Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-09-14
Why the Land Is Running Out.

With all the pride which Americans feel
in witnessing the Improvements in this eoun>
try in most respects, tits source of mortifica-
tion that in almost every portion of our fair
land the soil is growing less productive
1--WE are talking of worn>out lands" in regions
where men are now living who witnessed their
first settlement, and where the perishable
structures of the pioneers still remain.
We are sending wheat 10 towns that were,
in our colonial days, the ganaries both of our
own and foreign nations and unless the aris-
tocratic Virginian is conteht to smoke tobacco
inferior to that in which his ancestors In
dulged, it is certain he mast receive his supply
of the cherished narcotic from beyond the
borders of the Old Dominion
The cause of the dimnution of the material
wealth of the country lies in the fact that
they are annually sending away from the land,
with each successive harvest, those things on
which the soil is dependent for its fertility.
We all know that wheat is an exhaustive crop;
that it robs the soil of its rich phosphates and
several other salts that are essential to the
growth of the plant, which, more than any
other, supplies the food for man. Let US see
what becomes of these essential clements of
wheat growth. They are very lagely found
in the covering of the berry. This, we all
know, in the great majority of cases, is sepa-
rated from the whittier portions of the -four at
mills situated at distance from where the
grain is produced. This bran and shorts are
fed to cattle in large towns, and though some
may find its way into village gardens, by far
the largest portions are buried in pits, used in
the place of soil for filling up places that are
required to be raised, or taken out in bodies
of water by means of boats or through sewers.
OF the bran and shorts of wheat, and the
entire portions of other grains that are fed to
stock on the farm, some, Of course is returned
to the land and shows its good effects in the
crops that are produced from it. But the
animals that are raised from them as well as
the dairy products derived from the milk so
produced, are sent to distant markets. Even
the bones of the animals that die from disease
or accident, or are slaughtered for beef, are
now eagerly collected and find their way, for
the most part, to foreign shores. To-day many
an English wheatfeld and French vineyard is
rejoicing in fertility derived from the bones
of animals raised in the valley of the Missis-
sippi.
Every year thousands of acres of land are
put in fax, crop that dimnishes produc-
tiveness of the soil for several successive
seasons. The oil is expressed from the seed
to be used In painting houses, but nearly all
the oil-cake is sent across the sea. The pro-
prietor of the largest linseed oil works in the
West informed us recently that never over
two per cent. of their oil-cake found market
in this country. The English farmer buys
this product Of the fax.mill, not altogether
or because it is the cheapest of food for dairy
and beef stock, but because of the excellent
character of the manure that is derived from
it.-Prairie Fdrn,er.