The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-02-09
The Art of Farming.


We take the following very good ar
ticle from the C6urat7gf Gentleman. 1T
will richly repay a careful reading:
A man possesses a farm, the land
being Of average fertility, which
medium 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 q bad farmer if he does not
weaken the soil further nor improve
its capability to grow heavy crops, he
will be nOn-prOgressive one-a kind
of mnk-and-Wate farmer; but if be
manages SO as steadily to increase the
fruitfuIness 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 one the country
should honor; he has not hidden his
talent under 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 happier man than
the one who plOds on doing neither
better nor worse than the average
while the miserable mortal who i'm
pOVerishes his land must feel how de-
graded a position he stands in, and his
mind must sink lower and lower with
bis property. If a report of every
farm through every parish in the
Union was made once in seven wears,
and the improvement, the impOYer-
ishment of the nOn-improvement of
each was published, it would give the
| country at large better idea of what
is going en- in agriculture.
It 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 as population moves
| on, so does the exhausting system. If
| when a parish, c0untyOT State Is
half Impoverished, stop can be put
/ to the facilitating process why nots stop
| at the beginning? Why not REIN burse
! from the start? Land is seldom too
| rich, and when it is what is said to be
| Gin the highest state of fertility, -
what pity to bring it down. Yet thi
! 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. L,nd
cannot throw up immeAse 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-
| auctions of the earth can be taken
away when nothing his been abstract
ed to cause injury, and at this period
of the crops growth it is turned into
manure, the land is benefited with
out 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 reno
walton. This is Why the fOur-cOurse
system, or some other rotation, is in
sisted upon in England. Poor land
| is brought to be rich, and good land is
keptsup on the best estates; yet there are
| annually great quantities Of fat cattle
and sheep sold from these farms, and
wool, cheese, butter, ETC., continue tC
be produced because there is an art il
doing this so as to i'm prove and in
crease the stamina of the soil.
There is no mystery whatever in the
case, for here is a field of barley, say
grown after roots, this barley, prOba
bly, sixty bushels per acre, takes away
considerably from the soil, though be
ing a quick grown grain not so much
as other sorts, but clover follows, hav
ing been soWed with barley. Every
body knows when clover is cut young
the ground is benefited by producing
it, therefore, if it is moved twice anC
cut each time when coming into ful
bloom, there win be from the tive
mowings tons per acre of matter Il
be manufactured into manure, which
has not weakened the land it grew on
! consequently this is q renOvatiHg crop
and has done more in adding fertility
than barley did in subtracting mex
comes wheat, and that takes NOR,
away than the barley did, but thef
cores the intervening root crop
which puts far more into the soil 10y
being consumed than the wheat ha!
taken cut, and so this easy, plain sys
tenn is fair exposition of all thOs,
which are devised to enable farmers
to make money while sustaining thei
land. -a.=-a-.