By LEWIS A. REISNER 



Field Editor, lAA RECORD 



By sprinkling nltrogan on on old bluogratt 

 pasture a giant N was spelled out this 

 spring on this Whiteside county hillside by 

 Form Adviser F. E. Shuman, shown In fore- 

 ground. 



FARMERS in Whiteside county have 

 been treated to a variety of experi- 

 ments in the use of plant foods but 

 none have been more dramatic than 

 those involving nitrates. 



This spring, for example, a giant N 

 was spelled out on a hillside near Mor- 

 rison by the simple method of sprin- 

 kling nitrogen on an old blue grass 

 pasture. 



This visible lesson in the growing- 

 power of nitrates applied to grasses 

 was not lost on those who passed the 

 field. "Farmers came in to see about 

 buying nitrates but there just wasn't 

 enough to go around," says Lyle Eve- 

 rist, manager for the Whiteside Service 

 Company. 



Few should be more anxious to lay 

 in a store of nitrates this fall than 

 Pierce Tilton who lives north of Mor- 

 rison on a rolling 427 acre grain farm. 



During an inspection trip out to his 

 40 acre corn field, Tilton pointed to a 

 wide strip where nitrates had been 

 plowed under this spring. 



"The corn here will go 65 bushels 

 per acre," he said. "But where we 

 stopped spreading nitrates the corn will 

 not yield over 35 bushels." 



It was the 200 pounds of ammonium 

 nitrate that made the difference be- 

 tween 65 bushels and nubbins, Everist 

 concluded. The nitrate cost $4.50 an 

 acre to apply. 



The corn was growing on soil that 

 once was highly fertile but the field 

 has been cropped hard and has seen no 

 clover or manure for 30 years. 



The field had been tested in the 

 spring and was treated, as recommended 

 by results from the Whiteside soil test- 

 ing laboratory, with 150 pounds of 

 potash. In addition 200 pounds of 

 ammonium nitrate per acre were 

 plowed under, Tilton said. 



A second test of large field applica- 



tion of ammonium nitrate was wit- 

 nessed by neighbors of Alney Har- 

 graves, operator of a Wilder Estate 

 farm near Erie. 



Instead of the eroded slopes seen 

 on the Tilton farm, here the soil was 

 a black, heavy gumbo — deep bottom 

 land. 



One of the farmers present recol- 

 lected that the test field had been in 

 corn and oats for 50-75 years. This 

 means that soil fertility banks had been 

 depleted to astonishingly low levels. 



The field was second year corn 

 ground and Hargraves said he had 

 plowed under this spring 150 pounds 

 of potash and 200 pounds of ammonium 

 nitrate per acre. On the two acre test 

 plot potash — but not ammonium ni- 

 trate — had been added. 



This test plot, located some 15 rods 

 from the edge of the field, was easy 

 to spot when the men on the tour 



crossed over to it. The ears and stalks 

 were stunted and yellow. Bottom 

 leaves were cooked an ashen brown. 



The farmers, some 21 were present, 

 estimated the yields. Their results: 35 

 for the untreated, 75 for the nitrogen 

 treated corn. A diflPerence of 40 bushels 

 an acre. 



The answer ? Nitrogen starvation on 

 the two acre test plot cut the yield by 

 40 bushels an acre. 



Based on these two and literally 

 dozens of other smaller-scaled experi- 

 ments, Frank H. Shuman, Whiteside 

 county farm adviser, can pass on to 

 growers some well grounded plant food 

 facts. 



Corn or oats. For corn or oats 

 planted on very sandy or badly eroded 

 soils, or where land is starving for plant 

 food, nitrates, phosphorus and potash 



{Continued on page 21) 



You can see the difference nitrogen made In this com field on the TIMen farm. In 

 of Farm Adviser Shuman grows the doric-green, nitregen-fertillzed com. The yeil( 

 stunted plants in foreground received no nitrogen. 



NOVEMBER, 1946 



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