, for which
considerable quantities of phosphoric
acid and potash will be demanded.
Wheat and oats need a liberal sup
ply of nitrogen during the first few
weeks of growth. Throughout the
winter, growth proceeds more slowly
and there is less demand for so much
readily available food—in fact, large
quantities of soluble nitrogen applied
to a wheat or oat crop in the fall
would be likely to be wasted, at a
considerable expense, by the leaching
of the winter rains, especially if the
crop had not made a good start be
fore cold weather came on. On the
other hand, in the spring when the
new growth begins there is a great
demand for readily available nitro
gen and this Is why a top-dressing of
nitrate of soda so often produces such
marked results on a field of winter
grain. As the crop matures there
must be available a sufficient store of
phosphoric acid and potash to insure
stiffness of straw and wall filled j
heads. A lack of these elements at
this time will mean weak straw and
shrunken, immature grain.
Legumes and Tracking Crops.
For most of the leguminous crops
it is necessary on many soils to sup
ply only phosphoric acid, since they
are able to get their supply of nitro
gen from the air. They cannot do
this, however, unless the particular
bacteria which thrive on their roots
are present in the soil, and in some
cases it is advisable to use nitrog
enous fertilizer to give the young
legumes a start so that they will be
able to supply their own nltrogenr
This is often true of the alfalfa crop.
Quick growing crops, as are most
vegetables, demand large supplies of
readily available food, since in their
few weeks or months of life there is
not time for much elaboration of the
plant food in the soil. This is why
the trucker finds it profitable to apply
quantities of fertilizer to his potato
or onion crop which the general
farmer could not afford to put on his
cotton or corn. It may be worth
while to remark right here, however,
that most of these truck crops are
grown in soils already fertile and
that this is one of the reasons why
such large quantities of fertilizer can
be profitably applied to them. As a
rule, the richer the land the more
fertilizer that can be profitably used.
This is readily explained when one re
members that the ability of any plant
to take up the food in the soil de
pends upon the supply of soil mois
ture and the bacterial life of the soil.
In a fertile soil these favorable con
ditions exist and the plant food
which may be applied is readily util
ized by the growing crop. In a poor
soil—one that is dry and deficient in
humus, or water-logged and deficient
in bacterial life—plant food ap
plied in fertilizer remains, to a large
extent, useless to the crop, simply
because conditions are not such that
the plants can take it up.
Some Rales Worth Remembering.
A few general rules—subject to
many exceptions, as are all general
rules—may then be given as guides
to profitable fertilization.
(1) Quick growing crops require
large amounts of plant food in avail
able forms, since there is not time
during their growth for the supplies
of plant food in the soil to be con
verted into soluble forms. In this
connection it must be remembered,
however, that warmth and moisture
are the greatest factors in promoting
the bacterial activity which changes
Insoluble plant food to soluoble
forms and that these factors are
stronger in the summer than during
the winter. Nitrification, for exam
ple, is much more rapid in a well
tilled corn field during the summer
months than in the same field in win
ter time, or when It is planted In a
crop which receives no cultivation.
(2) Slow-growing crops which oc
cupy the land for a number of years
can usually utilize to best advantage
those forms of plant food which be
come slowly available through long
periods of time. One would supply
phosphoric acid to his potatoes, for
example, in the most readily available
form, acid phosphate, while for hie
grass or his orchard trees, the slow
er acting and less readily available
bone meal is often considered pre
ferable.
(3) Crops whose principal value
depends upon their growth of leave?
and stalks demand liberal supplies of
nitrogen. Those largely made up of
starchy cells need much potaBh:
while those in which grain or seed
la the principal consideration need
especially phosphoric acid. One
wishing to grow crisp, tender lettuce,
for example, would want to fertilize
It heavily with nitrogen. If he
were raising potatoes, he would he
sure that his soil was abundantly
supplied with potash. If a grain crop
was being grown, he would give
first heed to the supply of phosphoric
acid. Of course, any crop must have
enough of all of the elements and
will he always limited by that ele
ment which Is less abundant. But
the proportionate needs of crops vary
widely. A fertilizer, for example,
which would have enough potash for
a crop of oats might be entirely too
low in this element to produce a
maximum yield of Irish potatoes.
M) The better the soil Is, as a
rule, the larger the quantity of fer
tilizer which can be profitably applied
and the more completely it will be
used by the crops. This supposes,
always, that the fertilizers will be
adapted to the needs of the crop on
that particular soil.
The application of these principles
to the individual crop must be left to
the man who is growing the crop and
who is familiar with the conditions
of the soil on which it is being grown.
(Continued on Page 217.)
THE COLE GUANO SPREADER
*—D Is furnished with a 4 Plow Cultivator Bar as shown in cut.
* Two strong Plow Feet (not shown in rut) are furnished with
each Spreader.
»—It has a largo Galvanized Steel Hopper, holding % sack of
guano.
If !,as our w-onderful patent, forced-feed Spreader Disk, which
spreads the guano over a space about 10 Inches wide and will sow with
regularity any quantity from 100 to 2.000 pounds to the acre Nothing
equal to it has ever been seen.
5—In preparing to plant, remove the Cultivator Bar and attach the
I low Feet to the two Side Beams and then you can spread any quantity
of Guano and throw two good furrows on It, all at one trip with one mule
0—With Plow Feet attached you have the best Quano Spreader and
Lister in the world.
i With Cultivator Bar in place you ran side dress your crop with
guano and at the same time give it a good cultivation.
H It is practical, strong, durable, and easy for one mule to puli
0 Throw away those wasteful out-of-date distributor* and gel a
labor saving Spreader. Cultivator, Lister, and Side Dresser, combined m
ono machine.
10—Then you can apply a part of your guano to growing crop. at the
right time to make fruit. You want big ear* of corn and big India of
cotton, Instead of poorly fruited stalks.
Write at once for name of merchant near you who sella and guaran
tees Cole Spreaders, or ask for easy way to order by mail.
Do not delay; there will not be enough for all; first come first served.
Act quickly.
THE COLE MANUFACTURING CO.,
Box 400, Charlotte, N. C.
I -.. I Z " -i
High-Grade Fertilizers
FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
THE MERIDIAN FERTILIZER FACTORY
OF MERIDIAN, MISSISSIPPI
been supplying with .attraction to the trade their celebrated brands fa, <V*t«, and fi—
^ ■■■-*•«. ui. Kpe>-iaj suLsrrjsssri
Chemicals used for composting. "
Write for Bulletin on Boll Weerel.
10 DAYS FREE TRIAL
LOW FACTORY PRICES JJf® J£il •** b‘*h,»t l«nin dit«n hM tkMT
1 \F'r y"u,Ii'l,,f;s "'‘'Liic'.rt.v, ,1'cvr’^*\J’r‘c^*iV;.V wr
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TIRES. COASTER BRAKE ,r*: - - •- •< >>■ ■' ■ -nr,™
MRiTmSLi 1izr^ir' r1;mwr &
MEAD CYCLE CO. Dept 6282, CHICAGO, ILL.