Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1852-12-10
Agricultural improvements.

Agricultural improvements.
Never since the commencement Of our
editorial labors have We felt so much en-
tLu.iasm as during the past season. The
days of empiricism seem to be passing
away, and farmers now understand that .
knowledge of the components Of their soil,
and Of the crops they intend to raise, is
necessary 10 ensure an economical and pro-
ftable production. But few intelligent
farmers repudiate the use Of books; they
no longer believe that fact is less fact
because it is printed. Deep-plowing, sub.
soil plowine, UNDERMINING, and the i'm
proved methods Of planting special crops
subject to weeds, with others, which may
protect them, from such weedy growth,
from their sudden termination, and conse-
quent shading of the crop to be protected,
are all passing into general use.
Farmers now know that an cat and a
carrot crop may be raised from the same
piece of ground and in the same season
with less labor of wedding, than if raised
on two separate fields. An intelligent
farmer can scarcely be found, who does
not know that his soil may be decpsned
by gradually increasing the depth to which
he plows. All who have tried it are aware,
these who have not are more ready to be-
lievc, that deeply sub soiled lands never
suffer from drought. The fact that pro-
per rotation of crops is the true rest of the
soil, and that consequently falIows are un-
necessary, is no longer doubted by those
who are entitled to the name Of practical
farmers. Practical men (and by such, We
do not mean mere farm laborers who have
no knowledge beyond that necessary to en-
able them to handle farm tool know
that if soil be properly prepared, that grain
crops never lodge from weak straw-that
this, like every other fact in agriculture,
is subject to remedy. PRACTICAL men NO
longer find it necessary to move, because
their lands have ceased to be good wheat
lands. II such lands refuse that, or any
other crop, they know how to ascertain the
remedy required, and how to apply it. The
true value of farm-yard manures is becon.-
ing better understood, and those who un-
derstand the subject best will not apply
them alone, to soils requiring such amend
ments as are not to be found in baru-y yard
manures in notable or sufficient quantity.
Ii the soil is short Of any one of the con.
stituents of barn-yard manure, ard repletc
with the other eleven constituents. that
one constituent is now added, not by the
addition Of barn-yard manure, and ccnse-
quent waste Of eleyen-twelfths of its value,
but by directly offering to the soil tic mis-
sing ingredient. Thousands Of acres tha.
have been considered as unwheat-worthv,
have been prepared and planted with that
crop daring the last year, and with results
entirely satisfactory to the operators. If
the letters We are receiving from farmers
this year, should be compared with those
We received Eve years ago, they would be
found to give evidence Of more study more
correct knowledge, and greater degree Of
self reliance.
The more intelligent class of agrieultu-
rists refuse to entertain a recipe proposing
effects desired, but without any attempt to
explain the cause Of action Indeed agri-
culture is no longer an art alone, but is
fairly entitled to the name of a science !;
free from mystery aud easily to be under
stood. In those districts where we first Ia.
bored as lecturer, We row have friends
by the score; men who have been induced
to study agriculture as they would study
any other science; and who repudir,e en-
plricism as they would quackery.
Ca,tle-breeders view cattle as organisms,
the composition of which must be studied,
and the requirements of which must be
furnished to them in such relative proper.
tions to each other as will produce the bes.
and most profitable results. Farmers know
that an animal can not become strong and
fine bened, if fed on crops raised from soils
deficient of the very mineral substances
which go to form bones, and they, there
fore, add such constituents to the soil as
viii supply this desideratum. Working
and fattin. cattle are no longer considered
as entitled to the same class Of food. but
each receives that which will 90 to form
the desired result. The mich cow, too,
is fed with strict view to the production
Of milk and those materials of which milk
is composed, are resident in the food Sc.
lected to produce it. In fine, farmers are
rapidly learning that, like mechanics, thew
must possess, on their farms, the raw M,
terials from wich the manufactured articles
desired arc to be created.-EI. Worh;,,
Farmer.