402 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 8 
Part VII. 
We wish to call .your attention this 
week to the articles elsewhere on the use 
of marl, and the plowing' in of green 
crops. The effect of the marl was felt 
for a long time, but this effect was not 
entirely due to the actual plant food thus 
added. It simply made the soil more 
retentive of moisture. We keep refer¬ 
ring to this matter again and again, be¬ 
cause it is of great importance. Any 
system of culture that increases the 
capacity of the soil for holding water, is 
as valuable as manure. What we wish 
to do is to increase the power of the 
water to creep up from the lower soil. 
Mr. Taber tells us this week how his 
green crop helped the sweet corn, 
and seemed to store up water for use 
in the drought. You will notice that 
he rolled and packed down this green 
stuff after plowing it under. That 
was the proper treatment for that 
crop. Suppose that mass of “organic 
matter” had been left loosely—just as it 
was plowed under ! There would have 
been a mass of stuff with wide open 
spaces between the layers of soil, in 
which the particles were much closer to¬ 
gether. It would be much like cutting 
a wick in two and sewing a piece of thin 
calico between the two ends. Now if 
you should put the upper end of the 
wick in the lamp, and the lower end in 
the oil, you would obtain but a poor 
light, for the oil would not flow readily 
past that calico. There would be a 
difference in thickness and arrangement 
of the fibers of the wick, and the oil 
would stop at the calico. The water 
would act in much the same way over 
that loose mass of “ organic matter” in 
the soil. When the capillary force 
brought the water through the s®il up 
to that loose mass, it would stop there 
because, as we know, this force acts best 
in very small spaces, and works but 
slowly in larger ones. 
But it may be said that the green crop 
itself contains water enough to provide 
for the plant. All the more reason why 
the roller should be used after plowing 
the crop in. When left loosely under 
the furrows, the air can easily work all 
through the mass, and this, of course, 
dries out the water and leaves things 
worse than before. When thoroughly 
rolled and pressed down, the spaces in 
the mass of greenstuff are made smaller. 
They are nearer the size of the spaces in 
the soil, and, of course, the water is 
freer to rise from below, while the air 
cannot so easily pass through and dry it 
out. Thus we see why stable manure, 
green crops, or other organic substances 
like cotton-seed meal, might prove an 
injury to a light soil if left loosely in it. 
They might “ burn the soil out,” as peo¬ 
ple sometimes say when they find great 
chunks of stable manure in the soil as 
dry as chips. These chunks have not 
only lost their own moisture, but have 
absorbed that from the nearby soil, and 
also lost that. 
On a heavy clay soil, rolling and pack¬ 
ing are not so necessary, as there it is 
often more necessary to dry out the soil 
than to conserve water ; but on lighter 
soils, a green crop should never be left 
loosely under the furrows if another 
crop is to be planted at once. The Dela¬ 
ware farmers, with their great crops of 
Crimson clover, recognize this principle, 
and use it very successfully—rolling 
down the soil over a green crop, and 
then keeping the upper few inches of 
the soil well stirred. The result of this 
continued use of large quantities of or- 
ganic matter, is easily apparent. The 
soil is growing darker, and is also of 
better texture—less liable to suffer from 
drought. Many fields of potatoes planted 
on clover sod, suffered from drought 
last year. The sod was simply turned 
under and worked with the harrow. If, 
after plowing, the sod had been well 
packed with a roller, and then the few 
inches above it loosened up for a seed 
bed, the potatoes would have fared much 
better in the drought. The water would 
have risen better through the soil, and 
the air could not have circulated so 
freely through the organic matter of 
the clover, and dried it out. To show 
the importance of improving the texture 
of sandy soils, experiments were made 
in Maryland to see how much water 
would be retained in different soils from 
the same rainfall. It was found that 
stiff clay soils have, as a rule, nearly 
five times as much moisture as light, 
sandy soils, though the same amount of 
rain falls over both. Not only that, but 
the water moves through the clay with 
much greater force than in the sand. 
If. year after year, sod or green crops 
are plowed into a light soil and, as they 
decay, are well worked about by tillage, 
the arrangement of the soil particles is 
changed. The spaces between the par¬ 
ticles of sand become filled up with fine 
organic matter which, for a time, would 
act like the clay, and by retarding the 
movement of the water, prevent quick 
evaporation—particularly if the upper 
surface is well stirred or mulched. 
Take what is called a “ virgin soil”— 
like a Western prairie—which has been 
sod for centuries. At first it is wonder¬ 
fully productive, not only because it con¬ 
tains so much plant food, but because it 
is packed full of organic matter, and can 
thus retain a full supply of moisture for 
the crops. But after years of constant 
cultivation and exposure, this organic 
matter is used up, and then these soils be¬ 
come more open or sandy and, of course, 
less productive. Many Western lands 
“run out,” not so much because.they lose 
plant food, as because they lose organic 
matter, and with it the power to hold 
water. A few years of careless culture 
destroy Nature’s patient work of cen¬ 
turies, by removing the organic matter 
which years of grass had supplied. It is 
needless to think that a single green 
crop plowed into such soils will bring 
them back to their old water-holding 
capacity. The organic matter must be 
distributed all through the soil in fine 
particles, and this will require years of 
patient culture. 
The R. N.-Y. in advocating the use of 
chemical fertilizers, has always insisted 
that the best results are obtained when 
they are used in a rotation containing a 
sod or an entire green crop. Prof. Whit¬ 
ney has given an illustration that shows 
the wisdom of this advice. He speaks of 
a tract of land in southern Maryland on 
which wheat and tobacco were grown 
for many years with fertilizers alone. 
The wheat stubble provided a compara¬ 
tively small amount of vegetable mat¬ 
ter, but the clean culture of the tobacco 
prevented any addition of humus from 
that crop. In spite of liberal fertiliz¬ 
ing, these lands “ ran out” until they 
came to be rated as one of the poorest 
sections in the State, and brought re¬ 
proach upon those who had farmed with 
fertilizers. Investigation showed that 
the soil was rich in plant food, but had 
been drained of organic matter, so that 
the soil grains had been rearranged in 
such a way that the spaces were too 
large to hold water perfectly. No mat¬ 
ter how much such land was fed, until 
the spaces between the soil particles 
were filled up, it could not produce a 
good crop, since the plants were sure to 
suffer from thirst. The water moved 
through these burned-out soils 10 times 
as fast as it would through the same soil 
well filled with fine clay or organic mat¬ 
ter. The remedy was to plow under re¬ 
peated crops of green manure, or give 
the soil a “ rest ” by keeping it in sod for 
a number of years. The exclusive use 
of fertilizers will be sure, in time, to 
affect a soil in this way. The only safe 
remedy is to keep the surface of fer¬ 
tilized fields well mulched, or to plow in 
repeated crops of organic matter. Used 
in this way, fertilizers may be made 
very useful indeed. 
Speaking of this deterioration of soils, 
here is a problem just presented by a 
Maryland subscriber. We shall refer it 
to the best of our soil doctors, and see 
what they have to say. We shall be 
pleased to have a general discussion of 
this matter: 
How to Doctor this Soil. 
I would be glad to have your advice 
about my land. Eight or ten years ago. 
we could seed to wheat and grass, and 
cut two or three crops of hay that would 
yield from one to two tons an acre. 
Three years ago, a field was planted 
with cow peas, then it was sowed with 
wheat with 300 pounds of dissolved bone. 
It yielded 27 bushels of wheat, and gave 
promise of a fine yield of hay ; but the 
promise was all that I got, for there was 
hardly a half ton of hay to the acre. I 
have no trouble in getting a stand of 
grass ; but after the grass has made a 
stand, it seems to think that it has done 
its duty, for it will not make a good 
growth. Clover is the same way, or 
rather, worse. Four years ago, a field 
was seeded to clover, and after getting a 
good stand, it completely died out be¬ 
fore the next harvest. The next year 
it refused even to make a good stand, 
and since then I have not sowed it. I 
have no trouble with grass on my potato 
land that I manure with either ferti¬ 
lizer or barnyard manure. Last year I 
cut 24 two-horse loads from four acres. 
But I can manure only a few acres every 
year for potatoes, and I have a large 
farm to work. Now I would like to 
know whether the land “run out.” or 
whether it needs some one fertilizing 
element. On a grass field that was in 
potatoes last year, I can see the rows 
where only 100 pounds of nitrate of soda 
were used per acre. A large brush pile 
was burned on the land, but no effects 
are visible where it was. and a little soot 
that I applied this spring shows very 
plainly. I have a field of wheat this 
year that has a splendid catch of grass 
on it. Would you advise that it be fer¬ 
tilized this fall or next spring, and with 
what fertilizer ? 1 might also state that 
a few years ago I tried lime on, per¬ 
haps, a half-dozen places, and the only 
effect seen was on one field where the 
next year clover came up as though it 
had been sown. The weed known as 
“ sheep sorrel ” has this year made its 
appearance in the greatest profusion. 
Whether this will help to make a diag¬ 
nosis or not, I can not say, but it oc¬ 
curred to me that perhaps it would. 
Maryland. c. 
A HARD WORKING WOMAN 
—sooner or later suffers 
from backache, nervous, 
worn-out feelings, or 
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the abdomen, drag¬ 
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and dizziness. It will 
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with Dr. Pierce’s Fa¬ 
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iman’s special 
tonic and ner¬ 
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motes all the natural functions and makes 
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md irritability of some women—the medi- 
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ind for women at the critical “change of 
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Homer Clark, of No. 208 IVest 3 d Street, 
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I good reputation, and had 
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has been cured,” 
Mr. 
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