The Elements of Agriculture A Book for Young Farmers, with Questions Prepared for the Use of Schools, George E. Waring [read aloud books TXT] 📗

SECTION 3 (MANURES) CHAPTER IX (DEFICIENCIES OF SOILS, MEANS OF RESTORATION, ETC) Pg 144

 

SODA.

[If applied in large quantities will it produce permanent injury?

In what quantities should salt be applied to composts? To asparagus?]

Soda, the requirement of which is occasioned by the same causes as create a deficiency of potash, and all of the other ingredients of vegetable ashes, may be very readily supplied by the use of common salt (chloride of sodium), which consists of about one half sodium (the base of soda). The best way to use salt is in the lime and salt mixture, previously described, or as a direct application to the soil. If too much salt be given to the soil it will kill any plant. In small quantities, however, it is highly beneficial, and if six bushels per acre be sown broadcast over the land, to be carried in by rains and dews, it will not only destroy many insects (grubs, worms, etc.), but will, after decomposing and becoming chlorine and soda, prove an excellent manure. Salt, even in quantities large enough to denude the soil of all vegetation, is never permanently injurious. After the first year, it becomes resolved into its constituents, and furnishes chlorine and soda to plants, without injuring them. One bushel of salt in each cord of compost will not only hasten the decomposition of the manures, but will kill all seeds and grubs--a very desirable effect. While small quantities of salt in a compost heap are beneficial, too much (as when applied to the soil) is positively injurious, as it arrests decomposition; fairly pickles the manures, and prevents them from rotting.

[What is generally the best way to use salt?

What is nitrate of soda?

What plants contain lime?]

For asparagus, which is a marine plant, salt is an excellent manure, and may be applied in almost unlimited quantities, while the plants are growing, if used after they have gone to top, it is injurious.

SECTION 3 (MANURES) CHAPTER IX (DEFICIENCIES OF SOILS, MEANS OF RESTORATION, ETC) Pg 145

 

Salt has been applied to asparagus beds in such quantities as to completely cover them, and with apparent benefit to the plants. Of course large doses of salt kill all weeds, and thus save labor and the injury to the asparagus roots, which would result from their removal by hoeing. Salt may be used advantageously in any of the foregoing manners, but should always be applied with care. For ordinary farm purposes, it is undoubtedly most profitable to use the salt with lime, and make it perform the double duty of assisting in the decomposition of vegetable matter, and fertilizing the soil.

Soda unites with the silica in the soil, and forms the valuable silicate of soda.

Nitrate of soda, or cubical nitre, which is found in South America, consists of soda and nitric acid. It furnishes both soda and nitrogen to plants, and is an excellent manure.

LIME.

The subject of lime is one of most vital importance to the farmer; indeed, so varied are its modes of action and its effects, that some writers have given it credit for every thing good in the way of farming, and have gone so far as to say that all permanent improvement of agriculture must depend on the use of lime.

SECTION 3 (MANURES) CHAPTER IX (DEFICIENCIES OF SOILS, MEANS OF RESTORATION, ETC) Pg 146

 

Although this is far in excess of the truth (as lime cannot plow, nor drain, nor supply any thing but lime to the soil), its many beneficial effects demand for it the closest attention.

[Do all soils contain enough lime for the use of plants?

What amount is needed for this purpose?

What is its first-named effect on the soil?

Its second? Third? Fourth? Fifth?

How are acids produced in the soil?]

As food for plants, lime is of considerable importance. All plants contain lime--some of them in large quantities. It is an important constituent of straw, meadow hay, leaves of fruit trees, peas, beans, and turnips. It constitutes more than one third of the ash of red clover. Many soils contain lime enough for the use of plants, in others it is deficient, and must be supplied artificially before they can produce good crops of those plants of which lime is an important ingredient. The only way in which the exact quantity of lime in the soil can be ascertained is by chemical analysis. However, the amount required for the mere feeding plants is not large, (much less than one per cent.), but lime is often necessary for other purposes; and setting aside, for the present, its feeding action, we will examine its various effects on the mechanical and chemical condition of the soil.

1. It corrects acidity (sourness).

SECTION 3 (MANURES) CHAPTER IX (DEFICIENCIES OF SOILS, MEANS OF RESTORATION, ETC) Pg 147

 

It hastens the decomposition of the organic matter in the soil. It causes the mineral particles of the soil to crumble. By producing the above effects, it prepares the constituents of the soil for assimilation by plants. It is said to exhaust the soil, but it does so in a very desirable manner, the injurious effects of which may be easily avoided.

[How does lime correct them?

How does it affect animal manures in the soil?]

The decomposition of organic matter in the soil, often produces acids which makes the land sour, and cause it to produce sorrel and other weeds, which interfere with the healthy growth of crops. Lime is an alkali, and if applied to soils suffering from sourness, it will unite with the acids, and neutralize them, so that they will no longer be injurious. We have before stated that lime is a decomposing agent, and hastens the rotting of muck and other organic matter. It has the same effect on the organic parts of the soil, and causes them to be resolved into the gases and minerals of which they are formed. It has this effect, especially, on organic matters containing nitrogen, causing them to throw off ammonia; consequently, it liberates this gas from the animal manures in the soil. SECTION 3 (MANURES) CHAPTER IX (DEFICIENCIES OF SOILS, MEANS OF RESTORATION, ETC) Pg 148

 

Various inorganic compounds in the soil are so affected by lime, that they lose their power of holding together, and crumble, or are reduced to finer particles, while some of their constituents are rendered soluble. One way in which this is accomplished is by the action of the lime on the silica contained in these compounds, forming the silicate of lime. This crumbling effect improves the mechanical as well as the chemical condition of the soil. We are now enabled to see how lime prepares the constituents of the soil for the use of plants.

[Inorganic compounds?

How does lime prepare the constituents of the soil for use?

What can you say of the remark that lime exhausts the organic matter in the soil?]

By its action on the roots, buried stubble, and other organic matter in the soil, it causes them to be decomposed, and to give up many of their gaseous and inorganic constituents for the use of roots. In this manner the organic matter is prepared for use more rapidly than would be the case, if there were no lime present to hasten its decomposition.

By the decomposing action of lime on the mineral parts of the soil (3), they also are placed more rapidly in a useful condition than would be the case, if their preparation depended on the slow action of atmospheric influences.

Thus, we see that lime, aside from its use directly as food for plants, exerts a beneficial influence on both the organic and inorganic parts of the soil.

SECTION 3 (MANURES) CHAPTER IX (DEFICIENCIES OF SOILS, MEANS OF RESTORATION, ETC) Pg 149

 

Many contend that lime exhausts the soil.

If we examine the manner in which it does so, we shall see that this is no argument against its use.

[How can lime exhaust the mineral parts of the soil?

Must the matter taken away be returned to the soil?]

It exhausts the organic parts