The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-11-10


Waring, Jr., says in his work, from
which we have quoted so largely, that it
may be stated, the employment of man.
ures should be mainly in accordance with
their results, or the effect produced upon
the crops. To know, therefore, how to
apply these fertilizers is very important !;
and the general principle should be con-
stantly adhered to, that, in the policy of
the farm, nothing should be allowed to
60 to waste, and nothing should be taken
from the soil in the shape of crop which
does not return back something of the
mineral character distracted.
If, by the use of lime, Peruvian guano,
common salt, or any other manure, whose
effect exceeds its ability to supply food to
the plant, the crop-is largely increased,
that part of the earthly constituents of the
crop which has been supplied by the soil,
and not by the manure, must be regarded
as SO much of the original banking capital
of the land, which is only to be put in
circulation, not to be permanently dis
posed of. five sell wheat, the important
mineral constituents of that grain should
be purchased and returned to the soil.
If we sell milk, wool, or flesh, the phos-
plate of lime and potash contained in
those products should be returned from
the same foreign source; and it should
be our constant aim to keep the ability OF
the soil to furnish plant food continually
increasing rather than diminishing.
The greatest care of the farmer should
be given to the outstanding of these min
eral agents, and while it is, perhaps, on
these alone that the permanent fertility
of his land depends, he will find that
his true interest requires him to increase,
as much as possible, by home manufac-
ture, by purchase, and by absorption
from the atmosphere, the amount OF
ammonia or nitrates, on which the extra
productiveness of his land must depend.
For, although the old mineral theory
of Liebig is undoubtedly true, it is also
true that the ammonia the soil receives
from the atmosphere, under natural cir.
cumstances, may with advantage be in
creased, both by application in manure
and by offering facilities for still larger
absorption from the air. The careful
observance of these rules, coupled with
due attention to the mechanical condi-
ton of the soil, especially to draining,
&C., must inevitably make the cultivation
of any kind of land, no matter how poor
it may be originally, more and more
profitable as years pass on. And it may
be stated, as fixed rule, that no system
of farming under which land does not,
year by year, grow better, can be called
good farming for, however much money
soil-robbing may put into a farmers peck
ct, it is more than balanced by the de-
terioration of his original capital and Of
the fertility ON which his true prosperity
is based.
1t is, therefore, seen that what is called
profitable farming, if at the expense OF
the soil, as may only be discovered after
five years trial, is simply an exhaust
ing kind of agricultural prosperity, and
proves sure road to poverty of pocket
and soil, and also, when the farmer dies,
his children's broad acres, thus inherited,
are curse instead of blessing to them,
for the earth has been starved to death,
and suddenly yields no longer any re-
turn for the husbandman's labor.