Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-11-25
Worn.ou tLauds,

The Editor of the South Carolina Farmer and
Planter says: 1t has just come to this point--we
must go down HILL or go West-we can't stay Eere
any longer, and live by planting without improve
ment" Let that truth be treasured by every
farmer who reads this paragraph. 1t is a fact for
farmers, and one that must not be ignored 1t is
equally true in all the Southern or cOttongrowing
States as it is in South Carolina 1t is just as true
in the older corn and wheat-growing States. The
farmer can't stay there any longer without i'm
prOvement" That is, they cannot stay without
seeing their land deteriorate, year by year. as it
truly has, ever since it was denuded of its natu-
raj forest growth Is it necessary? Cannot land
be cultivated an indefinite number of years and
yield good crops to the cuItvator without deerora-
ton? THIS is the greatest the most important ques-
ton that American farmer can put to himself or
his neghbor. We do not believe in the necessity
of deterioration of land from cultivation The pre-
ventve is deep disintegration rotation
of crops including one grown especially for manure
and restoring all the manurial portions of the crop
to the SOIL principally in the form Of surface ma
nuring and tithing the products soil off of the farm
to buy foreign fertilizers. Then will the farm sup
port in comfort forever the family of its possesso
and give him an annual income to lay up or lay out
in improvements tending to beautify and add to its
value, while they minister to the occupants and
when they grow too numerous for the area, there
will be surplus in store to enable the excess in the
population TO go Vest At present the excess is
crowded out of the paternal home, because to stay
is to stay and starvetO sarve because the fertility
of that home has deeriorated and in its present
dition is in sufficient support large population
as it did 81 when the land was new" Why should it
ever grow old? Simply because this the truth as
we find it in the the RuuI Ne1o- Yorker:
Il affirm that not one acre in ten of our cultivated
farms gets single load of manure of any kind lex
cept the occasional droppngs of cattle that pas
tured upon it, as often one year IN ten. If the
devastating hordes'-called farmers in modern
tirnes-had not had fertile West to overrun and
make desolate. there would have been famine in
this land before now that all the corn in Egypt
could not repair 1t is my solemn conviction that
there is not gold enough in ChrstendOm and Pagan
dom combined TO restore the soil Of North America
to its original fertility In humanityS name, l say
to farmers. stop and consider. Take one acre of
poor land and make 1t rich by the cheapest process
YOU can devise, and tell me what it costs yOu Buy
guano at fifty dollars ton, ashes at twelve cents
bushel lime at eighteen cents charcoal at eight cents,
(probably the cheapest of all) bones at what they
cost you good barn-yard manure at fifty cents
load and draw it fertllize poor acre and make 1t
good for thirty bushels Of wheat, and tell me The
cost You viii wish you had more money by the
time you have fertilized hundred acres ItellyOu,
gentlemen, the annual depreciation Of your grain
farms in particular is frightful and appalling
cumstance 1t is easier to stop the mischief than to
repair it.
None of the most common prescriptions for
storing fertility will answer the purpose which
are based upon rest and rotation such as is under
stood generally by Southern Planters. For instance
one says to another, That field of cotton looks bad
w. Squire c. Yes; I've it in cotton little too
long Fact is haven't land enough open for my
force; must clear more. that l can seed down and
rest more Seed down and rest-the stereotype
phrase of the country! And what is seeding down
and rest? Taking crop of wheat oats from a
soil already exhausted by bad culture, then throw
ing down the fence, and turning every living thing
in the neighborhood upon it, to eat it off and tramp
it over until planting time comes round again. And
this is called seeding and rest. There never was a
greater allacy than this notion many people have,
Of resting land by growing grain crops upon it. I'm
der such a system the lands must deteriOrate and
production decline Something else is wanted; more
manure and better management. 1t is time people
should begin to think little more seriously about
what they owe TO their mother EARTH