86 THE farmer's education. 



feeder" may be grown. Among such feeders may be men- 

 tioned rye, buckwheat, spurry, and weeds of mfinite variety, 

 for a crop of weeds plowed under is far better than nothing. 

 But why all this work and apparent loss of time? — Simply to 

 bring to our command some of the vast stock of plant food 

 which we possess, that we may be enabled profitably to manu- 

 facture the raw materials of the soil into a product for which 

 there is a demand. The fermentation and decomposition oi 

 organic matter in the soil creates carbonic acid; this acid acts 

 upon the elements of the soil and makes available some of 

 the plant food which has been heretofore locked up ; the 

 condition of the soil has been ameliorated and brought into a 

 condition more favorable for the production of a higher class 

 of plants than formerly. When the soil has been thus im- 

 proved, commercial fertilizers may be tested, not because the 

 soil is deficient in potential plant food, but because the supply 

 of available plant food may be deficient. 



One practice which is most wasteful and improvident is 

 that of permitting the land to remain naked during the win- 

 ter and thus allowing it to be washed and plant food wasted. 

 Lands which are left naked, that is, with no plants growing 

 upon them, during the rainy season, lose more plant food in 

 the drainage water and by surface washing than would be re- 

 moved by several crops. Where thorough tillage is practiced 

 on crops grown during the summer, a large am?)unt of plant 

 food, especially nitrogen, is made available in the first few 

 inches of surface soil. Not all of this plant food is used by 

 the crop growing upon the land. If, when the crop is 

 removed, the land is left bare, this soluble plant food in the 

 surface soil is washed out or changed into a form which is less 

 available. To prevent these wastes the soil should, at all 

 times when possible, have plants growing upon it. Rye or 

 wheat may be sown in the late fall after the regular crop is 

 removed. While the plants may not make much growth, 

 yet they feed upon the soluble plant food and thus prevent 

 its waste; the roots permeate the soil and hold it in place, and 

 when the land is plowed in the spring some addition is made 

 to the organic matter of the soil. Seed for this cover crop 



