The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1854-10-11
Prom the Sail cfrss south.
IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS.


Ma. Ep,ros os.--Ifthr farmersof Gear
gia would get themselves into sys-
tenn of business. by which their fields
could be kept in course Of constant
improvement. instead of deterioration.
they would never think of relinquish-
ing the comforts Of a well appointed
hume. a salnbrioas climate and the adj
sauiages Of cultivated society. for the
richest land in Texas. Arkansas Or Me-
braska. In large part Of this State.
the FIRST settlers found the soil as fer
tile as they desired, but fifty % one
hundred crops have greatly impaired
their capacity for production. and on
many fields rle cost of Cropping can
no longer be renunerated. The same
insane management will barrcnlzc the
most fertile plains on the face Of the
earih--it has greatly reduced prnduc-
tion in Alabama, Mississippi. Tennes-
see and Kentucky. though hcomparative-
ly of recent settlement and abouniling
in lime. II is asserted that the lands
Of Eastern New York. Pennsylvania
aud New Jersey some fifty or sixty
wears ago. we're as sadly impoverished
by injudiciaus cropping, as any now
IN the midland counties Of Georgia.
But in these Northern States. course
of systematic improvement has since
been prosecuted, until fields are made
to exceed their pristine fertility. aud
command prices, when sold, a hundred
times that which might have bought
them in their state OF impoverishment.
The writer Of this article, was thisty
years ago assured by an old revolution.
ary soldier, a native o New York.
and gentleman of undoubted veracity,
that during the winter that General
Washington's distressed army spent at
Voley Forge, within about twenty miles
Of the city Of New York, the whole
country IN that region had been aban-
doned by its former inhabitants, be-
cause lin the phrase Of our own people,
the land was warn out He stated that
thousands of farms between the Hud-
son aud the Delaware, could at that
time have been bought for less than a
dollar an acre. What is the present
condition Of that country! Nut an
extended waste, as then, but densely
populated BY thrifty and happy yeo-
inanry, whose farms yield heavy sur
pluses of grain. grass, beef, and NUT
ton, and readily command, when sold,
prices ranging from seventy Ave to
two hundred ,lolars an acre some OF
them more.
How has this change been effected ?
By preserving an intelligent course Of
husban,lry, By applying the sweepings
of the farm yard, aud other putrescent
and mineral manures but above all,
by the use of the clover plant and 9TH
er vegetable productions, seasonably
turned under the surface, they decom-
pose aid form new mould. The clo-
Yer plant seems 10 be the chief reliance
in all the Northern and Northwestern
States for restoring exhausted fields.
Bat the cluser, ii is said, will not thrive
in the midland counties Of Georgia
it may be so, ar not so--certainly !
have heard of no ane in this State TAX
ing half the pains to grow IL which It
has cost the faFmersof New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. A great portion Of those
States are rs destitute Of lime and gyp-
sum as the midlands Of Georgia, and
were, believe, originally less fertile.
But admitting the want OF lime and
the duration of our hot season, to be
adverse to the growth of clover, cannot
other plants be substituted with equal
or better eaecti Nothing is, think.
more certain. il you can pre,estabish
a determination among our cultlvators
to make fair and perseyering expert
ments. Red clover has no specific
adaptation to the improvement Of worn
lands-any other plant that will shade
the ground as well and produce the
mass Of vegetable matter to be plough
ed in, will be found quite MS valuable.
1t is stated in certain communications
to the commissioner of the Patent Office,
that in Ohio, Kentucky and other
States, oats are sown, not to be reaped
and carried iuto barns, "but to be hog
ged off, to use their tcchnic--that is,
to be eaten off by the hogs Of the farm,
and in the fall, when the straw is well
tranped BY these quadrupeds. SO much
priced among Christians, and the grass
has attained maturity. the whole to be
turned into the soil by good deep
ploughing.
! Some farmers have suSsi broadcast,