White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1857-08-13
for TIE farmer.
The Soil and the Forest.

The natural elements and agents of
fertility in the soil are organic matters,
which constitute the food Of farm crops,
and heat, air and moisture, which are
essential in the preparation of this food,
and to Its conversion into grain, grass,
roots, DC. The first Of these is constant
ly accumulating upon the surface, by the
death and decay Of animals and vegeta-
bles ; the sun gives the second, the at
mosphere gives the third and the clouds
the fourth. Without the aid Of heat.
air, moisture and manure, labor and art
can do little to render the soil productive !;
with them skill and industry need never
exert their powers in vain. 1t is the
province of the husbandman to under
stand the laws by which these agents are
rendered most subservient to his use and
to assist and in some sort to regulate
their influence upon the soil and upon
vegetable growth. This he does by clear
ing and cultivaticn-by rendering the
soil permeabls to heat and air, and to
the roots of plants-by regulating, as
far as practicable, the supply of moisture,
and by furnishing to the soil the elements
of vegetable food as these become ex-
hausted BY cultivation.
The clearing of land for the purpose
of husbandry, is too we'll understood,
when it is required to be practieed, to
need illustration here. II consists in cut
ting down, burning or carrying off the
timber, brush and other matters which
obstruct the pillow, and in barring and
opening the soil to the ameliorating in
huence Of the sun and the ATMOSPHERE
Burning the vegetable matter upon the
surface of new lands tends to accelerate
their fitness for producing good crops.
1t converts much woody or insoluble into
soluble matter; corrects the natural acid
ity of the soil, and imparts to it much
of the benefit which results from blowing
and longer exposure A good burn is a
pretty certain indication that good crop
will follow and bad burn is almost as
certain a pre- cursor of a bad crop
Hence, in clearing up new lands, the tim
Der is generally felled when the foliage is
most abundant, in June or July the fall
low is burnt when the fire is likely to
operate most efficiently, both in destroy
ing the vegetable matter upon the surface
and in ameliorating the soil, say in Au-
gust or early in September, and the first
crop is put in with the harrow or drag
soon after.
We cannot but remark here, that, in
our zeal to clear up, we generally carry
the matter to an unwarrantable extreme;
everything is cut away-the whole sur
face is denuded-stripped of its nutural
growth. We know that old forest-trees
will not long bear an open exposure
that the winds will PROSTATE them when
deprived Of the protection of surrounding
forests; yet the young growth, if left IN
clumps and belts upon the bleak borders,
the division lines, about the farm build
ing, or upon portions Of the farm not
adapted to plowland or to meadow,
would tend ultimately to enhance its
value, by the beauty which they would
impart to the landscape, the shelter and
protection which they would give to the
crops and cattle, and by the resources
which they would give for fuel, fencing
and timber. The settler upon new lands
may preserve, without labor or expense,
that which it would cost much time and
money to produce-that which imparts
to old settled districts the highest rural
charms, and give to them much Of their
intrinsic value. To destroy, in this case,
is but the labor of day to restore, is
the work Of an age.