EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL AND FERTILIZATION OF THE CEOP. 447 



CHAPTER XIV. 



(a.) Exhaustion of soil bj' jxrowino; sor|:hiim. 



{d.) Exhaustion how prevented in growing sorghum. 



(c.) Average yield of principal crops in each state of United Slates, 



from 1868-72, and from 1872-80 compared. 

 (d.) Value of asli constituetils of principal crops of United States. 

 (e. ) How exhaustion of soils may be prevented b}- use of fertilizers. 



EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL AND FERTILIZATION OF THE CROP, 



In auotlier place, page 395, there is given the amount of mineral 

 matter, or ash, which is removed by an average crop of sorghum. A 

 crop so heavy must, in its seed, stalk, leaves, and roots, make an un- 

 usual demand upon the soil, and the analyses of these several portiuus 

 of the plant confirm the fact, that few of our crops are, in reality, so 

 exhaustive of plant food as is sorghum. 



In the face of this fact, which is unquestionable, there is abundant 

 evidence to show that sorghum may be grown for successive years 

 upon the same land with little if any diminution in the yield; also, 

 that it will succeed where many other crops fail, and that, in fact, sor- 

 ghum, even after a succession of heavy crops, leaves the laud in good 

 condition for other crops. These facts are apparently established. 



The following, from one of the recent reports of a convention of 

 sorghum growers, will illustrate the erroneous conclusions which have 

 been drawn from these facts: 



There is this about it, and it ought to be taken into consideration in study- 

 ing to diversify our industry, that the wheat crop is a very exhaustive crop for 

 the soil. I can recollect back in the State of New York, where I was born, and 

 where my parents now reside, my father, when I was a boy, used to raise 25 

 and oO bushels of wheat to the acre, with no difficulty in obtaining that j'ield. I 

 was back there last fall, and he has a good farm, one of the best in that section, 

 puts out his little patch of wheat, even now, every j'ear, and, if he gets 8 or 10 

 bushels to the acre, he thinks he is doing very well; and this has been the his- 

 tory of all wheat counties throughout the state of New York. It is the same in 

 the state of Maryland, Delaware, and portions of Pennsylvania; but, as time 

 has gone on, those fields which have produced this crop have been exhausted of 

 those properties which make wheat, and they are no longer able to produce a 

 paying crop, and manures and fertilizers and phosphates and superphosphates 

 have to be applied, and the yield sometimes hardly pays for the amount 

 paid out for these. That same destructive policy is going on tliroughout the 

 entire west, and it will not be many years,, even within the recollection of some 



