Chapter II Soil

Sunday, August 31, 2025 02:34PM

CHAPTER 2 Soil

It is really very interesting to take a poor piece of soil and make it productive in a short time by plowing deep and plowing under soybeans, green crops, etc., for fertilizer.

To make some interesting experiments, plow your soil eight or ten inches deep in the fall with a turn-plow. Plant corn on a piece of poor ground the first year. You will have to fertilize it so you will get big cornstalks. When you lay the corn by, plant soybeans between the rows. These beans will get big enough so you can have green shelled beans, which is excellent food. Just as soon as the corn is glazed, pull the corn and haul it from the field, and spread it out to dry. Mow or cut down the cornstalks and soybean vines close to the ground, then plow the ground with a 12 or 14 inch plow with a rolling cutter on it. This will bring soil which has not been worn out to the surface. The green cornstalks and soybean vines put a wonderful mulch of the very best kind of fertilizer into the soil. This will emulsify the soil. If this soil has a clay subsoil, cultivate it at once with a disc harrow to pulverize it and keep it from getting hard on top.

sow a winter crop to cover and protect the soil. The next spring plow the round 6 or 7 inches deep, turning under your cover crop, then harrow thoroughly and plant your corn. Cultivate the corn shallow and when ready to lay by, plant soybeans again and harvest and plow the soil just the same as you did the year before, only plow it crossways from the way you plowed it the year before. This loosens up the soil so the roots can go down deep in fertile soil and the moisture can come up. I have raised a fine crop of corn in this way when it was a year of crop failure.

Plant alfalfa or any grain on this round the following year, and you will see a real crop of grain. If the ground is worked this way for a few years it will make real virgin soil which will produce wonderful vegetables or any kind of fruit which will contain all the mineral and vitamin elements.

Those who have tractors can do this work easily with great satisfaction and big rewards. Everyone that has any land should work his vegetable garden this way: also the land on which he raises fruits. It pays big dividends to prepare ground in this fashion when you plan to plant an orchard or fruit of any kind. I have set out an orchard of this kind of soil and obtained growth in three years which would ordinarily have taken five or six years. This way of handling the soil holds the moisture and keeps the water from running off. There are many other ways to improve the soil.

If one does not have sufficient horsepower and machinery to cultivate the soil deep, he should get together with his neighbors and get the necessary power and machinery. Bring the deep soil up to the surface and thoroughly pulverize it, then the fine and tender roots will have a nice mellow bed in which to run in every direction and get their nourishment.

All the plants-wheat, corn, oats, flowers, fruit trees, in fact, all plants and trees-have many more roots if they have a nice finely pulverized bed of soil. This kind of soil will also produce a stronger plant which will yield better grains and fruits, very much more abundantly, and the planter will be more than doubly paid for the work put in on the land.

It is of very great importance to have the soil worked deep enough so that the roots of all the plants, grains of all kinds, can go deep into the ground, not only to draw nourishment but moisture. It is wonderful for both wet and dry seasons. When it is wet, the water can go down into the soil, and when it is dry there is a deep mellow mulch of soil for the roots to penetrate deep enough to get the moisture from beneath. Therefore, when the soil is loose deep down, the moisture will come up, as it cannot do when the soil is hard and lumpy, nor will it dry out so quickly.

When the soil is loose and finely pulverized, the sun, oxygen, and other life-giving elements can penetrate deeply and give life and proper nourishment to the plants.

It is my desire to arouse the people to thoroughly cultivate their soil, plant at the right time, and thoroughly cultivate their crops. In so doing they will be well repaid for their labor.

Fruits grown in the shade and fruits raised on worn-out ground where commercial fertilizer has been used, have very little life-giving properties. Even wheat, many times, is raised year after year on the same ground without properly taking care of the soil. Now you can put all the sixteen minerals back into poor, depleted oil, by handling your soil right. Just as soon as your crop is harvested, plow the ground and sow it with soybeans, cowpeas, rye, or buckwheat. When the crop is full grown, drag it down, and plow it under, plowing deep. In the northern states it must be plowed under before it freezes. This will wonderfully help to make virgin soil. In the fall the ground should be plowed deep so as to expose it to the sun and air. Red clover which was formerly used so such for improving soil does not grow as well as it used to But with soybeans the ground can be improved much more successfully and more rapidly than with other things.

It is very easy to raise hay in some of the Southern States where hay is scarce by sowing oats and cutting them just before they turn yellow when the oats are full grown and the straw is yet green. This hay, when cut, makes an excellent hay, which is real medicine for stock, and the grain splendid. I have kept work stock in good shape on this kind of hay.

In raising vegetables and garden truck, I have many times raised tow and three crops on the same ground the same year. When one crop begins to get ripe you can work the ground between the rows, and plant your second crop so when you harvest the first crop, your second crop is well under way and so you can keep on raising two and three crops of some things.

It is well to have a good book on farming and gardening of which there are many on the market that are not expensive. ...Learn about the things that grow very quickly and which will produce a great amount of food in a short time on a small piece of land.

Farming and Gardening

Farming and gardening are intensely interesting when you learn to do them correctly. Many people might have an abundance of food now who have land, but do not make the right use of it. Here are some of my personal experiences:

To have early tomatoes in the extreme norther states where it is very cold and the season short, plant the tomatoes in February in a box in the house when you do not have a greenhouse or hotbed. Then transplant the plants two or three times before time to set them out in the field or garden. The transplanting makes them sturdy and produces large roots, so when they are set out they have lots of vitality and soon make a large plant which bears fruit much earlier. Later when it gets warm enough, plant the sees right out in the garden or field, and do not transplant them at all. Plant a number of seeds in the same place, leaving the strongest plant and transplant the others.

For early lettuce: Sow in the fall early enough for it to make two or three leaves, then get some brush and throw over the bed. Put some straw or hay of some sort over this to shield it against the fierce winter. The brush and straw protects it against the snow, keeps it from packing solid and smothering the plants. In the spring after the hard frosts are over, remove the brush and straw.

For early onions: Plant in the fall. There are a number of varieties with which you can do this. The potato onion is an excellent variety for this. If you send to your seed house, they will send you directions for fall planting.

There are varieties of spinach which can be planted in the fall. Let the spinach grow three or four leaves the same as lettuce, before covering. This will give you spinach, onions, and other greens very early in the spring-much earlier than if you do all your planting in the spring after the ground gets warm enough. In the Southern States you can have greens the year around.

For early potatoes: Plant much earlier than they are usually planted. I have had potatoes frozen off three or four times, but they seem to grow right along. When they are small it does not hurt them to have the tops frozen off. Thus for early potatoes, I have had them three or four weeks sooner than if I had waited until potatoes are generally planted.

For early strawberries: Get early varieties and plant them on a southern slope or southeastern slope. Protect them with a little light straw; then when they start to bloom early the frost does not hurt them. When the danger of frost is over, rake the straw off, leaving some between the rows for mulching the strawberries. Plant the late varieties of strawberries on a northern or western slope. Cover them lightly with straw and leave on until quite late. This will produce a later crop. Then for a general crop, raise them wherever they grow best. Working it this way you will have berries for a much longer time. Get early, late, and ever-bearing varieties, thus you can have berries for a long season. I have kept a strawberry bed in good bearing condition for five or six years. After all the berries have been picked, harrow the ground with a fine toothed harrow, criss-crossing the patch as if you were going to harrow the plants out. This will take out the old plants, thus giving the new ones a better chance.

Keep planting various other garden truck at different times so as to have green shelled peas and beans nearly all summer long. You can plant green corn at different times and have roasting ears all summer. I planted some of the evergreen sweet corn so that it would produce toasting ears just before the frost. Then we would cut the corn, shock it up, and gather roasting ears out of the shocks for a long time after there had been many a hard frost. When you get farther south where the winters are not so long and so severe, it is much easier. You can have an abundance of garden stuff all the year around as there are a number of greens and vegetables which will stand light frosts.

Everyone who has any ground at all should have a patch of ground cherries. They grow abundantly and make a very fine sauce.

In the fall when fruits and vegetables are cheap, can up a lot so you will have an abundance when you cannot go to the garden and get it. There are small canners and can sealers that can be used in homes where goods may be canned just as well as in the canning factories. Tin cans are very cheap, but it is really better to use glass jars as they can be used and re-used.

Man years ago I helped a man buy a canner. He had eighty acres of land with a heavy mortgage on it, which he paid off with the help of his canning outfit in just a few years. If you could listen to this man tell his experience with this canning outfit it would be extremely interesting. He said that one time he bought a large two-horse load of pumpkins for three dollars. He canned them and the proceeds from this one load of pumpkins was nearly thirty-five dollars. Aside from being very practical, it is a very interesting thing for the children….. Give them a share in it and a part of the profits. Every farmer’s child should have a garden space of his own, and the profits of that space should be his. When I was on the farm I had but very little to buy and always something to sell.

All farmers should produce an abundance of feed for their stock. I used to cut our grain as early as possible and do my best to get it threshed before it rained on the shocks in order to preserve the straw in the best possible condition. Grain also brings a better price when this is done, and the Straw makes excellent feed, when it is well taken care of. Always save the cornstalks and do not let them weather out in the field. I always had plenty of feed for my stock which could not be readily turned into cash on the market. Thus my feed cost me very little.

We kept out stock in good healthy condition by cutting up red clover, pea hay, and well-preserved corn stocks, and feeding a little bran or shorts over it. They would eat this with great relish.

The farm is an intensely interesting place when you work it right. Children get interested in it if you give them some part, and let them have some of the proceeds. I was born and raised on a farm, as I have said before, and the farm has always been interesting to me. Many years afterwards I became interested in the manufacture of health foods. While I experimented extensively in raising food from the soil, I also experimented on a large scale in preparing food which would perfectly nourish the body. I have developed many nice foods and made palatable dished which are really healthful, invigorating and life-sustaining. I have a regular experimenting outfit and am continually working to develop food to meet the needs of every disease of the young and old. Although I have worked at different things during my lifetime, no work is more interesting to me than work on the farm and in the garden-to take some barren land and make it fertile, straightening out and cleaning up the corners, planting seeds, cultivating and seeing the plants grow and develop, continually adding new and better varieties, trying to produce as early a crop as possible, and then have a continual supply all season long of fresh garden products, and growing new varieties of flowers and enjoy the old-fashioned varieties that we used to have when we were children. When we were youngsters, and later on young men and women in my parents’ home, the farm was heaven on earth for us.

All the good things in the city do not equal the good things that my mother and my sisters would prepare. The big panfuls of baked apples with fresh cream over them, and a good piece of old-fashioned coffee cake made from whole-wheat flour. Show me a dish in the city nowadays that beats that. And a dish of clabbered milk that comes out of the icebox on a hot day. Leave the cream on the milk, grate some genuine rye bread over the top of it, together with a little cinnamon and sugar, and then a soup spoon to eat it with. What have you that could beat that? So very delicious and palatable you could practically live and work on it. Those days we made it of cow’s milk, but now we make it of soybean milk, which is far better. Also in those days we used cane sugar, but now we use malt sugar, which is infinitely better and like the juice in ripe fruits.

Then I often think about the wonderful dish of fruit soup which we relished so much, made of prunes, raisins, apricots, and various other fruits.

Another dish which we appreciated very much was new potatoes and peas. Mother would make some dumplings of whole wheat flour which we enjoyed better than any spaghetti that was on the market. Now we have soybean spaghetti which is still better.

Then when I think of those wonderful pieces of baked squash, which we always enjoyed so much, made of those hard squashes that we had to take an ax to split open, served with nice fresh butter, also parsnips, carrots, and vegetable oysters, cooked until nearly done and then put in the oven and baked with a little cream, my mouth waters.

When the strawberry season came on, those big dishes of dead-ripe strawberries fresh from the vines with a large piece of homemade coffee cake and some of that wonderful cream. Can you beat that in the city? The most of the strawberries sold in the city are picked too green and are almost worthless. They do not have that delicate flavor that they have when picked fresh and ripe from the vines. When fruit is picked fresh from the trees or vines, thoroughly ripened, it is without question an antidote for disease and premature death. Then when the cherries got ripe, oh! How we did enjoy climbing up in the trees and eating them.

We had three different varieties, red, which, and black ones. We liked the black ones best.

Then we had an abundance of currants also; red, white, and black. When the raspberries go ripe, of which we had an abundance in the garden and also in the woods, we used to pick them by the water-buckets full and make juice of them. This is infinitely better than any soft drink that you buy in the cities, and does not contain any harmful ingredients as they do.

Both the red raspberry leaves and the juice is a wonderful medicine. It will break up any kind of a fever. How we used to enjoy, when we were working out in the fields on a hot day, seeing Father or Mother coming with a big pitcher of raspberry juice, nice and cold. I do not believe there is anyone who goes to a counter for a soft drink that enjoys it like we enjoyed this. Sometimes they would come with a big pitcher of lemonade with fruit juice in it.

When we would pick the different berries, cherries, and currants my mother would allow us so much a quart, and then we would go down town on the Fourth of July and other special days, and mother would tell us how much she thought we should spend of the money we had. With most children nowadays, when they get hold of a little money, it burns in their pocket, and they are just seeking an opportunity to spend it for some knick-knack. Our great ambition was to try and see how big we could make our little pile so we could buy something worthwhile with it. I shall never forget when I was a little lad I had never had a jack-knife of my own, so I saved quite a little bit of money, and I wanted a jack-knife so much my mother told me I could buy one and tole me just about how much she thought I should spend for it. I bought the knife, and my mother said she thought I did very well. Many times during the day I would put my hand in my pocket and take it out and look at it.

It was intensely interesting for us youngsters on the farm as the years rolled around. There was always something to look forward to. When the harvest was gathered, we always enjoyed the thrashing and harvesting, as the neighbors helped one another and we always had a great time during the harvest season-plenty of good things to eat and all kinds of sports. The children had many innocent sports on the farm. We saw the circus man keep three or more apples inn the air at the same time and not let them fall to the ground, so, when we had spare time, we practiced it and got so we could keep four apples in the air without letting them fall to the ground. Both my younger brother and I were pretty good shots with the rifle. We would throw a bottle in the air, just as high as we could throw it, and when it bean to come down we would shoot at it and break it in the air. Sometimes we would have other sports. We would run and jump, until we got so we could jump over a fence as high as our heads. Then we would jump off something quite high down on a straw pile and make two somersaults before we would strike the straw.

There were no automobiles in those days, but we had nice horses. My father would let us ride them sometimes. We practiced until we could stand on them and gallop. There were so many interesting things that space will not permit me to mention them all, but suffice it to say that seed time was interesting-to watch the various things grow and have abundance of it on our own table. Harvest time was extremely interesting. Then we would get wood ready for the winter. Then there were times when there was not much to do and we would gather beechnuts, hazelnuts, and walnuts, then cranberries-and my sisters would make a fine cranberry jelly. We would make a barrel of sauerkraut and a barrel of string beans-these we sliced up and put up just about like sauerkraut. We made a big crock full of tomato jam. Now we make it without cane sugar.

In those days only seven to ten per cent of the people were in the cities, while now, there are some eighty percent of the people in the cities, cooped up in tenements and apartments. The shows, movies and pleasures people have in the cities are not wholesome. They are physically and mentally destructive. The pleasures which we had on the farm were of a different nature and would make real men and women out of the people. They were elevating and inspiring, instead of degrading and debasing. The pleasures of the city do not make noble men and women, good fathers and mothers, good husbands and wives or good citizens. On the farm you do not have to be afraid to go out into the dark, nor do you have to be afraid you will not have something to eat. It is a very small matter to arrange to have something to eat, even if there should be a drought. It is a very easy matter to can up enough to have enough to eat for two or three years. Then if there is a crop failure you would not go hungry. You should also have enough wheat, rye, and barley to last two season should there be a crop failure

Our place was often called “The Garden of Eden.” Both my mother and father were lovers of flowers, and we had various trees and hedges, and plenty of fruit at all times. We children were always interested, as we had never learned to run the streets in the cities at night. We had our different little sports evenings, then we would go to bed. Mother and Father always knew where we were at night. We never had that craving for money that young folks in the cities have, because they can never get enough to carryout all their plans and schemes which are so expensive nowadays.

Herbs

One of the most interesting things on the farm is herbs, both for food and as a medicine. When I was just a very small child, I used to gather red clover blossoms and our father would carry them in town to the postmaster who was afflicted with cancer. This was over sixty years ago, and I cannot remember particulars, but I do know that my father took red clover blossoms to him every year. The postmaster lived to be a very old man.

Then our groceryman had a daughter who was afflicted. What the trouble was I do not remember, But I very distinctly remember that we would gather the wintergreen, which grows very abundantly in that country, and my mother would take it to her. The outcome of that also I do not remember, as it was over a half a century ago.

I used to gather the mullein flowers and other herbs for an old doctor. We had what we called the draw-shave, a long narrow knife with two handles, on each end. We used to shave off the rough bark from the white ash trees, slippery elm, birch, wild cherry, willows, pines, poplars, and a number of other trees, and then after we had the outer rough bark off, we would shave off the inner fresh bark which contained the medical properties, and dry them so as to have them ready for use. I do not know what people used them for then, but I know perfectly well what I am using them for now, because I have been using them for many years and see wonderful results. I know from actual experience what they do for mankind.

Many of the things that occurred when I was a child are as vividly before my mind today as if it were only a short time ago.

INSERT PHOTO

Shown preceding is a regular sub-soiling plow, that can be used on ground that has not been plowed to sub-soil 18 inches deep, or less. Follow with this sub-soiler and another team in the furrow that has been made by the regular turning plow, to stir the ground deeper. If you do not have two teams, unhitch from the turning plow, to the sub-soiler.

Next is an attachment that can be used on a regular turning plow. It can be set so that it digs the dirt 4 to 6 inches deeper than the turning plow goes. A heavy team is necessary to use the attachment with the turning plow; if your team is not heavy put on more horses. Or if you have a tractor, it will draw the regular turning plow with the sub-soiler without any difficulty, and even two plows could be used.

This is a regular turning plow with a rolling, cutting coulter. If your plowing ground is covered with vines of any kind, or long hay or straw the plow cuts it in two, so that it will not drag in front of the plow.

The most effective way to work ground is to plow it 8 or 10 inches deep in the fall, and sub-soil it, then work it thoroughly with a disc harrow, and put a winter crop in, letting it grow until spring as much as it will, then plow it again crossways, turn under the winter crop, and sub-soil it crossways. The deep stirring of the ground in this way will give the moisture a chance to come up, and will also hold the moisture from rainfalls in the ground, and give the roots of your grains and corn a chance to go down deep.

People who have not already used this method will be surprised how it will increase the production of their grains or corn. I have raised a fine crop by this method when my neighbors had very little, or nothing. This is intensely interesting and profitable. Thoroughly pulverize your ground, because these fine roots cannot grow when there are hard clods of dirt, nor will they hold moisture.