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Seeding with Small Grain.—The usual custom is to sow grasses with small grain, and there is much to commend it. The cost of preparing the seed-bed rests upon the grain crop, and the conditions are favorable to fall growth and winter protection, if the seeding is made in the fall. Wheat and rye are good crops with which to seed. In the case of fertile land there is the danger that the timothy will establish itself too well in a warm, moist autumn to permit clover to get a foothold the following spring, and clover should always be seeded for the sake of fertility. In northern latitudes clover cannot be seeded successfully as late in the season as wheat should be sown, as it fails to become well rooted for winter. The overcrowding of clover by timothy is met in part by reduction in amount of timothy seed sown with the wheat.
The oat crop is less satisfactory for seedings to grass and clover. The leaves near the ground are too thick, shading the young plants unduly, and the late harvest exposes the grass and clover when the season is hot, and usually dry. Some reduction in the amount of seed oats used per acre helps to save from injury.
Seeding in Rye.—When thin land is desired for pasture, and available fertility cannot well be applied, a sod may be formed more surely by seeding with rye, using the rye for pasture and a mulch, than, probably, in any other way. The ground should have good tillage and then be seeded to rye in September at the rate of six pecks of seed per acre. Timothy and red-top should be seeded with it, and in the spring red and alsike clover should be added. Whenever the ground is dry enough in the spring to permit the tramping of cattle without injury, the rye should be pastured, and preferably by a sufficient number of animals to hold the rye well in check. When the usual time for heading comes, all stock should be removed, and when heads do appear, the growth should be clipped with a mower and left as a mulch on the surface. A second clipping will be required later, with cutter-bar tilted well upward. When the usual summer drouth is past, livestock can again be turned into the field. This method is suggested only for thin fields that have failed to make catches of grass, and that for some reason cannot well be given the fertility that all thin soils need. The application of lime before seeding to the rye is an expense that usually must be met in the case of such fields, and fertilizers should be used.
Good Soil Conditions.—When the grasses and clovers desired for a sod are sown with small grain, there is competition between them and the grain crop for fertility, moisture, and light. The grain crop is the one that will produce the income the following summer, and naturally is given right of way. The amount of seed is used that experience teaches is best for a maximum yield of grain. Usually this gives a thicker stand of plants than is best for the tiny grass and clover plants that often are struggling for existence down under the taller grain. If the farmer could see his way clear to cut down the quantity of seed wheat or oats used on a fertile soil, the catch of grass would be better, but the small-grain crop is not very profitable at the best, and the owner does not like deliberately to limit it.
A greater amount of failure is due to an inadequate supply of fertility. The grass does not suffer so much from over-shading as it does from starvation, both during the growth of the grain and after harvest. The stronger grain plants appropriate the scanty stock of available fertility, and leave the grass and clover nearly helpless. This condition is especially noticeable in dry seasons when there is less opportunity to obtain food in solution. Plants which are expected in another season to fill the ground with vegetable matter are starved in the beginning and die. Plant-food is needed, and should be mixed with the soil when the seeding is made. The fertilizer needs are discussed in another chapter.
When manure is available, it should be spread on the plowed ground and mixed with the surface soil. If a soil is thin, or heavy, or light, the use of a ton of manure in this way can bring greater returns than under any other circumstances in general farming. It supplies some fertility, and it puts the surface soil into good physical condition for young plants. Land deficient in humus forms a crust after a rain, and a tiny plant suffers. A light dressing of manure, well mixed with the soil, tends to prevent this hardening of the surface and loss of water. There is no other form of fertility that can fully replace manure, for either compact or leachy land.
The probable need of lime has been discussed in other chapters. Clovers and the grasses want an alkaline soil, and there is waste of money and time in seeding acid land. The lime and the manure must not be mixed together in the air, but both can be used when fitting land for seeding, and both should be used if the need exists. One should be applied early and be well disked into the soil, and then the other application may be made and covered with the harrow. The soil is an absorbent, and the contact of manure and lime within the soil only leads to immediate availability, which is desirable in giving the grass a start.
CHAPTER VIII
GRASS SODS—(Continued)
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 of growth are given where no stronger plants take the plant-food and moisture. Wherever there is any difficulty in getting heavy grass and clover sods after the lime deficiency has been met, and wherever a hay crop has more value than a small-grain crop, the method of seeding alone in August should be employed. In warmer latitudes the date may be a little later, but in the northern states it should be in the first half of August for best results. Seeding alone offers opportunity to make conditions right for the seeds which are to be used, and in view of the importance of heavy sods to our agriculture, this reason alone is sufficient. In some regions the ability to substitute a good hay crop for a cereal that brings small net income is an item of value, adding to the proportion of feeding-stuff produced in the rotation and to the resulting supply of manure. The practice of making seedings to grass and clover alone is growing, and it is based on sound reasoning.
Crops that may Precede.—Farms that are under common crop-rotations may adopt the practice of August seeding. The winter wheat comes off in time for preparation, and this is true of an early variety of oats, and of rye and barley. Early crops of vegetables get out of the way nicely. There is a vast total area of thin soil that may be brought up to a productive stage rapidly by the growth of a green-manuring crop to precede the grass and clover. Rye may be sown in the fall and plowed down in May, and cowpeas planted to be disked into the soil. Oats and Canada peas add organic matter with nitrogen when plowed down. The summer fallow, which deservedly has fallen into general disuse, may well be employed when a soil is in an inert state, provided grass and clover be permitted to appropriate the plant-food made soluble by the fallowing. The catch crops add organic matter while cleansing the land of weeds; the fallowing releases plant-food and is peculiarly efficient in killing out weeds.
Care must be exercised about preserving moisture in the ground, and therefore a green crop should not be plowed under immediately before seeding time. When a soil is thin, there may be no better preparatory crop than the cowpea, which will not make too rank a growth in the north to prevent its handling with a weighted disk harrow. By this means the soil below is left firm, and the rich vines are mixed with the surface soil, where most needed. It is always a mistake to bury fertility in the bottom of the furrow when a soil is thin and small seeds are to be sown. The infertile ground lying next the subsoil is not what is needed at the surface when preparing for a sod.
It is a good practice to use the early summer in making conditions better for an August seeding, if the land has fallen below a profitable state of productiveness. A growth may be plowed down in time for firming the seed-bed, or it may be cut into the surface soil with a harrow, or the time may be used in freeing inert plant-food and destroying weed seed. On better soils, and in warm latitudes, a crop for hay may be removed, especially in the case of the cowpea in the south, and the stubble prepared for seeding by use of the cutaway or disk harrow.
Preparation.—A seed-bed for small seeds planted in mid-summer must be able to retain moisture. Nothing robs a soil of water more surely than a breaking-plow. Its use is a necessity in farming, but this effect of plowing must be borne in mind when a seeding is planned for the driest period of the year. It goes without saying that sods should not be formed on land that is too solid for admission of air. A thorough plowing is needed by most soils prior to making a sod that will prevent further stirring of the ground for a long period of time. It is best when this plowing can be given in the preceding spring. This enables the ground to become firm enough to hold moisture. If there is time for a tilled crop, the cultivation is helpful. When the land must be broken in the summer, the plowing should be done several weeks before the seeding to grass must be made. The roller should follow the plow closely to destroy the spaces that lie open to the hot air, permitting the land to dry out. All deep harrowings should be given soon after the plowing, stirring and mixing the ground, and then leaving it to settle so that moisture can be held. It is bad practice to continue deep harrowing until the seeding time of any small grain or grass planted in a dry part of the year. Firmness is wanted in the soil.
The Weed Seed.—The seeds of tilled crops are planted in ground containing much weed seed, and no harm may result. The cultivation needed to keep the soil loose, or to prevent evaporation, destroys the weeds. Grass, clover, alfalfa, and like seeds are put into the ground to occupy it to the exclusion of other plants for several years, as a rule, and no tillage can be given. The rule is to sow such seeds after tilled crops have been grown, and some weed seed has been destroyed, but there is evidence on every hand that the weed seed remains in abundance. Summer preparation for grass gives opportunity to destroy a great part of the seeds in the surface of the ground, and it is only when they are near the surface that the seeds of most weeds will germinate. Deep harrowings, continued up to time of planting, not only rob land of water, but they bring to the surface new lots of seed that had been safely buried, and become a part of the actual seeding when the grass, clover, or alfalfa is sown. The obviously right method of preparing for planting is to use only a surface harrow for a few weeks previous to seeding time, stirring the ground after every rain to the depth of three inches, or near that, and destroying the plants soon after germination of the seed. The process which is right for holding moisture is right for cleansing the ground.
Summer Grasses.—One of the worst pests is the annual grasses, springing up in June, July, and August. They are responsible for many failures to obtain stands of alfalfa, clover, and the valuable grasses. The delay in seeding until August is due largely to this pest. When seedings are made in the spring, or in June, failure is invited where these grasses have a fast hold. The only effective way of combating them is to make the ground firm enough to encourage germination, and to stir the surface whenever a growth starts. The late seeding is the one means of escape, and if there is fertility and moisture, the newly seeded crop becomes well rooted by winter and takes the ground so completely that there is little room for weeds to start the next year.
Sowing the Seed.—Partial failure with August seeding is due to faulty methods. We are accustomed to broadcasting clover seed on top of the wheat fields and obtaining a stand of plants. A majority of the seeds do not become buried in the soil, or only very slightly, and yet germinate. Moisture is necessary, but in the spring, when this method is used, there is moisture at the surface of the ground under the wheat plants much of the time. The conditions respecting moisture are not unfavorable in most springs, and we come to think that a small seed should not be buried much if any. In the autumn, again, we sow timothy with the wheat, and while more prompt germination is secured by covering the timothy seed with the hoes of the drill, we often have seen a successful seeding made without any covering being given. The work is done at a time when fall rains may continue for days and, when the sun's heat does not continue long, the covering given by settling the seed into the loose earth is sufficient. Moisture does not leave rapidly because the air is not hot.
Deep Covering.—In August the air is hot, and the surface of the ground is dry nearly all the time. A shower may be followed by hot sunshine, and the water at the surface evaporates quickly, leaving the ground covered with a dry crust. There are two essential things to bear in mind: the seeding should be made only when there is enough moisture in the ground to insure quick germination, and preferably as soon as feasible after a rain, and the seed should be put down where moisture can be retained. It is poor practice to sow any kind of small seeds before a rain that seems imminent. If it forms a crust, or causes weed-seed germination along with that of the grass seeds, only harm results. When seeds are put into a dry soil, and a light shower comes, there may be germination without sufficient moisture to continue life in the plants.
The seeds should be well buried: the soil and air conditions are different from those of the spring. It is best to wait for moisture, and to save the seed if it does not come, but when enough water has fallen to make the firm soil moist, the danger of failure is very small if the seeds are buried one to two inches deep. A surface harrow will stir the surface, and then the seeds should be sifted down into the soil by another harrowing. A light plank float, mashing the little clods and pressing the soil slightly together, finishes the work. The plants will appear above ground within a few days, the only danger being in a beating shower that may puddle the surface before the plants are up.
Seed-mixtures.—When grass is wanted for hay as well as fertility, the clovers and timothy compose the greater part of a desirable mixture wherever the clovers and timothy thrive. Probably this condition always will continue. The clovers are needed to supply nitrogen to the soil and to put protein into the hay for livestock. They give way, in large part, or entirely, the second year. Alsike is more nearly perennial than the red which practically lasts only through its second season, when its seed crop has been made, and its function performed. The sod is chiefly timothy in the second season. A little red-top is desirable, and the percentage should be heaviest for quite wet land or very dry land. When fertility is the first consideration, and the sod is left only two or three years, the following mixture is good, and is for one acre:
Red clover 10 pounds Alsike 2 pounds Timothy 8 pounds Red-top 2 pounds
When a mixed hay is wanted the first year, the following mixture may be found better for the purpose:
Red clover 6 pounds Alsike 2 pounds Timothy 12 pounds Red-top 2 pounds
Mammoth clover seed may be substituted for the red without change in number of pounds.
The amount of timothy and red-top in the second mixture suggested calls for a liberal supply of plant-food, and this is true of any heavy grass mixture. If fertility is not present, the seeding of grass should be lighter, but the clover should not be less in amount for a thin soil than for a good one. The question of fertilizers is discussed in Chapter XX.
CHAPTER IX
SODS FOR PASTURES
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 moist for tillage, but a larger part is too rough or too infertile. It can be made to yield profit in grasses that are harvested without expense by animals. The grasses afford feed and at the same time protect the soil from waste. The efficiency of much pasture land is kept low by poor stands of grass, the encroachment of weeds, bushes, and briers, close grazing, and the failure to supply fertility. When making a sod for mowing, the aim is to select varieties of plants that mature near the same time. Pastures need varieties maturing at different times, and this is a matter under control when temporary pastures are used. Permanent pasture land soon becomes occupied by the grasses best fitted to soil conditions or most able to crowd other plants.
Seed-mixtures.—Several varieties of grasses should be used when making a sod for grazing. They occupy all the surface more quickly and surely than a single variety, and the pasturage is better. The character of the soil determines the character of the mixture in large measure. When land can be well fitted, a heavy seeding is best, but the cost is nearly prohibitive for thin, rough lands. A brief description of the leading pasture grasses east of the semi-arid region, and north of the gulf states, is given:
Blue-grass.—No other pasture grass equals Kentucky blue-grass wherever it thrives. It makes a close sod, preventing the growth of weeds and withstanding tramping, and contains a high percentage of protein. While it is best adapted to limestone soils, it is grown with success on clay land outside of limestone areas. It is slow in making a heavy sod, as a rule, and partly because the seeding is too light on account of low germination. The rule is to seed with timothy and other grasses which furnish the greater part of the pasturage for two or three years. When seeded alone, 20 to 30 pounds of seed per acre should be used. It may be seeded in the spring or fall, and preferably in August or September.
Timothy.—In a mixture of pasture grasses timothy has a place wherever it thrives. It is not naturally a pasture grass, standing grazing rather poorly, but it makes a large amount of feed quickly. The grass is one of the poorest in protein, and the pasturage gains much in quality when the timothy gives way to blue-grass, as it will in two or three years if the latter has favoring soil conditions. In most mixtures it is given a leading place. It may be sown in the spring, but preferably in the fall, and 15 pounds of seed will be found satisfactory, when seeded alone.
Red-top.—If red-top were as palatable to livestock as blue-grass, it would have one of the most prominent places among our pasture grasses. It is valuable anyway, thriving where land is too acid for blue-grass or timothy, or too thin. It is adapted to wet land, and yet is one of our surest grasses for dry and poor land. It makes a sod that lasts well, and yields better than most other grasses. Notwithstanding its lack in palatability, it should be in all pasture mixtures for soils not in the best tilth. When used alone, 15 pounds of seed per acre should be sown. The seeding may be made in spring or fall.
Orchard Grass.—In most mixtures recommended for pasture orchard grass has a place, but it should be a minor one. It makes early growth in the spring, which is a point in its favor. It stands shade and also drouth better than some other grasses, but is not at home in a poor or wet soil. It grows in bunches, and becomes unpalatable if not promptly grazed. It needs crowding with other grasses when grown for pasturage. When seeded alone for hay, 30 pounds of seed per acre may be used.
Other Seeds.—There are other grasses often recommended, but they have no wide acceptance. Meadow fescue is a palatable grass that would be used more often in pasture mixtures if the seed were not high in price. All land seeded for grazing should have some clover sown for sake of soil fertility. The alsike remains longer than the red or mammoth, and is better for undrained, thin, and acid soils.
Yields and Composition of Grasses.—The Ohio station has compared the yields of various grasses and their composition. The following table is arranged from its data, as given in Bulletin 225:
+ -+ + -+ + Name Average Pounds Pounds Tons Hay Protein Protein per Acre per per Acre Hundred + -+ + -+ + Timothy 3.49 6.38 223 Blue-grass 2.18 10.12 221 Red-top 2.81 8.53 240 Orchard grass 2.19 7.81 171 Meadow fescue 2.10 8.97 188 + -+ + -+ +
Suggested Mixtures for Pastures.—For ordinary conditions, Williams suggests the following mixture for an acre of land:
Blue-grass 10 pounds Timothy 6 pounds Red-top 6 pounds Orchard grass 4 pounds Red clover 4 pounds Alsike clover 2 pounds
For use on rather wet lands, and especially off the limestone, he suggests:
Red-top 12 pounds Blue-grass 8 pounds Timothy 4 pounds Alsike clover 4 pounds
Hunt recommends the following as a basis, to be modified to suit varying conditions:
Timothy 15 pounds Kentucky blue-grass 10 pounds Meadow fescue 2 pounds Red clover 4 pounds Alsike clover 3 pounds White clover 2 pounds
The Cornell station recommends the following for good land:
Timothy 8 to 12 pounds Kentucky blue-grass 4 pounds Meadow fescue 1 to 4 pounds Orchard grass 1 to 4 pounds Red clover 6 pounds Alsike clover 3 pounds White clover 1 to 2 pounds
For poor lands it recommends this mixture:
Timothy 8 to 12 pounds Red-top 4 pounds Canadian blue-grass 4 pounds Red clover 6 pounds Alsike clover 3 pounds White clover 1 pound
Zinn, of West Virginia, recommends the following mixture for permanent pasture:
Timothy 4 pounds Red-top 4 pounds Orchard grass 4 pounds Kentucky blue-grass 7 pounds Red clover 2 pounds Alsike clover 2 pounds White clover 1 pound
Renewal of Permanent Pastures.—There is much pasture land that could not be broken with profit for reseeding. There is neither time, nor money, nor opportunity at the owner's hand for this purpose, and often the loss of soil resulting from washing would be a bar if the labor would cost nothing. The renewal of such grass lands can be made with profit if pernicious weeds are not in the way. Plant-food, lime, and grass seed are wanted. A disk or sharp spike-tooth harrow, used in early spring or after an August rain, will give some fresh earth for covering the seeds. A complete fertilizer always is needed. The clovers should go into the seed-mixture used.
Destroying Bushes.—The absence of sheep is evident in the appearance of the greater area of permanent pasture in the mountainous regions of the eastern states. Bushes, briers, and other weeds must be destroyed if pasture land would be kept in a profitable state, and only the sheep or the goat is the fully efficient aid of man in caring for such land. The presence of dogs makes the tariff on wool, or lack of it, a minor matter. The cost to the country, in indirect effect upon pastures only, due to unrestrained dogs, is incalculable. The maintenance of good sods without sheep is a problem without solution in some regions.
Close Grazing.—Much harm results from turning livestock on pastures too early in the spring. The ground is kept soft by spring rains, and the hoofs cut the turf. The grass needs its first leaves to enable it to make rapid growth, and the first grass of spring is not nutritious.
Close grazing is harmful, exposing the soil to the sun and robbing it of moisture. When winter comes, there should be sufficient grass to serve as a mulch to the roots. It acts like a coat of manure, giving new life to the plants the next spring. Good sods are not easily or quickly made, and when they have been secured on land unfit for the plow, their value measures the value of the land itself.
CHAPTER X
THE COWPEA
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 nature ceases her work of production for the year. Farther south, in the center of the corn belt, there are leaching periods in fall and spring and oftentimes during the winter, but winter wheat thrives and, in ordinary crop-rotations, covers much of the land that might otherwise lose plant-food. As we pass from the northern to the southern states, the preservation of soil fertility grows more difficult and at the same time the restoration of humus becomes easier. The heat makes easy the change of organic matter to soluble forms, and the rains cause waste, but the climate favors plants that replace rapidly what is lost. In the work of supplying land with fertility, directly and indirectly, the southern cowpea has an important place. It is to the south what red clover is to the north, and it overlaps part of the red-clover belt, having a rightful place as far north as the Ohio Valley, and portions of Pennsylvania.
Characteristics.—The cowpea is closely related to the bean, and is very unlike the Canada pea, which is a true pea, thriving only in a cool climate. The cowpea has been grown in the southern states over one hundred years, and the acreage is large, but it never has come into the full use it deserves. Being a legume, it stores up nitrogen taken from the air, and unlike red clover it makes its full growth within a short period of time. It can grow on land too infertile for most kinds of valuable plants, and on better land. The vines can crowd out nearly all varieties of weeds. The roots go to a good depth and are thickly covered with the nodules of nitrogen-gathering bacteria.
Varieties.—There are many varieties of the cowpea, and confusion of names prevails, although some stations have done good service in identification of individuals carrying a number of names. The very quick-maturing varieties adapted to northern conditions do not make as much foliage as the rank-growing ones that require a relatively long season, but some of them are heavy producers of seed.
There are varieties requiring six months of southern heat to bring them to maturity, and some failures attending the introduction of the cowpea into more northern latitudes have been due to bad selection. A few varieties reach maturity within two months of hot weather.
The trailing habit is affected by the soil, the bunch varieties tending to trail when grown on fertile land. When the crop is wanted for seed, the peas that do not trail heavily will prove more satisfactory. The selection of variety is a matter of latitude and purpose, exactly as it is with corn.
Fertilizing Value.—A heavy growth of the cowpea is worth as much to the soil as a good crop of red clover. When the equivalent of two tons of hay is produced, the roots and vines contain nearly as much plant-food as the roots and first crop of medium red clover that makes two tons of hay. Some analyses show a higher percentage of protein in cowpea hay than in clover hay, and the experience of many stockmen indicates that such is the case. The roots and stubble have somewhat less fertilizing power than in the case of the clover, and all thin soils should have the entire plant, or the manure from the hay, saved without loss.
Comparison is made on the basis of equal adaptability of soil and climate to clover and the cowpea. Going southward, the cowpea has the advantage, and northward the clover gains. It is in the overlapping belt that both should be freely used. The cowpea has distinct advantage over the clover in its ability to supply nitrogen and organic matter within a few months, and in its adaptation to very poor soils where clover would not make much growth. As a catch crop it has great value.
Affecting Physical Condition.—The cowpea has marked influence upon the physical condition of heavy soils, even when the vines are not plowed down. This is due in some degree to the roots, and probably more to the mulching effect of the vines during their growth. Heavy soils are made much more mellow by the cowpea, and when the crop is removed for hay, the stubble-land is easily prepared for a seeding to grass or small grain. When the growth is plowed down, the soil may be made too loose for seeding to small grain, but is put into prime condition for a tilled crop.
Planting.—The land should be fitted as it is for corn. Light, sandy soils require little preparation, and too often the seeding is made in a woefully careless manner, the chief dependence being placed upon sufficiently deep covering to insure germination. The ground should be fitted as well as it is for a cash crop, being made fine and smooth. A grain drill makes the seeding in a satisfactory manner, and the seed may be drilled solid or in rows for cultivation. When the crop is grown as a fertilizer or for hay, solid drilling is good, and about five pecks of seed gives a good stand of plants if peas are sound. Much cowpea seed is low in germination power, and the buyer should exercise caution. When a seed crop is wanted, two to three pecks of seed per acre, placed in drills 28 to 32 inches apart, make an excellent seeding, as cultivation can be given. The amount of seed varies with the variety. In northern latitudes a warm soil is to be desired, and cultivation gives better results when a seeding to wheat will be made on the pea-stubble.
There is evidence that the cowpea can make a heavy growth in soils too deficient in lime for red clover, and it gained its first prominence in southern Ohio on land that was failing to grow clover. It is the plant of adversity as well as prosperity, adding rich organic matter to thin soils, but making its full returns under better conditions. Lime applications on acid soils give increase in yields. Its one absolute requirement is heat, and in a cold summer its northern limit is markedly depressed.
Inoculation.—The inoculation of the soil with cowpea bacteria is necessary to best results in most regions new to the plant. Self-inoculation is quicker in the cowpea than in alfalfa because the vines carry some soil on them, and thus the dust in the seed crop may be rich in bacteria. However, most new seedings of the cowpea do not show a large number of nodules on the plant roots, and inoculation pays. In some cases it makes the difference between failure and success. Two hundred pounds of soil from an old field should be well harrowed into each acre of land when preparing for a cowpea seeding in a new region. The soils of the southern states contain the bacteria just as the states in the clover belt are supplied with clover bacteria.
Fertilizers.—The light soils of Maryland, New Jersey, and the southern states are not naturally rich in phosphoric acid or potash. The cowpea can draw its nitrogen from the air, but on all thin land it pays to use 200 to 300 pounds of acid phosphate and 50 pounds of muriate of potash per acre for this crop which should have a luxuriant growth for the soil's benefit. Such use of fertilizers is more profitable than their use on the crop which follows.
Harvesting with Livestock.—When the cowpea is made into hay, there is always danger that the most of the plant-food contained in it never will get back to the soil on account of a careless handling of the manure. The practice of pasturing with cows and hogs is excellent. The feed is rich, and the manure is left on the ground. There is a saving of labor.
If the full fertilizing value is wanted for the soil, the crop should be plowed down. The trailing varieties form a tangled mass that cannot be handled by an ordinary breaking-plow, but a stalk-cutter, run in the direction the plow will follow, makes plowing possible. Pasturing with cattle and hogs sufficiently to reduce the growth so that a plow can be used is good practice.
The Cowpea for Hay.—The hay is one of our most palatable feeding-stuffs. Livestock may reject it the first time it is put into the manger, but a taste for it is quickly acquired, and soon it is eaten greedily. The high content of protein makes it exceptionally valuable for young animals and milk cows, and the manure contains a high percentage of nitrogen. The difficulty in making the hay is a drawback, but this is over-rated. While rain discolors the vines and makes them unattractive in appearance, the hay remains more palatable and nutritious than good timothy, if the leaves are not lost in curing. When the first pods turn yellow, the crop should be harvested. The vines can be left in the swath until the top leaves begin to burn and then be put into windrows with a sulky hay-rake. The windrows should be small, the rake merely serving to invert half the vines upon the other half, bringing new surface to the sun. After another day of curing, the windrows should be broken up into bunches no larger than can be pitched upon the wagon by a workman, thus saving the trouble of disentangling the vines. If rain comes, the bunches should be inverted the following day. In dry, hot weather the curing proceeds rapidly, while in cooler latitudes or cloudy weather the curing may require a week. The chief point is to prevent undue exposure of the leaves to the sun, and this is accomplished by the turning. The hay will mold in the mow if not thoroughly well cured, unless placed in a large body in a deep, close mow that excludes the air. Some farmers use the latter method successfully, but the experimenter with the cowpea usually will fail, and should prefer thorough field curing, at the risk of some damage from rain and sun. The leaves are the most nutritious part of the plant, excepting the seed.
As a Catch Crop.—A leading use of the cowpea is that of a catch crop, either between other crops or in a growing crop, such as corn. Early maturing varieties can be brought in between main crops of the rotation in warm latitudes. The growth prevents the leaching of plant-food, shades the ground, adds nitrogen to the soil, smothers weeds, and produces material that is valuable as feed for livestock or an addition of organic matter to the soil. When the time that can be devoted to the crop is short, an early variety should be selected because its vines are far more valuable to the soil than an equal volume of a rank-growing variety that is not near maturity.
If this legume were used whenever opportunity afforded along the southern border of our northern states, and throughout the south, the faded color of soils, resulting from leaching rains, would be replaced by the darker colors that mark the presence of rich organic matter. It is one of nature's best allies in the maintenance of soil fertility.
CHAPTER XI
OTHER LEGUMES AND CEREAL CATCH CROPS
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 limits of profitable production are much farther north than those of the cowpea, and approach those of corn. In the south it is gaining friends. Some of the advantages of the soybean over the cowpea, as found by the Tennessee station, may be stated as follows:
1. Greater seed production in case of fertile soils.
2. Less sensitiveness to cold in spring and fall.
3. Greater feeding value of the seed.
On the other hand, a stand of cowpea plants is surer in the case of soils that crust, and germination runs higher. Its climbing habit makes it better suited for growing with corn for forage. A less amount of leaves is lost in curing.
Fertility Value.—There are so many varieties of the soybean and the cowpea, and adaptation to soil and climate varies so widely, that a fair comparison is difficult to make. In cool latitudes the soybean is recognized as distinctly more profitable, making larger yields of vines and of seed. Where adaptation is equal, the cowpea makes a slightly larger growth of vines for hay, but the soybean gives a much richer lot of seed for use as grain.
When soil fertility is the chief consideration, the adaptation of climate and soil should decide our choice between these two legumes. There is no serious difference where conditions for each are equally good. In cool latitudes the soybean should be chosen. In the Ohio Valley it is usually to be preferred. The greater part of the organic matter and the plant-food is stored in the vines and seed.
Feeding Value.—The soybean makes a rich hay, surpassing clover, but it is coarse, and its unattractive appearance has caused many farmers to condemn it without trial. Livestock eat it greedily, and it is one of our richest coarse feeds. The curing is more difficult than in the case of the cowpea because the leaves drop early, and the plants must be harvested before they approach maturity.
Probably the large yield of rich seed is the most important feature of the soybean crop. A ton of the seed contains as much protein as a ton of old-process oil meal, and three fourths as much as a ton of cottonseed meal. A good crop of the soybean will yield 18 to 20 bushels of seed, and as the nitrogen may be obtained chiefly from the air, the protein from this crop will come to be a leading substitute for purchased protein feeds.
Varieties.—There are many varieties of the soybean, and their characteristics are modified by climatic conditions. Each region will find the varieties best suited to its purposes by tests. When hay is wanted, the variety should have fine stems and a leafy habit of growth. It may not be a good producer of seed, or able to hold the seed unshattered. The harvesting should be done when some lower leaves turn brown and before the pods are half filled. This stage of maturity should be reached early enough in the fall to insure some hot days for making the hay, and to permit harvesting in time for seeding to wheat. The preparation for wheat is made with the harrow and roller or plank drag.
When the soybean is grown for seed, the variety should hold the peas without undue shattering, and an erect grower is more easily handled without loss of the crop. Varieties for regions will vary, as do varieties of corn, according to climate.
The Planting.—Early varieties of the soybean in the south can be planted as late as mid-summer, but farther north a profitable crop requires nearly all of the summer heat. The planting may be made soon after the usual time of planting corn, or whenever the ground has become warm. The preparation of the soil should be more thorough than that often given the cowpea. Solid drilling of five pecks of seed per acre is satisfactory when the crop is for fertilizing purposes only, and gives an excellent hay on land free of weeds. When the crop is wanted for hay, however, wheat usually will follow, and it is much better to plant in rows and to give two or three cultivations so that the ground may be easily prepared for the wheat.
A seed crop should be grown in rows. Three pecks of seed in rows 28 inches apart is the usual amount.
The soybean does not come up through a crusted surface as well as most other plants, and planting should not be made immediately before a rain. The plants are tender and easily injured by use of a weeder.
The fertilizer requirement is like that of the cowpea. An application of 200 pounds of acid phosphate per acre should be given, and the addition of 50 pounds of muriate of potash often pays.
Harvesting.—The soybean is not an easy crop to handle without loss. When grown for seed, the tendency of the pods to split and to drop the seed compels early cutting, and that makes curing more difficult. The mower is the only practical harvester on most farms, and the swath must be turned out of the way of the horses to save tramping. A side-delivery attachment can do the work. This is the best practice when cut for hay. When used for mixing with corn in a silo, the self-binder is satisfactory. The hay and seed crop must have thorough field-curing in windrow and bunches, and the harvest comes in a season when cold rains may prevail. This disadvantage of one of our most valuable crops is to be taken into account, but it will not prevent rapid increase in acreage as the merit of the soybean becomes known.
The Canada Pea.—Among field peas there are many varieties, but the one chiefly grown in the United States under the general name of the Canada pea is the Golden Vine. It makes a green forage or hay that is rich in protein. Usually it is grown with oats, giving a hay nearly as nutritious as that of clover. The crop is adapted to cold latitudes, and the planting should be made as early in the spring as possible. Fall-plowing of the land is to be advised on this account. A good method of seeding is to drill in six pecks of the pea seed to a depth of four inches, and then to drill in six pecks of oats.
The crop should be cut for hay when the oats are in the milk stage. At this time the peas are forming pods. The hay is not easily made, but is specially valuable for dairy cows.
There is no profitable place for the Canada pea in crop-rotations farther south than the true oat-crop belt, except as a green-forage crop. The soybean and red clover have greater usefulness in the center of the corn belt.
Vetch.—A variety of vetch known as winter, sand, or hairy vetch is coming into great usefulness as a catch crop. It is a winter annual, and being a legume, it has special value as a fertilizing crop. It is more hardy than crimson clover, and is grown as far north as winter wheat. The seeding is made in August in the north, and when grown for hay or seed, it needs rye or wheat to hold it up. Rye and vetch make a rich and early green forage crop, and the proportion in which they are seeded varies widely in practice. Six pecks of rye and 15 pounds of vetch make an excellent seeding per acre.
When grown for seed, one to two pecks of rye and 20 to 30 pounds of vetch may be used. The rye can be fairly well separated from the vetch by use of a fanning-mill or an endless belt of felt so inclined that the round vetch seed will roll down, while the rye sticks to the felt and is carried over.
Vetch is excellent as a fertilizing crop, adding a great amount of nitrogen to the soil when plowed down in May. If the seed were cheap, its use would become much more common. Thirty pounds should be used when seeding alone after summer crops or in corn. Farmers should produce the seed for their farms, and use it freely. When sown for seed, September first is a good date for the north. The seed matures in June.
As vetch matures with wheat, it may easily become a weed on farms devoted largely to small grain, but it is not to be feared where tilled crops and sods are the chief consideration. Inoculation is needed for best results, as in the case with other legumes new to a region.
Sweet Clover.—Much interest has been aroused within recent years in sweet clover, a legume that formerly was regarded as a more or less pernicious weed. Its friends regard it as a promising forage crop, but too little is definitely known to permit its advocacy here except as a soil-builder in the case of poor land that is not too deficient in lime to permit good growth. Experiments have shown that a taste for this bitter plant can be acquired by livestock, and it is nearly as nutritious as alfalfa when cut before it becomes coarse and woody. It is a strong grower, sending its roots well down into the subsoil, and its great ability to secure nitrogen from the air enables it to make a very heavy growth of top. The yield in forage usually exceeds that of the clovers.
Its most peculiar characteristic is its ability to thrive in a poor, compact soil that contains little humus. It may be seen in thrifty condition on roadsides and in waste places that seemingly would not support other plants. Laying aside all consideration of its possibilities as a forage crop, it will come into greater popularity as a soil-builder on thin land. It is found usually on land of limestone formation, and shares with other legumes a liking for lime, but it has been grown successfully in regions that are known to have a lime deficiency.
There are two biennial varieties and one annual. The biennial having white blossoms is the one most commonly seen, but the smaller variety with yellow blossoms is more leafy and palatable. The larger variety is the better fertilizer.
The seed does not germinate readily, and 20 to 30 pounds is used per acre. The soil should be compact, and the seeding can be made in the spring with a cover crop, or in August by itself. Inoculation is necessary if the right bacteria are not present. Soil from an alfalfa field will serve for inoculation.
An effort should be made to grow sweet clover on all infertile hillsides that are lying bare. It stops washing and paves the way for a sod of nutritious grasses.
Rye as a Cover Crop.—As has been stated elsewhere, the plant that stores nitrogen in its organic matter is most desirable, but the greater part of the soil's stock of humus did not come through legumes. Among the good cover crops is rye, both on account of its ability to grow under adverse conditions and because it produces a large amount of material for the soil. When seeded in the early fall, its roots fill the soil the following spring, and the tops furnish all the material that can be plowed down with safety. In northern latitudes it is the most dependable of all winter cover crops, making some growth in poorly prepared seed-beds and on thin land. The most value is obtained from early seedings, thus securing a good fall growth. Two bushels of seed are sufficient in good ground seeded ten weeks before winter begins, but two or three pecks should be added to this amount if the rye can be given only a few weeks of growth before frost locks up the soil. Rye can grow in warm spells of winter, and starts early in the spring. It uses up some available fertility that might otherwise be lost, and releases it when it rots in the ground.
When to plow Down.—If rye has made a good growth before spring, the roots run deeper than the plow goes, and holds the soil much like a grass sod. In such a case the plowing may be made early in the spring without regard to the rye, though organic matter increases rapidly day by day if the rye is permitted to grow. As a rule, it is safest to plow down before the plants are eighteen inches high. They dry land out rapidly, and any mass of matter in the bottom of the furrow interferes with the rise of water from the subsoil. When the land is wanted for oats or corn, a jointer should be used on the plow to insure burying all the crop.
Buckwheat.—An excellent crop for green-manuring is buckwheat. It has such unusual ability to grow in a poor soil that the farmer who makes free use of it as a grain crop never boasts of acreage planted, assuming that his land will not be highly regarded if known to be devoted chiefly to buckwheat. It does not withstand heat well, especially from period of blossoming to maturity, and therefore is restricted to cool latitudes. When grown for grain, it usually is not planted until July, and matures a crop in a shorter period than any other grain. It is sensitive to frost, but may be planted as soon as the ground is warm, and will give a good body of matter for plowing down within eight weeks. The root growth is not extensive, but the crop leaves naturally heavy soils more mellow, and it is an excellent cleansing crop for weed-infested fields. It makes a less heavy growth than rye, but can be used at a time of the year that rye would fail. There is time in a single season to grow two crops of buckwheat for green-manuring, turning the first crop down when the blossoms appear.
Oats.—When a fall growth is wanted for the soil, and it is preferred that the plants be dead in the spring, oats make a good catch crop.
Thin land which is wanted for seeding to wheat and grass in the fall, or for timothy and clover seeding in August, may use oats as a spring cover crop. A large amount of humus-making material may be gained by this means. The only danger lies in the effect upon soil moisture. The oat crop uses up the water freely in its growth, and when permitted to form heads before being plowed down, the mass of material in the bottom of the furrow does not rot quickly enough to induce the rise of water from the subsoil. The land should be plowed early enough to permit a solid seed-bed to be made.
CHAPTER XII
STABLE MANURE
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 public mind with soil poverty. It is a rule with few exceptions that the absence of livestock on the farm is an index of gradual reduction in the productive power of the land. Generally speaking, the farmers who feed the most of their crops on the farm are maintaining fertility, and those who do not feed their crops on the farm have been making drafts upon the soil's stores of available plant-food that are evidenced in a reduction of yields. These statements will have the assent of all careful observers. The inference has been that the maintenance of fertility requires the return to the land of all the manure that would result from feeding its crops on the farm. We know that by such feeding we can return to the fields at least four fifths of all the plant-food taken out by the crops, and we loosely reason that such a scheme is demanded by nature. The maintenance of fertility involves good arithmetic, and a plant must have certain weights of mineral elements at command before it can grow, but it is not true that the productive power of land is chiefly dependent upon the return to it in manure of all the fertility removed by its crops. If this were true, meat and other animal products would be the sole food supply of the world's markets.
The Place for Cattle.—There are general trends in human practice that cannot be changed by man. A change in human diet that makes the percentage of meat lower will not come through propaganda, but there are forces at work that will restrict the consumption of meat by the individual. The increase in population makes heavier demand for food. Armsby has shown that the fattening steer returns to man for food only 3 per cent of the energy value of the corn consumed by it, and in pork-production this percentage scarcely rises to 16. This is the reason meat-making animals give way before increase in population in congested countries. Their office becomes, more and more, the conversion of products inedible to man to edible products. In our country their number will increase, doubtless, for a long period of time, finding their places more surely on eastern farms rather than on western ranches. They must find the cheaper land, and that is no longer confined to the west. They must be where coarse materials, inedible to man, are found, and that is on eastern as well as on western farms. Their office will not be the conversion of crops into manure, but the conversion of coarse materials into human food in the form of meat or milk. This is the trend, and while the consummation may happily be far in the future, its consideration helps us to an appreciation of the facts regarding nature's provision for maintaining the productiveness of the soil.
Sales off the Farm.—The day is now here when the major portion of human food must be provided in grain and vegetables and fruit, and the demand for hay and grain for animals off the farm is very large. Fiber products likewise must be supplied. The draft upon the soil is heavy, but it must be good farm practice to supply bread and vegetables and fruit to the 70 per cent of our population that is not on farms. The great majority of farmers do not feed all their crops to livestock, and the amount of food-stuffs, for human beings and animals, that is now going off the farms is none too great.
Many farmers who incline to believe that they are safely guarding fertility by feeding the most of their crops are not returning to the fields one third of the plant-food that their crops remove. There is no virtue in feeding when the manure is permitted to waste away. The losses in stable and barnyard, the wastes from bad distribution by animals, and the sales from the farm of some crops, animals, and milk, lead to the estimate that one half of the farms on which livestock is kept do not give to the fields in the form of manure over 30 per cent of the fertility taken out of them by crops. This estimate, for which no accurate data is possible, probably is too high. The sales of food for man and animal are a necessity, and the scheme of farming involving such sales is right, provided the farmer makes use of other supplies of fertility. The area devoted to such sales will grow greater because human needs are imperative. Livestock will become more and more a means of working over the material that man cannot eat—the grass, hay, stalks, by-products in manufacture, and coarse grains. The demand for meat and milk will lead to careful conversion of material into this form of food, and the animals on eastern farms will increase in number for a time, while sales of grain and vegetables grow greater. The draft upon soil fertility through sales must increase because every pound of material sold from the farm carries plant-food in it.
The Value of Manure.—It is not possible to put a commercial valuation upon farm manures that may be a sure guide to any farmer. The value depends upon what the individual can get out of it in crops and improved soil conditions. It is rather idle to say that the annual product of a horse in the form of manure is $30, or more or less, even when an analysis shows that the nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash contained in it are worth that sum when valued at the market prices of those plant constituents. If the total amount of fertility found in the voidings of all the animals of the farm were provided in a pile of commercial fertilizer containing the same amount of each plant constituent, its worth to the farmer would depend upon his ability to convert all that fertility into crops at a profit. There are farmers so situated in respect to soils, crops, and markets that they can make a good profit from an investment of $30 in the total liquid and solid voidings of a horse for a year. On the other hand, there are many who would fail. The values usually given are relative and suggestive. They are aids in forming judgment. Actual value on the farm depends much on the man.
The Content of Manure.—When the crops of a farm are fed, the manure contains nearly all the plant-food that went originally into the crops. In the case of idle work-horses on a maintenance ration, the manure contains practically all the plant-food. Cows giving milk remove some fertility, and a growing calf or colt may take out 30 per cent. There is some waste beyond control, but when manure is made on tight floors with good bedding, and is drawn to the field fast as made, on the average it carries back to the soil fully four fifths of the plant-food that existed in the feed. Disregarding all cash valuations for the moment, here is an index of value that should be sufficient in itself to encourage the feeding of crops on the farm and the careful saving of the manure. When one can market his crops to animals on the farm at their cash value, and at the same time retain for his fields four fifths of all the fertility, he is like a manufacturer who can use much of his raw material over and over again. The value is in the manure, and full appreciation is lacking only because a majority of farms do not provide for careful saving of its valuable constituents.
Relative Values.—The plant-food content of manure is determined chiefly by the feed. The animals add nothing: they subtract. The kind of animals consuming the feed does not affect materially the value of the manure made from it, if the animals are mature and not giving milk. The manures from the various kinds of animals differ in value per ton because the feeds differ in character and the manure varies in percentage of water. On an average, however, the total annual product of manure from farm animals, per 1000 pounds of live weight, does not vary widely in value. The rich protein feeds given the cow, and the heavy feeding, more than make amends for the fertility that goes into the milk, and her annual product, per 1000 pounds of live weight, may exceed in value that of the horse by 25 per cent. This is likewise true of the pig, figured on the 1000-pound basis, while in the case of the sheep the value, per 1000 pounds of live weight, is near that of the horse.
These variations are not wide enough to have great importance to the livestock farmer. The manure represents to him four fifths of all the fertility that was contained by the feed he gave the various animals. They added no plant-food, and they took away only a fraction that was not large. They converted the crops into a form of plant-food that either is available or can become so quickly enough, and in addition to the nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash that would have a high valuation in a commercial fertilizer, there is a body of organic matter that affects the physical condition of the soil favorably. The manure also promotes the multiplication of friendly soil bacteria. Its possibilities are so great that the inference of many farmers that no successful agriculture can be maintained without it is very natural.
Amount of Manure.—Vivian states that the amount of manure that may be made from feed can be determined by multiplying the total weight of dry matter in the feed by 3. This assumes that bedding will be used in sufficient amount to absorb the urine, and that will require material containing one fourth as much dry matter as there is in the feed. When the amount of hay and grain is known, and the dry matter in all succulent feed is estimated, the total product of manure in tons can be arrived at with fair accuracy.
Analysis of Manure.—As has been stated, the content of the manure must depend chiefly upon the character of the feed. We are accustomed to combine feeding stuffs in differing proportions for horses, cows, pigs, and sheep. Van Slyke names the following approximate percentages of plant-food constituents in fresh excrements of farm animals, the solid and liquid being mixed:
+ + + + + Animal Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent Nitrogen Phosphoric Potash Acid + + + + + Horse 0.70 0.25 0.55 Cow 0.60 0.15 0.45 Pig 0.50 0.35 0.40 Sheep 0.95 0.35 1.00 Hen 1.00 0.80 0.40 + + + + +
He estimates that one ton of average mixed stable manure, inclusive of absorbents, contains approximately 10 pounds of nitrogen, 5 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 10 pounds of potash.
CHAPTER XIII
CARE OF STABLE MANURE
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 the animals and returned to the soil, we can appreciate the consideration that the care of manure should have on every farm. The careless methods that prevail in most sections of the country are an inheritance from the day when soils were new and full of fertility. These methods continue partly through a lack of confidence in the statements that the liquid portion of animal excrements, in average mixed stable manure, has nearly as great value as the solid portion. If this fact were accepted, many of the losses would be stopped. Another reason for continuance of careless methods is failure to appreciate that the soluble portion of manure is the highly valuable part, and that leaching in the barnyard carries away value more rapidly than decrease in volume of manure indicates. The widely demonstrated facts do not have effective acceptance, and enormous loss continues.
Thorne found that manure placed in flat piles in the barnyard in January, and allowed to lie until April, lost one third of its value. Under the conditions prevailing on many farms the loss suffered by exposure of manure is far greater.
Caring for Liquid Manure.—If all manure were in solids, one great difficulty in caring for it would not exist. The nitrogen is the most valuable element in manure, and two fifths of all of it in horse manure is found in the liquid. In the case of cow manure, over one half of the nitrogen is found in the liquid. More than this, a pound of nitrogen in the liquid has greater value than a pound in the solid because of its nearly immediate availability. There is only one good way of caring for the liquids, and that is by use of absorbents on tight floors or in tight gutters. American farmers find cisterns and similar devices nuisances. The first consideration is to make the floor water-tight, and clay will not do this. The virtues of puddled clay have had many advocates, but examination of clay floors after use will show that valuable constituents of the manure have been escaping. The soils of the country cannot afford the loss, and careful farm management requires acceptance of the truth that a tight floor is as necessary to the stable as to the granary. The difficulty in supplying a sufficient amount of absorbents on tight floors only emphasizes the loss where floors are not water-tight.
Use of Preservatives.—The use of land-plaster in stables helps to prevent loss of the nitrogen-content through fermentation. Its value does not lie chiefly in physical action as an absorbent, but the beneficial results come through chemical action. The volatile part of the manure is changed into a more stable form. In recent years this preservative has fallen somewhat into disuse, as acid phosphate contains like material and also supplies phosphoric acid to the manure. The phosphoric acid content of stable manure is too low for all soils, and the reenforcement by means of acid phosphate would be good practice even if there were no preservative effect. The use of fifty pounds of acid phosphate to each ton of manure will assist materially in preserving the nitrogen, and the gain in phosphoric acid will repay all the cost. It should be used daily on the moist manure, as made in the stable, and preferably just before bedding is added, so that the phosphate will not come into direct contact with the feet of the animals. Some stockmen prefer the use of acid phosphate and kainit mixed half-and-half. The latter is a carrier of potash, and is a preservative of nitrogen.
The use of ground rock-phosphate in stables is coming into use in some localities, chiefly through the recommendation that it be mixed with manure to secure availability of its own plant-food. It is not a preservative except in so far as it acts physically as an absorbent. It should not displace acid phosphate in stables, the preservation of nitrogen in the manure being the vital matter.
Spreading as Made.—When farm conditions make it feasible to draw and spread manure fast as made, the danger of heavy loss in storing is escaped. There is evidence that no appreciable escape of fertility occurs when manure is spread on land that is not covered with ice. The phosphoric acid and potash are minerals, and leach into the soil. The nitrogen does not change into a gas in any appreciable amount when spread over the surface, and it likewise leaches into the soil. There are soils in which the decay of the organic matter would have a more beneficial effect than the rotting upon the surface, it may be, but the mulching effect of the manure is valuable. There should be no doubt that the loss from manure is kept to a minimum when it goes directly to the soil. In some latitudes the snow and ice oftentimes prevent spreading, or make it inadvisable, and in many farm schemes it is desirable to hold manure for special fields and crops. Some means of storing manure must be provided in these instances.
The Covered Yard.—If the possible value of manure were realized, provision for its care would be made as promptly and surely as provision for the care of a harvested crop. There are only three conditions that must be provided in order that manure may be preserved without much loss. The manure must be protected from leaching rains, it must be kept moist, and air must be excluded. The exposure of stable manure to the processes of fermentation and leaching, produces a waste that is believed to amount to several hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States annually. The day will come when no farmer will be willing to share heavily in a loss from this source, but will either spread manure fast as made or provide a roof for the stored manure. An absolutely tight floor is not so great a necessity as it is in the stable, because the amount of moisture is under control, but many farmers prefer to make concrete floors for the manure-shed and thus to guard against any loss from leaching. The chief cost may be confined to the roof.
A better plan is to inclose three sides, making them so tight that all drafts will be prevented, and to use the shed as a place of exercise for cows or other livestock. We have learned within recent years that such an inclosure is more healthful and comfortable for cattle than stalls in an inclosed building, no matter how cold the weather may be. The fresh air without any drafts, and the liberty of movement, are needed. This shed should be connected with the stable, and on its floor the manure from the stables may be spread daily. It should be scattered evenly over the surface, and the mass can be kept firm by the tramping of the animals. It may be necessary to add some water at intervals to keep the mass sufficiently moist. The water excludes air and assists in holding harmful fermentation in check.
Harmless Fermentation.—There is a kind of fermentation in manure that goes on in the absence of air. It is due to bacteria that break up the organic matter, producing rotted manure. This is not attended by much loss, and proceeds beneath the surface of the moist and packed mass. Manure properly controlled under a roof goes into prime condition for spreading later in the season. The only danger is neglect, and especially when the livestock is removed to the pasture fields in the spring. If no water is added from time to time, hot fermentation replaces the harmless kind because air can penetrate through the bed of manure. Compactness and moisture can save the plant-food with small loss throughout the summer, and a body of good manure is available when needed for top-dressing land in the summer.
Rotted Manure.—Mixed stable manure contains in a ton as many pounds of potash as it does of nitrogen, and yet we speak of it as a highly nitrogenous fertilizer. When fresh manure has suffered no loss of the liquid part, much of its nitrogen is almost immediately available. The nitrogen in the urine is in soluble forms, and fermentation quickly occurs. When manure is used on grass, it cannot be too fresh, as the immediate action of the nitrogen is desirable. Vegetable growers often prefer a slower and more continuous action, and the rotting of manure under right conditions changes the liquid nitrogen into compounds that act more slowly.
The solid material in horse manure contains less water than that of the cow, and this absence of water permits quick fermentation when air is present. The use of large quantities of such manure per acre is not liked by vegetable-growers. Rotting under control in a covered barnyard has a beneficial effect for this reason when a hot manure is not wanted. The covered shed costs some money, and there is a loss estimated at 10 per cent under the best conditions, but when manure cannot be drawn fast as made, there is compensation in improved condition for certain soils and crops.
Composts.—The compost, involving the handling of manure and soil, has no rightful place on the average farm. The gardener or trucker using great quantities of manure per acre must let some of the fermentation occur before he incorporates it with the soil, or harm will result. He wants reduction in volume, and such change in character that it will add to the retentive character of the soil respecting moisture instead of drying the soil out. He can afford all the labor of piling the manure with layers of sods or other material, and the turning to secure mixing. It is his business to watch it so that loss will not occur.
The farmer uses manure in smaller quantities per acre. Probably all his fields need the full action of the organic matter in its rotting. The percentage of humus-making material is low. The place for fresh manure is on the land, when this is feasible. The covered shed is a device for holding manure with least possible loss when spreading cannot be done, or a supply must be carried over for land in the summer. The gain in condition is only incidental, and an advantage chiefly to vegetables. The composting of manure by gardeners is not a practice to be copied on most farms.
Poultry Manure.—The value of poultry manure often is overestimated. Its content of plant-food is one half greater than that of horse manure, ton for ton. The availability of the nitrogen is so great that returns from applications are immediate, and give the impression of greater strength than is possessed. Its availability makes it excellent for plants that need forcing. For such use it needs reenforcing only with acid phosphate, but as a general manure it should have the addition of potash. Acid phosphate should be used in the poultry-house to prevent loss of nitrogen, which escapes quickly on account of rapid fermentation, and to supply phosphoric acid. Thirty pounds of acid phosphate to each 100 pounds of the manure gives a mixture containing one pound of nitrogen, three pounds of phosphoric acid, and two fifths of a pound of potash. The addition of four pounds of muriate of potash makes the mixture a well-balanced and effective fertilizer when used at the rate of 500 to 1000 pounds per acre. Dry muck or loam should be mixed with it to serve as an absorbent and to give good physical condition.
CHAPTER XIV
THE USE OF STABLE MANURE
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 much more than this. Land which receives only plant-food, as may be the case when fertility is supplied in commercial fertilizers, loses good physical condition. Organic matter is needed for maintenance of physical condition, the retention of soil moisture, the freeing of inert minerals in the land, and the promotion of bacterial life in the soil. No small share of the value of a ton of manure is due to its organic matter. This is a factor in the problem when deciding what disposition of the manure will pay best. One field may be in condition to respond fully to the use of commercial fertilizers, while another is too deficient in humus for best results. Some crops are more insistent upon supplies of organic matter than others.
Again, the disposition of the manure depends upon the supply. If most crops are fed on the farm, the manure is a leading source of fertility for all fields and crops, and may be used once or twice in the crop-rotation on every field. If the manure is in small amount, due to a scheme of farming involving the growing of crops for market, the function of the manure may be only to encourage the starting of sods, in which legumes are a leading factor.
Direct Use for Corn.—The practice of spreading manure on grass land for corn is based upon much good experience. The custom is nearly universal in regions where corn is an important part of a four, five, or six years' rotation, and all of the corn and hay is fed on the farm. This disposition of the manure permits the handling at times when other work does not rush. The supply carried over from the spring is put on in late summer, and the manure made in the early part of the winter can be drawn to the field fast as made. Manure spread immediately before the sod is broken is less effective, as no leaching of soluble elements into the surface soil occurs before the coarse material is buried in the bottom of the furrow.
The use of fresh manures for corn is rational, because corn is a gross feeder and requires much nitrogen. All plants having heavy foliage can use nitrogen in large amounts. It is possible to apply manure in excessive amount for this cereal, the growth of stalk becoming out of proportion to the ear, but the instances are relatively few. Ordinarily corn suffers from lack of nitrogen. When the farm manure is in large amount, its direct use for corn is good practice.
Effect upon Moisture.—Coarse manures should not be plowed down late in the spring, as they increase the ill effects of drouth. Decayed vegetation, well mixed with the soil, increases the soil's water-holding capacity, but undecayed material in the bottom of the furrow is harmful. Fresh, strawy manure, made immediately before the time for breaking a sod, is preferably carried over in a covered shed until a later season of the year.
When manure has been spread upon a sod in the fall or early winter, it decays quickly after the plowing, and aids in resistance to drouth. When it is plowed down, the ground is kept more porous, and the presence of plant-food and moisture at or near the depth of plowing encourages deeper rooting of plants, and thus indirectly assists them to withstand dry weather. If the plowing is good in character, leaving the furrow-slice partly on edge, and permitting the harrow to mix part of the turf and the manure with the remainder of the soil, the best conditions respecting moisture are secured.
Manure on Grass.—When the crop-rotation embraces two or more years of grass, or one of clover followed by only one of grass, it is better practice to use the manure to thicken the sod. The object in view is the largest possible amount of crops, and the maximum amount of organic matter for the soil. Grass is a heavy feeder, like corn, and makes good use of nitrogen. Its roots fill the soil so that no loss attends the use of manure. When the supply is given the grass, after the harvest of the second crop of clover and during the winter, the timothy can make a rank growth. The part of the plant above ground has corresponding development below ground. Not only does a large increase in the hay crop result, but the heavy mass of grass roots, the aftermath, and the remains of the manure provide a great amount of fertility for the corn which follows. The increase in hay permits a corresponding increase in the manure supply the next year, if it is fed, and if it is sold on account of a market price greater than its value for feed and manure, it adds to income materially—and that is one reason for farming.
Manure on Potatoes.—There are excellent cash crops that may get more than their fair share of the farm supply of fertility, and against the interest of fields in the farm not adapted to cash crops. The justification is found in the farm ledger. In some regions potatoes are the best crop in point of net income per acre, where the acreage is kept restricted so that there may be plenty of organic matter to help in conserving moisture. It is not good practice to use fresh manure, and especially that from horse-stables, for potatoes. A heavy application makes an excessive growth of vine, and the yield of tubers suffers. A stronger deterrent is the effect that fresh manure has on the development of the spores that produce the disease known as potato-scab. Rotted manure is less dangerous, and few crops repay its use in higher degree than the potato. Some growers prefer to make heavy application of fresh manure to grass for corn, and follow with potatoes so that they can profit by the rotted organic matter that remains. In this way the physical condition is made excellent, moisture is well held in a dry season, and commercial fertilizers can supplement the plant-food left in the manure.
When to plow Down.—Excellent farmers differ regarding the relative efficiencies of manure plowed down and that mixed with the top soil. Both classes may be right for their individual instances. The plowing down of manure helps to deepen the soil, and that always is desirable. It causes plants to root deeply, and that is a distinct benefit in a drouthy season, and always desirable. When a soil is in such tilth that the breaking-plow always brings fertile soil to the surface, the plowing down of manure gives excellent results, though it should be permitted to leach at the surface for a few weeks before being turned under. When land is being prepared for a seeding to grass or clover, the supply of manure should not be plowed down wherever the breaking-plow brings soil to the surface that is deficient in humus. In the latter case the manure always should be used as a top-dressing, and should be evenly spread and well mixed with the surface soil. It is needed there far more than it can be needed farther down. The surface soil always should have a high content of organic matter.
Heavy Applications.—When the farm supply of manure is small, applications should be light. The manure should not be the dependence for plant-food on a part of a field, or a single field of the farm, under such circumstances. It is more profitable to give a light dressing to a larger area. The manure is needed to make a fertilizing crop grow, and a very few tons per acre can assist greatly, when rightly used. The manure is needed to furnish bacteria to the soil, and a small amount per acre is useful for this purpose. Always there is temptation to use all the manure on a field convenient to the barn, and to concentrate it on a sufficiently small area to make a good yield sure. The loss to the farm in this method is heavy. The thin spots and the thin fields have first right to the manure as a top-dressing, and six tons per acre will bring larger returns per ton than twelve tons per acre. At the Pennsylvania experiment station the land receiving ten tons of manure per acre in the common four years' rotation of corn, oats, wheat, and mixed clover and grass gives added returns of $1.63 a ton, while an application of eight tons pays $1.85 a ton, and a six-ton application brings the value per ton up to $2.41. These applications are made twice in the four years.
Reenforcement with Minerals.—A ton of mixed manure in the stable contains about ten pounds of nitrogen, five pounds of phosphoric acid, and ten pounds of potash. This makes the percentage of nitrogen and potash the same, while the percentage of phosphoric acid is only half as high. A commercial fertilizer of such percentages would be esteemed a badly balanced one. Certainly the phosphoric acid should be relatively high, as this constituent of plant-food runs low in the soil. If 50 pounds of 14 per cent acid phosphate were added to each ton of manure while it is being made in the stable, seven pounds of phosphoric acid would be added, making the percentage in the manure a little higher than that of the nitrogen and the potash. A better balance is given to the fertility. There cannot be any loss in this purchased plant-food, if the stable floor is tight. Fermentation cannot drive it off, and when applied to the soil it is tightly held. Practically no phosphoric acid is found in drainage waters. Eight tons of manure thus reenforced would contain the same amount of plant-food as a ton of fertilizer having 4 per cent nitrogen, 5 per cent phosphoric acid, and 4 per cent potash. The addition of the 50 pounds of acid phosphate per ton does not bring the phosphoric acid content up as high relatively as in most commercial fertilizers, but it helps. The total amount in the eight tons manure may be sufficient, and the greater part of the total has sufficiently immediate availability, while the manure must undergo decomposition, and some of the nitrogen and potash does not become available within the year.
Durability of Manure.—Tests of the durability of manure in the soil involve some uncertain factors, but we are interested only in the effects of applications. These effects may continue for a long term of years, and an example will illustrate. Land may be too infertile to make a good clover sod. If a good dressing of manure be given half the land, affording proper conditions for making a sod, the result will be a heavy growth of clover, while the seeding on the unmanured half will be nearly a failure. If no manure or fertilizer be used in the crop-rotation, the probability is the manured portion of the field will again make a fairly good sod. How much this success may be due to the remains of the manure, and how much is attributable to the effect of the clover and to better bacterial life introduced and favored by the manure, no one knows. Probably the greater part of the benefit comes only indirectly from the manure applied three or four years previously. Half of the field may thus be lifted out of a helpless state and remain out of it for a long term of years, while the other half grows only poorer. A probable illustration of this lasting indirect effect may be seen in one of the plats in the soil fertility experiments on the Pennsylvania experiment station farm.
Experiments at the Rothamstead station, England, show some lasting results from applications of manure. Director Hall cites the case of one plat of grass land which was highly manured each year from 1856 to 1863, and has since been left unmanured. In 1864 this plat gave double the yield of an adjoining plat which had been left unmanured during the eight years. In 1865 the plat, last manured in 1863, gave over double the yield of the unmanured. In the following ten years its yield was a half more than that of the unmanured. In the next ten years the yield was a quarter more. In the next ten years it fell to 6 per cent more than the plat that had received no manure in the beginning of the experiment. In the following ten years it rose to 15 per cent. Here is a lasting effect of manure for over forty years where grass was grown continuously. |
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