Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-03-04

duced in New York is probably WORT
about one hundred million dollars; and
in the United States, some eight or. ter
times that sum, We. may leave out OF
view all other farm stock, and the i'm
portance of having our pastures and mead
ows rich in all the elements of nutritious
heritage adapted to improve the milk
| giving qualities of our neat cattle, and
increase the general yield of milk for use
and profit, is too obvious to need more
than pfain statement.
1t 50 happens that the writer has pas
| lures of both extremes-some t1at pro-
duce "poverty grass naturally, in old
| fields washed and quilted, and having a
sandstone foundation; and some with a
calcareous soil, irrigated by water from
limestone ridge and springs, where salt
petre cave indicates the tendency to form
nitrates, so valuable on grass lands. Some
rocks make, by their debris and teaching,
soils remarkably rich for the production
of grass and grain, cotton and tobacco
while other rocks are so poor in agricul-
tural salts, at least in an available cOndi-
ton, that it is difficult to raise over them
plants rich in the elements of blood and
milk. Salts of lime, potash and magnesia,
are comparatively abundant in all first
class soils, brought into them by moving
water or by the disintegration Of minerals.
Many rocks and clays are poor in phos-
pilates and potash, and therefore unfavOr-
able to the production of good pastures
and meadows. have found inthe South
much granite and sand stone of this char
acter. Granite has potash, but it gives it
up to grass, wheat and corn, very re-
luctantly. Il
If the mineral clements in soils and
their parent rocks govern the fruitfulness
OF land, as have everywhere found they
do, then grass lands may be economically
improved by the application of such fer
tilizer as wood ashes, lime, plaster and
bone dust
Prof. Way analysed the ashes from over
sixty varieties of wheat, and found some
eighty per cent of phosphoric acid and
potash in the seeds of this cereal grass.
A soil that viii grow naturally large
crop Of wheat, will not refuse to grow
heritage plants, rich in milk and in the
flesh and bones of young and growing ami
mails. South Carolina and Georgia can
supply vast quantities of bone phosphates,
but from what source shall we get all the
potash that our grazing lands require
Irrigation helps the writer's meadows and
pastures, and he commends the practice
to others. The million, however, need
an alaki from some of the potash
springs in the Rocky Mountains,
or from the arid plains where
it does not rain enough TO wash the most
soluble salts off the surface of the ground.
Where an excess of evaporation brings
many salts of the earth TO the surface,
may be the very place to collect the
nitrates of potash, lime and soda, (as in
India and Chill, and other fertilizers.
East of the Mississippi River, and for
many miles west of il, there is too much
rain for the salts of lime, potash and
magnesia $50 abundant in our forest trees
to accumulate in the surface soil, or on
the ground, except in rare cases. The
ASH obtained from burning milk, and the
seeds of the cereal grasses, represents
fairly the earthly salts needed to impart
productiveness to our poor pastures and
meadows We want fields that will be
perpetual fountains of milk, rich In curds
and cream, and in the flesh and bones of
animals sold off the farm; and we must
obtain their earthly clements, either from
rocks and their debris directly, or from the
ocean after they are carried thither by
moving water.