The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1860-08-04
For the Emporia News.
LESSONS OF THE DROUTH.

unfallIng. No calamity, caused oy the OF
binary action of natural laws, is unattend-
ed By some corresponding advantage which
sooner or later becomes evident to the OBJ
servant.
We are now suffering one of the severest
infections which our climate could possibly
impose upon us. The greater part of our
inhabited Territory has borne, for nearly a
year, a drouth of unexampled severity. till
in many portions it threatens an entire des-
truction of those staples on which the
farmer has relied, not only for his family
subsistence, but for the redemption of his
land from the grasp of the usurer, who now
casts over it the dreadful shadow of four
per cent. The year will be worse than
lost to thousands. so far as the balance
shows on the ledger; but may we not de-
rive some wholesome teachings from the in
Fiction, which will in the end enable is to
guard against similar calamity in the fu-
ture. and become to US positive source of
wealth
The first and greatest lesson which the
observing farmer should draw from the
drouth, appears to me to be the need of
more thorough culture. Every populous
community, scanned with the eye of intel
ligent inquiry, will reveal at least one ex-
ample of better success than the average,
which can be credited to the superiority of
his practice. Years ago, l remember, in
the neighborhood where then lived, man
who Arrays had good crops, no matter how
wet tie season or how dry. his granaries
and cellars were always filled. recollect
a season of terrible drouth which destroyed
the potato crop in several counties; yet
Crapsey's potato crop was never better.
inquired cf him the reason of this marvel
Gus success, and he replied that it lay in
his thorough culture his deep blowing, his
heavy manuring, his careful after-cultiva-
ton; in short, as 1 now see, his intelligent
application of the principles of scientific
agriculture.
The great evil which has impoverished
the once rich lands of the East-super6ciaI
cultivation-now stalks threateningIy over
the fair plains of the West. Nowhere will
lands be easier ruined, in spite of their su-
perabundant richness, than in Kansas
Their rolling contour, and liability to wash,
in our violent rains; the depicting influence
of our almost incessant winds, during that
period when the ground is being most stir
red and is least protected; the semitropical
heats of our long summers-are so many
warnings to compel the adoption of all rea-
sonable safeguards against their inevitable
effects. If these safeguards are such as
will surely aud largely increase our prod
ucts, what madness if we fail to use them.
One such means, is deep blowing; and by
this 1 do not mean triiing four or five
inches, but such depth as will furnish a
sufficient bed for the roots of the strongest
plant. Ground thoroughly loosened to the
depth of eighteen inches cannot acash, be-
cause the rains are absorbed and settle down,
instead of running off the surface; nor can
IL suffer greatly from drouth, because it con-
tains reservoir for a whole seasons mois-
ture, and in case Of none falling, enables
the plant roots to penetrate TO the moisture
which always resides below. After so dry
winter and fall as we have just had, an in
telligent farmer would naturally wish to
plant deeper than usual; and on land pre-
pared as have described, he can always
plant deep with safety.
When will farmers reform their practice ?
Not till they realize that little land acell
TILED, is more profitable than much, half
cultivated. But if every reader of THE
News were forced by this drouth to sell one
half of his land in order to save the other
half, doubling the amount of labor on his
crops which he now bestows, be would
find that the seeming curse had resulted in
choice blessing. Thorough cultivation
in Kansas, euen in gear like this. would
ensure an average crop OF corn and vegeta-
bles.
Another lesson which we may thank full
~ learn from this stern but true teacher, is
economy. When crops are plenty. it is our
habit to waste. Slovenly harvesting, inse-
cure cribbing and wasteful feeding, are all
characteristics of contrasting in the West
I believe that the corn aUasted from the crop
Of 1860, would have comfortably fed US till
the summer of 1861. And then, instead oil
emulating the wisdom shown by the mean
est animals aud insects. and keeping in
store each year sufficiency for the next,
we recklessly sell, down almost to the last
bushel. Let US learn from this experience
a true and business-hke habit of saving,
and TO practice wise provision for the evil
days which lie in wait for US in the recess
es of the future.
We may learn lesson in health. In
this immediate neighborhood, there have
been no dews, and but the most trifing
amount of sickness. We have escaped the
evil effects of long morning walks through
the wet grass in search of our teams and
cows, and l have no doubt that the dry
Is L. I'll al,a