Application of fertilizers

Fertilizer must be put into the seed-bed, where it will do most good to the young plant as it grows. This is done in two ways: a) fertilizer is spread on the seed-bed before the seed is sown and usually harrowed in; b) fertilizer is put in at the same time as the seed and usually near to it in the soil. Top-dressing means putting a fertilizer onto a growing crop. It is commonly done with nitrogen fertilizers on growing grain crops such as a spring dressing of sulphate of ammonia for a crop of winter wheat. If the nitrogen had been applied in seed-bed, most of it would be washed out during the winter. Lime and plant foods in fertilizers are not all used up in the year they are applied to the land. Some of the value is left over for a year or more and helps later crops.

WHEAT.

Wheat-growing was extensively practiced throughout Europe in prehistoric times and this cereal was of great importance in the ancient civilizations of Persia, Greece and Egypt. It spread to all the temperate countries where it now plays a major part in the food supply of many nations and it is also widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas.

Cultivation. It is often said that winter wheat does best on a well-formed seed-bed. Ploughing should be done as early as possible and the normal depth would be in the region of 6 inches. The type of seed-bed required for winter wheat can be described as one with a reasonable tilth in the top 2-3 inches, with a surface containing a high proportion of clods the largest of these being about the size of a man's hand. This is to prevent capping, a condition which can easily arise with heavy rain, when the soil surface runs together forming a crust.

Manuring. With all crops it is essential to ensure that adequate supplies of phosphate and potash are available dur­ing the first few weeks of growth. Once observed it is not possible to correct properly any deficiency and both of these major elements are required either in advance of drilling or they may be combine-drilled with the seed. Combine-dril­ling is the most economical way of applying these fertilizers, but with winter wheat time of sowing being of prime impor­tance, the faster method of application using fertilizer spin­ners is more often preferred. For average conditions 30 units (one unit is equal to 1.12 lb. and is the same as 1% on anal­ysis) each of phosphate and potash will be sufficient. If the soil is rich in nitrogen, then 30 units/acre of fertilizer nitro­gen would suffice, but under average conditions levels up to 60 units are considered economic rising to 80 units in the low rainfall areas. Previous cropping, local environment and to some extent cultural techniques can also influence the opti­mum level of this nutrient. When the soil is likely to supply some nitrogen for early growth of a winter crop, then it is unlikely that any autumn fertilizer nitrogen would be re­quired.

The short, stiff-strawed varieties of wheat can stand high levels of fertilizer nitrogen whereas the taller one used to produce quality straw will only tolerate moderate amounts. Of all the cereals winter wheat will give the highest response on this fertilizer and to obtain the best return the proper dres­sing should be applied at the correct time.

As far as spring wheat is concerned up to 60 units of ni­trogen can be economic. It should be applied prior to drilling or combine-drilled with the seed.

Seeding Rates. The amount of seed required for autumn wheat will vary between 1 and 2.5 cwt/acre. Early sowing need the least since the temperature for germination are higher than those later on and a larger number of the seeds produce plants.

Harvest. Winter wheat is normally harvested from August to October (in Britain), depending on the type of summer experienced and also the geographical location. Spring wheat matures much later than winter wheat and later than the cereals.

Following a hot, dry summer grain may be combine-harvested under very good conditions; and if the moisture does exceed 14% then it can be stored without drying. Moisture can be carried out at harvest and these are often used to indicate the stage of ripeness or readiness for combining.

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ.

1. Определите, к каким частям речи относятся следующие слова и переведите их без словаря: 1) extent, extensive, extensively, to extend; 2) to supply; supply, supplying, supplied, sypplier; 3) content, to, containing, container; 4) to form, the form, forming, formation, formless; 5) deficient, deficiency; dry, to dry out, dryer, dryness

2. Заполните пропуски в предложениях соответствующими словами из текста:

The time and method of... the land for wheat depends principally on the... that is followed by it. Unless the rain­fall is high it is desirable to have the land prepared... of seed­ing to permit settling of the... and accumulation of.... When the land is to be plowed after a small grain there should be a month... plowing and seeding.

3. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

Why should there be some proportion of clods on the soil surface? 2. How may fertilizers be applied? 3. Why are moisture tests carried out? 4. When is wheat ready for com­bine-harvesting and for binding?

4.Прочтите без словаря следующий текст и скажите, какова его основная мысль.

Seed-bed preparation is the most expensive and one of the most important phases in wheat production. The basic aim is to make the soil favourable for sprouting the seed and growing the plant. Timely and proper tillage is more important than the type of farm machines used. Where rainfall is limit­ed, the seed-bed should be prepared so as to retain as much soil moisture as possible. In areas where rainfall is more lib­eral development of nitrates is more important than the con­servation of moisture.

MAIZE.

Types of Maize. Several thousand varieties of maize are now grown throughout the world and most of these can be allocated to one of the seven most important groups: dent maize, flint maize, sweet corn, soft maize, popcorn, waxy maize, pod maize.

Soil Requirements. Successful maize cultivation is more fluently and more easily achieved on soils which are of me-Ti texture. As the soils become lighter the greater is the chanсе of their "drying out" in midsummer and although there really nothing else against them, the very light sandy s should be avoided.

Having suggested light to medium textured soils for maize, lust also be stressed that organic status and fertility should be high.

The maize land should be free draining in order that as much of the heat as possible is employed in raising soil temperatures and not removing excess of soil moisture. The soil should be naturally free draining to enable a full rooting system to develop in a plentiful supply of oxygen. Maximum yields are believed to be obtained between 4 and 9. Some scientists believe maize to be successfully cultivated on the moderately acid soils (pH 6-7 as optimal). Others say that maize growing can be successful under alkaline conditions provided there are no serious deficiencies of micro-nutrients.

Application of Fertilizers. It has been suggested that phosphate and potash should be applied to the land well in advance of drilling and the nitrogen incorporated into the seed-just prior to drilling, otherwise much of it would be lost by leaching.

One should remember that germination is much retarded fertilizers in contact with the seed. Cultivation. With a more extensive and deeper rooting system than the other cereals, maize will require deeper plough-cultivations and seed-beds to obtain maximum growth. Autumn ploughing is advisable on stronger soils and it may be left until the early spring when textures are light. Cultivations which follow should be to a depth of 4-5 inches. They kill the weeds after germination; inter-row cultivation follow crop emergence to obtain further weed control. Chemical means are often preferred. Seed-beds should be uniform and fine to obtain a quick germination and to assist the action of herbicides in their control of weeds.

Seeding. Minimum temperatures for growth of maize are id 50°F (10°C) and thus early spring sowings are of little value except when the soils are warmer than usual.

When the average t° is over 50 F the emergence of maize take approximately two weeks. Late spring frosts can also be damaging to seedling maize although with the cold tolerant varieties being introduced there is every chance that this crop may now survive the first few degrees of frost.

Sunshine and Solar Energy. Little is said and written about sunshine and solar energy reguirements with this cere­al. It is, however, assumed that for satisfactory growth and ripening of the crop high levels of bright sunshine are re­quired.

Maize is quite unique in its mode of growth and extent and duration of its leaves. They grow in a manner which fa­cilitates efficient use of radiant energy by trapping most of the sun's rays and since the duration of full leaf extends al­most to grain maturity, the sun's energy can be transferred to grain yield throughout the whole life of the plant. A point close to optimum leaf area is obtained early and maintained almost to grain maturity thus making maize one of the most efficient utilizers and converters of solar energy into plant energy particularly when the whole plant is considered as the economic yield.

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ.

1. Заполните пропуски в предложениях соответствующими словами из текста:1.When there is not enough potassium in the soil, we say the soil is... in potassium. 2.... is the process which removes excess of soil moisture. 3. Best yields of maize are achieved on soils of medium... and high.... 4. Nitrogen fer­tilizer should be... into the soil, otherwise much of it will be lost by.... 5. Cultivations and... help to control.... 6. The average temperature for the... of maize is over fifty de­grees F.

2. Определите, какие предложения не соответствуют со­держанию текста, и внесите необходимые исправ­ления:

1).It's advisable that nitrogen be applied much before plow­ing. 2).They recommend that maize land should be free drain­ing. 3). It's necessary that the students know the different va­rieties. 4). It is not desirable that maize be planted in warm soil. 5). Chemical means are seldom used in weed control. 6). To obtain quick germination the seed-bed must be fine.

3. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1.Why should soils of medium texture be preferred? 2.What are the opinions about soil pH for maize? 3. How are seeds controlled? 4. Can maize survive any degree of frost? Why do you think so? 5. How does it happen that the leaves maize use solar energy efficiently?

4. Прочтите без словаря следующий текст и расскажите, как вносятся удобрения:

Maize can be fertilized at three different times. A corrective broadcast application is done before plowing. Soil deficiencies are corrected with large amounts of fertilizers. A starter fertilizer is applied with the planting equipment, e purpose of this application is to aid a small maize plant get a more rapid start. It is best to place fertilizer about 1 inch below and 2 inches at the side of the seed. When maize follows a good legume crop no additional nitrogen may be required. But when maize follows maize additional nitrogen is usually needed. This may be applied before crop is planted or between the rows until the crop is 15 18 inches tall.

OATS.

Soil. The cultivation of oats may take place on a wide range of soil types with a reasonable degree of success. Oats can be found on all the light to medium soils in the higher rainfall areas and will give high yielding crops of good quality can also produce good crops on some of the heavier, clay and silts, in the drier areas of Britain where there significant moisture reserves in the soil which can be drawn upon during a particularly dry time.

It is true that oats will grow well where barley will fail completely and wheat produces only moderate crops but extreme acidity even with oats cannot be tolerated.

Climate. The oat crop is particularly suited to the cooler, humid climate of the western and northern regions of in where growth is relatively slow and as a result the grains have plenty of time to fill out to produce good plump samples.

Oat crops which do not suffer through lack of moisture will produce high grain yields of good quality and on the average the straw will weigh slightly more than the grain. Most of the world's oats are supposed to be produced at elevations below 2,000 feet and probably half below 1,000 feet.

Seed-bed Preparation. Oats are said to be the best cereal to follow the ploughing up of grassland but this is only true if the grass is turned in timely and well, the furrow slice be­ing properly inverted and no large air pockets left which tend to accentuate drying out.

Ploughing depths should be 6 inches except where grass or surface trash need to be buried deeper and then 8-9 inch­es plough depths may be required. Where early ploughing has been carried out it is often only necessary to give the land a light-medium harrowing to obtain the desired tilth in the top 3 inches of the soil.

Drilling. Optimum drilling depth with oats lies in region of 1.5-2 inches. When seed-beds have an irregular surface tilth, drilling depth becomes uneven and in order to ensure that all the seed is covered, it will often go in well below the optimum in many areas and this will be responsible for patchy stands.

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ

1.Напишите 5 вопросов к тексту, которые смогут служить планом пересказа текста.

2.Опишите устно методы посева и методы уборки урожая.

3. Прочтите без словаря следующий текст и ответьте на

вопрос: «Какие удобрения должны использоваться под овес?»

The fertilizer of the oat crop will depend upon the fertil­ity level of the soil and the fertilization programme followed on the preceding crops. It is a common practice to fertilize the preceding crop, such as corn, rather heavily and then re­duce the amount applied on the oats crop. To soils that are low in fertility, additional fertilizer should be applied. The amount of fertilizer to be used should be determined by soil test.

When oats are planted on soils of a low fertility level, a complete fertilizer such as 5-20-20 may be used. The appli­cation of nitrogen should be considered on soils low in organ­ic matter. Avoid the application of too much nitrogen since it may cause lodging.

When a legume such as alfalfa is seeded with oats, addi­tional potash may be required for the legume seeding.

Unless the soil is exceedingly low in fertility, the direct application of barn-yard manure to oats is rarely advisable.

BARLEY.

1. The first requirement in the production of any crop is to see that soil conditions are as close to the optimum as pos­sible. Barley prefers well-drained soils, light to medium in texture with a high pH. When fertility is high and weather conditions are favourable high yielding crops of good qual­ity are obtained. When pH values are recorded below 6.0, it would be wise to lime specifically for this crop and it should be worked into the topsoil in advance of sowing. Since the grain yield with barley is likely to be higher than with oats and due to its better feeding value, it has replaced the traditi­onal oat crop on many dairy farms in Britain. As long as the drilling in the autumn tends to be at slightly lower depths than in the spring on account of the rougher soil surface which is purposely left to reduce the dangers of surface capping. Early spring drilling may also go in deeper than normal in an attempt to reduce losses through bird activity.

The two main advantages of combine drilling are firstly, the seed and fertilizer go on in one operation and secondly, it is possible to obtain maximum benefit from the minimum amount of fertilizer, notably the phosphate and potash content. The main disadvantage lies in the fact that the rate of sowing is much reduced and since delays in drilling usually mean low­er yields the faster method of seeding using a wide drill following a fertilizer spinner is more often employed for win­ter seeding.

Harvest. It has been pointed out that for straw to have additional feeding value the crop should be cut early and this will mean hindering one or two weeks before full ripeness. Very tall crops may be cut earlier than usual to make the har­vesting easier and to avoid risks of late lodging and this will also apply to crops which have been undersown. Quick maturing varieties will often be cut before the rest to avoid grain losses and lodging. Some people suppose the best time to cut a good standing crop of oats is a few days before it is fully ripe. As long as the pH is over 6 and the soil is in reasonable conditions, there is 10 reason why this crop cannot be grown on most soils in Britain, one notable exception being the wet soils associated with upland conditions.

2. When barley is grown in the wetter areas of Britain, it does best when the rainfall is below normal and when sunshine hours are higher than usual. Kramer reviewed the effect of climate on this crop through data from Zealand. Their results suggest that low rainfall in April and early May and cool weather in May, is required for high yields. High rainfall in the previous winter appeared detrimental and warm weather was required during ripening.

3. Winter barley is often sown after early harvested sugar beet on the lighter soils, since seed-beds can often be easily and quickly prepared for sowing in October and November. With large acreage of arable land in cereals, many crops of inter barley will go in after spring cereals, but it would be wise to grow winter barley following winter barley due to the increased disease risks involved. Spring barley may follow almost any other crop provided the land is not in too high state of fertility otherwise wide-spread lodging can result. Under systems of cereal monoculture or close cereal cropping spring barley is the most commonly chosen crop since it appears least affected by disease. Although a yield depression has nearly always been recorded with intensive cereal growing, it has been the least with spring barley and with such a short growing season cultural weed-control, disease control, timely ploughing and cultivation can easily be achieved. It will be noted that where adequate mineral fertilizers are returned to the land or via the application of farmyard manure, the yield of barley can easily be maintained and in most cases it is likely to greatly exceed that recorded at the beginning of the experiment. Results from a twelve-year continuous barley cropping experiment reported by Mundy suggested that yields can be maintained by the application of 75-100 units of nitrogen and although pests and diseases are not serious, perennial grass weeds appeared the greatest hazard to a continuous cereal farming system.

4. There is no conflict between yield and quality where feeding barleys are concerned since a high protein content in grain is desirable and reasonable quantities of fertilizer nitrogen will be required to obtain good yields. Winter barleys require a little nitrogen in the seed-bed when the contribution from the soil is negligible or very small and the phosphate and potash must always be applied before or at seeding to obtain a full and vigorous stand. The majority of the nitro­gen should be applied as a top dressing in the spring. In re­spect of the spring sown crop, under most circumstances all the fertilizer should be applied before or at the time of sowing. The growing season is so short that all the nutrients need to be close at hand immediately following germination so that growth can go ahead unimpeded. However, where large quan­tities of N are required, it may be necessary to split the ni­trogen dressing, half going on with the seed and half to be ap­plied as an early top-dressing. Where the farmers are in doubt about the capabilities of their land, then it will often pay to apply the average levels of phosphate and potash to the barley and half of the nitrogen. Once the crop is well es­tablished, it will be evident if more nitrogen is required and the deficiency can be rectified by a timely top-dressing.

5. For winter barley ploughing will normally take place in September or immediately following the harvest of the prev­ious crop wherever possible earlier turning of the soil being reco­mmended. Where stubble from the previous crop is to be turned in together with weed-seedlings which have germinated as a result of stubble-cleaning, then it may be necessary to plough to a depth of six inches. Barley is a relatively shallow-rooting cereal and without a great deal of material (to be buried) to be turned over the depth of ploughing might well be reduced to four inches. Where close cereal cropping is practised, it is often advisable to vary the ploughing depth to something below the normal once in three years, in order to avoid the build-up of the conditions known as a plough-pan.

Medium to heavy soils should be ploughed early before the turn of the year in order that the weather, especially the ac­tion of snow and frost, may play its part in producing a fine seed-bed. Early ploughing on the light soils may also be use­ful in easing the burden of spring work, however it is not es­sential and spring ploughing will often do just as well.

Cultivation or heavy harrowing will follow to the lowest depths required and where perennial weeds are present, special equipment may be brought into use to remove them at this stage. Medium to light harrowing just prior to drilling will normally be required to produce a fine seed-bed in the top 2 inches of the soil. The object in seed-bed preparation is to produce the right degree of tilth with the minimum oper­ations and soil moisture conservation in many areas must always be kept in mind.

УПРАЖНЕНИЯ

1.Найдите в тексте синонимы следующих слов:

to influence, thanks to, preceding, to reach, to keep up, most, lack, appearance, clear, implements, if.

2.Озаглавьте каждый абзац текста и составьте план пересказа текста.

3.Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

What is the first requirement in production of any crop?

When is winter barley often sown?

What is the optimum drilling in the region?