15 



Above all things we ought to consider more alfalfa and sweet clover, 

 and use more limestone and phosphate. 



I thank you. 



PRESIDENT MANN: One of the old war horses in the work on per- 

 manent fertility in this state has been Mr. William Webb, of Will county, 

 and we will hear from him now. [Applause.] 



PROFITABLE SOIL TREATMENT. 

 (Wm. Webb.) 



MR. CHAIRMAN, BROTHER FARMERS AND FRIENDS: I have been asked to 

 talk on profitable soil treatment. I am glad to hear the other speaker 

 emphasize alfalfa, because I think alfalfa is one of the greatest crops we 

 can grow. 



I am going to tell you a little about some work that has been done on 

 our experiment field and also on our home farm, giving you the way our 

 land has been farmed and the results we are getting. Then you can judge 

 for yourselves whether it has the proper soil treatment or not. 



We started to use rock phosphate in 1908. At that time we used to 

 put it on in strips, to find out whether it would pay for itself or not, or 

 give results enough to pay. Then we started putting it on in parts of 

 fields. We soon found that rock phosphate properly applied to fields that 

 had been rotated the right way with leguminous crops enough to build 

 up the nitrogen content, with the clover roots going down in the subsoil 

 and putting plenty of humus in the soil, draining and aerating the soil 

 in such a way that the corn roots can go down in the subsoil and get 

 part of the plant food and not take it all from the surface soil, would pay 

 for itself several times over. 



In 1914 the University of Illinois started an experiment field on our 

 farm and I have had charge of the work on that field ever since. I have 

 seen results enough from the soil treatment to convince me that we can 

 build up the soil fertility and raise a large crop at the same time. 



In 1915 the full treatment was put on this field, using the five-year 

 rotation, corn, oats, clover, wheat and soybeans. In addition to that we 

 had one series of alfalfa that would lay for five years, then that would be 

 plowed up and turned over into one of the other series. 



CROP SYSTEMS AND RESULTS. 



We were practicing two systems of farming, livestock and grain farm- 

 ing. Plots numbers 1, 5 and 10 were non-treated plots, or check plots. 

 Plot number 2 which is in the livestock system is treated with barnyard 

 fertilizer. Plot number 3, barnyard fertilizer and limestone. Plot number 



4, barnyard fertilizer, limestone and rock phosphate. Then ^plot number 



5, as I said, was a check plot. Then we go to plot number 6, which is in 

 the grain system. In the grain farm system we have no manure, we have 

 to substitute something in place of manures, so we substitute catch crops 

 and crop residue, sowing sweet clover in our winter wheat early in the 

 spring, and then leaving that until the next spring, then plowing it under 

 for a green manure with crop residue. Plot 7, catch crop, crop residue 

 and lime. Plot 8, catch crop, crop residue, lime and rock phosphate. Plot 

 9, catch crop, crop residue, lime, phosphorus and potassium. The potassium 

 does not pay for itself, except on the sweet clover; it makes quite an addi- 

 tional growth in the sweet clover. Since we have been using the sweet 

 clover I think we are getting something out of the potassium, on account 

 of the extra growth in sweet clovers plowed under. 



This system has been carried on for six years. They are changing the 



system now. I am going to give you some of the results obtained in the 



average yield in that six-year rotation. As I told you, it was corn, oats, 

 clover, wheat and soybeans. 



