684 lO/WA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



foxtail since it was seeded down. Tlie corn on tlie level parts is very 

 rank and thrifty, showing that the soil Is better suited to cereals than 

 to the grasses. I sowed a small patch to soy beans and a patch of sweet 

 clover last spring, and both look fairly well so far. It seems that nearly 

 every year such spells of hot, dry weather occur that the young grass is 

 endangered even on the best of soils, and is usually killed out entirely 

 on soils at all unsuited to grass. This has become a matter of grave 

 concern to all. It is impossible to make enough manure to solve the 

 problem. I am nine miles from the railroad, and the application of lime 

 and phosphate would be a big undertaking. Even if I knew it would 

 be successful, I would have to proceed slowly. If you know of any 

 pasture • grass that would be better than what I have, or some legume 

 that is grown and plowed under, I would be very glad to hear from you. 

 The Income from the pasture and hay land except as a fertilizer Is 

 very small anyway, and I could get along without it for a time if I could 

 keep the land in good shape for grain." 



Dry weather and acid soil have got the best of our correspondent's 

 clover. Of course he can do nothing about the weather. That will no 

 doubt come back to normal in the near future. So far as we are able 

 to determine from the weather records, dry seasons may continue for 

 three or four years in succession, but sooner or later they seem always 

 to have been followed by seasons moister than usual. Just when the 

 moist seasons will come, we can not say, but It would seem as though 

 they were about due. 



So far as the acid soil is concerned, our correspondent can do a lot 

 of thinking. There are two ways of approaching the problem. He can 

 sweeten the soil or he can grow crops that will stand acid conditions. 

 The general recommendation is to sweeten the soil by applying from 

 one to three tons of ground limestone per acre. We do not know just 

 how far our correspondent would have to go to get the ground lime- 

 stone, but probably not so very far, for there are a number of quarries 

 in Illinois that have limestone for sale. A list of these quarries can be 

 had from the Illinois experiment station, at Urbana. But with his long 

 haul, the chances are that an acre application of limestone would cost 

 him |4, and the application should be repeated once every four years. 

 We suspect that this application would pay, but can not be absolutely 

 certain. It should be worth while, however, for our correspondent to 

 experiment with a carload of limestone. There is also a slight pos- 

 sibility that this land is lacking in phosphorus. Some soils refuse to 

 grow good clover because of being poor in phosphorus. To determine 

 this point, our correspondent should experiment with rock phosphate, 

 applying it at the rate of half a ton per acre on two or three acres, or with 

 acid phosphate, applying it at the rate of half a ton per acre on half an 

 acre or so. 



Corn does first rate on acid soil; so do oats, potatoes, millet, buck- 

 wheat, rye and red-top. Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries do 

 better on acid soil than on sweet soil. It is well known that clover and 

 alfalfa refuse to grow well on acid soil, but there are other legumes 

 that get along nicely. Cowpeas, soy beans, hairy vetch and crimson 



