Variation In Soil

Categories: COMMERCIAL SOURCES OF PLANT-FOOD

The difficulty in determining the character of

fertilizer for a field, due to variation in the soil, is overestimated.

Very often a land-owner says, "I have a dozen kinds of soil in every

field." This is true in a way, it may be, but if all the field has had

the same treatment in the past, the probability is that the fertilizer

which is best for one part of the field will be quite good for the

other parts. The likeness in characteristics that permits the land to

be cropped as one field gives some assurance of likeness in plant-food

needs, even where the proportion of clay and sand varies and the color

is not the same.



There may be wide variation in the productive power of the fields of a

farm, due to the treatments they have received. The land that grows

heavy clover in a close rotation, or receives all the stable manure,

may need neither nitrogen nor potash, while another field, hard-run by

timothy and corn, may need a complete fertilizer. When a careful

fertilizer test on land of only average productive power has been made,

the owner has some definite knowledge of his soil that enables him to

give more intelligent treatment to all his fields than was possible

before the test had been made. He observes the appearance and yield of

plants where the plant-food requirement was fully met, and makes

allowance in other fields for gains or losses in the soil due to

different treatment. It is out of the question to become discouraged

before a beginning has been made. If yields are limited by absence of

plant-food, fertilizers must be used. If money must be expended for

fertilizers, it is only good business to know that the money is

expended to the best advantage.