As far as possible each
section, great or small, should confine itself to the growing of a
variety of each crop yielding well and possessing the highest
nutritive value. In that manner each section of the great dry-farm
territory would soon come to stand for some dependable special
quality that would compel a first-class market. Further, the
superior feeding value of dry-farm products should be thoroughly
advertised among the consumers in order to create a demand on the
markets for a quality valuation. A few years of such systematic
honest work would do much to improve the financial basis of
dry-farming.
CHAPER XIV
MAINTAINING THE SOIL FERTILITY
All plants when carefully burned leave a portion of ash, ranging
widely in quantity, averaging about 5 per cent, and often exceeding
10 per cent of the dry weight of the plant. This plant ash
represents inorganic substances taken from the soil by the roots. In
addition, the nitrogen of plants, averaging about 2 per cent and
often amounting to 4 per cent, which, in burning, passes off in
gaseous form, is also usually taken from the soil by the plant
roots.
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