The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-01-12

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To maintain the fertility of rich
land is not dimcult with good man
agement.I Good farmers keep the
coil improving and crops increasing,
and yet do not appear to take any
special pains to make land rSchs they
buy no special marures and adopt no
expensive or laborious course OF i'm.
provemenf, and yet gradual but sat
lsfactory Improvement is securcd.T
IhousAnoAof arms have been thos
improyedEfarms that -hsvelobeen
more or less run down, -end with lit
tie else but amply good management
have been made Productive and pro-
htabie. Whenlothus restored they
only feqcare good, thorough cuftiva-
ton and good care, to continue to
grow good crops and make profitable
returns while the fact that they can
be restored must be taken as proof
that their fertility canibs maintained.
Indeed, II certainly must be easier to
Keep 9 new fertile fafm In good con-
dition thanfo take ond thst has been
good, but 10 run down, and restore Il
10 Its original fertility. For, with .
new, rich soil, all desirable forage
and rsnevating crops can be grown;
hence tAefe ID noIack of means for
making manures and securing all de-
sirable Improvements. So the fact
that a farm that has been run down
can be improved by good manage
ment, must be taken as positive proof
that rich soil can be kept in good
condition the same way.
To try to restore an exhausted soil
BY "buying @, silly commercial fertil-
izers," lie the most expensive course a
farmer can take. Many Of the ele-
ments' of crops will cost nearly as
much when purchased as they will
bring when applied to the land and
finally secured in$the FORM of pro-
ducts for market, while few will pay
. profit; hence the fertility that must
be. purchased and added to an ex-
hausted soil, will be a doubtful econ.
omy at the best. To my mind, there
should be . destination observed, be-
tween this kind Of fertility and that
gradually built up by a good farmer,
something like this: the latter large
ly svails himaelf of the services of
nature, which the former, ignoring
or neglecting, pays a high price for.
For instance, the one pays largely for
ammonia, or hitrates, while the other
secures all necessary nitrogen from
natural sources by growth of clover
90, too, the phosphates are largely
purchased in the one case, while in
the other they are secured by deeper
and more thorough cultivation, and
the beneficial effects of Q heavy
growth of clover roots. Attic same
time, these services of nature are Sc
cured without cost, as the deep and |
thorough cultivation pays we'll in
other respects, as by Increasing the
crops grown at the time while the
clover, as has been often shown, may
be made to yield good profit, and
all these beneficial effects besides.
Another objection to using COM
mercial manures, is the difficulty of |
adjusting their application to the
wants of the soil, which 90 constant
IL vary. There are scarcely ever two
fields that need precisely the same
amounts and proportions of the ele-
ments of crops that are furnished mi
such msnures (; hence It is very dill.
cult to avoid great waste-to avoid |
applying too much Of one or more of |
the elements of the crops, and not |
enough of some others. The farmers
or advocates of such manures must |
be very skillfnl and scientific to ar.
ange the application of such ma
nur"s so that they may be enough,
and yet little waste of the elements l
of the val us crops grown. For it |
should be tl..t n. ,f'nd that crops |
are not able to prosp,r. unless sup
piled with all the elements that enter
into their composition from some
source, while these elements must be
supplied in the proportions needed
for plants, as a rule, cannot substi.
tute one thing for another; hence
there may be great waste and loss in
making an expensive application Of
any one special manure on one field,
and of a similar application of some.
thing else on another; for each-feld
may need several of the principal
elements found in crops, some being
ia-sufRcient supply, others in partial
supply, while still others are mostly
wanting I; yet if one or more are lack
ing, very little improvement in the
crops may be realized. So it will be
seen that renovating land by the ap.