22 FOR BETTER CROPS IN THE SOUTH 



hogs and cattle are sold, there is no such thing as reducing- the 

 supply of potassium if all liquid and solid manure is carefully 

 saved and returned to the soil, because, as before stated, practi- 

 cally all of the potassium contained in the feed is returned in 

 the manure. In dairy farming a small amount of potassium 

 leaves the farm if milk is sold. 



But even in livestock farming with all manure saved and 

 returned to the land, we still lose the phosphorus carried away 

 in bones, flesh, and milk, and this fact should not be ignored by 

 the farmer whose crop yields are already limited because of 

 insufficient supplies of phosphorus, even with abundant use of 

 decaying organic matter supplied in clover and farm manure. 

 Indeed, not infrequently we find farmers whose land is so rich in 

 nitrogen and potassium that they grow great crops of straw and 

 stalks, but the phosphorus is so limited that the actual yield of 

 grain produced is only one-half or two-thirds what it should be. 



A practice which is not followed by the best farmers 



Let us remember that a balanced ration is just as important for 

 corn as for cattle, and that phosphorus is required largely for 

 the grain. 



Soils Deficient in Nitrogen — It should be understood that 

 the nitrogen in the soil is measured by the organic matter, for 

 the nitrogen is practically all contained in the organic matter. 

 Consequently soils which are deficient in organic matter are also 

 deficient in nitrogen. 



There are two classes of soils which are commonly much more 

 deficient in nitrogen than in other plant foods. These are the 

 very sandy soils and the very rolling or steeply sloping hill 

 lands. 



Improving Sandy Land— While the sandy lands are not 

 rich in phosphorus and potassium, they are as a rule moderately 

 well supplied with those elements, and such soils are so porous 

 that they afford a very deep feeding range for the plant roots, so 



