The Cecil Whig., 1872-04-27
'mfSht Earn.
NATURE THE FARMERS TEACHER.

The season has SO far advanced that the
farmers have got fairly to work, which will
not be suspended till the frosts Of next
winter closes up the business of gathering
the crops that have been made by the aid
farmer, it is presumed, has laid his plans
for the year, and will go diligently for
ward to carry them out. How many have
learned from former years experience,
valuable lessons? And how many are there
who have changed in any material respect,
the rotine of twenty or more years ago?-
There has been an entire revolution in that
time, in demand for and supply of farm
products in the markets where all our
county farmers must sell. Their facilities
for reaching market have been increased
twenty fold in that period, and many pro-
ducts Of the farm can now be turned to
profitable account, which, twenty years
since, went to waste for the want of means
to get them to market. Grain was the
staple product then and farmers have been
worked to secure grain crops beyond their
capacity, and like an overworked beast
which has been denied the proper quantity
of feod and rest, the land has gradually
become, through hard usage, like the beast,
unable to return to it's owner, fair COM
pensation for the seasons care and labor.
Food and rest will have to be given if
the owner expects a full and generous
return for his investment from either land
or beast.
Ten acres of land filled with vegetable
matter and manured with the constituents
of crops will yield many times the revenue
TO it's owner that can be got out of the
same number of acres that have been made
sterril by constant cropping, ill usage and
no nourishment in return for the heavy
drains that from year to year have been
made upon it. While it is admitted with
out gainsay that rich soil is one of the
most desirable investments that the farmer
can command, the question of how to
restore the hardly used farms to their orig
inal fertility is the question that is trouble
some to solve. In this as in many other
important measures to "make haste slowly"
is decidedly the cheapest and surest mode
of procedure. Natures mode of creating
what is termed vergin soil is the only one
that will prove in all cases successful
Much valuable assistance may be rendered
the mother of all vegetable products, in
the shape of manures, especially mineral
constituents-lime, phosphate, potash, &c.
Nature proceeds by covering the earth
with trees and plants, which shade it from
the burning heat of summer, and the with
cred leaves and herbage form a close warm
covering for it in winter, forming protec-
ton from. frost and evaporation by cold,
dry winds. This lssson points to grass as
the main reliance as renovator of soil and
the farmers nearest and most steadfast
friend: Not to be allowed to obtain a fee
BILE growth and then be eaten off to the
very roots by hungry farm stock, double
supply of which a majority of farmers are
prone to keep. But judicious patience
is necessary, allowing the grass to remain
on the field designed for rest and recupera-
tion. By plowing one-half the land that
is generally broken up for grain, and put
ting the quantity of manure on that part,
which is commonly appropriated to the
whole, large yield with perceptible i'm
provement in the land, would be the result.
Liberal, or even heavy manuring, on a
small breadth of land broken by the plow,
while large breadth is kept in grass, will
result in both an annual increase Of crops
and improvement of the farm. The avarice
displayed by numbers of farmers in break
ing up their land with the plow in expecta-
tion of wrestling from it large income,
emulates the wisdom of the boy who killed
his goose to get the golden eggs all at once.
There are many sources of income to be
derived from the farm other than grain,
but when grain is to be the crop every nee
essary preparation should be made to insure
large yield; and the only reliance for this
result is a rich warm soil. 1t is more prof
liable to make the necessary preparations
to insure a full, or heavy crop on ten acres,
than to farm twenty acres for the same
number of bushels, even though the expen-
diture on the the ten acres is greater. The
fertility of the cultivated land has been
increased while the other is resting in grass
for future draft on it's recuperated
resources.