278 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 1, 
“CHEMICALS AND CLOVER” UP- 
TO-DATE. 
Development of a Fertilizer Farm. 
Part II. 
Why do the potatoes follow corn? 
There are several good reasons for 
this arrangement of the rotation. Po¬ 
tatoes do best in a soil that is filled with 
humus, well decayed. Corn also does 
best when the soil is filled with organic 
matter, but there is this difference: Corn 
thrives on the coarser forms of organic 
matter, like a fresh sod or stable ma¬ 
nure, while potatoes do better after this 
humus has been well rotted. Corn is a 
gross feeder, while potatoes are more 
delicate in their food requirements. In 
other words, the corn is better able to 
utilize the sod and the manure, while the 
potatoes are better able to make use of 
the humus after it has been “strained 
through a crop of torn.” We might com¬ 
pare corn in its feeding capacity with a 
hog, both being able to consume the coarse 
roughage of the farm. The potato crop 
may be compared to a fine horse, requiring 
a more careful feeding than the corn 
or the hog. Again, the thorough 
culture which the potatoes receive, 
and the work of digging and har¬ 
rowing the crop, gives the soil a thor¬ 
ough fitting for wheat and grass, which 
follow the potatoes. Mr. Clark, of Con¬ 
necticut, says that he plans to work the 
soil 16 or 20 times during the season 
before sowing grass. Including work 
with harrow, weeder, cultivator and po¬ 
tato digger, Mr. Lewis will give his po¬ 
tato field nearly that much working be¬ 
fore the grass seed is put in. 
But why put all or nearly all of the 
fertilizer on the potato crop? Why not 
put on what that crop needs, and apply 
the rest to the grain and grass? 
There are several answers to that ques¬ 
tion. How much fertilizer does a crop 
of potatoes need? During the past 20 
years Mr. Lewis says he has had only 
three crops of potatoes that could be 
called heavy. Yet each year the fertiliz¬ 
ing and the culture have been the same. 
The scientific men have claimed usually 
from single year experiments that this 
plan of crowding fertilizer upon the po¬ 
tato crop in excess of its actual require¬ 
ments is a mistake. Farmers who pay 
for the fertilizer and count the cost do 
not agree with such conclusions. 1 he ob¬ 
ject of the heavy fertilizing is to keep the 
plant constantly supplied witn available 
food, so that if the vines are kept healthy 
and the plants supplied with moisture the 
crop can have no excuse for refusing to 
grow. It is better to have too much than 
too little of food. As for feeding the 
following crops of wheat and grass, when 
the fertilizer is put on the potatoes it. is 
thoroughly worked into the soil. Evi¬ 
dently this plant food is in a better posi¬ 
tion to feed grain and grass than ordi¬ 
nary fertilizer put on top of the ground 
after the crops have started. It is true 
that top-dressing of grain or grass is 
sometimes needed on this farm, especially 
after a very heavy potato crop. For 
starting these crops the surplus left by the 
potatoes, well worked into the soil, is 
ample. As for the claim that this surplus 
plant food is leached out of the soil and 
lost, both theory and fact disprove it. The 
field is left bare scarcely 10 days or two 
weeks. Little if any nitrogen is lost 
from a soil while a living crop is grow¬ 
ing upon it. The young wheat and grass 
plants take care of it, and prevent its 
escape. A more practical argument is the 
fact that the wheat and grass crops are 
maintained and continue to give satis¬ 
factory results. Take these figures of 
sales from Mr. Lewis’s farm: 
Value of hay. Value of wheat. 
1901 $831.81 $282.57 
1902 . 767.62 330.29 
1903 . 466.39 465.39 
1904 . 631.77 219.93 
1905 . 646.06 481.05 
$3,343.65 $1,779.23 
Remember that the fertilizer put on the 
potatoes is to feed three crops—potatoes, 
wheat and grass. One year with another 
the potato crop alone pays for the fer¬ 
tilizer—the wheat and grass charging 
practically nothing for their board, yet 
still being well fed. The fertilizer which 
Mr. Lewis uses is built for this method 
of farming—that is, to take care of three 
crops. It is easy to see that a simple mix¬ 
ture of three or four substances like ni¬ 
trate of soda and tankage, acid phosphate 
and muriate of potash, would provide 
plant food for one crop, but it would 
not, if used as Mr. Lewis uses fertilizer, 
keep up the yield of all crops evenly, and 
at the same time increase the produc¬ 
tive power of the farm. A fertilizer suit¬ 
able for this form of fertilizer farming 
will contain 10 or a dozen different sub¬ 
stances. This insures a constant supply 
of available plant food from the time the 
little potato plants start until the last 
crop of hay is cut—three years later. For 
example, fine ground bone in the soil be¬ 
comes more and more available as it de¬ 
cays, while the reverse of this would hap¬ 
pen with phosphoric acid derived entirely 
from acid phosphate. In discussing this 
farm two things must always be under¬ 
stood. The soil is not light and sandy. 
It is naturally strong, but when Mr. 
Lewis began the use of fertilizers it was 
not highly productive. Chemical farm¬ 
ing has made the soil as rich as a garden, 
and at the same time paid a good profit. 
Another thing is that this system of 
farming is within the capacity of two 
strong men, or one farmer and a hired 
man, during the growing and harvesting 
season. It is also fanning —not garden¬ 
ing or trucking or fruit growing. 
It will be seen that under Mr. Lewis's 
system two-fifths of the farm land is 
plowed each year, the remainder being in 
wheat and grass. The first plowing is 
for potatoes, which means the corn stub¬ 
ble. Of late years Mr. Lewis has fol¬ 
lowed the plan of sowing Crimson clover 
in the corn at the last cultivation. This 
clover makes a fair growth and has given 
fair pasture for cows in the Fall. Spring 
plowing comes before the Crimson clover 
has made a large growth. Every good 
farmer knows that care must be taken to 
fit the ground thoroughly for potatoes, 
and the soil is plowed and then harrowed 
until it is mellow and open. Part of the 
fertilizer is put on broadcast and har¬ 
rowed in. A favorite plan for broadcast¬ 
ing fertilizer is to put it on with a grain 
drill—with all the tubes open. The re¬ 
mainder of the fertilizer is put in the 
drill with the seed—the planter doing the 
whole thing evenly and well. There is a 
division of opinion among farmers as to 
the best way Jo apply the fertilizer. Some 
of them say that all of it might well be 
broadcast, while others are willing to 
put at least 1,200 pounds per acre directly 
in the drill. Mr. Lewis believes in a 
division, broadcasting part of the fertil¬ 
izer and harrowing it in. Without doubt 
this broadcasting is best for the crops of 
grain and grass which follow the pota¬ 
toes. The best argument for broadcast¬ 
ing is that it induces the roots of the 
potato crop to run out all over the soil— 
seeking a wider pasturage, and thus 
reaching a better supply of moisture. 
As we are occupied now in studying the 
plant food supplies and requirements of 
this farm, we will not describe the meth¬ 
ods employed in growing potatoes, but 
study the wheat and grass next, in con¬ 
nection with Alfalfa, which crop Mr. 
Lewis has been studying for some years, 
until he feels confident that he can grow 
it successfully after potatoes. h. w. c. 
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