SOIL IMPROVEMENT 81 



These are powerful arguments in favor of careful and 

 intelligent farming. Landowners ought to perceive that 

 the real profits in grain production only come when crops 

 above the average are raised. Agriculture is a sorrowful 

 spectacle when men with a suitable equipment of animals 

 and machinery secure 10 to 12 bushels of wheat and 20 

 to 25 bushels of corn to the acre on our rich virgin soils, 

 while in European countries the average is twice or three 

 times as much. It must be remembered that when the 

 average of a crop is 14 bushels a great many farmers fall 

 below this figure and these constitute failures which 

 are both pitiful and unnecessary. 



A number of essential principles must be adopted by 

 farmers if they are to raise profitable crops. It is neces- 

 sary to supply nitrogen for corn and wheat by growing 

 legumes, but before leguminous crops, such as clover and 

 alfalfa, can be grown, nearly every acre of land must be 

 limed to correct the acidity. Fortunately there is an 

 abundance of lime. Crushed lime rock can be purchased 

 in carload quantities at a cost not to exceed $3 per ton 

 laid down at any railroad station. 



The physical condition of the soil is injured by loss of 

 organic matter. As the organic matter is destroyed the 

 soils become less mellow, they plow up hard and lumpy, 

 they crust severely after rains and cultivate with greater 

 difficulty. The crusting of the soil, due to the lack of 

 organic matter, is perhaps the most serious physical de- 

 fect. When soils crust badly it becomes almost impossi- 

 ble to successfully start such crops as alfalfa and grasses, 

 and difficulty is sometimes experienced in securing a 

 good stand of crops like wheat and corn. 



The liberation of plant food from the soil is directly 

 dependent upon the supply of organic matter. Organic 

 matter is also the food of a countless number of beneficial 

 bacteria that inhabit every fertile soil. These bacteria 

 are largely responsible for the liberation of plant food 



