The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1842-06-25

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
| IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT
MANURE.
| The first care of man, who devotes his capital
| IN obtaining productions Of the earth, is that the
earth should have iecundity, that is to say,
that il should be fit for the production Of
! plants
Plants, like animals, are beings who have life,
| who are possessed of organs and vessels, in
which crcuates fluid, and which, aided by an
appropriate nourishment, develope an organic
! mass in given time.
Of two kinds of earth the most fruitful will
| be that, which in the same time will have pro-
| duced the most considerable weight of organic
mass, reduced to dry state and the production
will be as much more advantageous 10 the cul-
tivator, as it will be sought for and OF higher
| price.
Plants to accomplish their life, to arrive to
! the state of being organic, have absolutely need
! of manure, the result of the decomposition Of
other vegetable or animal organic matter spread
upon the surface of the earth An organic body
can be born only Of the elements Of organic sub
stances.
These matters most generally of a vegetable
nature, have been also Of plants, and have owed
being obtained, to cultivation; therefore it is
truth to say, that to obtain Of the earth produce
tons Of certain weight, it is necessary, previ-
ously to dispose in its bosom the remains OF other
plants having had life ALSO and often it happens,
that the weight of the matter to be converted in
to manure ought to be equal to that of the plant
to be obtained in other terms, when one wishes
to obtain from IL field, which has no trace IMAM
urc, a production of given weight 1t is necessary
TO carry and place in this field other organic mat
ters, produced elsewhere, and of equal weight;
and if this obtained production is carried entirely
out Of the field and sold it will be necessary, if
one wishes to obtain Of it still Il like production,
to carry arain into this field the same weight of
organic matter obtained by cultivation upon ano-
thei field.
Al manure put into the earth ought to be in
u state of humus, soluble in water, so that the
Juices of plants can seize upon it and appropriate
it to themselves. Manure consists OF all the ele-
nicnts of vegetable matter. As soon II is So
luble, the roots absorb it and communicate it to
the interior organs Of the plant which secrctes it
in the parts OF which it has need to devclopc it.
self
Thus tho more piece ofland is mixed with So
lublc manure, the more it produces plants and
vegetable qualifications; only the consumption OF
the manure is not the same
There are plants, which, although imparting
to the earth part of their nourishment by the
means, of their roots SINK into the earth, appro-
pirate to themselves also great quantity OF the
atmospheric substances by means OF their leaves.
their eral roots, and have, besides, this great adj
vantage that even when they carried out of
the field, they have there still, by means Of their
stubble, and of their numerous i1cshy roots, as
much, and fometimes more, organic matter
than they havs consumed for .h1ir growth
If one leaves them IN the field, and
covers, it sometimes happens, the entire
body of the plant in the earth, they recover the
juices that it has furnished, and will give more in
equivalent richness of nutritve principles than
the hidden plants had drawn from the atmos
plere.
1t is owing to this admirable property of GER
tain plants 10 produce moro matter than they
absorb of humus from the EARTH that it is possible
to maintain the fertility of piece of GROUND in
rendering to it only part ofthat which it has
Produced that is to say, in directing a por-
ton to indemnify itself Of its expense and trou-
bic.
If plants live only by the hu mus spread upon
the earth, we should be obliged TO replace the
production which VIC have not converted into
manure, by proportionatc quantity Of vegeta-
bles cultivated in another piece of land; and if it
was thus, the strength of vegetation would d.
mnsh little by little, and the money consc-
Grated to the cultivation of the soil would be
lost.
Some plants, with large leaves, which do not
appertain to the leguminous family, have some of
their properties, those which deprive the soil OF
| less of the humus than it contains, and impart
more new humus by their remains, are those
which possess these properties i'll the highest de-
| gree.
We can now divide the plants into four class
cs, with respect to the more less influence
| which they have over the nutrtive juices Of the
| earth. First, those which exhaust much; second
those which exhaust the least; third, those which
enrich much; fourth, those which enrich the
| least.
| Plants which require much manure, occupying
the earth more than year sometimes, and not
absolutely rendering anything TO the soil for that
which they have drawn from it, are eminently
! weakening.
| Plants which have not all these effects are
weakening,in less degree. To the class the most
weakening, belong hops, madden, hemp, poppy,
flax, nursery plants, and colsa.
| To the class of plants which weaken in less
degree, belong cabbages, turnips, red beets. po-
| tatoes cereaes Of autumn cereales of spring
Wheat weakens less than rye barley weakens
as much as rye; oats weaken as much as wheat,
at an equal weight. But there is this difference
between grain Of autumn and that of spring, that
the first, besides weakening, wastes the soil as |
| shall have occasion to say hereafter.
Let US speakof plantsnow which weaken the earth
which absorb ITS nourishng juices, or which res
tore them to it; let us speak furthermore, ofthose
which waste, or improve, the intimate compost
/, ton of the earth. 1t is necessary to seize upon
| this distinction, between these two different ef-
fleets, produced by plants upon the soil, There