Mt. Vernon Optic-Herald (Mount Vernon, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 20, 1958 Page: 6 of 10
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RAINBOW
PLANT
FOOD
HIGHER YIELDS-TOP QUALITY CROPS - MORE PROFIT
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and bring mbisture down to a safe
level for storage—below 14 per
cent. Sorghum with 15 to 15 per
cent moisture may be held in bins
for feeding—ONLY during cold
weather.
Not all crowa are black; eom*
have brightly-colored feathers.
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Top Dressing
Boosts Hay And
Beef Yields
Phosphate is mined from vast surface marine
deposits in Florida with the mammoth piece of
equipment shown above. As one of the major in-
gredient? in commercial fertilizers, phosphorous
is an important plant food because it stimulates
root growth and aids the reproductive processes
of plants—formation of grain and fruit. After
phosphorous ores are mined, concentrated and
ground, they are usually treated with acid to
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CROP ROTATION AND
FARM MANURES
NOT ENOUGH
Crop rotation and use of farm
refuse cannot replace all plant
food removed from the soil by
crops, by leaching and by erosion.
The addition of adequate amounts
of fertilizer is needed.
Know Your Soils—
Its Needs
Take soil samples so you don’t
guess at the amounts of nitrogen,
phonphrorus and potash your soil
needs. Take soil samples in each
field, have them tested at your
county or state soil testing lab-
oratory.
Here are a few rules to folloW:
Clean hands, shovel and pail.
Avoid taking samples where fer-
tiliser has fallen or may have
been stockpiled on the ground.
Avoid trash burning sites. Be sure
you are at least 100 feet from any
road because lime dust can be car-
ried that far.
WHERE TO PLAGE
FERTILIZER
FOR COTTON
For top production, place ferti-
lizer in narrow band?, 2-1/2 in-
ches to the etdes and 2 to 2-1/2
inches below seed level at plant-
ing time. If you need more nitro-
gen and potash later, pint them
on while you’re cultivating as
side or top dressing application.
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It Pays to Buy
High Analysis
Fertilizer
It pays tt>’ buy high analysis
fertilizers. In fact they cost less
besau&e they have more plant
food units. With them you have
-
Fertilized hay and pasture
land produces more beef and for-
age, and withstands drought bet-
ter than unfertilized yields, say
Minnesota experiment station beef
men. Recent tests show that steer
gains on top-dressed pasture was j
222 pounds per acre compared
with 161 pounds from the pasture
not fertilized.
In oither teets top-dressed pas-
tures produced $66 worth of beef
to the acre, while pastures that
were not top-dreesed produced
only $2 9 worth — $37 per acre
M
All pastures under test got 3
tons of lime an acre 4 yearn ego.
Half of each pasture was ferti-
lised with 50J pounds of 0-20-20.
Fertilizer application on old al-
falfa stands increased hay yields
of better than a ton per acre on
fifi riomnn afro f inn finlrla nt n n
88 demonstration fields, at
average cost of $8.16 per acre.
Top dreeing hay yields
light as well as heavy soils.
Fertilizer Is A
Better Buy Than
Ever Before
Fertilizer prices have advanced
only 13 per cent since 1935, while
the prices of other items farmers
buy have advanced 12'5 per cent.
Thus, fertilizer is a better buy
than eVer before. A dollar invest-
ed in fertilizer may return you
from $3 to ?7. Too much empha-
sis is placed on selling fertilizer
on the “cost-per ton” basis. Great-
er stress should be given the
"cost-per ton” of plant nutrients,
to the proper use of these nutri-
ents and to the profits farmers
can get from them.
Fertilizing Small
Grain Pays Off
The increase In yield of your
small graityi may be enough to
pay the full fertilizer bill when
you apply a fertilizer properly
balanced between N-P-K for a
combination small grain—legume
planting. The correct amount of
nitrogen can increase grain yields
enough to pay to not only the ni-
trogen but also the phosphate and
potash which will be used by the
legumes.
Having the right plant food
balance is important. If too much
nitrogen is used the small grain
tends to be rank and is liable to
lodge. This smothers the new le-
gume seedling and much of the
grain is lost when combined.
On the other hand, adequate
phosphate and potash, without ni-
trogen, stimulates the legume
seedling at the expense of the
small grain. In fact, it may prove
to be most difficult ito harvest
the small grain because of
heavy legume growth.
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Most of the potash found naturally in our soils
is in rather insoluble forms, and not readily
available to plants. Because of its importance
as a basic plant food, potash has to be supplied
in fertilizer mixtures, if your crops are to be
productive under today’s intensive fanning. In
obtaining potash for use in commercial fertilizers,
it is mined deep underground from deposits that
were once sea beds, hundreds of thousands of
years ago. Complicated machinery, like that
shown, is used to mine these deposits, and the
potash material is then hauled to the surface
in electrically-operated shuttle cars. This Inter-
national potash mine, near Carlsbad, New
Mexico, is reported to be the richest known
source of potash in the United States.
make super or triple phosphate materials for
greater concentration of PsOs and greater solu-
bility. Then these phosphates are incorporated
into the commercial fertilizers you buy. The
"Bigger-Digger” pictured, is the largest dragline
scoop in the United States, and was built for
International Minerals & Chemical Corporation
for its large-scale phosphate mining operation
near Bartow, Florida.
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Other Good Farm
Practices Increase
Fertilizer Efficiency
Fertilizers pay beit when need
with other good soil and crop
management practices. To get
high crop yields and maintain
them over a long period of time
follow these practices.
1. Control molature with proper
drainage on level land and con-
serve moisture on hill land.
2. Lime acid soils.
3. Follow good crop rotations.
4. Control wetds. Insect peats
and plant deseasee.
5. Use proper tillage methods.
6. Control erosion.
7. Apply manure and maintain
organic matter in soil.
8. Use disease-resistant
adapted crop verities
All of these, where needed, are
necessary for top crop production.
Omit any ons for any length of
time and you will lower crop pro-
duction. Fertilizers can supple-
ment the above practices but can-
not replace them.
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Fertilizer
Generally, the row. or hand ap-
plication of putting on fertiliser
in used for row crop? as seedling
time. Not as much fertilizer is
required per acre as compared
with ithe broadcast or top-dressing
method?.
Either before or after plowing,
you can broadcast fertiliser uni-
formly over the surface of the
soil, working into the moisture
layer, as the seedbed is prepared.
Quite often high phosphate and
poitash fertilizers are broadcast in
excels of current crop needs be-
cause these nutrients do not read-
ily leach away and stay available
for plant use more than one crop
season.
Corn growers and others who
raise heavy feeding crop® like the
aide dreselng method of applying
fertilizer because the crop re-
sponds quickly. Tests show de-
mand for plant food i» greatest
during a critical stage of plant
growth, and fertilizer placed be-
neath the soil where moisture is
available gets to plant roots
quickly. High nitrate fertilizers
are often side dressed in ®pllt-ap-
plclations. Because this form of
nitrogen is very soluble — It
tends to leach out quickly if too
much is tfut on at one time.
The top dressing method is re-
commended to apply feraillzer on
established hay and pasture lands.
Best time to top dress these for-
age crops Is in the spring and fall
when rains carry fertilizer down
to the feeding zone of plant root®.
Most farmers report from 40 to
60 per cent more forage from top
dressing pastures. And, in addi-
tion, there’s more feeding value
in the forage crops produced.
What Are Mixed
Fertilizers
Mixed fertilizers contain two
or three fertilizer elements, and
are usually sold according to
grade -the per cent of nitrogen,
phosphate and potash, and always
in the order named. Be sure to
buy the grade that fits your need.
To find out how much fertiliser
and what grade to use. send soil
samples to your county or state
soil testing laboratory. Tour
county agent will tell you the pro-
per way to take noil samples.
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INTERNATIONAL
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Big
HP' i'i,
Good Pastures
Are Important
Because ......
Good pastures produce at least
80 per cent of the total feed sup-
ply of all beef cattle. Good pas-
tures will produce from 200 to
4 00 pounds of beef per acre per
year.
Fully half of the nation's milk
supply is produced by pasture.
Dairy cows on pasture will pro-
duce about 20 pounds of milk
daily.
Pastures are the cheapest feed
to produce because they require
less labor to handle. Animals do
their own harvesting.
It's profitable to have our pas-
tures producing at top capacity.
Let's renovate pastures—fertilize
them and keep them productive.
to haul and handle, less to apply
per acre. However, the biggest
having lies in the cost — per unit
of plant food. Remember, you
—t as many
......
Fertilize Corn To
Get Top Yields
Top corn yields are made under
a favorable combination of soil
and cllmtWic condition? in which
plants can grow vigorously all
during the growing period. By
I fertilizing corn in adequate
amounts you can bring about the
favorable soft fertility levels
needed for top corn yields.
Fertlliizer for corn is applied
in the hill or row at planting
time. It should be placed at or
slightly below the level of the
seed one or two inches to the side.
Experiments have shown an
average yield increase of about 6
to 10 bushels for this method of
applying fertilizer.
Hill or row applications are
especially good on slowly drained,
level uoils thait tend to remain
cool and wet until late spring.
Improperly applied fertilizer in
the hill or row can injure ot delay
germination and may retard early
plant growth.‘DO-NOT LET THE
FERTILIZER CONTACT THE
SEED.
A plow-down of fertilizer can
profitably be made in addition to
that used in the hill or row. Those
plow-down application places
units of i these plant nutrients in a deeper
plant food from 1 ton of 10-20-10 | soil zone which remains moist
M? you do from 2 tons of 5-10-5. ] longer during the growing season,
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Recommended
Cultural Practices
For Sorghum
Seedbeds for sorghum should
be firm, mellow and moist. In the
sorghum belt, seed beds can be
prepared by listing ot a combina-
tion of Hating and flat-breaking.
In the cornbelt and southern
area®, prepare seedbeds like those
for corn.
Soils should be tested and fer-
tilizer applied to balance the soil's
supply of plant nutrients. Gener-
ally speaking, fertilizer require-
ments of sorghum are nearly the
same as for corn.
Sorghum should be planted
when soil temperature is above
70 degrees F.—June in the Great
Plains . . . two weeks after corn
planting elsewhere. For dryland,
plant seed 4 to 6 Inches apart in
40-inch rows in irrigated land or
in high annual rainfall areas.
Sorghum seed should be planted
one to two Inches deep either with
a lister or corn planter with spe-
cial sorghum plates.
Cultivation should be shallow.
Just enough to control weeds.
Chemical weed control with 2,4-D
can be used.
Any small grain combine may
be ueed to harvest sorghum. Ad-
just cylinder speed to average
850-99-RPM with 3/16” to 3/8"
cylinder—concave clearance and
7/3 2” round sieve. Combining can
begin when moisture is down to
17 per cent.
Sorghum will heat and spoil if
stored with moisture above 14 per
cent. In many areas of the corn-
belt, artificial drying may be nec-
essary to supplement field drying
Feeding Fish In
Farm Fish Ponds
The use of a well balanced fer-
tilizer plays an important role in
profitable management of ponds
and lakes. Fertilizer provides the
most practical method for better
fishing and is quite useful in con-
trolling underwater weeds or
moss.
Fish do not eat the fertilizer.
Instead, the fertilizer nourishes
tiny organisms of many kinds—
which in turn furnish food for the
fish. These minute organisms are
usually present only in small
quantities unless the water is fer-
tilized. A fertilized pond will pro-
duce an abundant supply of these
fi®h foods, and consequently more
fish.
Fish farming is a profitable
rotational "crop” where rice is
grown commercially. In other
areas It will pay in extra fish, big-
ger fish and added recreational
enjoyment.
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' fewer pounds, or tons, of fertilizer
FOR CROPS
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Mt Vernon, Texas
FOR FOLIAGE
nel88W
Every Ingredient In RAINBOW S erves A Purpose
FOR STALKS • FOR ROOTS
Use rainbow premium plant food — “for satisfaction at harvest time*9
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Bass, James T. Mt. Vernon Optic-Herald (Mount Vernon, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 20, 1958, newspaper, February 20, 1958; Mount Vernon, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1268149/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Franklin County Library.