Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1855-03-02

harvest. BY pursuing the Belgian system
few years, the fertility of Virginia soils
would be three-fol greater than it now is.
The State could then spare more breadstris
and tobacco than it now does without iu-
jury to the land A rich man can spend
more money from his large income than
poor man spend from small one, and not
become bankrupt. (2)
All business men occasionally take an
account Of stock all manufacturers esti-
mate the value Of the raw material con-
sumcd in the course OF year's operations
but the manufacturers Of agricultural stap-
les. The latter seem tp thiuk that nature
forms sixty bushels Of corn or thirty Of
wheat from nothing. If this were;rue, all
soils should be alike productive and manure
Of no value. THIS is not the fact; and
the production of good manure is an in
dispensable part of good husbandry. Hence
the keeping Of domestic animals can never
be dispensed with to a,!van,age, till the
human family reach density of popula-
ton of about one person to half acre.
After that, an animal belonging to the
genus hono (man) will furnish all ncediul
fertilizers. With all our pride, we should
remember that we are but 'dust."
To show the capacity of arabic land to
produce breadstuffs, aud not attempt to
reach the eex,reme limits which is unknown,
it is enough to say that our climate Is
equal to the yield of thirty bushels Of
wheat and eighty Of corn per acre, provid-
ed the plants are properly fed How should
farmer feed corn plants on his soil which
is equal to the production of fifteen bush
els per acre, so that the same will, in the
course of few years, grow crops five times
larger?
To do this without. going of the field
for fertilizers is the end to be attained
Without now going into the details of corn
culture, which will be discussed under its
appropriate head, it may be stated that, if
all the stalks, blades, cobs, and corn in the
shape of manure, or the stalks and cobs
rotted without being consumed and the
corn eaten to furnish manure, be annually
restored to the land, it will increase rapid
ly in productiveness. Allowing one busbel
to-p!ant five acres, the one fifth Of q bush
ell of seed placed in the soil will receive the
fertilizers derived from fifteen bushel. Of
corn in the previous crop. At this rate, it
is plain that the vital germ in each seed
will have the benefit not only Of all the
nutritive matter stored up in that particu-
lar seed, but what is contained in seventy
FIVE other seeds that formed the manure.
Nothing is more obvious than the fact
that the aliment in a seed, whether Of cot
ton, wheat, or corn, nourishes the germ Of
the growing plant, more than it wonld
without such aid
These more numerous and more extend
ed rad;cles enable the plant to imbibe food
from a greater depth and from wider and
broader surface than it could otherwise
comman1. Nov, if we assume that the
stalks, cobs, and corn of the previous crop
of fifteen bushels are able to produce as
much matter second time, it will be seen
that the second crop has double advan-
tage over the first. Whatever may be the
positive gain, the farmer has only to re-
peat the operation, as is lone in Flanders
to bring up his soil to the production of
very large crops Of corn. 1t is true that
one hundred pounds of fool Of any kind
eaten by an animal yield generally ouly
about forty pounds of dry cxcretions; near
ly sixty per cent. being discharged from
the system through the lungs by constant
respiration, and little by sensible or in-
sensible perspiration. But so much as goes
irto the atmosphere in this way, rains and
dews bring to the earth again and plants
seldom lack carbonic acid, beyond wha,
good stable manure viii supply. The atoms
discharged from the system through the
kidneys cannot be dispensed with, no mat
ter what animal eats the products Of the
soil
Viewed as philosophical question, the
we'll established fact that one hundred
pounds of the dung of birds often produce
three hundred pounds of whea, and five
hundred of corn, is one Of the mos; in,c-
resting in nature. Place man aud his most
urgen; wants out Of view, aud why should
one hundred pounds of gypsum ever aug
ment a crop of clover one thousand or two
thousand pounds? This salt of lime con-
tains but eighteen and half pounds Of
pure sulphur, yet it enables clover plants
to extract twice that amount OF this mine
raj from the earth, under favorable cir
cums.auces, by extending their roots deep
into the sub-soil How plants grow, and
the ar, Of feeding them as we'll as animals,
are questions full Of interest as matters of
scientific research, irrespective of any prac-
teal Importance that attaches to agricul-