The Portland daily press., 1870-01-13

Soilsf
Our fathers or grandfathers began their la
oors on their lands by cutting and burning
immense Quantities of wood. the ashes of
which remained to enrich the soil ard stimu-
late its production. On "burns" they raised
their best crops of corn and grain, and their
splendid crops Of potatoes never rotted. Their
hay was Of the purest kind of herdsgrass, red
top and clover, and of heavy burden. They
thought this state of affairs was to lie perma-
nent. Herein was their first mistake.
They planted their appletrees and they
grew up rapidly with little or no care and
produced crops so abundant that apples were
of no account as to market value. One bush
ell of potatoes, though of little value, was
yet worth two of apples. Those were the
happy days for boys, when they luxuriated
freely in orchards, well knowing their "good
trees" and were not dogged away or driven
out by the proprietors. All patronized the
cider mill to their hearts content, and all
through the long winter evenings the mug of
cider, the dish of apples, and the bright roar
ing fire in the old open fire place more than
balanced the comfort of our modern furnaces
and our more artificial gayety. But all this
has changed now. r.
-Ars'i--- Nnn NOM worth about as much as
wheat; our trees are lousy and have borers
about their trunks; the clover has got "bound
out" aud the red top don't grow and our po-
tatoes "are small and few in the hill" or else
they rot.
Fruit for family costs as much as -four,
and growing mastifs or deputy sheriffs
guard the way to mans fruit trees against
the intrusion of boys as effectualy as did the
flaming sword the tree of life in the garden of
Eden.
Why our orchards decay, Or fail to produce
as of yore, and why potatoes rot, or are OF
stinted growth, are questions much discussed
but hardly answered. 1t seems to me, how
ever, that the change that fifty or one hun
dred years cultivation has wrought in the
soil is sufficient to account for most of these
effects. Take a piece OF light land, for in
stance, newly cleared before it is cropped and
we find it of dark color, soft and full of veg
etable matter. After ten or twenty years Of
Seioi'd tuC SOiOl VI Judl sui Ids IudDSCuj
It's no longer black, or mellow, or full OF
vegetable mould. The decayed vegetable ma
terial has been used up in the lorna alton OF
new plants. The potash especially has been
exhausted. There remain the mineral sub
stances, the gravel, the slick or sand, and the
rocks, &C.; but the mellowness has departed
from it. Manure, I say, will not bring that
soil back to its primitive richness, nCr can
you make an orchard nor raise good sweet
mealy potatoes on such land. Manure may
make them grow, but they will be diseased
and rot as general rule. The only remedy
in such case is plainly to bring back the lost
material. This material is to be found in a
good quality of muck or in common clay and
in ashes. If you have trees on such land,
feed them on muck and ashes and clay and
manure. Mix well the muck and ashes or
muck and manure, bnt not the ashes and
manure together.
Tney will soon begin to thrive if they have
food enough of the right kind. But why
should we think 1t strange that orchards
on such land do not attain perma-
nently healthy growth by the aid of stimulat-
ing manures alone? A man may be stimu-
lated to do great days work by the aid Of
whskey or even of coffee or tea; but his en-
durance is limited without beet or bread. No
more can our hard New England soil hold
out forever by the aid alone of such volatile
medicine as ammonia and superphosphates
Barnyard manure is more lasting, but 1t will
not restore the expended vegetable mould nor
the lost potash. or that material lett of ashes
after the potash has been extracted by leach
ing.
Now, then, if young trees be set out on
newly cleared land and the soil be not ex-
hausted by taking from it the natural sub
stance of the trees, whether in the form of
grass, or corn, OF grain, and he kept clear of
those latter day institutions of borers, bark
lice, moss and caierpillars, / can not believe
that such an orchard would prematurely de-
aay or fail to produce fruit in due season.
Nearly all of us know that potatoes on new
land are not prone to decay.
1t is plain then that there are two kinds of
manure within our reach; one is bulky and
permanently beneficial, the other is concen-
trated and only temporarily useful. The lat
ter is sold in homeopathic quantities; the
former may be had by the cart load for the
labor of getting and properly preparing.
PRACTICAL FARMER.