170 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



That is, the fertilizer is used as a soil builder rather than as a 

 temporary ameliorant, and such a use is in connection with the 

 best system of crop rotation, or legume growing, of animal feed- 

 ing and of manure saving that a man can practice. When a man 

 has done all that he can to maintain the nitrogen, the phosphorus 

 and the potassium supplies of his soil by intelligent soil manage- 

 ment and still finds that he is not quite maintaining the supply of 

 any one or more of these plant foods, he can resort to the use of 

 commercial plant food and be assured that he is practicing a con- 

 structive system, one that will not only increase his profits but per- 

 manently benefit his land. 



METHODS OF SOIL MANAGEMENT. - 



It is always of first importance to understand the reasons for 

 doing things — the fundamental principles — but it is also of im- 

 portance to know how to do. Unfortunately, in a business as com- 

 plicated and as dependent upon seasons and upon soil differences 

 as is our modern agriculture, only very general directions as to 

 exactly how to manage our soils can be given. Nevertheless, from 

 the results of the various soil experiments, we are coming into r. 

 position where it will be possible to give very concise directions 

 regarding the handling of this or that soil. 



In the first place, in building up the humus or nitrogen sup- 

 plies of our worn lands, we are resorting to the growing of legumes 

 — mainly cowpeas — and plowing them under. There is no more 

 rapid method of building up humus. However, where a man must 

 have some immediate returns from the land, the next best system 

 is the pasturing of the crop, in which case approximately 85 per 

 cent, of the nitrogen and a large share of the humus is returned 

 in the manure and stalks of the plants. Such crops are as a rule 

 grown both as a regular crop in the rotation, and also thrown in 

 as catch crops wherever possible. Cowpeas sown in the corn at 

 the last cultivation to be pastured off with hogs or sheep can be 

 used with very great profit to the land. Sometimes cowpeas may 

 be sown alone after a crop like wheat and pastured off, or they 

 may also be planted with the corn in the hill or row and both 

 corn and peas hogged down with excellent results. 



A practice we have found especially adapted to the building 

 up of thin land is to sow to rye and pasture up until May, then 

 plow and sow to cowpeas, pasture these, disk the land, harrow and 

 again sow to rye. Two or three years of such pasturing will rapid- 

 ly build up the humus and nitrogen. Wheat may be used instead 



