The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-12-22
II l. d w 4 n G
HORACE GREELEY TALKS SENSE.

The following paper was read oy horace
Greeley at o recent meeting of the Ameri-
can Institute Farmers Club ..-
Many controversies result from imperfect
definitions. The same words, the same
phrases, convey different ideas to the rival
disputants. Let me begin, then, by making
myself clearly understood. To save time,
l will define by negation or exclusion-as
follows: .-tr..... g. 49,. .... ....-
All soils do not require ploa0ing to the
same depth; because
l. A large portion of the earth's surface
should never be Flowed at all. No wet
lands should be plowed until thoroughly,
permanently drained blowing them while
still wet, or certain to become so after rains,
is throwing labor away. Avery large area,
consisting of swamps, marshes, boys, fens,
sea, lake, river, and brook margins or in
tervales frequently submerged or sodden,
should never be plowed until drained or
embarked.
II. Then great proportion Of the rocky
hilsides or crests, which consist mainly of
rocks thinly covered BY, and often protru-
ding through, the soil, should never be
plowed, but should be kept always in forest,
from which timber is taken from time to
time, but never to such extent as to reveal
it's ruggedness. Westchester county alone
has thousands Of acres, now denuded and
devoted to grazing, which should never have
been cleared. Cut off the timber, if you
are not content with cutting out, but keep
such rough land always in wood. Its cul-
tivation can never pay; its grass is burnt
up by sultry week while stripping it Of
timber tends to render our springs and
streams scanty and capricious. There is
nothing worse in our rural economy than
this uncovering Of rocky sleeps that ought
to remain timbered evermore.
Ill. There are, moreover, lands too sterile
to be cultivated with profit, at least while
so much good land lies idle and useless.
These lands are often level enough, and not
too stony; but it will cost more to bring
them to proper state Of fertility than they
will then be worth. Some of these might
be, and probably ought forthwith to be,
sowed with nuts and tree-seeds, and so CO.
yered with timber; probably the pillow might
be advantsgeously used in the process; but
it would be unwise to subject them to other
culture for ages yet, if ever.
". Then there are lands which have q
good though shallow surfaoe-soil but cover
Ing poisonous subsoil, which must not be
disturbed. Professor Mapes found such q
tract in West Jersey, where stratum of
sulphate of iron (copperas) lay but eight
inches below the surface. TO pillow into
this, and mix it with the surface-soil, ar
rested vegetation altogether.
v. And again: There are soils, mainly
alluvial, at once 80 mellow and so fertile
that the roots Of the cereals, and of most
plants, will permeate and draw sustenance
from them though they are never disturbed
by the pillow. ] presume the annually
| flooded intervale of the Nile is of this class
I judge that the valley south of Marysville,
CAL, annually covered many feet deep by
the turbid floods of the Yuba, Feather, and
American rivers, is much the same. There
are portions of the intervale Of the Illinois
where the muck is sixteen feet deep, very
loose, and rich. I was told in California
that the grape, though it had to be watered
sparingly during its first two summers,
needed no irrigation thereafter in the val
leys of that State, though they are dried
up in summer to depth Of several feet.
The roots strike down through the rich loan
below till they find moisture that they can
appropriate and thrive upon. I judge that
the valley of the Sacramento and its main
| tributaries is often parched to depth of
four or five feet.
l have thus fully conceded that deep
| blowing is not everywhere requisite. Now
F let me show where and why it is needed:
I. 1t has been abundantly demonstrated
here that the roots Of plants are often found
at distance of several feet from the stem.
Any of us may have seen that this is as
true of Indian corn as of Canada thistles
with microscope and due patience the
roots Of wheat may be traced from four to
six feet. Of course these roots seek nour-
shment, and find it. Nature, in the broad
view, makes no abortive, at least no won
ton, effort. Roots wander in search Of food
! not otherwise to be found. i
IL. Our sub-soils are generally compact
and repellent. Wherever ditcher would
naturally use pick, there few roots can
make their way, except very slowly and by
wasting effort. Few or no cereals or edible
roots con feed and flourish on the penetra-
! ton of such sub-soils. And, while our
sands and loosen gravels are more easily
traversed, they seldom contain the plant
food whereof theroo.s are in search. They
either remain unpenetrated, or the effort il
unrewarded by any gain of nutrition to the
plant. s,,. ..... ,.,
III. Our summers and autumns are often
persistently hot and dry. The continuous
ly torrid SUNS which this year destroyed
half the later crops of Europe are here
eneountered~as often as every third year.
Drouth Is one OF the foremost causes OF the
fuSlnra NJ n,,c nrobc 0rc ma az nrog ~, a a,