The Story of the Soil; from the Basis of Absolute Science and Real LifeHopkins, Cyril G. (Cyril George)
Science
The Story of the Soil; from the Basis of Absolute Science and Real Life
Hopkins, Cyril G. (Cyril George)
Soils
"Let us look into how we got the phosphorus. On land that would not
grow over six to eight bushels of wheat per acre we have succeeded
once in growing forty-seven and three-fourths bushels to the acre,
on all the land sowed, of wheat that sold away above the market
price and weighed sixty-four pounds to the measured bushel, and
never put on a pound of phosphorus. We got it from that tillage we
told you about. Our land in northeastern Ohio is not very good
naturally. It is nothing like what you have in this state. Most of
you know that is the poorest land we have in the state in general,
but we have a fair share of clay and sand in ours. That has helped
us wonderfully. We have clay enough so that with our tillage we can
make so far all the plant food available we want.
"Now, a little more about the tillage. I told you how we worked the
surface of that ground and made it fine and nice. After five or six
years, perhaps, of this kind of work, I got to thinking if I had
some tool that would stir that ground to the bottom of the plowed
furrow and mix it very deeply and thoroughly, I might get still
better results out of the tillage. I happened to be in town one
morning in the fall, when we had some wheat land (clover sod) plowed
and prepared for wheat. I had harrowed and rolled it and made it as
nice as I could.--It was what the neighbors would call all ready for
sowing and more than ready. In town I saw a man trying to sell a
two-horse cultivator. I think it was made in this State. It was the
first one I ever saw--you can judge how long ago. It was a big,
heavy, cumbersome thing,--a horse-killer. I thought, if I only had
that, I knew I could increase the fertility of our soil still more.
I hadn't any money. We hadn't got far enough that there was a dollar
to spare. What did I do? I gave my note for $50 and took that
cultivator home with me. I could have bought it for $35 in money,
but I didn't have it. My wife didn't say a word when I got home. I
have heard since that she did a lot of crying to think I would go in
debt $50 more, and all for that thing.
"I got home about eleven o'clock and you can well suspect that I
couldn't eat any dinner that day. I hitched up and went right to
work, and told my wife I couldn't stop for any dinner. I rode that
cultivator that day and tore up that field in a way land was never
torn up in our section before. There was nothing to do it with. The
soil would roll up and tumble over. After going lengthwise I went
crosswise. A thousand hogs couldn't have made it rougher. The
neighbors looked on and said that 'Terry would do 'most anything if
you would only let him ride.' The worst of it was, I really didn't
know but what they were right, and all he would get out of it was
the riding. It was a serious thing. I had to wait until the harvest
time before I could know.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account