The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-02-15
The Art of Farming.

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We take the following very good AZ
ticle from the Country Genhemdn. 1t
will richly repay Il careful reading:
A man possesses a farm, the land
being Of average fertility, which
medium state means " is half worn
out OF only exhausted Of half its plant
food, and thus has the power Of gro "
ing half crops, If this man goes on
lowering the condition OF the land,
he Is u bad farmer; if he does not
weaken the soil further nor improve
its capability to grow heavy crops, he
will he a nOn-progreasivc One-a Kind
Of milk-and-Water farmer; but If he
manages SO as steadily to increase the
fruitfulness of the whole extent, till in
the end, 1t becomes sufficiently rich to
grow as heavy crops of every variety
as can be brought to perfection, be Is a
good farmer, and n the country
should honor; he has not hidden his
talent under u bushel.
1t Is easier to farm well than i'll.
The man who makes two blades of
grass grow where only one grew before,
and makes every other kind Of pro-
duce double too, is a happier man tAan
the one who plods on doing neither
better nor worse than the average
while the miserable mortal who inn
poverishes his land must feel how de-
graded u position he stands in, and his
mind must sink lower ard lower with
his property. If a report of every
farm through every parish in the
Union was made once in seven years,
and the improvement, the impoyer-
ishment of the non-improvement OF
each was published, it would give the
country at large a better idea of wha
is going On in agriculture.
1t is no use denying facts, and the
truth is, starting from the east the
land is robbed Of more than half its
fertility, and still ~ population moves
on, 50 does the exhausting system. If
when a parish, n county or State Is
half impoverished, a stop cal be put
to the facilitating process why not stop
at the beginning? Why not reimburse
from the start? Land is seldom too
rich, and when it is what is said to he
in the highest state Of fertility"
what u pity to bring it down! Yet this
is the custom, the fashion, and the ex-
ample set by all. This kind Of policy
carried into other lines of business
would cause men to say the guilty
parties were insane or fools. Land
cannot throw up immense crops on
water and air; therefore, if these
crops are sold of, the land is that
much the poorer, but science and
even common experience proves there
are stages at which some of the pro-
ductiOns Of the earth can he taken
away when nothing has been abstract.
ed to cause injury, and at this period
of the crops growth it is turned into
manure, the laad is benefited with
out any foreign aid. Thus, by having
intervening crops Of tHis kind, there
may he things sold one year which
will be replaced the next by this reno
walton. This is why the f%our-course
system, or some other rotation, is in
sisted upon in England. Poor land
is brought to be rich, and good land is
kept.up on the best estates; yet tncreare
annually great quantities OF fat cattle
and sheep sold from these farms, and
wool, cheese, butter, etc, continue to
he produced because there is an art in
this 30 as to improve and in
crease the stamina of the soil.
There is no mystery whatever in the
case, for here is field Of barley, say
grown after roots, this barley, proba-