The Story of the Soil Part 29

"But you really have not," Adelaide replied. "I keep books for papa, and I am very much interested in these social and economic questions which are so fundamental to the perpetuity of our State and National prosperity. I have been both entertained and instructed by these discussions; and I might say, honored, too, that you do not consider me too young and foolish to talk of serious subjects."

"I am sure it is kind of you to make good excuses for me. You have at any rate relieved my mind of some burden, but I am sure you are the only woman I have ever known, except my mother, who could endure discussions of this sort. I have so greatly enjoyed the few short visits I have had with you. I wish I might write to you and I shall be so much interested to learn what success your father has if he begins a system of soil improvement. Would it be presuming to hope that I might hear from you also?"

"I am papa's stenographer," she replied, "and perhaps he will dictate and I will write. We will be glad to hear of your safe return,--and you,--you might ask papa. Now, I shall soon be out of sight."

"Please don't," begged Percy. "It is still forty-five minutes 'at least,' before the train comes. Let me go a piece with you. I will leave my suit case here and with nothing to carry I shall easily walk a mile in twenty minutes. May I drive, please?"

"No, I will drive. I want to ask you another question, and I am afraid you would drive too fast.

"You mentioned some long-continued scientific investigations which I a.s.sumed referred to the yield of crops. What were they?"

"I meant such investigations as those at Rothamsted and also those conducted at Pennsylvania State College. I have some of the exact data here in my note book.

"In 1848, Sir John Lawes and Sir Henry Gilbert began at Rothamsted, England, two four-year rotations. One was turnips, barley, fallow, and wheat; and the other was turnips, barley, clover, and wheat.

Whenever the clover failed, which has been frequent, beans were subst.i.tuted, in order that a legume crop should be grown every fourth year.

"The average of the last twenty years represents the average yields about fifty years from the beginning of this rotation.

"In the legume system, as an average of the last twenty years, the use of mineral plant food has increased the yield of turnips from less than one-half ton to more than twelve tons; increased the yield of barley from thirteen and seven-tenths bushels to twenty-two and two-tenths bushels; increased the yield of clover (when grown) from less than one-half ton to almost two tons; increased the yield of beans (when grown) from sixteen bushels to twenty-eight and three-tenths bushels; and increased the yield of wheat from twenty-four and three-tenths bushels to thirty-eight and four-tenths bushels per acre.

"In the legume system the minerals applied have more than doubled the value of the crops produced, have paid their cost, and made a net profit of one hundred and forty per cent. on the investment, in direct comparison with the unfertilized land.

"If we compare the average yield of turnips, barley, clover, and wheat of the last twenty years with the yield of turnips in 1848, barley in 1849, clover in 1850 and wheat in 1851 we find that on the unfertilized land in this rotation of crops in fifty years the yield of turnips has decreased from ten tons to one-half ton, and the yield of barley has decreased from forty-six to fourteen bushels, the yield of clover has decreased from two and eight-tenths tons per acre to less than one-half ton, while the yield of wheat has decreased only from thirty bushels to twenty-four bushels. As a general average the late yields are only one-third as large as they were fifty years before on the same land. Wheat grown once in four years has been the only crop worth raising on the unfertilized land during the last twenty years, and even the wheat crop has distinctly decreased in yield; although where mineral plant food was applied the yield has increased from thirty bushels, in 18851 to thirty-eight bushels as an average of the last twenty years. In the fallow rotation on the unfertilized land the yield of wheat averaged thirty-four and five-tenths bushels during the first twenty years (1848 to 1867) and twenty-three and five-tenths bushels during the last twenty years.

"On another Rothamsted field the phosphorus actually removed in fifty-five crops from well-fertilized land is two-thirds as much as the total phosphorus now contained in the plowed soil of adjoining untreated land.

"In the early 80's the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station began a four-year crop rotation, including corn, oats, wheat, and mixed clover and timothy.

"There are five plots in each of four different fields that have received no applications of plant food from the beginning. Thus, every year the crops are carefully harvested and weighed from twenty measured plots of ground that receive no treatment except the rotation of crops. The difference between the average of the first twelve years and the average of the second twelve years should represent the actual change in productive power during a period of twelve years. These averages show that the yield of corn has decreased from forty-one and seven-tenths bushels to twenty-seven and seven-tenths bushels; that the yield of oats has decreased from thirty-six and seven-tenths bushels to twenty-five bushels; that the yield of wheat has decreased only from thirteen and three-tenths bushels to twelve and eight-tenths bushels; and that the yield of hay has decreased from three thousand seventy pounds to two thousand one hundred and eighty pounds.

"As a general average of these four crops the annual value of produce from one acre has decreased from $11.05 to $8.18. Here we have information which is almost if not quite equal in value to that from the Agdell rotation field at Rothamsted. While the Rothamsted experiments cover a period of sixty years, each crop was grown but once in four years; whereas, in the Pennsylvania experiments, there have been four different series of plots, so that in twenty-four years there have been twenty-four crops of corn, twenty-four crops of oats, twenty-four crops of wheat, and twenty-four crops of hay.

"Under this four-year rotation the value of the crops produced has decreased twenty-six per cent. in twelve years. What influence will impress that fact upon the minds of American landowners? A loss amounting to more than one-fourth of the productive power of the land in a rotation with clover seeded every fourth year! This one fact is the mathematical result of four hundred and eighty other facts obtained from twenty different pieces of measured land during a period of twenty-four years.

"As an average of these twenty-four years, the addition of mineral plant food produced increases in crop yields above the unfertilized land as follows:

Corn increased forty-five per cent.

Oats increased thirty-two per cent.

Wheat increased forty-two per cent.

Hay increased seventy-seven per cent.

"As a general average of the four crops for the twenty-four years, the produce where mineral plant food is applied, was forty-nine per cent. above the yields of the unfertilized land, although the same rotation of crops was practiced in both cases."

"Those are some of the absolute facts of science secured from practical application in the adoption and development of definite systems of permanent prosperous agriculture, and they should be made to serve this greatest and most important industry just as the established facts of mathematical and physical science are made to serve in engineering."

"I am glad to know about those long-continued experiments," said Adelaide. "They are of fascinating interest. I have been so sorry for grandma, and for papa and mamma, because of their increasing discouragement over our farm. I do hope we may profit from this fund of acc.u.mulated information which has already been secured from long years of investigation. Surely we must endeavor to avoid in America the awful conditions that already exist in the older agricultural countries, where the lands are depleted and the people are brought to greater poverty than even here in Virginia.

"But we have already reached the turn, and you have a mile to walk.

How much time have you?"

"Thirty minutes yet," said Percy. "Wait just a moment. Have you read Lincoln's stories?"

"Many of them, yes."

"Here is the best one he ever told; I have copied it on a card. He told it to a meeting of farmers at the close of an address in which he urged them to study the science of agriculture and to adopt better methods of farming:

"'An Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, "And this, too, shall pa.s.s away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! "And this, too, shall pa.s.s away." And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world beneath and around us, and the best intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pa.s.s away.'"

"I agree with you that it is his best story," said Adelaide, as Percy finished reading and placed the card in her hand. "Now you must go or I shall insist upon taking you back to the station."

"I shall stand here and time you till you reach the next turn," he replied. "Then you will be in sight of Westover. One! Two! Three!

Go!"

CHAPTER x.x.xIII

THE DIAGNOSIS AND PRESCRIPTION

WINTERBINE, ILLINOIS,

December 4, 1 903

Mr. T. O. Thornton, Blairville, VA.

MY DEAR SIR:--I beg to report that I returned home a few days ago and found my mother well and busy as usual. We have definitely decided that we will not accept your kind offer to sell us a part of your farm, but we appreciate nevertheless the sacrifice, at least from the standpoint of sentiment, which Mrs. Thornton and Miss Russell were willing to make, in order to permit us to secure such a farm as we might want in a splendid situation.

As a matter of fact we are thinking very seriously of purchasing a farm in Southern Illinois. My mother much prefers to remain in Illinois, and for some reasons I have the same preference on her account.

While in Was.h.i.+ngton I was fortunate enough to find that a soil survey had been completed for your county and also that a partial ultimate a.n.a.lysis had been made of the common loam soil of your farm, such as we sampled. Following are the number of pounds per acre for the surface soil to a depth of six and two-thirds inches,--that is, for two million pounds of soil.

610 pounds of phosphorus

13,200 pounds of pota.s.sium

1,200 pounds of magnesium

3,430 pounds of calcium

As compared with a normal fertile soil, your land is very deficient in phosphorus and magnesium, and, as you know, the soil is acid. It is better supplied with pota.s.sium than with any other important element.

I would suggest that you make liberal use of magnesian limestone,--at least two tons per acre every four or five years,--and the initial application might better be five or even ten tons per acre if you are ready to make such an investment.