The Bulletin. 55 



The lower part of this chart represents results on a loamy soil in Arkansas. 

 This piece of land had been in corn and cotton for years. When it changed 

 hands, the new owner obtained a yield of 15 bushels of corn per acre the first 

 year. He introduced a rotation and began growing cowpeas. After the first 

 crop of peas, the pea-vines having been taken off as hay, and the stubble and 

 roots being turned into the ground, he obtained a yield of 35 to 40 bushels of 

 corn per acre. 



Chart 6 shows results with cotton on the same Arkansas farm. The first 

 year the new owner harvested a quarter of a bale of cotton per acre. After 

 one crop of cowpeas, the vines of which were cut for hay, and stubble and roots 

 turned under, the cotton yield went to one-half a bale. After one crop of 

 cowpeas and 300 pounds of commercial fertilizer, the yield went to three- 

 quarters of a bale. On that same farm a part of the land was put into cowpeas 

 and red clover for two years, then planted to cotton, and without one pound of 

 commercial fertilizer or one shovelful of stable manure the yield on that part 

 of the farm was one bale to the acre. If some fertilizer had been used, the 

 yield would probably have been one and one-half or two bales to the acre. 

 The people who had been farming this land had failed to control fertility. 

 What the land needed was nitrogen-bearing decaying vegetable matter. By 

 putting it into the soil the new owner was enabled to control fertility to such 

 an extent that he got these increased yields of cotton and corn. 



Charts 7 and 8 represent results on a farm of sandy loam in South Carolina. 

 Notice that as the quantity of commercial fertilizer used tends to diminish, the 

 crop yields increase. Why is that? This land had been run down to such an 

 extent that the people on it were starving. They were producing acre yields 

 of only 8 or 10 bushels of corn and about 100 pounds of lint cotton. This 

 farm was purchased in 1902 by a man who knew how to control fertility. He 

 began operations by dividing the cultivated land into three fields of 22 acres 

 each, adopting a rotation of crops, buying stable manure, and putting it into 

 the soil. As soon as possible, he began buying up scrub cattle from the sur- 

 rounding farmers, feeding them on the roughage and part of the cotton-seed 

 meal and some grains of the farm, and applying the manure to the cotton crop. 

 His rotation was cotton, corn with cowpeas planted at the last working, fol- 

 lowed by winter oats, followed by cowpeas, then cotton again. In 1902, with 



1 375 pounds of commercial fertilizer and 5 tons of manure to the acre on the 

 cotton land, he got 1.6 bales of lint cotton to the acre. When cotton came 

 around on this field again in 1905, he cut down the quantity of commercial 

 fertilizer used to 875 pounds, or 500 pounds less than in 1902, still continuing 

 the 5 tons of stable manure, with the result that the cotton yield went to over 



2 bales. The next time cotton came on this field, namely, 1908, he made over 

 214 bales to the acre without any increase in fertilizer, but by increasing the 

 stable manure to 7 tons. , ^ ^.,. 



On an adjoining field in 1902, with 750 ix)unds of commercial fertilizer, 

 corn yielded 36 bushels per acre. Corn came onto this field again in 1904, 

 and with 500 pounds of commercial fertilizer, or 200 pounds less than in 1902, 

 he made 65 bushels per acre. In 1907, when corn again came onto this field, 

 with ,500 pounds of commercial fertilizer (no increase over 1904) the corn yield 

 was 85 bushels. In 1908, oats following this crop of corn produced 80 bushels 

 to the acre without direct application of commercial fertilizer or manure. 



The important factors in controlling fertility and increasing crop yields on 

 this farm were the adoption of a rotation, including two crops of nitrogen- 

 gathering cowpeas; the turning into the soil of the stubble of the cowpeas 

 <^rown between the corn and after the oats; the feeding of the roughage, 

 fncluding cowpea hav, and part of the grain produced to stock ; and applying 

 the manure thus produced to the cotton crop. This resulted in keeping the soil 

 filled with active, decaying vegetable matter, which is so powerful in controll- 

 ing fertility Notice that as the quantities of commercial fertilizer used 

 were diminished or remained constant, the crop yields increased. The more 

 ve'^etable matter you put into your soils the less commercial fertilizer you 

 win need for given crop yields, and larger crop yields will you get for any 

 given quantity of commercial fertilizer. Also the more vegetable matter you 

 put into the soil the larger the quantity of commercial fertilizer you can use 

 with profit. 



