488 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



Wheat. When phosphoric acid and potash are supplied in the 

 fertilizer and sufficient barnyard manure is available to give the 

 land an application of 10 tons to the acre, no ammoniated fertilizer 

 need be applied in the spring. Likewise, when the wheat crop 

 follows a good crop of clover or cowpeas all, or nearly all, the am- 

 monia in the fertilizers applied may be omitted. When the wheat 

 field is seeded to clover or clover and grass and left down for hay, 

 more phosphoric acid and potash should be used than when no hay 

 crop follows. The quantities of the different fertilizer constituents 

 given are intended for wheat under fairly good farming conditions 

 and where the land is not to be seeded to clover and grass. 



On old wheat lands phosphate and potash fertilizers can be used 

 to better advantage than either nitrogen alone or a complete fer- 

 tilizer. If clover is seeded with wheat that has received a dressing of 

 potash or phosphate fertilizer often a better crop of clover results, and 

 thus additional value is secured from the fertilizer. In the building 

 up of old wheat lands the first thing is to determine by trial on a 

 small scale the extent to which commercial fertilizers increase the 

 yield. In case the increase is sufficient to pay for the fertilizer it 

 should be used, as the influence upon following crops will be more 

 than sufficient to pay for the labor. 



Commercial fertilizers should be used in connection with crop 

 rotation, farm manures and clover production, rather than as the 

 only means of increasing fertility. When judiciously used they 

 have a proper place in our agriculture, but when indiscriminately 

 used it is generally at a financial loss. 



A method of fertilizing corn widely used, and apparently 

 worthy of commendation, in the South Atlantic States is to plant 

 the corn below the level of the soil and cultivate once or twice be- 

 fore making the first application of fertilizer. Some farmers make 

 this application on each side of the row, while others think it is 

 practically as beneficial and more economical to apply to one side 

 only. The prevailing practice is to make the first application of 

 fertilizer when the corn is about 2 feet high and use two-thirds of 

 the total phosphoric acid and potash and one-half of the nitrogen 

 that is to be used on the crop. The fertilizer is distributed evenly 

 over a furrow at least 4 inches from the row of corn. The fertilizer 

 is then covered by cultivating the corn shallow. 



The second, or last, application of fertilizer, consisting of one- 

 third of the total phosphoric acid and potash, and one-half of the 

 nitrogen, is made about the time the corn prepares for tasseling. 

 This application is made on the opposite side of the row. 



For the first application of fertilizer, materials furnishing 

 nitrogen or ammonia in a slowly available form, such as cotton-seed 

 meal, dried blood, and tankage, should be used. For the second 

 application it is preferable to use nitrogen in a readily available 

 form, like nitrate of soda. The amount of nitrogen necessary to 

 produce a good corn crop will depend upon the rotation. When a 

 heavy crop of crimson clover is turned under as a green manure for 

 corn the nitrogen may be economically omitted from the fertilizer. 



