Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1872-01-11
From the American Farm Journal.
improved Farming - Exhausted
Lands,

|
heretofore been generally adopted in
this country, was to cultivate that kind
of crop which gave, temporarily, the
most profitable returns, utterly regard
less whether by a succession of ex-
haus ting crops, the soil became i'm
poverished or not. -......sr
Indeed, it was not until of late years,
even though necessary to aid its fer
tllity by regular system of rotation
of crops or the annual application of
manures. The manner was to crop it
as long as particular kind of grain
| would be made to grow in q given
field, and when every particle of fer
tility was at length extracted from the
soil, the field was turned ont as worth
less; new clearing was made, and the
same ruinOus system continued.
In Virginia and other Eastern and
Southern States this course has been
followed till the land would scarcely
yield tenth of the produce it did
when it first came under cultivation,
and not enough to support the popu-
latiOn, and consequently the farmers
became impoverished and sold their
lands for trifle, and came West and
commenced the same work of destruct-
ion.
If this practice is continued it will
be but few years before the rich vir-
gin soil of the West will be brought
to the same exhausted condition, and
! the occupants must again sell out and
go fl ther West in search of more
land, which, in its turn, will be reduced
by the same exhausting system. 1t is
a mistaken idea to suppose that even
our richest land will not become en-
tirely worn out if crop after crop is
| taken from it, unless something in the
form of manure is returned to it. gers
There are thousands ofacres of land
in Virginia, which, by. the system of
cropping were so far exhausted that
only fifteen bushels of corn could be
raised from an acre. These lands
have since fallen into the hands of a
class of enterprising. and industrious
farmers from New York, who, in the
exercise of intelligence, judgement,
and skill in the application of guano
and other expensive and concentrated
manures, and in adopting and carry
ing out judicious system of rotation
of crops, embracing at short periods,
clover, the best of all natural fertil-
izers, have succeeded in restoring many
of these lands almost to the state of
fertility which nature gave them. From
the advantage of the location ofsome of
these farms, notwithstanding the great
cost at which they have been reclaim
| ed, we doubt not they have yielded a
more profitable return than their for
mer owners have derived from the ctIl-
| tivation of their new Western lands.
| Farms which are devoted to raising
stock that consumes the crop grown
upon them, are less rapidly exhausted
than those from which the crop OF
grain and hay are sold. Upon farms
where the grain, hay. and offal are fed
to stock, the farmer may realize a
double profit. First, by the profit
arising from the sale of his stock, and
second, from the larger lantity of
the manure he makes and applies as
| improvements to his fields, thereby in
creasing the quantity of grain, ena-.
! bling him to add to the number of his
stock Upon those farms from which
the hay, grain, and other products are
chiefly sold, too little care is bestowed
in gathering and ecOnomi zing the va
rious substances which are to be
found capable of being con
verted into manure This important
branch is sadly neglected OF too many
| of our Western farms. 1t is well
known that an acre ofland of certain
character will yield seventy FIVE BUSH
els of corn, while an other acre, subject
to the same degree sunshine, the
same rains, the same edcws, and re,
ceiving the same treatment and the
same amount of labor, will produce
| but thirty bushels of the same grain
| To what cause shall we attribute the
! difference in the results !? You analyze
the soil critically One will be found
to abound in elements which 60 to
make up large yield, and the other
will show a lack of some one, or more
of the constituents required for. an
abundant crop. ... =s=H
Every load of corn, wheat, hay. or.
other product removed from the farm
takes from the soil so much OF the
constituents of these crops, and unless
their equivalent is returned to the land
in the shape of manure, the amount of
each succeeding crop will be diminish
ed until the land will no longer yield
a remunerating return for the labor Of
cultivation.
Before the practice ofimproving and
fertilizing the land we cultivate will
become universal, the science of agri-
culture must be Taught in our common
schools, and the operation of these
natural laws explained, by which poor
soils may be transformed into fertile
ones, and rich soil rendered into ster-
lie fields. .s--.... f...ss
The growth of plants is governed
by laws rs unchangeable and enduring
as those which cause day and night,
summer and winter, rain and snow
1t is gratifying to know that the light
of science is beginning to reveal to us
the hidden laws of nature, and that
some of our young farmers are begin
ming to study and practice a proper
system of tillage, the formation of
crops, and Improvement Of soil as q
science.
= An interesting relic, in the form
of an old fashioned fiint-lOck, was