Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-30
MANAGEMENT OF MANUREs.

A New Hampshire correspondent O
the Country Gentleman says:
One of my neighbors has good barr
with cellar under it, walled up OF
three sides; the other is open. In hi
long howell he ties up his cattle; there
are trap-doors in the rear of the cattle
by which the manure is cast into The
cellar; he uses no bedding; the manure
while IN soft state, is shOTeled through
the openings in the floor, and no means
are taken to save the urine. The farm
er buys superphosphate and says that
farming does not pay.
About agar ago, Prof. Goessmann OF
the Massachusetts Agricultural Col
lege, published an interesting report on
commercial fertilizers, in which he said
1.-The present condition of numerous
farms In this and other countries is an
unmistakable demonstration of this
fact; the cultivation of meadow
land, fallow, rotation of crops,
superior mechanical preparation
of the soil-in fact, all those modes of
treatment which aim at a suitable de-
velopment of the latent natural re-
sources of the soil-can at best only
more or less delay the time Of its agri-
cultural exhaustion; they cannotprevent
the ultimateresult" Prof. Goessmann
is German, and the plain English of
his statement is this-that the present
system Of farming Will end in an Gag
ricultural exhaustion" unless backed
up by the extensive introduction and
use of commercial mineral fertilizers"
have no doubt that, as a general
rule, the Professor is right; but there
are exceptions to all general rules.
There are thousands of what were once
called good farms In New Hampshire
and other States of New England, that
are now worthless for profitable farm
culture on account of agricultural ex-
haustion."
The above statement is from the pen
of Levi Bartlett, one of New Hamp-
shire's old men and a most reliable
farmer. Everywhere manures are sad
ly mismanaged, or neglected entirely.
Not until agriculture is studied as a
profession can these errors be corrected.
The evil prevails everywhere in the
United States, and is steadily on the
increase. Hence lands In New En-
gland that ought to sell readily for one
hundred dollars per acre can be bought
for ten, because worthless for profit
able culture" The same is true of
Tennessee and other Southern States.
Our American system is very faulty
a parasite on natural fertility.
Full and perfect restitution to de-
pleted soil is not thought of.
AS the horseback cries give, give,
making no return, so American agri-
culture takes all it can get in crops of
one kind or another without manure,
and then leaves the old fields to starve
the next generation-emigrating to the
uncultivated prairies of the West.
Cities and villages waste the raw ma
terial Of human food and clothing by
the million tons year. Whose duty
is it to prevent this universal robbery
of the soil, to the incalculable injury of
forty million people, soon to increase to
one hundred million? Why do We wait
till the horse is stolen before we lock
the stable door? Now, good farm econ
omy in the country, and the proper
saving of all fertilizers in cities and
villages, would gradually increase the
elements of crops in titled ground,
double the profits of agriculture, and
the market value of all farms. But the
nation is not ripe for any reform what
ever; and the work of destruction must
go on indefinitely.