New-York tribune., 1872-10-11
PROFITABLE FARMING.
THE RENOVATION OF WORKOUT LANDS.


URAL NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. oPP0RTU-
MITES FOR INVESTING CATALAN AID
DRESS DELIVERED BY HORACE GREELEY AT
THR MARYLAND STATE FAIR, OCT. 10, 1877.
Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
That take the Renovation of wornout Soils my text
on this occasion wi trust be regarded as no special
reflection upon the Agriculture Of Maryland. For
such soils may be found every Of our older sates
and in almost every country where exhaustion by cut
turo is possible unless China and Japan supply excep
tions To wrench from arabic field whatever OF food
forming material its soil contains and will readily
Weld then repeat the process another field,
ana then another is the barDarians natural method
OF swinding Nature out OF q scanty, precari-
Qua livelihood, whenever game has become too
scarce and shy TO supply him with needf food 1t
simple repetition, with the Inevitable notifications OF
the process by which his progenitors rendered hunting
for livelihood longer productive or even possible
To destroy without reproducing to live this so as to
render living next year difficult to exhaust or dry
up the fountains whence life and strength nave noWeu
sweety and bOunteously, the barbartans needless
methods from which many OF our people are not yet
emancipated. have seen in New England field which
once bore good Wheat TO Rye year after year. I'LL
its crop had steadily dwndled to five bushels per acre.
when it was thrown out OF cultivation and given
up TO sorrel and mullen, with the sage OBJ
servaon that II washed badly and had became good
for nothing Yet that field sloped gently to the SOUTH
and II well subsoed and then plastered at net cost OF
a.
OF clover Immediately The husbandry that had wrought
Its ruin was simply barbarous though those who titled
II knew how TO read write and cipher and were grossly
ignorant nothing but the whereby they were try
ing to live.
protest at the Threshold against the current notion
that poor poor crops, unless they nave
taken monlNsh vow to remain poor forever. Heres
one who somehow acquired cot ana afeW
sterile acres but has money no team, no iertLeIs'
what shall he doQ 1 answer Whatever he may do' iet
him not cultivate more than ne can SO leeu anu
rim as 10 give reasonable assurance OF good crop fr
batter work by the day month than TO waste your
time and strength on cultivation to no purpose Let
him have one acre pOwod and subsOed thoroughly fer
tlze IL amply set few ruttrees along its north SIDE
and make each square rod do its besn the production OF
roots vegetables, and Indian Corn while working out
four or five days in each and six days during
the hurry and high of the Summer harvest ana nc
will get ahead much faster than by half ting ten or f
teen half plowed, niggard. unmanured acres aud thus
growing what will range according TO the season. from
scaDty halfcrops to crops at ALL And, you ten me
that he can find no hire him. say, Then let MN
pull up stakes go West" and keep moving Till he mas
some region where honest work may DC reauiiy eA
changed for honest bread
one OF the first elements Of successful renovation Is
law such as we have in New-YOrk, and trust in most
old States compelling every man TO take care that ms
animals do injure his neighbors crops-in other
words that we must thoroughly fence our respective
cattlcyaId5 and pastures, not our WhOle larhS Aho
saving In fences thus effected is immense; but
that Is only of its blessings. value
above this tho liberty accorded TO each
OF us TO grow wood on lands wherever we WILL
without being obliged to fence out our neghbors CATTLE
especially while roaming in pursuit Of food in
early Spring. II you TO TenOvae your farm begin
by throwing the you cannot fertze for some
years ahead and these with wood so soon as you
may Gather or buy nuts and Seeds plant them in your
garden and transplant the young trees to the crests OF
your ridges the sides Of your ravnes, when barely
year or year and half Old and keep setting trees TIL
all the land you fertze and thoroughly till is
covered with thrifty timber The very first step in
walton 10 the average farmer Is to limit the
which labor and capital must be bestowed
III insist Deep nllage essential to good farming,
you will understand that this, like every sweeping rule,
is liable exceptions. For, l. There is much land too
rocky prccptous. too sterile TO be cultivated at
all; and p There good land full of sumps strong
trec-roots that 1t should be got into speedily
aud cheaply possible thus TO remain till it may be
thoroughly puyerized without injury TO team pOw.
But any field that is be cultivated henceiorth, con-
tnuously. or by frequent alterations of with
grass ought be plOwed deeply and thoroughly, both
rurface and subson, q preparation for profitable
tilage Mind that say subsOiled, which means pulver-
izng the subsoi and leaving 1t subsoi not turning IL
up TO the surface and leaving there. think have
seen even this done with profit especially where the
suo is clay with several inches of sandy loan above
It; but subsoing is quite another process-one very
generally required while, up this hour, not
In each hundred under cultivation in this country has
ever been subjected 10 il.
cultivate steep hll-sides Of sandy Gravelly loan
which, but for subsoing would wash fearfully in every
violent shower sweeping away their finer particles to
be lost forever subsong prevents this by presenting
deep loose porous soil, into which water falling
on the sinks rapidly and much OF remains in
the subsoi till needed and drawn upon by the grow
ing plants above it.
A. 10 FERTILIZERS place Gypsum or Plaster first
the list without suppOsing it To be of equal value every
where or even Of any value under all conceivable cir
cumstances And yet doubt that a hill or dry plain
can be found ten miles inland on which first appca
ton Of Plaster the extent of 200 pounds per acre.
would not be repaid in the very next crop, espe
csly if that crop were Clover. Wherever Ground Plas
ter may be had than $40 per tun as it can be in
most parts the Union), hold that each farmer who
has DOT yet tried should buy at least un, apply 1t
10 ten in strips Of two rods width alternating
with like breadth left unsown, and carefully watch the
result II no benefit realized he safely conclude
not that Plaster is humbug-but that his land does
not need It, or that be known how and when to
apply it, In my case, judge that have bought
no other fertilizer that paid amply and speedily
Plaster.
As TO Lime. ] am not confident. In any district
where il is burned so that the refuse from the klns
may DO bought, unsaked and scarcely yet cold for a
few cents per bushe there cannot doubt the profit Of
its application TO almost any dry SOIL but especially
well supplied with vegetable matteT-a drained bog or
swamp, for example. The English apply it profusely 10
heavy cays break them up and render them riable
and they would not persist in doing without
wherever the spontaneous rowth OF sorrel and other
acid plants indicates deficiency OF alkal there judge
that Lme would prove seryiceable. If uneaehed Wood
Ashes could be had as cheaply, would much prefer
them especially sandy gravely soils; but.
afo of