Good Soil Conditions

Categories: GRASS SODS

When the grasses and clovers desired for a sod

are sown with small grain, there is competition between them and the

grain crop for fertility, moisture, and light. The grain crop is the

one that will produce the income the following summer, and naturally is

given right of way. The amount of seed is used that experience teaches

is best for a maximum yield of grain. Usually this gives a thicker

stand of plants than is bes for the tiny grass and clover plants that

often are struggling for existence down under the taller grain. If the

farmer could see his way clear to cut down the quantity of seed wheat

or oats used on a fertile soil, the catch of grass would be better, but

the small-grain crop is not very profitable at the best, and the owner

does not like deliberately to limit it.



A greater amount of failure is due to an inadequate supply of

fertility. The grass does not suffer so much from over-shading as it

does from starvation, both during the growth of the grain and after

harvest. The stronger grain plants appropriate the scanty stock of

available fertility, and leave the grass and clover nearly helpless.

This condition is especially noticeable in dry seasons when there is

less opportunity to obtain food in solution. Plants which are expected

in another season to fill the ground with vegetable matter are starved

in the beginning and die. Plant-food is needed, and should be mixed

with the soil when the seeding is made. The fertilizer needs are

discussed in another chapter.



When manure is available, it should be spread on the plowed ground and

mixed with the surface soil. If a soil is thin, or heavy, or light, the

use of a ton of manure in this way can bring greater returns than under

any other circumstances in general farming. It supplies some fertility,

and it puts the surface soil into good physical condition for young

plants. Land deficient in humus forms a crust after a rain, and a tiny

plant suffers. A light dressing of manure, well mixed with the soil,

tends to prevent this hardening of the surface and loss of water. There

is no other form of fertility that can fully replace manure, for either

compact or leachy land.



The probable need of lime has been discussed in other chapters. Clovers

and the grasses want an alkaline soil, and there is waste of money and

time in seeding acid land. The lime and the manure must not be mixed

together in the air, but both can be used when fitting land for

seeding, and both should be used if the need exists. One should be

applied early and be well disked into the soil, and then the other

application may be made and covered with the harrow. The soil is an

absorbent, and the contact of manure and lime within the soil only

leads to immediate availability, which is desirable in giving the grass

a start.