SOILS 95 



Phosphorus a Plant Food. We have learned that 

 a i)lant needs many plant foods, but the most of 

 them are usually found in the soil and in the air 

 and water in great plenty. If the farmer needs to 

 l)ut nitrogen in his soil, he may do it best by sowing 

 a crop of red clover, alfalfa, or cowpeas. But all 

 l)lant foods .can not be put back into the soil by a 

 crop. If a farmer raises and sells corn or wheat, 

 he is taking out of his soil and shipping away one 

 important plant food called phosphorus. Most of 

 t)ie phosphorus that corn and other grains require 

 before they can grow well, they store up in their 

 seed or grain. And when this grain is sent away 

 to market, it takes with it three-fourths of the phos- 

 l)liorus used by the crop. 



Putting Phosphorus Back. This must be put back 

 into the soil somehow; and it may be done by pur 

 chasing bone meal from stockyards companies who 

 buy and slaughter our stock, or by purchasing 

 manure for our fields or by buying rock phosphate 

 from the places in Tennessee or Florida w^iere this 

 mineral is mined and ground for fertilizer. 



Keeping Up the Land. Phosphorus is the plant 

 food most likely to be wanting in our rolling 

 l)rairies, in the hilly timber lands, and in soils worn 

 out by long cultivation. If clover will not grow 

 well, one may feel pretty sure his fields need phos- 

 phorus, and, perhaps, lime. For most farms, all that 

 is needed to keep them up is plenty of rock phos- 

 phate, with a crop of clover, alfalfa, or cowpeas, in 

 rotation and all the manure made on the farm. 



