Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1869-02-26

abandoned lands 80 they Will prOduce tne
great crops of tobacco. wheat, and corn
they yielded in the days of Washington !;
but those are not now the most profta BILE
crops for those situations. .-.......
2. A moderate application of cheap
manures will enable farmer on those
lands to grow large crops Of peas, beans,
round and sweet potatoes, clover, roots,
and especially fruits; these will, in all
places near railroads;Tgive more money
for the labor and surface titled than the
crops by which these lands were exhausted.
8. There is money and true thrift in
the milk business in Maryland and North
ern Virginia. Our friend will agree with
US that no city needs full supply of milk
more than that in which he lives. Take
fifty acres in Fairfax or Loudon; never
mind the lack Of pasture-lands s-you can
make it up by green -soiling; SOW corn,
millet and clover for the early part of the
season, and rye for the fall; cut them
green, and feed at once to the stock, in
sheds so arranged as to permit all the
Idroppings of the animals to be saved and
composted Raise roots to feed to them
in winter, and buy corn, taking care to
sell roots enough Of some sort to pay the
corn-bill. By this system, steadily re-
storing to the soil more than you take,
any fifty acres that ever were good farm
ing property may be brought up in five or
ten years, and made worth three or four
times what you can buy them for to-day.
4 The practice now in vogue, Of gal
vanizing those worn acres into spasm of
fertility by free doses Of such stimulating
manures as guano and supcrphosphate, is
not sound agriculture. By it you get an
increased crop, but withdraw the fertilizer,
and the land falls back weaker than ever.
Those lands have. by successive crops of
tobacco. been robbed of their potash; to
repeated growths Of wheat, they have
yielded up their lime and phosphoric acid.
Shallow ploughing has beggared the sur
face; winter rains have trenched the hill
sides; summer freshets have swept the
shallow tilth, into the valleys and away
into the Potomac. No tenacious sod was
allowed to clench the soil and hold it with
its countless fbres. On large estates
there was drift of all fertilizing elements
toward the centre, and no return ever
made. Hence, foxes are barking where
sheep ought to grow fat BIZ the hundred,
anu where great herds Of cattle should
Craze the broom-sedge hangs out its dis
NAL banner, the badge of an unworthy
agricultural surrender. If these lands
were remote and difficult of access. it
would, as our friend hints. be as good po-
Icy to leave them to the foxes and rab-
bits, and seek soil unabused. But stu
ated as they are, wise and sound system
will enable the progressive farmer to in
crease their fertility, year by year, and,
at the same time, increase his credit bal
ance at bank. 1t must be done by till
age that does not leave the fields naked in
winter; by deep ploughing and high ma
nuring of small portions at a time; by
spreading muck, mari. ashes, and yard
compost on the fields; by pasturing fat
tening sheep and lambs upon them; by
buying grain and selling roots; by green
soiling milch-cows and stall cattle; and,
above all; by ploughing under green
crop every second year.-Hearth and
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