Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1855-02-16
THE FARM;
The 2Qrden...The Orchard.
4 View of American Agriculture.

ChAkIkh
BIZ phat Processes he Earth is impoverished.
There are three principal ways in which
the natural fruitfulness Of the earth may
be seriously impaired.
l. BY removing its natural products: as
when prairie is annually mown for . Sc
ries of years, and all the hay removed, and
no manure or other fertilizer returned. In
Europe, where forest culture is practiced,
experience has shown that to remove the
leaves that annually fall upon the ground
to 70. and form mould over the roots Of
trees, is sure to impoverish the land and
injure its valuable products. These leaves,
as we'll as prairie grass, contain both
earthly minerals called Inorganic matter,
and combustibls elements usually designat-
ed BY the term organic matter. In burn
ing over prai sies, the latter portion Of the
plants consumed is alone removed from
the soil; their ashes remain on the
ground where the plants grew. Pastures
are deteriorated by The loss Of the grass
carried OF in the stomachs of domestic ami
mails.
2. Soils are impoverished BY tillago
without cropping, or removing any plant
whatever. No fact in agriculture is more
important than this: All tiliage is purely
an artificial and withal most Unnatural
operation. Nature never ploughs, nor
hoes the earth to promote the growth Of
vegetation. Her highest ptoductiveness
is the result of laws, which every farmer
should carefully study and learn to follow,
in the renovation Of cultivated fields.
Although all tillagc is mechanical pro-
cess, yet it's effects are both chemical and
physical on the soil. So far as the chemi.
cal results Of tillaee are concerned, they
are quite independent Of all crops and 9TH
er plants. 1t is not SO easy task as some
may suppose to explain, in q few plain
words, the several changes wrought in the
mould and inorganic part Of soils, by the
plough, spade, and hoe. The mechanical
and physical effects of tillage are very OBJ
vious to every cultivatot The earth is
mello,red-renGered exceedingly porous
and admirably fitted not only to absorb At.
..sspheric air, and all gaseous bodies, but
to condense them in the inumerable pores
of the friable mass. The same causes
which increase the fertility Of . fallowed
field exhaust the soil, if long continued,
although no crop should be grown upon it.
If, however, 4 crop Of weeds, grass, peas,
or clover be grown and allowed to die and
rot on the ground or be ploughed In, the
soil will be enriched by the operation.
But if field be annually ploughed and
hoed, as for crop Of corn, tobacco, cotton,
or sugar-cans for twenty-five years, and no
plant whatever be allowed to grow on its
surface, tho mechanical and chemical
changes, associated a they must Be- with
the teachings and washings Of inuumsrsble
rains, would result in removing from the
surfa,s Of the earth nearly or quite al Of
its vegetable mould and the soluble mine
raj food Of plants. To test this principle
in nature, suppose farmer were to apply
twenty Eve loads Of we'll rosted stable ma
nurs upon an acre Of land, and plough,
harrow, and hoo the ground twenty-five
years, % for crops Of corn or cotton, but
plant nothing and permit neither srass nor
weeds 10 grow thereon. Would any Of
tho dissolved elements Of this manure 70.
main ths. length Of time in tbs 'vrf'es