Agriculture for Beginners by Daniel Harvey Hill (ebook reader 7 inch .TXT) ๐
The joint action of air, moisture, and frost was still another agent of soil-making. This action is called weathering. Whenever you have noticed the outside stones of a spring-house, you have noticed that tiny bits are crumbling from the face of the stones, and adding little by little to the soil. This is a slow way of making additions to the soil. It is estimated that it would take 728,000 years to wear away limestone rock to a depth of thirty-nine inches. But when you recall the countless years through which the weather has striven against the rocks, you can readily understand that its never-wearying activity has added immensely to the soil.
In the rock soil formed in these various ways, and indeed on the rocks themselves, tiny plants that live on food taken from the air began to grow. They grew just as you now see mosses and lichens grow on the surface of rocks. The decay of these plants added some fertility to the newly formed soil. The life and death of
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Although tobacco will grow in almost any climate, the leaves, which, as most of you know, are the salable part of the plant, get their desirable or undesirable qualities very largely from the soil and from the climate in which they grow.
Fig. 189. A Leaf of Tobacco
The soil in which tobacco thrives best is one which has the following qualities: dryness, warmth, richness, depth, and sandiness.
Commercial fertilizers also are almost a necessity; for, as tobacco land is limited in area, the same land must be often planted in tobacco. Hence even a fresh, rich soil that did not at first require fertilizing soon becomes exhausted, and, after the land has been robbed of its plant food by crop after crop of tobacco, frequent application of fertilizers and other manures becomes necessary. However, even tobacco growers should rotate their crops as much as possible.
Deep plowingโfrom nine to thirteen inchesโis also a necessity in preparing the land, for tobacco roots go deep into the soil. After this deep plowing, harrow until the soil is thoroughly pulverized and is as fine and mellow as that of the flower-garden.
Unlike most other farm crops the tobacco plant must be started first in a seed-bed. To prepare a tobacco bed the almost universal custom has been to proceed as follows. Carefully select a protected spot. Over this spot pile brushwood and then burn it. The soil will be left dry, and all the weed seeds will be killed. The bed is then carefully raked and smoothed and planted. Some farmers are now preparing their beds without burning. A tablespoonful of seed will sow a patch twenty-five feet square. A cheap cloth cover is put over the bed. If the seeds come up well, a patch of this size ought to furnish transplants for five or six acres. In sowing, it is not wise to cover the seed deeply. A light raking in or an even rolling of the ground is all that is needed.
Fig. 190. A Promising Crop of Tobacco
The time required for sprouting is from two to three weeks. The plants ought to be ready for transplanting in from four to six weeks. Weeds and grass should of course be kept out of the seed-bed.
Fig. 191. Topping Tobacco
The plants, when ready, are transplanted in very much the same way as cabbages and tomatoes. The transplanting was formerly done by hand, but an effective machine is now widely used. The rows should be from three to three and a half feet apart, and the plants in the rows about two or three feet apart. If the plants are set so that the plow and cultivator can be run with the rows and also across the rows, they can be more economically worked. Tobacco, like corn, requires shallow cultivation. Of course the plants should be worked often enough to give clean culture and to provide a soil mulch for saving moisture.
In tobacco culture it is necessary to pinch off the "buttons" and to cut off the tops of the main stalk, else much nourishment that should go to the leaves will be given to the seeds. The suckers must also be cut off for the same reason.
The proper time for harvesting is not easily fixed; one becomes skillful in this work only through experience in the field. Briefly, we may say that tobacco is ready to be cut when the leaves on being held up to the sun show a light or golden color, when they are sticky to the touch, and when they break easily on being bent. Plants that are overripe are inferior to those that are cut early.
The operations included in cutting, housing, drying, shipping, sweating, and packing require skill and practice.
SECTION XXXVII. WHEATFig. 192. A Hand
Wheat has been cultivated from earliest times. It was a chief crop in Egypt and Palestine, and still holds its importance in the temperate portions of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and America.
Fig. 193. Wheat Heads
This crop ranks third in value in the United States. It grows in cool, in temperate, and in warm climates, and in many kinds of soil. It does best in clay loam, and worst in sandy soils. Clogged and water-soaked land will not grow wheat with profit to the farmer; for this reason, where good wheat-production is desired the soil must be well drained and in good physical conditionโthat is, the soil must be open, crumbly, and mellow.
Clay soils that are hard and lifeless can be made valuable for wheat-production by covering the surface with manure, by good tillage, and by a thorough system of crop-rotation. Cowpeas and other legumes make a most valuable crop to precede wheat, for in growing they add atmospheric nitrogen to the soil, and their roots loosen the root-bed, thereby admitting a free circulation of air and adding humus to the soil. Moreover, the legumes leave the soil with its grains fairly close packed, and this is a help in wheat growing.
Fig. 194. Roots of a
Single Wheat Plant
Fig. 195. Selecting Wheat Seed
One may secure a good seed-bed after cotton and corn as well as after cowpeas and other legumes. They are summer-cultivated crops, and the clean culture that has been given them renders the surface soil mellow and the undersoil firm and compact. They are not so good, however, as cowpeas, since they add no atmospheric nitrogen to the soil, as all leguminous crops do.
From one to two inches is the most satisfactory depth for planting wheat. The largest number of seeds comes up when planted at this depth. A mellow soil is very helpful to good coming up and provides a most comfortable home for the roots of the plant. A compact soil below makes a moist undersoil; and this is desirable, for the soil water is needed to dissolve plant food and to carry it up through the plant, where it is used in building tissue.
There are a great many varieties of wheat: some are bearded, others are smooth; some are winter and others are spring varieties. The smooth-headed varieties are most agreeable to handle during harvest and at threshing-time. Some of the bearded varieties, however, do so well in some soils and climates that it is desirable to continue growing them, though they are less agreeable to handle. No matter what variety you are accustomed to raise, it may be improved by careful seed-selection.
The seed-drill is the best implement for planting wheat. It distributes the grains evenly over the whole field and leaves the mellow soil in a condition to catch what snow may fall and secure what protection it affords.
Fig. 196. Adjoining Wheat Fields The yield of the lower field, forty-five bushels per acre, is due to intelligent farming
In many parts of the country, because not enough live stock is raised, there is often too little manure to apply to the wheat land. Where this is the case commercial fertilizers must be used. Since soils differ greatly, it is impossible to suggest a fertilizer adapted to all soils. The elements usually lacking in wheat soils are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. The land may be lacking in one of these plant foods or in all; in either case a maximum crop cannot possibly be raised. The section on manuring the soil will be helpful to the wheat-grower.
Fig. 197. A Bountiful Crop of Wheat
It should be remembered always in buying fertilizers for wheat that whenever wheat follows cowpeas or clover or other legumes there is seldom need of using nitrogen in the fertilizer; the tubercles on the pea or clover roots will furnish that. Hence, as a rule, only potash and phosphoric acid will have to be purchased as plant food.
The farmer is assisted always by a study of his crop and by a knowledge of how it grows. If he find the straw inferior and short, it means that the soil is deficient in nitrogen; but on the other hand, if the straw be luxuriant and the heads small and poorly filled, he may be sure that his soil contains too little phosphoric acid and potash.
EXERCISE
Let the pupils secure several heads of wheat and thresh each separately by hand. The grains should then be counted and their plumpness and size observed. The practical importance of this is obvious, for the larger the heads and the greater the number of grains, the larger the yield per acre. Let them plant some of the large and some of the small grains. A single test of this kind will show the importance of careful seed-selection.
When the white man came to this country he found the Indians using corn; for this reason, in addition to its name maize, it is called Indian corn. Before that time the civilized world did not know that there was such a crop. The increase in the yield and the extension of the acres planted in this strictly American crop have kept pace with the rapid and wonderful growth of our country. Corn is king of the cereals and the most important crop of American agriculture. It grows in almost every section of America. There is hardly any limit to the uses to which its grain and its stalks are now put. Animals of many kinds are fed on rations into which it enters. Its grains in some form furnish food to more people than does any other crop except possibly rice. Its stalk and its cob are manufactured into many different and useful articles.
A soil rich in either decaying animal or vegetable matter, loose, warm, and moist but not wet, will produce a better crop of corn than any other. Corn soil should always be well tilled and cultivated.
The proper time to begin the cultivation of corn is before it is planted. Plow well. A shallow, worn-out soil should not be used for corn, but for cowpeas or rye. After thorough plowing, the harrowโeither the disk or spring-toothโshould be used to destroy all clods and leave the surface mellow and fine. The best results will be obtained by turning under a clover sod that has been manured from the savings of the barnyard.
When manure is not available, commercial fertilizers will often prove profitable on poor lands. Careful trials will best determine how much fertilizer to an acre is necessary, and what kinds are to be used. A little study and experimenting on the farmer's part will soon enable him to find out both the kind and the amount of fertilizer that is best suited to his land.
The seed for this crop should be selected according to the plan suggested in Section XIX.
Fig. 199. Corn Shocked for the Shredder
The most economical method of planting is by means of the horse planter, which, according to its adjustment, plants regularly in hills or in drills. A few days after planting, the cornfield should be harrowed with a fine-tooth harrow to loosen the top soil and to kill the grass and the weed seeds that are germinating at the surface. When the corn plants are from a half inch to an inch high, the harrow may again be used. A little work before the weeds sprout will save many days of labor during the rest of the season, and increase the yield.
Fig. 200. The Difference is due to Tillage
Corn is a crop that needs constant cultivation, and during the
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