Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1864-01-30
FEED THE SOIL, AND 1T WILL
FEED YOU,


FEED YOU.
IL is remarkable, not less than a well
established fact, that our grain crops, ia.
ken as whole, are rapidly doterioratiug
that some Of our finest wheat growing
districts have ceased to give any eucour-
agcment to the cultivation of that cereal,
and tha. only in few districts is fair
average crop obtained That such should
be the case is less surprising than melan.
choly. What else have we right to ex-
pecs from our present system Of farming!
True, we boast large surplus OF wheat
and corn for export, but we owe this sur.
pins, not TO fair average product per
acre, bat to the great number Of acres in
cultivation. Unfortunately, we have not
yet, as an agricultural people, discovered
che perncous errors into which Europeon
agricuiurisis fell years ago, and which
threatened to, and did absolutely reduce
the cultivation Of the soil to downright
beggary.
The same unwise system prevailed, and
ttill prevailes in the United States, though
perpaps, to smaller extend now than
twenty years since. Virginia presented
fair illustration Of the skinning system, by
which the land was cropped aud cropped
Tor successive years, or just as long as it
would yield crops at all remuneratiye
then, ike many faithful old horses, it was
turned out, and left to shift for ITSELF
The most cursory glance at our present
general system OF farming, ought to con.
vince every thinking farmer, that in the
end it mnst prove, if not ruinous, at least
not remunerative. The farmer who cul.
tivates wheat, corn and oats, sells at that
his family and stock Go not consume, and
returns to the land only the stable ma.
nure produced by his stock, is dong as
much a5 could reasonably be expected Of
him towards impoverisbipg his soil, and
leaving an unproductiva farm for bis chill.
drcp. English farmers tried the plan but
were compelled to abandon it to save
themselves from starvation. American
farmers, it they persist in it long enough,
will have to do as the Englshmen did
feed the soil, if they would have it feed
them. By liberal system of manuring,
thorough under draining, perfect tilth of
soil, and rational system of rotation, we
may repair the damages already sustain.
ed; but persistence 10 cur prcsen! sys-
TEN mus. --a.A-..y .-@A 10 disasterous re-
suits. In proof of this. refer to the aver
age OF the wheat and corn crops ia some
o. our leading agricultural States. New
York has ceased to be regarded as a wheat
growing State. Pennsylvania scarcely
holds her own. Ohio, the farmers Of which
moved their barns TO get nd Of the acomu-
lation OF stable manure---who built their
stables upon the backs of streams, in order
that they might conveniently Toss their ma
nure into it, and have it swept away by the
waters have learned to know from their !
rapidly deteriora;iDg yields per acre, that
no soil will bear continuous cropping for
any great length Of time without certain
steady decrease, and that utter sterilty
will follow as certainly as that day iol
lows night, if each crop bo not succeeded
by as great an amount of the elements Of
fertilization, as we removed from it in the
form Of seed, straw, hay, &c.
If there be question in the mind of
any one as to the propriety or eXpediency
of reform in this particular, We refer
them to English Agricultural Statistics,
which present in unmislakable and irreh- |
table characters, the wisdom and impor-
tapce of giving back 10 the soil, as much,
at least, as our crops take from it, and ac-
cep!ipg as our portion Of the profits that
which the atmosphere so generously con-
tributes. Fame, 3' Gaydensr.
x~z-1zzzszzazzn1
DEEP SOIL.