Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-09-18

the earth, kind and generous as she is to
all her sons, did not demand of them a
fIial regard for her own wants. The
Chadeans irrigated at vast labor and ex-
pense. The Egyptians used machines to
insure the full benefit of the waters of
the "blessed Nile" The Chinese, mod
els for the agriculturist for thousand
years, planted no land not highly enrich
ed; and Industrious in collecting and pre-
serving all nutrinent to vegetation, were
so sensible of its value, as to have passed
laws anciently against the waste OF ma
nure. In periods more recent, the Elem,
ish have reclaimed and fertiized barren
waste The English within our day, have
nearly doubled The produce of their land,
by draining, improved plowing, and i'm.
mense contributions of manures, some OF
which were transported thousands OF
miles across the deep. And our North
ern fellow-citizens also, struggling with a
bleak climate, and gravellv, and for the
most p:rt poverty stricken soil, are per-
forming great things in the improvement
of land, and in agriculture generally.
Modern chemists are now turning their
attention to the subject, with a zeal which
promises the grandest results, and we
may feel sure, that Science, which has
plished wonders for Agriculture in
the last few years, will achieve for us as
much in the long run as she has done for
all the other practical professions of man.
kind. 1t is Of primary Importance that
we Should not turn deaf ear to her kind
and salutary admonitions. In this intel.
ligent community, let the man be secuted,
who, resorting to the hacknied ultraisms
|'of an age gone by, presumes to rldicule
or denounce "book learning" among
planters. Concei,ed ignorance, fastening
to its own ruin, may indulge in grimace
when scientific ideas are advanced, which
are entirely beyond its comprehension,
but the man of sense is not only weak,
but criminal, who does not look with con-
tempt upon the jibes of clodpoles, who,
though they may have walked their three.
score years and ten, upon the bosom of
the earth, know nothing of the history of
its formation, It's elements, it's wants, or
even its capacity. The same system of
labor taught us by our fathers, if pursued
by US and transmitted to our children,
would insure their starvation. We must
therefore turn our attention 10 scientific
and useful books. We must strive to
know all that the collected experience OF
the world, from the earliest ages, can in
form us, of what has been done and can
be done again. We must take Agricul-
tural papers, and learn what the practical
men all over the country, having in view
the same great objects as ourselves, have
done, and are now doing. And having
inwardly digested these things, we must
exercise our best judgment, in appropria-
ting the results to our own use. We
must try carefully and thoroughly every
experiment from which We have any rea-
sonable hope Of advantage. Nincty-nine
of them may utterly fail us, yet the hum
dredth may remunerate all our trouble,
and fix our fortunes on sure and endu-
ring foundation. The Chinese, who have
carried Agriculture to its greatest perfec-
ton, did indeed arrive at all their knowl.
edge by the slow process of experiment,
unaided by scientific principles. How
much more rapid should be our progress
and more sure our success, blessed rs we
are, with the incalculable benefit Of ac-
quaintance with the physical sciences. and
especially with the grand revelations o:
modern chemistry.
| In reclaiming lands, we must make the
best use of the resources which nature
offers US, and has deposited most conve-
niently for our purpose. With manure
made in our stables, COW and hog pens,
all of us are familiar. propose to sug-
gest the means of greatly increasing and
|judiciously using them.
The most extensively employed in
other countries, and the most valuable of
all materials for improving land, is lime.
For ages past, it has been regarded as
the basis of all good husbandry." 1t is
an essential element of a good SOIL
Spread upon the land, its mechanical eff
fects, at least they are yet regarded as
mechanical, are to loosen and make PC
rous stiff soils and give adhesiveness to
sandy ones, and it gives valuable aid in
restoring "galls" and preventing washes
Applied in its caustic state, it combines
with free acids, which check decay, and
converts them sometimes into fertilizing
substances, as in the formation of gypsum.
1t has an important solvent action upon
certain inorganic compounds, and largely
| absorbs carbonic acid from the atmos.
phere, which it gives up to the roots Of
plants, and is thus highly beneficial even
when applied to calcareous soils. Bat its
greatest advantage is in fastening the de-
composition of vegetable matter, such as
weeds, roots, &c., uniting with their ele-
ments, rendering them soluble in water.
and yielding them, when required, to
growing plants. In this respect, it is the
best of all materials for reducing our
compost heaps; yet, as it expels ammo
MIA, the. Promethean spark of putrescent
manures, care must be taken to cover the
heaps with absorbents, in order to arrest
the gases as they are evolved. Lime is
burnt near the mouth of Briar Creek,
and was sold last year at l2 cents
bushel.
On account of its destructive action on
the texture of plants, when applied to the
/ growing crop, it has been superseded,
where convenient, by the use of mari.
Professor Johnston asserts, "that larger
surface of the cropped land Of Europe.
is improved by calcareous marls, than