Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-03-31

1 Restoration of Cur Hands.
| A steady and continued falling off in the
productions of agriculture, and, by infer.
ence, deterioration of soil, in all the well.
settled States, is marked and serious
fact. 1t would be much more serious
one for the political economist, but fol-
the area of rich virgin lands that is being
brought, from year to year, into use. It
tells bad story for our knowledge and
skill as agriculturists, and prompts us to
the most diligent and earnest efforts to
know just what the matter is and to apply
a remedy.
Take what we are accustomed to
! esteem the inexhaustibly rich regions cen
| tering at Chicago and other lake cities,
and sending their productions thence to
market, and we find the President of the
Board of Trade of that city making re-
port that the aggregate receipts of wheat
at Chicago, Milwaukee, Toledo and Buff
falo had fallen off from $4,000, 900 bush
els, in 1864, to %, 600, 600 in 1868. In a
condensed statement from the Ohio State
statistics, made by the Chicago Tribune,
it is said that ''the dairy products Of Ohio
are steadily diminishing. Hogs are fewer
than in 1861, being l, 455, 943 in 1869,
against 2, 242, 814 in 1867
Such facts, with what we have eontinu-
ually reported of low and constantly dim
| inishing averages, tell all the same story.
Our land tillage is destroying cur lands.
AS people we are doing what spend
thrift does, we are relying on our large
patrimony and encroaching constantly
upon our capital. Our rich new lands are
| feeding us, and while they last rapidly
growing population viii make from our
great natural resources a vast show Of az
gregate wealth. When we run over the
surface of our available lands and find
that we have hundred millions of people
TO feed, we viii realize the necessity which
few think of now-of more intelligent and
determined action towards the preserva-
ton of our tillage lands.
When this is to be done. the first step
will be step backward to where we start
ed from in this downward progress. We
will adopt mode of culture which viii
cover up our surfaces, in a measure, as
they were covered when we found them.
Restore them the vegetable humus that
he's been burned out by exposure, and
stop the wasting and washing by binding
the surface with INTERVIEWING grass roots.
All these must be done first, and then we
must take new departure and guide our
selves by the light of our present expert
ence.
An intelligent correspondent of the
Country Gentleman, writing from
Champaign county, Illinois, aHuding to
this waste and depreciation of lands, says:
"Grain farms, lands which are cropped
and cropped with succession of crops,
grow poorer and yield less year by year,
This is said of the comparatively new and
fertile State OF Illinois. And the pro cess
of cropping is that which is common there
and on all new lands. Mans greed of
gain will seize what lies ready to his
hand, and the free return of fresh soils is
a temptation too great for his virtue. He
has always skinned these fresh surfaces,
and is doing it, and viii continue to do it.
But happily, it is so provided that after
be has done his worst, there is a way
open for restoration. In this lies the
work of the educated and the skillful.
He goes back to his first principles his
first step is renewal, and this being ac-
cOmplished, the lesson of preservation has
been learned at the same time. He has
studied the processes of nature in making
soils for the growth of plants out of bar
reE rocks, and takes her lesson in work
ing back to fertility. He gets, by such
means as he can command, vegetable COW
ering, and with it mould. In other words,
he takes the most effective means of
bringing about that combination of earth
elements and air elements which he knows
to be at the bottom of fertility and power
of production. And when his land has
its balance restored, he knows that his
only way of safety is to keep it so. To
do this grass growing is the first step, and
with it pastures and meadows, more or
less permanent, and the cattle-raising and
cattle-feeding, in some or al of its many
branches.
We heard, many years ago, an eminent
cattle feeder Of Delaware affirm that
well set pasture field would. not only
wear down under very close grazing, but
would gradually improve in condition and
in its feeding qualities. We believe this
to be common experience, and it is such
experience that has directed intelligent
ldIAAlbAuGi0 VIM liluob lAllJiONC dlu
serve their lands and reap an annual profit
to stock-feeding of some kind in associa-
ton with growing So the Illinois
correspondent above mentioned, after
speaking of the depreciation and running
down of lands under constant grain-crop-
ping, says: ''The tendency of farming
in the grazing States is towards more
grazing, and this lies in the direction of
self-interest. Grazing farms, farms on
which cattle are raised and fed, grow
yearly richer. ," 49,
A point of much interest in this con-
nection is the economizing of cattle food
by providing for them winter pasturage.
The nearer cattle can be kept to grass
feeding as distinguished from the use Of
grain, the greater the economy of provid
ing for them. Over in Loudoun county,
Va, on the fine pasture fields there, we
found one who had reputation for being
very successful grazer, who shut up a
bluegrass field on the first of September
and kept all the fall growth for winter
pasture. There was said to be great
economy and profit TO the cattle in such
provision; and there was this advantage
besides, that there was no sudden change
from dry to green food in spring. Hav-
ing free range of this feeding ground,
the cattle got the earliest bite of spring
grass a point of very material adj
vantage in grazing. Nothing is better
established among experienced cattle feed
ers than the advantage of giving their
cattle the earliest grass.
Our Illinois correspondent before men
toned says of such pastures: ''The i'm
portance and value of winter pastures
throughout the grazing States it would be
difficult for a Northern or an Eastern far
mer, without seeing them, to appreciate
The best and, | Suspect, the most profita-
bic winter pastures are those which are
neither moved in summer nor fed, except
during winter, from the middle of No
vember to the middle of March or the
first of April OF course a pasture so
treated yields a prodigious quantity of
grass in summer, which, if not cut and
cured, seems to have been lost. But when
pastures have been so dealt with, after the
summer crops of heritage comes a second
growth, which, under the protection of
| the first, remains green and succulent the
whole winter through. This second
growth yields two thirds as much pastur-