Elementary Agriculture with Practical Arithmetic by Kirk Lester Hatch John Adam Haselwood

Author:Kirk Lester Hatch , John Adam Haselwood
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Row, Peterson & Co.
Published: 1907-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

TOBACCO.

Tobacco a Heavy Feeder, —As we have already learned, tobacco is a heavy feeder and hard on the soil. With every crop of tobacco sold off the farm about twice as much fertility is removed as with any grain crop that the farmer raises for market. But we have agreed that grain farming does not pay. How much more unprofitable, then, is it for the farmer to raise tobacco extensively. There is but one way in which he can keep up the fertility of his soil, and that

is by the use of commercial fertilizers. In this way soil matter is bought and brought back to the farm to take the place of that sold with the tobacco. Extensive experiments have been made at the different agricultural stations to determine the kind and amount of

these fertiliers to use. The results show that they are even better than barnyard manure for this crop. The only way that the farmer can find out the kind and amount best adapted to his soil is by careful experiment. It must be remembered, however, that commercial fertilizers tend to harden the soil, while barnyard manure improves its texture.

Kind of Soil Required. —Tobacco requires fertile, well-drained soil, rich in humus. Not every soil will grow good tobacco. Even on the same farm, places are found which seem to be especially adapted to its growth. Herein another danger lies. The farmer is likely to grow tobacco, year after year, on this same piece of land until its fertility is exhausted, or else he has robbed the rest of his farm by putting all of his fertilizers on his tobacco land. Again, such conditions make crop rotation impracticable.

Cultivation. —Moreover, tobacco requires thorough cultivation and careful attention in harvesting and curing. These things are best learned by actual practice, and a discussion of them is beyond the province of this book.

SUGAR BEETS.

Beets Compared with Other Plants. —Beets, like tobacco, are heavy feeders, and, like tobacco, require thorough cultivation. Unlike tobacco, however, they can be grown so as to retain the fertility of the soiL Sugar is a carbohydrate, and carbohydrates, you will remember, arc made by the plant from the air and the water which the plant uses. If the beets are shipped to the factory, the sugar extracted there, and the pulp returned to be fed on the farm or used as a fertilizer, the soil has lost nothing. It is much the same as if the tobacco ashes were brought back to the farm. With tobacco, however, this is impossible, but with beets it

is possible to return the pulp, and this should always be done.

Advantages of Beets. —Sugar beets have still other advantages over tobacco. In the first place, the price is fixed by the factory before the beets are planted. The factory usually contracts to give about $4.50 per ton for beets that test 14 per cent of sugar, with an additional 25 cents per ton for each additional i per cent of sugar. Thus beets testing 15 per cent will bring $4.

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