xt7vhh6c465b https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7vhh6c465b/data/mets.xml   Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station. 1934 journals kaes_circulars_272 English Lexington : The Service, 1913-1958. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station Circular (Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station) n. 272 text Circular (Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station) n. 272 1934 2014 true xt7vhh6c465b section xt7vhh6c465b ¥"·’“*B*;’~?""J ‘*Tif >*# V »— . coctasca
- ‘OCKBR·¤G¤ LIBRARY
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
Extension Division
THOMAS P. COOPER, Dean and Director
CIRCULAR NO. 272 l
SOIL MANAGEMENT FOR KENTUCKY ,
{.0 ‘ •k
 za. T %‘>4"
2 E,/··y5|¤ 
2 Mile =·
- intgm
”€ccL`!*
Lexington, Ky.
April, 1934 ·
Published in connection with the agricultural extension work carried on
by cooperation of the College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky, with
the U. S. Department of Agriculture and distributed in furtherance of the
work provided for in the Act of Congress of May 8, 1914.

 C O N T E N T S
Page
Soil erosion .................,.......... . ...................».............,................. . ..,.......,.. . .... 3
V Statistics on erosion ...,.........................,. . ......................».. . ..4..,......... .. 4 tm-
Control of erosion ........,___..,.................__...............,....i.,...,...,......A...,..__,, 5 pm
Prevention of leaching .................,...............A.... . .........,............... . ......_.... 9 Th
Tma5{L;{;`g""jj[f§jQfjQjQjQQX[[[ff.jfljjff[fff§]jj]j']`i`fjQ.__Q]f[[[jf§QQjfQ.§[[Q it “"”
Preparation of plowed land for planting ....... . ................................ 14 as
Cultivation for weed control and moisture conservation ............ 15 BX;
Drainage ...................................................... . ............ . .......................»».........,... 16 get
Plant nutrients ..........r...................i..........,..,.i........l.................i...................... 18 is 1
Liming materials and their use ............................................................,... 19 mc
Mans .,,...........................................................................,T...._.__....,....._....... 20 c_T
Rates and time of liming ...... . .........,._,,...._.,__,_,, _ ____,_,,___,_,__,______________ 21 up
Phosphate fertilizers ....r.................r...,......r...r...r...._,,._.,__,._....____________,__,______ 23 {jg
Potash fertilizers ........AA..........................................,.................,................... 30 lm
Nitrogen fertilizers ............r.................i....._........................,.l......,.. , ......,...... 32 CX.
Mixed fertilizers ........r.,......,....................._.,......... .. .,,. . ..._ _ _,___,,__,___,__,_r..,... 34 gl-]
Home mixing of fertilizers .,..____..,,_,.._ 4 _______,,r___ _ __.,______,.___,__,_______,____,,__,.r 35 1-I-{
Soil organic matter and nitrogen ........>............... , ................,_.....,..».......,... 36 Cl-,
Lcgumes and nitrogen fixation .,.............r..4,............,,_,._...,._.........,...... 36
Crop residues ____._........,.....i..._r........._.._,...________,___,_______,_______,.__ _ _______,   41 me
Farm manure .................,.............................................,................................,.,. 43 GV
’ Planning and establishing rotations ......................,................,.. . ............ 47 C6
Summary and recommendations .......,.................................,.........r......v..... 48 Da
Value of chemical tests of soils ...».............i.,.......,.........r..........,...........   57 QQ
List of publications on soils and crops ........,......................‘.....,...........r.. 59 H}
10
re
er

 CIRCULAR NO. 272
Soil Management for Kentucky
ge By GEORGE ROBERTS
3 The conservation of soil is a primary requisite for the con-
4 tinuance of human life. Mineral resources, seemingly indis-
5 pensable, are luxuries compared with the products of the soil.
9 The American people are slow to learn the importance of soil
12 conservation. Probably no nation ever wasted its soil resources
ai as fast as we are wasting ours, altho we have a warning in the
15 example of China of the enormity of the consequences of soil
16 destruction. The density of the population of China as a whole
18 is 94 per square mile, but in 18 provinces containing most of the
19 more level land of the country, the density is 245 per square mile.
20 (_The density of the United States is 41 per square mile.) The
21 uplands have been so eroded that on great areas human habita--
23 tion is impossible, and the people have been driven to the low-
30 lands, where the struggle for existence is so great that human
32 excrement is rigidly conserved for fertilizer and the roots of
34 grain crops are dug for fuel. Rice plants are grown in beds and
35 transplanted like our tobacco crop, in order that some other
36 crop may be grown on the land before the rice is transplanted.
ii We may say: "That occurred in China; Americans will
43 never allow their soil to deteriorate to such an extent." How-
47 ever, when we consider that Cl111'l&7S agriculture is forty to fifty
48 centuries old, while iour lands have been in use for only a com-
57 Daratively short time, we must realize that we are wasting them
59 "€1‘y rapidly. \Ve are prodigal of our resources, as pioneers
always are, and have little consideration for future inhabitants
to whom we should recognize our responsibility for conserving
resources not of our creating. .
SOIL EROSION
For a convincing statement of the enormous extent of soil
erosion in this country, the reader is referred to United States .

 l
4 l(en2‘ucL·y .Erfmzsion. Circular N0. 272
, Department of Agriculture Circular No. 33, entitled "Soil ‘l€P
i Erosion, a National Menaee," by H. H. Bennett and W. lt. Pml
Chapline. Mr. Bennett, who has spent thirty years studying _
the soils of the United States, says that he "is of the opinion  
that soil erosion is the biggest problem confronting the farmers MOI
of the Nation over a tremendous part of its agricultural lands." Opp
V He estimates that the loss from soil erosion is about twenty times EKG
as great as from crop removal. in ,
Some Statistics on Erosion. In the circular referred to, Mr.
- Bennett makes the estimate that at least l26,000,000 pounds of un]
plant food elements (that is, elements of the kind taken from fas
the soil by the plant) are removed from the crop and pasture vel
lands of the United States annually by erosion; that if only c-re
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (the elements bought in the
commercial fertilizers) are considered, the loss amounts to rm
$2.000,000,000 annually, at the lowest cost at that time (1928) thi
for which these could be purchased in commercial fertilizers. He occ
further estimates the immediate or tangible yearly loss to be gei
$l=200,000,000 because of the extra land cultivated or fertilizers wi
bought to produce the crops desired. There are counties in the tht
United States in which from 70,000 to 90,00 acres of agricultural ha
land have been eroded beyond reclamation. col
If Kentucky soils undergo only the average rate of erosion R
l`or the United States, the losses for the State would be about *0
$$34,000,000 and $3,400,000, respectively. Probably the rate of  
erosion in Kentucky is much greater than for the United States fa
i because of the topography of the land and the large rainfall. p ul
But these figures do not give a full picture of the losses due to Q?
erosion, for sooner or later such land becomes so eroded that ll li]
is unnit for tillage or even pasture, and is permanently ab311~ Sl
doned. Kentucky has much land so badly eroded that it has bt
been abandoned or produces so little that it provides only the tl
most meager support for its tillers. Il? erosion is not con- ll
trolleil, much larger areas will soon be in such condition that the
inhabitants will not be able to support. schools, roads and lotill *(
government and will become a tax burden upon the State o1' be _

 Soil Management for Itkniuelcy 5
,11 deprived of these advantages, which creates very serious social
il problems. .
lg ` Control of Ir'r0sum. Nature ’s method of controlling erosion
m IS the only effective method. Left to her own devices before son
has been depleted by man, nature keeps it covered with vgeta-
  tion, and makes an effort to do so after depletion, if given the
‘ opportunity. Terracing, without a vegetative covering, is in-
les effective for most lands subject to washing, altho very valuable
in connection with proper cropping,
lr. Heavy rainfall causes washing on almost any sloping land
of unprotected by vegetation. Obviously, the steeper the slope, the
nn faster the water moves and the greater the erosion. Wlien the
ire velocity of water is doubled, its power to carry material is in-
ily creased thirty-two times. This fact should impress one with
in the necessity of doing something to reduce the velocity of the
to run-off and to make the soil resistant to erosion. Grass does
BS) this for farm lands better than anything else. Erosion may
He occur unobserved for some time because the first erosion is ’
be general sheet washing——that. is, a fairly uniform removal of soil
ers without the formation of gullies. Usually when gullies form.
the the largest damage has been done and the final stage of erosion
lral has been reached. Usually little attention is given to erosion
control until gullies appear.
sion As already stated, a grass covering is the best protection
lout for agricultural lands. \Vhile all the land cannot. be kept in
, Of §"1‘ilSS all the time, the more good grass there is for pasture and
am hay, the less the area that has to be used for tilled crops to feed
fall. livestock; for with good pasture the grazing season is greatly
e to extended and the nutritive value of the pasture is greater. If
it it - the crop land were managed according to well-proved good and
ban~ Simple practices, the present harvested crops of the State could
has be D1'0ClUGGtl on two-thirds or less of the present area used for
the This purpose, This would allow steeper land to go back to pas-
mm, lure, and effect a very large control of erosion. _
pthe An erosion-control experiment. at the University of Mis-
loeal souri,‘ conducted on land with a. slope of 3.68 feet per hundred,
ll. bf lhlissouri Experiment Station Bulletin 21]. I

 l
{ `
T 6 Kentucky Extension C'i¢·cula,r N0. 272
shows the effectiveness of grass in controlling erosion. Land in Ex
· corn annually, eroded at the rate of 7 inches in 56 years; in Ta;
wheat annually, at the rate of 7 inches in 150 years; in a rota~ the
tion of corn, wheat and clover, at the 1·ate ot 7 inches in 437 Xvit
years; in blugrass sod, at the rate of 7 inches in 3547 years. the
Only one half of a pound of nitrogen per acre was lost annually Hm
by erosion from the bluegrass sod, but forty pounds were lost
with continuous corn.
i The highest p1·iced farm land in the State is in the Blue- Sm
grass region, where only about one-third of it is used for Thi
harvested crops, altho more livestock is kept per unit of land St:
l than in other parts of the State. Bourbon County, devoted ab·
almost entirely to general farming, had in 1929, 52,900 acres of Lil
crop land and 127,740 acres of pasture land, or about 70 per- bu
cent in pasture. Thirty-six thousand acres were in corn, small by
grain and tobacco, about 20 percent of the total crop and pasture mc
land. \Vithout doubt, where good grass will grow, a general pr
system of farming is best for Kentucky where the soil is so Cl;
susceptible to erosion. Grass grows well in central' Kentucky Q]
primarily because of the calcium (the important element in lime- Gy
stone) and phosphorus content of the soil, and not because farm— ]¤/
ers decided to grow livestock and provided bluegrass pasture. uc
Livestock is prodominant because of the grass. Central Ken- m
tucky leads in the production of high-quality White Burley HC
tobacco also because of its production of good grass, which putS S1,
the soil in ideal condition for tobacco. K
In the thirty-seven counties lying west of the longitude of d,
' Louisville 44 percent of the land is in pasture, including w00d- U,
land pasture and other non-plowable pasture land. The pasture P,
is generally of poor quality. The topography and the character I O,
of the soil of this area, as well as of most other parts of the ta
State, are such that serious erosion takes place unless the soil
is protected. Anyone traveling thru the State cannot fail to sec
the devastating eftects of erosion where grass is not generally
used.
That good grass can be grown in all parts of the State by -
good soil management has been demonstrated beyond doubt. u
1

 Soil Mamzgemcnt for Kentucky 7
. Excellent bluegrass has been grown on the experiment fields in
. Taylor County, Muhlenberg County, Graves County, and on
· the Ex eriment Substation at Princeton br treatin<>· the soil
7 5 D
with ground limestone and hos Jhate and growing legumes with
D U D O
· the <>·1·ass. Of course the choice of rrrasses for Jasture is not
la 7 ¤
' limited to bluegrass.
An experiment in pasture production on badly worn sand-
_ stone land on the Experiment Substation at Princetonz shows
L. that good pasture can be made on practically any soil of the
State no matter how badlv de nleted for this land re yresented
7 .7 7 T
{ about as unfavorable conditions as will be found in the State.
E Land adjacent and similar to the pasture land produced 12
- bushels of corn in 1928, a fairly good season for corn as shown
1 by land on the same farm under fair inanageinent yielding
e more than 50 bushels per acre. Three 10-acre fields of similar
l productivity, eroded and grown up in briers and bushes, were _
9 cleared terraced and yre aared for seeding in the fall of 1927.
7 7 1 O
Y One Held was left untreated- one was treated with 1200 ounds
7
" of ground rock phosphate per acre; and one was treated with
l` ly; tons of limestone and 600 pounds of superphosphate per
" acre. No lime or fertilizer has been used since. (These treat-
l' ments will probably show decided effects for ten years.) The
V . . .
7 fields were seeded the last of August to rve, and the following
  C! e
" spring to a mixture of orchard grass, redtop. Canada bluegrass,
Kentucky bluegrass, white clover, sweet clover, common lespe-
lf dcza and Korean lespcdeza, at the rate of 15 pounds per acre,
L orchard grass predominating in the mixture. The land has been
·e . . . . . _
pastured with yearling steers since 1929, inclusive. The results
:1* I . · · , ·
of the tests to the end of 1933 are sunnnarlzcd in the following
ie
. table:
1l
ze
.y ·
my —.; _
;'Pasture experiment conducted jointly by the Agronomy and Animal
t- HU$l)ilIl(]l‘y Depgwtments, E, N, Fergus and E. S. Good, lc2ld<·1‘S. _

 1 ‘
l
y S Kentucky E..c/eusien Circular N0. 272
TABLE 1. Exi=ERnviENT IN PASTURE PRODUCTION by
I \ Total Gain in \Veiglit gl
mélcp _ Ay. No._ of Steers per Field CU
NO_ ` 'l`reat.ment bt<§;>g§g&iiH1ecl pl
In 5 Yrs. xrxv. perYr. pr
1 iNone ...........   ...... ....- ...,.. - ........ ul 2.46 l 2309 l 462  
§ lEiitliQSSEM";t§>Q;1t;1;z;gg;‘1;;a;;tl   l   I tilt it
__n_ ’ ,J_;?(4£iL“. tt
V c<
The drouth of 1930 seriously reduced the average annual g.
carrying capacity. Omitting l$l30, the average annual gains for
‘ the 3 lields were 509 pounds, l3$lS pounds, and 1430 pounds,
respectively.
At the end ot lllilil, there was on Field l a thin, weak stand S,
of the original seeding, consisting ehielly ot lespedeza and red- 1._
top. lNeeds and bushes made up {lt) percent of the vegetation. {_.
The field is eroded badly though terraeetl, and on the steeper F
slopes little vegetation is left. 1,
On Field 2, lespedeza and redtop were the most abundant b
of the pasture plants, but there was much white clover and S
orchard grass, with (`anadian bluegrass and Kentucky bluegrass  
well distributed but not prominent. The stand of weeds and f
bushes was rather thin and on the decrease. The pasture plants (
eonstituted about U5 percent of the vegetation. Only insignill- 1
cant erosion had occurred.
On Field Ll, oreliard gra€f
summer for seeding winter wheat, there is probably considerable to
. loss of nitrogen, because wheat seeded at the usual time in Ken-
tucky (October) does not make sufficient growth to take up a A
great deal of nitrogen. Summer plowing of wheat land in mj
. regions of heavy rainfall is partially responsible for their rapid ih,
depletion. lm
Preparaitrion of Plowed Land for ldamfmg. A good seed bed eg]
. is a well pulverized plow layer of soil properly compacted for rg;
the kind of crop to be planted. For large seeds like corn and we
soybeans, no special effort need be exerted to compact the seed Va.
bed, but for small seeds from the size of wheat down, the plow BX
layer should be fairly well compacted, with just enough loose W
dirt at the surface to cover the seed well.
The implement to use for preparing the seed bed after plow- th
mg depends upon the condition of the soil and the character of {,.1.
seed bed desired. Disking may be required where soil has be- OU
come compacted after plowing. Again, a drag or a spike-tooth th
harrow may meet every requirement. There may be conditions Gu
where the use of a roller to press clods into the soil may be de- kc
sirable before disking or harrowing, so that these implements Va
will more effectively pulverize them.
After a seed bed has been well pulverized, it may be de- mi
sirable to smooth it as a final preparation for seeding. This
may be done with a spike-tooth harrow, a drag or a roller of
’ some kind. For small seeds like alfalfa, a smooth roller may be
best when the seeding is done with a clover seed drill or the seed
is broadcasted and lightly harrowed in. Obviously, the smoother ·
the surface, the better for this kind of seeding.
It is evident from this discussion that one must use his judg-
ment. in each particular case as to what implement will best make v;
the kind of seed bed desired. Often much labor may be saved w
and better results produced by exercising a little forethought. aw
The writer remembers seeing a large force of workmen and tl
teams in a clean Held from which tobacco had been harvested, di

 ti
Soil Management for Kentucky 15
breaking the soil with turning plows and following immediately
` with harrow and wheat drill. All that was needed to make the
best seed bed was some operation like the use of a heavy harrow
to provide enough loose dirt to cover the wheat properly.
C'uZtii1>ati0v2 for Weed Control and Moisture Conservation.
A great deal of misconception has arisen relative to the value of
tillage to conserve moisture. Proper stirring of the surface of
the soil when no crops are growing upon it does conserve
moisture to some extent, and the destruction of weeds always
conserves moisture. After intertilled crops like corn have
reached a stage of growth in which the roots have extended
well outward in the soil, little or no moisture is saved by culti-
vation, except through weed control. The following cultivation
experiments on corn at the Kentucky Experiment Station farm
well illustrate this point.
Tests were made on different methods of cultivating corn
through the ten—year period of 1911 to 1920. The corn was
grown in rotation with soybeans, wheat and clover. The ground
on which the tests were made was manured, before planting, at
- the rate of approximately 10 tons per acre. Each method of
* cultivation was repeated three times each year. \Veeds were
‘ kept down to practically the same extent in all methods of culti-
5 vation.
The average yields for ten years for the various methods of
‘ cultivation were as follows:
  Bus. per Acre
Shallow 6 to 8 times ................................................ 55.5
8 Deep 6 to S times ..................................................   56-2
;1 Shallow 3 to 4 times ...........................................-..». 555
Y __ Deep 3_to   times ............r....................................... 56.1
No cultivation, weeds scraped .............................. 52.9
g- The shallow cultivation was done with small shovel culti-
;e vators and averaged about 2 inches deep. The deep cultivation
d was done with a riding cultivator or "double shovel" and
tl. fl’~’e1‘aged about 4 inches deep. ()n the "no eultivation" plots
d lht? weeds were scraped with very sharp hoes, with very little
1, disturbance of the soil. _

 T 16 Kentucky Extension Circular N0. 272
The conclusion that must be drawn from these experiments, cn
  considered in connection with other experiments in which weeds dy
were allowed to grow, is that the principal benencial effect of gy
cultivation of corn on soil of t