Edith Wharton - "Sanctuary"

GERTRUDE ATHERTON - "THE VALIANT RUNAWAYS"

Oscar Wilde - "Salome"

Talbot Mundy - "The Eye of Zeitoon"

The Story of the Soil

C >> Cyril G. Hopkins >> The Story of the Soil




"Now, referring again to these figures from the forty acres of
clover at two tons per acre. If the eighty tons were burned and the
ashes mixed with the surface soil on a tenth of an acre the increase
per acre would be as follows:

4,000 pounds of phosphorus
24,000 pounds of potassium
6,200 pounds of magnesium
23,400 pounds of calcium.

"These, remember, are the amounts per acre that would be added to
the soil by burning the eighty tons of clover on one-tenth of an
acre.

"Now compare these figures with the total amounts of the same
elements contained in the common corn belt prairie soil of Illinois,
which are as follows:

1,200 pounds of phosphorus
35,000 pounds of potassium
8,600 pounds of magnesium
5,400 pounds of calcium.

"From these figures you will see that the analysis of a single
sample of soil collected from a spot of ground that had sometimes
received such an addition as this would be positively worse than
worthless, because it would give false information, and that is much
worse than no information.

"The methods of chemical analysis have been developed to a high
degree of accuracy, and it is not a difficult matter to find a
chemist who can make a correct analysis of the sample placed in his
hands; but the chief difficulties lie, first, in securing samples of
soil that will truly represent the type or types of soil on the
farm; and, second, in the interpretation of the results of analysis
with reference to the adoption of methods of soil improvement."

"Is the report of the analysis as confusing with respect to other
elements as with potassium and phosphorus, which, I understand, are
likely to be reported in terms of potash and a 'phosphoric acid'
that is not true phosphoric acid?"

"Still worse," Percy replied. "The calcium is commonly reported in
terms of lime, or, as you would say, quick lime; and vet the soil
may be an acid soil, like yours, and contain no lime whatever,
neither as quick lime nor limestone. I have seen an analysis
reporting half a per cent. of calcium oxid, which would make five
tons of quick lime in the plowed soil of an acre; whereas the soil
not only contained no lime whatever, but was so acid that it needed
five tons of ground limestone per acre to correct the acidity.

"The trouble is that when the chemist found calcium in the soil
existing in the form of acid silicate, or calcium hydrogen silicate,
he reported calcium oxid, or lime, in his analytical statement,
assuming apparently that the farmer would understand that the
analytical statement did not mean what it said."

"But some soils do contain lime, do they not?"

"Some soils contain limestone," replied Percy, "and the analysis of
such a soil should report the amount of limestone, or calcium
carbonate, based upon the actual determination of carbonate carbon
or carbon dioxid, which is a true measure of the basic property of
the soil, even though the limestone may be somewhat magnesian in
character."

For a set of soil samples. Percy collected soil from three different
strata. The first sample represented the surface stratum from the
top to six and two-third inches; the second sample represented the
subsurface stratum from six and two-thirds to twenty inches; and the
third sample represented the subsoil from twenty to forty inches,
each sample being a composite of about twenty borings.

In collecting these the hole was bored to six and two-third inches
and somewhat enlarged by scraping up and down with the auger, all of
the soil being put into a numbered bag. Then, the hole was extended
and the subsurface boring removed without touching the surface soil.
This boring to a depth of twenty inches was put into a second bag.
The hole was then enlarged to the twenty-inch depth but the
additional soil removed was discarded as a mixture of the surface
and subsurface strata. Finally the hole was extended to the
forty-inch depth and the subsoil from one groove of the auger was
put into a third bag. In this manner about an equal quantity of soil
was bagged from each stratum; and twenty such borings taken with an
auger about one inch in diameter make a sufficient quantity to
furnish to the chemist.

"Of course the surface soil is by far the most important," Percy
explained. "It represents just about the depth of earth that is
turned by the plow in good farming on normal soils; and it weighs
about two million pounds per acre. The subsurface stratum extending
from six and two-thirds to twenty inches in depth represents the
practical limit of subsoiling; and this stratum weighs about four
million pounds; while the subsoil stratum weighs about six million
pounds, where the soil is normal, such as loam, silt loam, clay
loam, or sandy loam. Pure sand soil weighs about one-fourth more,
while pure peat soil weighs only half as much as normal soil."

"I wish you would tell me," said Mr. Thornton, "what the fertilizers
cost that have been used on that Rothamsted wheat field."

"The annual application of nitrogen has been one hundred twenty-nine
pounds per acre," said Percy. "What will it cost?"

"Well, at twenty cents a pound, it would cost $25.80," was Mr.
Thornton's reply after he had figured a moment. "But why didn't they
grow clover and get the nitrogen from the air?"

"For two reasons," replied Percy. "First, when those classic
experiments were begun by Sir John Lawes and Sir Henry Gilbert in
1844, it was not known that clover could secure the free nitrogen
from the air; and, second, the experiment was designed to discover
for certain whether wheat must be supplied with combined nitrogen,
by ascertaining the actual effect upon the yield of wheat of the
nitrogen applied."

"And what was the actual effect of the nitrogen?" questioned Mr.
Thornton. "How much did the wheat yield when they left out the
nitrogen and applied all the other elements?"

"Only fifteen bushels," was the reply.

"Only fifteen bushels! Only two bushels increase for all the other
elements, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium,--and I
remember you said that sulfur also was applied. Why didn't they
leave off all these other elements, and just use the nitrogen
alone?"

"They did on another plot in the same field."

"Oh, they did do that? What was the yield on that plot?"

"Only twenty bushels."

"Only twenty bushels! Well, that s mighty queer. How do you account
for that?"

"Does Mrs. Thornton sometimes make dough out of flour and milk?"
asked Percy.

"Another Yankee question, eh?" said Mr. Thornton. "I told my wife
once that I wished she could make the bread my mother used to make,
and she said she wished I could make the dough her father used to
make. Yes, my wife makes dough, a good deal more than I do, and she
makes it of flour and milk, when we aren't reduced to corn meal and
water."

"Can she make dough of flour alone?" continued Percy.

"No," replied Mr. Thornton.

"Nor of milk alone?"

"No."

"Well, wheat cannot be made of nitrogen alone, nor can it be made
without nitrogen. On Broadbalk field at Rothamsted, where the wheat
is grown, the soil is most deficient in the element nitrogen. In
other words, nitrogen is the limiting element for wheat on that
soil; and practically no increase can be made in the yield of wheat
unless nitrogen is added. However, some other elements are not
furnished by this soil in sufficient amount for the largest yield of
wheat, and these place their limitation upon the crop at twenty
bushels. To remove this second limitation requires that another
element, such as phosphorus, shall be supplied in larger amount than
is anually liberated in the soil under the system of farming
practiced."

"Yes, I see that," said Mr. Thornton, "it's like eating pancakes and
honey; the more cakes you have the more honey you want. I think I
can almost see my way through in this matter; we are to correct the
acid with limestone, to work the legumes for nitrogen, and turn
under everything we can to increase the organic matter, and if we
find that the soil won't furnish enough phosphorus, potassium,
magnesium, or calcium, even with the help of the decaying organic
matter to liberate them, why then it is up to us to increase the
supply of those elements."

"You must remember that the calcium will be supplied in the
limestone;" cautioned Percy. "And, if you use magnesian limestone,
you will thus supply both calcium and magnesium. Keep in mind that
_magnesian _only means that the limestone contains some _magnesium._
and that it is not a pure calcium carbonate. The purest magnesian
limestone consists of a double carbonate of calcium and magnesium,
called dolomite."

"But I have heard that magnesian lime is bad for soils," said Mr.
Thornton.

"That is true," Percy replied, "and so is ordinary lime bad for
soils. The Germans say: 'Lime makes the fathers rich but the
children poor.' The English saying is:

'Lime and lime without manure
Will make both farm and farmer poor.'

"Both of these national proverbs are correct for common, every-day
lime; but you know, do you not, that limestone soils are usually
very good and very durable soils?"

"That's what I've always heard," replied Mr. Thornton.

"Well, there is no danger whatever from using too much limestone;
and all the information thus far secured shows that magnesian
limestone is even better than the pure calcium limestone. I know two
Illinois farmers who are using large quantities of ground magnesian
limestone, and one of them has applied as much as twenty tons per
acre. On that land his corn crop was good for eighty bushels per
acre this year. Of course that heavy application was more than was
needed, but initial applications of four or five tons are very
satisfactory, and these should be followed by about two tons per
acre every four to six years."

Mr. Thornton took his guest to Blairville that evening as they had
planned and he assured Percy that should he decide to purchase land
in that section they would let him have three hundred acres of their
land at ten dollars an acre.

"I will let you know after I get the samples analyzed for you," said
Percy. "The price is low enough and the location ideal, but still I
want to have the invoice before I buy the goods. I will write you
about sending the samples to the chemist after I hear from some I
sent him from Montplain."






CHAPTER XIX

FROM RICHMOND TO WASHINGTON





THE next day Percy spent a few hours at the State Capitol in
Richmond, where he found the records of the State of much interest.

Thus he found that in practically every county there was more or
less land owned by the commonwealth, because of its complete
abandonment by former owners, and the failure of any one to buy when
sold by the state for taxes.

Under such conditions the title to the land returns to the State,
and after two years it may be sold by the State to any one desiring
to purchase and the former owner has no further right of redemption.
Some of these lands which are owned by the State, and on which the
State has received no taxes for many years, are still occupied by
their former owners or by "squatters"' and may continue to be so
occupied unless the land should be purchased from the State by some
one else who would demand full possession. Such purchasers, however,
are likely to be unpopular residents in the community, if the
transaction forces poor people from a place they have called home,
even though they had no legal right to occupy it.

Percy found that the report of the State Auditor showed that the
clerk of the court of Powhatan county had returned to the State
$1.05 "for sales of lands purchased by the commonwealth at tax
sales," while from Prince Edward county the State received a similar
revenue amounting to $17.39 for the same year. The total revenue to
the commonwealth from this source amounted to $667.85 for the year.
Contrasted with this was the revenue from "Redemption of Land,"
amounting to $27,436.38, suggesting something of the struggle of the
man to retain possession of his home before it becomes legally
possible for another to take it from him beyond redemption.

According to the records about a million acres of land are owned by
the Commonwealth of Virginia alone.

Percy decided to go to Washington to learn what definite information
he might obtain from the United States Department of Agriculture. On
the train for Washington he found himself sitting beside a Virginia
farmer.

"These lands remind me of our Western prairies," Percy remarked.
"You have some extensive areas of level or gently undulating
uplands."

"They don't remind me of the Western prairies, I can tell you," was
the reply. "I am a Westerner myself, or I was until eight years ago.
These lands look all right from the train when the crops are all
off, but I find that every patch of the earth's surface doesn't
always make a good farm. Why you can go from Danville, Illinois, to
Omaha, Nebraska, and stop anywhere in the darkest night and you're
mighty near sure to light on a good farm where one acre is worth ten
of this land along here."

"About what is this land worth?" asked Percy.

"Well, I thought six hundred acres of it was worth $5,000 about
eight years ago, especially as the buildings on the place were in
good repair and couldn't be built to-day for less than $6,000: but
right now I think I paid a plenty for my land. It's just back a few
miles at the station where I got on."

"How far is that from Washington?"

"About fifteen miles, I reckon, as the crow flies. My boy has a
telescope his uncle sent him and we can see the Monument on a clear
day."

"What monument?" asked Percy.

"Why, Washington's monument. Haven't you ever been to Washington?"

"No, this is my first visit. I am really thinking of buying a farm
somewhere here in the East. I have been in Richmond and learned a
great deal from the state reports, and I thought I might get more
information from the Department of Agriculture in Washington."

"Perhaps," said the man, "but my advice is to keep in mind that
there is a difference between buying land and buying a farm. I've
got land to sell, by the way. I thought I'd need it all when I
bought, but I can see now that I'll not need more'n half of it at
the most; so, if you want two or three hundred acres of this kind of
land right close here where you kind o' neighbor with the senators
and other upper tens, and run back and forth from the City in an
hour or so, why I think I can accommodate you. My name is
Sunderland, J. R. Sunderland, and you'll find me at home any day."

"How much would you sell part of your land for?" inquired Percy.

"Well, I'd kind o' hate to take less than ten dollars an acre for
it; but I think we can make a deal all right if you like the
location."






CHAPTER XX

A LESSON IN OPTIMISM





ABOUT nine o'clock the day following Percy's arrival in Washington
he sent his card into the office of the Secretary of Agriculture.

"Just step this way," said the boy on his return. "The Secretary
will see you at once."

A gentleman who appeared to be sixty, but was really several years
older, arose from his desk and greeted Percy very kindly.

"I see you are from Illinois, Mr. Johnston. I am an Iowa man myself,
and I am always glad to see any one from the corn belt. Do you know
we are going to beat the records this year? It is wonderful what
crops we grow in this country, and they are getting better every
year. We are growing more than two-thirds of the entire corn crop of
the globe, right here in these United States. Yes, Sir, and we are
just beginning to grow corn; and corn is only one of our important
agricultural products. Do you know that eighty-six per cent. of all
the raw materials used in all the manufactured products of this
country come from the farms of the United States; yes, Sir,
eighty-six per cent.

"Now, what can I do for you? I am very glad you called, and I will
be glad to serve you in any way you desire. By the way, how is the
corn turning out in your part of Illinois? Bumper crop, I have no
doubt."

"I think so," said Percy, "after seeing the crops here in the East.

"That's what I thought," continued the Secretary." A bumper crop,
the biggest we ever raised. Oh, they don't know how to raise corn
here in the East. They just grow corn, corn, corn, year after year;
and that will get any land out of fix. I found that out years ago in
Iowa. I am a farmer myself, as I suppose you know. I found you
couldn't grow corn on the same land all the time. But just rotate
the crops; put clover in the rotation; and then your ground will
make corn again, as good as ever."

"But I understand that clover refuses to grow on most of this
eastern land," said Percy.

"Oh, nonsense. They don't sow it. I tell you they don't sow it, and
they don't know how to raise it. It takes a little manure sometimes
to start it, but it will grow all right if they would only give it
half a chance. Why, for years the Iowa farmers said blue grass
wouldn't grow in Iowa. Yes, Sir, they just knew it wouldn't grow
there; and then I showed them that blue grass was actually growing
in Iowa,--actually growing along the roadsides almost
everywhere,--blue grass that would pasture a steer to the acre--just
came in of itself without being seeded. No, I tell you they don't
sow clover down here. They just say it won't grow and keep right on
planting corn, corn, corn, until the corn crop amounts to nothing,
and then they let the land grow up in brush."

"Now, I do not wish to take up more of your time," said Percy, "for
I know how busy a man you must be, but I am thinking of buying a
farm, or some land, here in the East and have come to you for
information. We have a small farm in Illinois and land is rather too
high-priced there to think of buying more; but I thought I could
sell at a good price, and buy a much larger farm here in the East
with part of the money and still have enough left to build it up
with; and, with the high price of all kinds of farm produce here, we
ought to make it pay."

"You can do it," said the Secretary. "No doubt of it. Any land that
ever was any good is all right yet if you'll grow clover, and you
can start that with a little manure if you need it. I have done it
in Iowa, and I know what I am talking about.

"Now my Bureau of Soils can give you just the information you want.
We are making a soil survey of the United States, and we have soil
maps of several counties right here in Maryland. You can take that
map and pick out any kind of land you want,--upland or bottom
land,--sandy soil, clay soil, loam, silt loam, or anything you
want."






CHAPTER XXI

IN THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF





"SHOW this gentleman to the Bureau of Soils," said the Secretary to
the boy who came as he pushed a button.

"All the world loves an optimist," said Percy to himself as he
followed the boy to another office where he met the Chief of the
Bureau of Soils, who kindly furnished him with copies of the soil
maps of several counties, including two in Maryland, Prince George,
which adjoins the District of Columbia, and St. Mary county, which
almost adjoins Prince George on the South.

These maps were accompanied by extensive reports describing in some
detail the agricultural history of the counties and the general
observations that had been made by the soil surveyors.

"I desire to learn as much as I can regarding the most common upland
soils," Percy explained. "Not the rough or broken land, but the
level or undulating lands which are best suited for cultivation. I
am sure these maps and reports will be a very great help to me."

"I think you will find just what you are looking for," said the
Chief. "You can spread the maps out on the table there and let me
know if I can be of any assistance. You see the legend on the margin
gives you the name of every soil type, and the soils are fully
described in the reports. One of the most common uplands soils in
southern Prince George county is the Leonardtown loam, and this type
is also the most extensive soil type in St. Mary county.

"The same type is found in Virginia to some extent. While the soil
has been run down by improper methods of culture, it has a very good
mechanical composition and is really an excellent soil; but it needs
crop rotation and more thorough cultivation to bring it back into a
high state of fertility. The farmers are slow to take up advanced
methods here in the East. We have told them what they ought to do,
but they keep right on in the same old rut."

For two hours Percy buried himself with the maps and reports.
Finally the Chief came from his inner office, and finding Percy
still there asked if he had found such information as he desired.

"I find much of interest and value, but I do not find any complete
invoice of the plant food contained in these different kinds of
soil."

"You mean an ultimate chemical analysis of the soil?" asked the
Chief.

"Yes, a chemical analysis to ascertain the absolute amount of plant
food in the soil. I think of it as an invoice; but I see that you do
not report any such analyses."

"No, we do not," answered the Chief. "We have been investigating the
mechanical composition of soils, the chemistry of the soil solution,
and the adaptation of crop to soil. We find that farmers are not
growing the crops they should grow; namely, the crops to which their
soils are best adapted. For example, they try to grow corn on land
that is not adapted to corn."

"It seems to me," said Percy, "that our farmers are always trying to
find a crop that is adapted to their soil. Down in 'Egypt,' which
covers about one-third of Illinois, the farmers once raised so much
corn that the people from the swampy prairie went down there to buy
corn, and hence the name 'Egypt' became applied to Southern
Illinois. But there came a time when the soil refused to grow such
crops of corn; the farmers then found that wheat was adapted to the
soil. Later the wheat yields decreased until the crop became
unprofitable; and the farmers sought for another crop adapted to a
still more depleted soil. Timothy was selected, and for many years
it proved a profitable crop; but of late years timothy likewise has
decreased in yield until there must be another change; and now whole
sections of 'Egypt' are growing red top as the only profitable crop.
After red top, then what? I don't know, but it looks as though it
would be sprouts and scrub brush, and final land abandonment, a
repetition of the history of these old lands of Virginia and
Maryland."

"Well, can't they grow corn after red top?" asked the Chief.

"Many of them try it many times," replied Percy, "and the yield is
about twenty bushels per acre, whereas the virgin soil easily
produced sixty to eighty bushels."

"And they can't grow wheat as they once did?"

"No, wheat after timothy or red top now yields from five to twelve
bushels per acre, while they once grew twenty to thirty bushels of
wheat per acre year after year.

"If they rotate their crops, they would probably yield as well as
ever," said the Chief.

"No, that, too, has been tried," replied Percy. "The Illinois
Experiment Station has practiced a four-year rotation of corn,
cowpeas, wheat, and clover on an experiment field on the common
prairie soil down in 'Egypt,' and the average yield of wheat has
been only twelve bushels per acre during the last four years, but
when legume crops were plowed under and limestone and phosphorus
applied, the average yield during the same four years was
twenty-seven bushels per acre."

"Probably the increase was all produced by the green manure,"
suggested the Chief. "Organic matter has a great influence on the
control of the moisture supply."

"That was tested," said Percy. "The green manure alone increased the
average yield to only fourteen bushels while the green manure and
limestone together raised the average wheat yield to nineteen
bushels, the further increase to twenty-seven bushels having been
produced by the addition of phosphorus."

"Well, Sir," said the Chief, "we have made both extensive intensive
investigations concerning the chemistry of the soil solution by very
delicate and sensitive methods of analysis we have developed, and we
have also conducted culture experiments for twenty-day periods with
wheat seedlings in the water extract of soils from all parts of the
United States, and the results we have obtained have changed the
thought of the world as to the cause of the infertility of soils."

"But you have not made analyses for total plant food in the soils or
conducted actual field experiments with crops grown to maturity?"
asked Percy.

"No, we have not done that," answered the Chief. "Those are old
methods of investigation which have been tried for many years and
yet no chemist can tell in advance what will be the effect of a
given fertilizer upon a given crop on a given soil."

"That is true," said Percy, "but neither can any merchant tell in
advance just what effect will be produced on the next day's business
by the addition of a given number of a given kind of shoes to a
given stock on his shelves. There are many factors involved in both
cases."

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