The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1853-08-24
From The Farmers JournaL
Farmers, do not turn your Stock upon
your Fields.

- mas ucch very common pfhCllCe
among the farmers Of this State, after
gathering the crops from their fields.
to turn their stock upon them and let
them eat the stalks and vines. There
has. in our opinion. been nothing that
has SO much condnced TO the general
exhaustion of our lands as this practice.
although We have been very often told
by farmers that they regarded it q.
farm economy. All writer's upon Ag-
ricultural Chemistry readily admit that
the stalks and vines Of plants must be
left upon the field, in order that. by
their decomposition, they may return
to the soil the elements for the repro-
duction Of succeeding crops. The va
rious plants we cultivate are composed
of elements, a part Of which are mine
raj and part vegetable. and the mine.
raj must necessarily be afforded to the
plant by the soil. Now. is it not very
plain to be seen, that if year after year
these mineral elements are taken away
from the soil, without leaving any
means for a re-supply. that in few
years the soil in which they once ex-
listed will be deficient in them |? A
very large quantity, it is true, are car
ried away in the crop; but il, in addi
tion TO this, the stalk and vine are
consumed BY stock, from what source
can the soil obtain them again, unless
they be supplied in the form Of manuref
Our readers will recollect that in the
last number Of our paper we answered
a question submitted BY a farmer from
Green county, in which We ventured
to account for the failure Of the pea
crop upon land that formerly was well
adapted to the cultivation Of the pea.
This exhaustion had no doubt been
caused by this very practice Of turning
stock upon the fields in the fall, as fars
mers say, " to eat the peas, and there's
By save them from wasting" In the
vine Or stalk Of the pea is contained
twenty y-se,en per cent. Of the carbonate
of lime; and these being consumed
year after year by cattle, horses, and
hogs. it is but reasonable TO suppose
that the land would fail to produce the
pea luxuriantly. The exhaustion Of
land by this practice cannot be per-
ceived very readily in the beginning.
and hence the continuation OF it; but
every farmer may rest assured that he
rs sustaining a very great damage by
continuing the practice. Let US now
look into the saving that is SO general.
lily believed to be caused by turning
stock upon the fields. Practical de.
monstration has proved the fact, that
by giving proper attention to any kind
OF stock IN the way Of furnishing ma
terials for making and saving manure.
that the food consumed will be- paid for
in the return made BY the manure to
the land. Ii this be true, and we do
not doubt it in the least, the practice
of suffering stock to run at large upon
fields must be bad one indeed. 1t is
true that hogs turned upon field in
the fall upon which peas have been
sown, will become fat but the manure
from them may be said to be almost
lost, for it is deposited in every direc.
ton and upon the surface Of the land,
and volatile properties, by far the most
important, are scattered " to the four
winds" As We said before, the hog
improves at the expense of the land,
which is greatly injured, and without
the application of manure, will fail to
produce. Ii the hog were kept up in
close pen, and the proper attention
paid to the collecting of materials for
/ making manure, the land might be
much improved by the application Of
this manure, and not as in tn, other
case, at the expense Of the hog. The
farmer would find it much to his inte-
rest to keep every kind of stock from
his fields, aud thereby leave upon them
the materials for the reproduction ol
other crops.