The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-05-09
The Art of Farming.

q DaH lU79toseS u iaTuI, tHc iuuu
beng Of average fertility, Which me-
diam state means it Is half worn out
or only exhausted OF half It's plant
, food, and thus has the power Of grow
. ing half crops. If this man goes on
lowering the condition of the land, he
isa bad farmer If he does not weaken
the soil further 4 0 improve its capa-
bility to grow heavy crops, he will be
g, nOh-progressivc one-a KIND OF milk
and-water farmer; but if he manages
,Jk0 rs steadily TO increase the fruitful
.1hess OF the whole extent, till, in the
Vend, it becomes sufficiently rich to
4 grow rs heavy crops of every variety
\ rs can bu brought to perfection, he Is Il
good farmer, and one the country
should honor; he has not hidden his
talent under u bushel.
1t Is easier to farm well than i'll.
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 II 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 II position he stands in,
and his mind must sink lower and
lower with his property. 1T II report
Of every farm through every parish III
the Union was made once III seVeh
years, and the improvement, the I'M
poverishment or the nOn-improVe-
ment of each was published, it would
give the country at large n better idea
Of what is going on in agriculture.
1t is no use of denying facts, and
the truth IL, starting from the east the
land is robbed of more than half its
fertility, rnd still as population moves
on so does the eXhaustlng system. III
when Il parish, II county or a state Is
half Impoverished, Il stop can be put 10
the d~ebilitating 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 Il pity to bring it down! YET
this is the custom, the fashion ana
the example set by all. This KIND OF
policy carried into other lines OF bust
ness would cause men to say the guilty
pnrlieS were insane or fools. Land
cannot throw up immense crops on
water and air; therefore, iftheSc 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 productions OF the
earth can be taken away when
nothing has been abstractedt to cause in
Jury, and if ut This period of the crops
.,r,ulI n iI~tnrnnl intn nlnnnrn thn
land is benefited without amy foreign
aid. Thus, by having intervening
crops of this kind, there may be things
sold one year which will be replaced
the next 10y this renovation. This is
why the ~four-cOur5e system, or some
other suitable rotation, isinsisled upon
in England. Poor land is brought to
be rich, and good land is kept up on
the best estates; yet there are annual
Iy 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 i'll
doing this 50 us to improve and in
crease the stamina of the soil.
There is no mystery whatever, in
the case, for here is Il field of barley,
say grown. later ioo'n, liH pu'ieJ,
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
bar'"y. Everybody knows when
cover ~ cot Young The ground is bene-
lited 10y prouucins it, therefore. if il il
moved twice and cut each time when
coming into full bloom, there will be
ron The two mowings tons per acre
Oh ilinttcr to be manufactured into
manure, 'Hhich h"- III. 10 q
land it grew AZ, consequently TINS Is u
renovating crop, and has done more III
adding fertility than the barley, ana
in subtracting; next comes wheat,
and that takes more away than the
barley did, but then comes the inter-
venilIg root crop, which puts far more
into the soil by being consumed lhah
the wheat has taken out, ana SO this
easy, plain system is II fair exposition
of ali those which are devised to en-
able farmers to make money while
sustaining their land CObatry CEN
NCnluR.