The Story of the Soil Part 17

"Well, I'd kind o' hate to take less than ten dollars an acre for it; but I think we can make a deal all right if you like the location."

CHAPTER XX

A LESSON IN OPTIMISM

ABOUT nine o'clock the day following Percy's arrival in Was.h.i.+ngton he sent his card into the office of the Secretary of Agriculture.

"Just step this way," said the boy on his return. "The Secretary will see you at once."

A gentleman who appeared to be sixty, but was really several years older, arose from his desk and greeted Percy very kindly.

"I see you are from Illinois, Mr. Johnston. I am an Iowa man myself, and I am always glad to see any one from the corn belt. Do you know we are going to beat the records this year? It is wonderful what crops we grow in this country, and they are getting better every year. We are growing more than two-thirds of the entire corn crop of the globe, right here in these United States. Yes, Sir, and we are just beginning to grow corn; and corn is only one of our important agricultural products. Do you know that eighty-six per cent. of all the raw materials used in all the manufactured products of this country come from the farms of the United States; yes, Sir, eighty-six per cent.

"Now, what can I do for you? I am very glad you called, and I will be glad to serve you in any way you desire. By the way, how is the corn turning out in your part of Illinois? b.u.mper crop, I have no doubt."

"I think so," said Percy, "after seeing the crops here in the East.

"That's what I thought," continued the Secretary." A b.u.mper crop, the biggest we ever raised. Oh, they don't know how to raise corn here in the East. They just grow corn, corn, corn, year after year; and that will get any land out of fix. I found that out years ago in Iowa. I am a farmer myself, as I suppose you know. I found you couldn't grow corn on the same land all the time. But just rotate the crops; put clover in the rotation; and then your ground will make corn again, as good as ever."

"But I understand that clover refuses to grow on most of this eastern land," said Percy.

"Oh, nonsense. They don't sow it. I tell you they don't sow it, and they don't know how to raise it. It takes a little manure sometimes to start it, but it will grow all right if they would only give it half a chance. Why, for years the Iowa farmers said blue gra.s.s wouldn't grow in Iowa. Yes, Sir, they just knew it wouldn't grow there; and then I showed them that blue gra.s.s was actually growing in Iowa,--actually growing along the roadsides almost everywhere,--blue gra.s.s that would pasture a steer to the acre--just came in of itself without being seeded. No, I tell you they don't sow clover down here. They just say it won't grow and keep right on planting corn, corn, corn, until the corn crop amounts to nothing, and then they let the land grow up in brush."

"Now, I do not wish to take up more of your time," said Percy, "for I know how busy a man you must be, but I am thinking of buying a farm, or some land, here in the East and have come to you for information. We have a small farm in Illinois and land is rather too high-priced there to think of buying more; but I thought I could sell at a good price, and buy a much larger farm here in the East with part of the money and still have enough left to build it up with; and, with the high price of all kinds of farm produce here, we ought to make it pay."

"You can do it," said the Secretary. "No doubt of it. Any land that ever was any good is all right yet if you'll grow clover, and you can start that with a little manure if you need it. I have done it in Iowa, and I know what I am talking about.

"Now my Bureau of Soils can give you just the information you want.

We are making a soil survey of the United States, and we have soil maps of several counties right here in Maryland. You can take that map and pick out any kind of land you want,--upland or bottom land,--sandy soil, clay soil, loam, silt loam, or anything you want."

CHAPTER XXI

IN THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF

"SHOW this gentleman to the Bureau of Soils," said the Secretary to the boy who came as he pushed a b.u.t.ton.

"All the world loves an optimist," said Percy to himself as he followed the boy to another office where he met the Chief of the Bureau of Soils, who kindly furnished him with copies of the soil maps of several counties, including two in Maryland, Prince George, which adjoins the District of Columbia, and St. Mary county, which almost adjoins Prince George on the South.

These maps were accompanied by extensive reports describing in some detail the agricultural history of the counties and the general observations that had been made by the soil surveyors.

"I desire to learn as much as I can regarding the most common upland soils," Percy explained. "Not the rough or broken land, but the level or undulating lands which are best suited for cultivation. I am sure these maps and reports will be a very great help to me."

"I think you will find just what you are looking for," said the Chief. "You can spread the maps out on the table there and let me know if I can be of any a.s.sistance. You see the legend on the margin gives you the name of every soil type, and the soils are fully described in the reports. One of the most common uplands soils in southern Prince George county is the Leonardtown loam, and this type is also the most extensive soil type in St. Mary county.

"The same type is found in Virginia to some extent. While the soil has been run down by improper methods of culture, it has a very good mechanical composition and is really an excellent soil; but it needs crop rotation and more thorough cultivation to bring it back into a high state of fertility. The farmers are slow to take up advanced methods here in the East. We have told them what they ought to do, but they keep right on in the same old rut."

For two hours Percy buried himself with the maps and reports.

Finally the Chief came from his inner office, and finding Percy still there asked if he had found such information as he desired.

"I find much of interest and value, but I do not find any complete invoice of the plant food contained in these different kinds of soil."

"You mean an ultimate chemical a.n.a.lysis of the soil?" asked the Chief.

"Yes, a chemical a.n.a.lysis to ascertain the absolute amount of plant food in the soil. I think of it as an invoice; but I see that you do not report any such a.n.a.lyses."

"No, we do not," answered the Chief. "We have been investigating the mechanical composition of soils, the chemistry of the soil solution, and the adaptation of crop to soil. We find that farmers are not growing the crops they should grow; namely, the crops to which their soils are best adapted. For example, they try to grow corn on land that is not adapted to corn."

"It seems to me," said Percy, "that our farmers are always trying to find a crop that is adapted to their soil. Down in 'Egypt,' which covers about one-third of Illinois, the farmers once raised so much corn that the people from the swampy prairie went down there to buy corn, and hence the name 'Egypt' became applied to Southern Illinois. But there came a time when the soil refused to grow such crops of corn; the farmers then found that wheat was adapted to the soil. Later the wheat yields decreased until the crop became unprofitable; and the farmers sought for another crop adapted to a still more depleted soil. Timothy was selected, and for many years it proved a profitable crop; but of late years timothy likewise has decreased in yield until there must be another change; and now whole sections of 'Egypt' are growing red top as the only profitable crop.

After red top, then what? I don't know, but it looks as though it would be sprouts and scrub brush, and final land abandonment, a repet.i.tion of the history of these old lands of Virginia and Maryland."

"Well, can't they grow corn after red top?" asked the Chief.

"Many of them try it many times," replied Percy, "and the yield is about twenty bushels per acre, whereas the virgin soil easily produced sixty to eighty bushels."

"And they can't grow wheat as they once did?"

"No, wheat after timothy or red top now yields from five to twelve bushels per acre, while they once grew twenty to thirty bushels of wheat per acre year after year.

"If they rotate their crops, they would probably yield as well as ever," said the Chief.

"No, that, too, has been tried," replied Percy. "The Illinois Experiment Station has practiced a four-year rotation of corn, cowpeas, wheat, and clover on an experiment field on the common prairie soil down in 'Egypt,' and the average yield of wheat has been only twelve bushels per acre during the last four years, but when legume crops were plowed under and limestone and phosphorus applied, the average yield during the same four years was twenty-seven bushels per acre."

"Probably the increase was all produced by the green manure,"

suggested the Chief. "Organic matter has a great influence on the control of the moisture supply."

"That was tested," said Percy. "The green manure alone increased the average yield to only fourteen bushels while the green manure and limestone together raised the average wheat yield to nineteen bushels, the further increase to twenty-seven bushels having been produced by the addition of phosphorus."

"Well, Sir," said the Chief, "we have made both extensive intensive investigations concerning the chemistry of the soil solution by very delicate and sensitive methods of a.n.a.lysis we have developed, and we have also conducted culture experiments for twenty-day periods with wheat seedlings in the water extract of soils from all parts of the United States, and the results we have obtained have changed the thought of the world as to the cause of the infertility of soils."

"But you have not made a.n.a.lyses for total plant food in the soils or conducted actual field experiments with crops grown to maturity?"