The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-04-26
The Art OF Farming.


A man possesses a farm, the land
being of average fertility, which me-
dunn state means it is half worn out
or only exhausted of half its plant
food, and thus has the power of grow
ing half crops. If this man goes on
lowering the condition of the land, he
is bad farmer if he does not weaken
the soil further nor improve its capa-
bility to grow heavy crops, he will be
nom progressive One-a kind of milk
and-water farmer; but if he manages
so as steadily to increase the fruitful
ness of the whole extent, till, in the
end, it becomes sufficiently rich to
grow as heavy crops of every variety
as can he brought to perfection, he is a
good farmer, and one the country
should honor; he has not hidden his
talent under bushel.
1t is easier to farm well than ill.
The man who makes two blades of
grass grow where one only grew be-
fore, and makes every other kind of
produce double too, is a happier man
than the one who plods on doing
neither better nor worse than the
average; while the miserable man
who impoverishes his land must feel
how degraded position he stands in,
and his mind must sink lower and
lower with his property. If report
of every farm through every parish in
the Union was made once in seven
years, and the improvement, the inn
| poverishment or the nOn-imprOve-
ment of each was published, it would
give the country at large better idea
| of what is going on in agriculture.
| 1t is no use of denying facts, and
the truth is, starting from the east the
land is robbed of more than half its
fertility, and still as population moves
on so does the eXhausting system. If
when parish, a county or State is
half Impoverished, stop can 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 be
Gin the very highest state of fertility"
what pity to bring it down! Yet
the example set by all. This kind of
policy carried into other lines of bust
ness 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 off, the land is that much the
poorer, but science aud even common
experience proves there are stages at
which some of the productions of the
earth can be taken away when
nothing has been distracted to cause in
jury, and if at this period of the crops
growth it is.turned into manure, the
land is benefited without any foreign
aid. Thus, by having intervening
crops of this kind, there may be things
sold one year which will be replaced
the next by this renovation. This is
why the four-course system, or some
other suitable rotation, is insisted upon
in England. Poor land is brought to
be rich, and good land is kept up on
the best estates; yet there are annual
ly great quantities of fat cattle and
sheep sold from these farms, and wool,
cheese, butter, &C., continue to be
produced because there is an art in
doing this so 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,
probably sixty bushels per acre, takes
away considerably from the soil,
though being quick growing grain
not so much as other sorts, but clover
follows, having been sowed with the
barley. Everybody knows when
clover is cut young the ground is bene-
fitted by producing it, therefore, if it is
moved twice and cut each time when
coming into full bloom, there viii be
from the two mowings tons per acre
of matter to be manufactured into
manure, which has not weakened the
land it grew on, consequently this is a
renovating crop, and has done more in
adding fertility than the barley did
in subtracting; next comes wheat,
and that takes more away than the
barley did, but then comes the inter-
vening root crop, which puts far more
into the soil by being consumed than
the wheat has taken out, and so this
easy, plain system is fair exposition
of ali those which are devised 10 en-.
able farmers to make money while
sustaining their Country Gen.
HeIlldn.