Tribute to a Lowly Plant 



"Grass is the I'Drgiveness oi' Ntiture -- her constant ben- 

 ediction. Its tenacious libers hola the eartn in its place ana pre- 

 vent its soluble components i'rom v/ashing into the wasting sea. It 

 invaaes the solitudes of the aesert, climbs the inaccessible slopes 

 and forbiaaen pinnacles of mountains, raoaifies climates, ana aeter- 

 mines the history, character ana aestiny of nations. Unobtrusive 

 ana patient, it nas immortal vigor ana aggression. Banishea from 

 the thoroughfare and the fiela, it biaes its time to return, ana 

 vvhen vigilance is relaxea, or the aynasty has perishea, it silently 

 resumes the throne from whicn it has been expellea, but which it 

 never abaicates. It bears no olazonry of bloom to charifi the senses 

 ivith fragrance or splendor, but its homely hue is more enchanting 

 than the lily or the rose. It yielas no fruit in earth or air, ana 

 yet, should its harvest fail for a single year, famine v/oala aepop- 

 ulate the world." 



i?ruit growers who r'^aa the foregoing tribute v.;ritten by 

 J. J. Ingalls, former Kansas Senator, and quoted in the latest issue 

 of The Soil ^uger oj A. B. -teaumont, may aaa their own wora of 

 praise for the kina of vegetation which makes possible the ooa-wlulch 

 system of orcharaing, ana maintains if given a chance, that m_ystic 

 factor in the successful fruit farm, organic matter. 



Conserving iv-ianure on the Farm 



-tx very thorough uiscussion of this important subject is 

 founa in a new Ohio Bulletin (No. 60d) by Salter ana Schollenberger. 

 On the first page v;e reaa that the annual product of livestock on 

 iimerican farms if completely recovered, carefully preserved, and 

 efficiently used, shoula prbauce ^5,000,000,000." worth of increase 



in crops. The potential value of tnis agricultural resource is 

 three times that of the nation's wheat crop ana is equivalent to 

 i*;.440. for each of i^merica'a 6,800,000 farm operators. The crop nu- 

 triments, if purchased in the form of commercial fertilizers, -woulo 

 cost more than si:-: times as much as -h-merican farmers paia I'or fer- 

 tilizers in 19b6. Unfortunately, only a small fraction or the, po- 

 tential crop producing ana soil conserving value of this material is 

 actually realized. Enormous losses occur in handling, through loss 

 of nitrogen in fermentation ana arylng, the leaching out of soluble 

 nutrients. The wasteful ana ineflicient methods of hanuling manure 

 obvious in all sections of the countrj'- maybe taken as evidence that 

 farmers generally ao not understana the true nature of manure ana 

 especially the perishable character of its valuaole constituents. 

 From extensive stuaies at the i\othamstea l^vrperiment Station in Eng- 

 lana, ^mssell and J:^icharas concludes that manure keeps best when it 

 is (1) thorougnly compact, (2) sufficiently moist, but not too wet, 

 [6) under shelter, and (4) not movea. 



Lateral ivlovement of Potassium in an Orchard ooil 



That there is an appreciable movement of available po- 

 tassium in the permanently moist strata of soil below plow aepth has 

 been sho-An by ^ourley ana VVanaer of Ohio. They mixed 60-gram por- 

 tions of a potassium salt with about two-thirds of tlie soil rem.oved 

 from 18-inch borings ana placea it in the lower 1£ inch section of 

 the holes, of which 16 were symiuetrically placed in 12 ana 9 toot 

 circles, about each of 10 apple trees. Lateral movement oi the po- 

 tassiiinx changea the available potassiim content of as much as 2.2 

 cu. ft. of soil arounu each hole from very low to very high. From 



