Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-05-31
House, Farm and Garden.
/. ID. r.. COLLINS, Editor.
Runninn Out Land.

reporter of the New York Times, recently
remarked in the New York Farmers Club
that in Europe the idea that cultivation
exhausted the soil was exploded, and in
stanced the countries that had been the
longest settled as being at this day more
productive than ever.
| But i'll America, comparatively virgin
soil, where upon seven-eighths of the land
in use the plough had never come until
since the nineteenth century began, we
constantly hear complaints that the land
is exhausted, the farms run out, fertility
vanished beyond recovery, barrenness,
hopeless barrenness, taken the place of an
unlimited productiveness on soil that but
a few years ago needed but to be tickled |
with hoe to laugh with harvest.
Is there anything peculiar in the consti-
while the plains of Babylon, the vineIand |
and orchard of Damascus, the valley of
Egypt, the broad fields of India, the gar
den-farms of China and Japan yet yield |
their increase in constantly growing plenty, !
the earth of the American continent bears
a hitherto unknown curse, prohibiting it |
from giving forth its fruits for more than a |
brief season under the labor of the hus-
bandman?
[ do not believe there is a single reader |
of The Homestead that thinks this is So |
But if it is not so, why do we hear so much
about run outland?' Why do New Eng
land farmers emignte to the West, and
western farmers push on still farther to-
ward the setting SUI, until the rolling Pa
cifc bars the way and brings them face to
face with those ancent lands on its farther
shore that still rejoice in all the blessings
that are promised il successful seed times
and harvests?
VIII any one VIII, reflects on the subject
conclude otherwise than that the reason is
to be found in the net that the farmers of
America are and have been ignorant Of the
first principles Of their trade and business?
If the farmers of japan and China and In
dia maintain the fertility of their land
while reaping continually increasing and
more profitable crops, Is it not because
.iieS az li'l9''l7 u .'.r'. ,l''' "li''e we are
o''I uiiiii-0I 'iI.''' uis''il'u' "PPI'H'-1s9'
1t is not so very ong since the farmers
Of Europe were morning over the dimin-
lShea ler'lIIty OF tAFlF SOIL ana lr'P"esy-
ing It's ultimate nafenaeNS, with the sure
consequences Oh famine ana oep'pu'auon'
but under the same stimulus "nlch mas
o urged and developed the artistic farming
e Of the Chinese Enpire-the stimulus Of
T. necessity, the mother Of all invention-a
II new face has been put upon the matter.
e When men find that they must grow great
er crops or see their children stave they
Is begin in earnest to study their business
and when they study in earnest they begin
It to learn. Would China, mo bigger than
Is the United States, yet holding third Of
h all the people on tho earth, feed her PEG
J. pie one year on the product Of her soil
'e farmed as we farm ours: Its plain that
IS half the population would, under such cir
o. cumstances be starved to death in twelve
E months. The knowledge Of the fact has
n made the farmers otCalna masters Of their
business and IS making the farmers of Eu-
As rope masters Of their business. Must we
n wait for the gaunt figure Of famine to stir
ID the farmers OF America to an equal earn
st estness in the pursuitofagricultural knowl-
Sc edge?
er There Is any quantity Of proof all about
I US II we have mind to look at 1t, that
10 there Is no such ming as destroying the
III lerullty oil Inc SOL. mere Is not so
~ called run out farm anywhere that q
ID skllIiuI farmer cannot make to blossom
OIL Ike the rose IN SIN years time' and do il
prohtably' making money every day as he
goes along. 1t has been done 1t Is now
III done IN hundreds OF instances and 1t vii
continue to be done until the term run ou
rs farm becomes but an obsolete reminder
Us ancestral ignorance and stupidity.
y The elements Of fertility cannot be per
le manently removed from the earth. Iha
IS portion OF them that Is Immediately avail
re able for crop may be reduced, by igno
7H rant mlsmanaSement, to the point OF I'm
Prohtableness, and that Is all there Is o
ne truth IN the idea OF "A run out farm. /
," IS true that some land can never, unde
&C. the circumstances surrounding it, be mad
an productive. The deserts OF Asia and Atri
ol ca and OF our own continent are deserts 10
oI want OF water. Olye them this and NJ
s. land Is more fruitful than THESE sam
He deserts 20 II may be, ior some reasol
or othef' win certain tracts OF lana any
i!S "hefe. buy lang t4at was ever Mt am
Is suitable ior cultivation can again b
-a Z. made So ana ina, with pfoht by the ma
ni7 VINO KNOWS ana can apply the I""daheh
~ TAI PrIhciPleS oi lue lafming-oi scientli
M &c agriculture. science Is only anothe
ny word Tor knowledge' and ne VINO Sneers a
49, science sheerS at knowledge, and so Iar a
li9 ne mas any knowledge himself sieeTS q
'rk himself.
ny Let every man who possesses what
Vi called run oU' larm, go 70 work to &C
ol quire the knowledge requisite Tor Its re
no toration to its original fertility. He ma
'IIS De sure that II can be done. By ln4ulr
.,~-l.: