THE DIVERSIFIED FARM 



In diversified farming by irrigation lies the salvation of agriculture 



The Age wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this purpose in 

 view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and (pictures of fields, orchards and 

 farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. Also sketches or plans for convenient and 

 commodious barns, hen houses, oorncribs, etc. Sketches of labor- saving devices, such as ditch clean- 

 ers and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. 

 Will you help us improve the appearance of The Age? 



HOW BARNYARD MANURE IMPROVES 

 THE SOIL. 



BY F. C. BARKER, OF NEW MEXICO. 



A LITTLE knowledge is a dangerous 

 thing. This maxim is particularly 

 to be borne in mind when one comes to ap- 

 ply chemistry to the science of farming. 

 A very good instance of this occurs in the 

 study of the land in the Bio Grande val- 

 ley. This land is yearly irrigated by the 

 waters of the Rio Grande river, which con- 

 tain an abundance of potash, phosphates 

 and nitrogen indeed far more of these 

 fertilizers than are removed by the yearly 

 crops. Let us take, as an example, the 

 nitrogen, the most essential item in plant 

 growth. The land receives an average of 

 at least 24 inches of water from the river 

 every year, and the sediment of this water 

 leaves 107 pounds of nitrogen on each 

 acre. An acre of wheat does not remove 

 more than 45 pounds of this nitrogen. It 

 therefore follows that if the land is irri- 

 gated and cropped with wheat year after 

 year, as is often the case, the land will in 

 time be so full of nitrogen that there will 

 be no deficiency of this fertilizing item 

 whatever be the crop that the farmer 

 wishes to raise. As for potash and phos- 

 phates the excess will be still greater. But 

 this theory does not work out in practice. 

 Actual experience has shown that this land 

 will not raise cabbage, or other garden 

 truck, without the application of barnyard 

 manure, and that even the wheat crop will 

 be nearly doubled by putting on say 10 

 tons of this manure every three or four 

 years. Now it is evidently not the nitro- 

 gen in the manure that thus benefits the 

 crop, for ten tons of manure only contains 

 about as much nitrogen as the 24 inches 

 of water; moreover, there is already an 

 excess of nitrogen in the soil. 



HOW NITROGEN IS UTILIZED. 



The explanation is to be found in the 

 fact that the nitrogen deposited by the 

 water is in an inert state, and not capa- 

 ble of being utilized by plant life. Be- 

 fore nitrogen can be absorbed by plants it 

 must go through a ferment. The most 

 modern chemical researches have shown 

 that this ferment is caused by minute liv- 

 ing organisms or bacteria of a somewhat 

 similar nature to those which cause the 

 fermentation of wine, cream, etc. These 

 organisms are found in abundance in 

 humus (decayed vegetable matter) and 

 barnyard manure. Now it is well known 

 that our western land in the arid districts 

 are particularly deficient in humus and 

 unless these fermenting organisms are ap- 

 plied to the land by means of barnyard 

 manure the nitrogen already contained in 

 the soil is apt to remain in an inert state, 

 unfit for plant food. The experience of 

 farmers, not only here, but in many parts 

 of the world, is that barnyard manure 

 gives results far in excess of what might 

 be expected from its actual fertilizing con- 

 tents. The reason of this is that the. fer- 

 menting organisms contained in the ma- 

 nure not only render the nitrogen in the 

 manure fit for plant food, but they fer- 

 ment and convert into plant food the inert 

 nitrogen which already existed in the soil. 



There is, of course, an additional reason 

 why barnyard manure is beneficial, and 

 that is that it improves the mechanical 

 condition of the soil and the humus ena- 

 bles it to better hold moisture. 



It therefore follows that however rich 

 land may be considered to be if it is defi- 

 cient in humus a light dressing of barn- 

 yard manure every three or four years will 

 probably be found to yield beneficial re- 

 sults far in excess of the cost of supplying 

 the manure. 



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