The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-03-13

/ Ject IN hand, let me assert that Harde
man county has been we'll nigh ruined
F., by the present system of cultivation II
| an astOnishingly short period OF time
What is the cause Of this premature
| and unnatural letting down in the fertil'
! ity of our soil Behold the answer, long
| since promulgated by an ADLER pen:
There is no other enduring basis Of
Agriculture except grass y
There it is in a nutshell. Let Us add
| however. that no soil, however rich, can
| long stand annual drsughts made upon il
for the same kind of plant food to groT
the sama kind of plant, unless We retur I
/ the element abstract; from the soil By
manure from the animal, mineral or veg'
etable kingdom. Should ore only, Of {
fourteen elements necessary to the exIs.
tence of healthy plant life be exhausted
ia soil, from annual drafts upon that
particular element, by the same kind Of
crop, then without returning that partic
ular element to the soil again, your sol
becomes unproduetive, although the other
elements of plant life are present in it,
unexhausted, and in abundance
How does this square with the eternal
never failing yearly planting of cotton
upon the same piece of ground
Oh, but says the devoted follower oil
King Cotton, " plant my land one year
In cotton, and next year | give that field
to corn" Do you call this rotation
worthy Of enlightened tiHage? You
know you do not even plant peas with
your corn In these modern days Of pro-
gress; and the parched earth has no
adjuncts in appropriating any of the
wanting element (nor any other,) from
no rTab H.
from the store house of the deep Laying
subsoi. Put your money in bank,
draw out 5 per cent Of the capital yearly,
without at anytime adding to your de D..
posite, and it does not take Solomon to
predict that the time will come when
you will have no money in hank, and
that your drafts will be dishonored
Different CT tops require different kinds Of
a'imenf; hence the necessity Of a ju>
diciOuS rotation, in which there must be
crops that repair the damage done bv
other crops extracting fertility Tor plant
food) from the soil Nothing short of
this can SaUe our nearly imposeri ed
arable lands. Nothing short of grass,
and green crop turned under together
with what manure we can gather up,
whether stable yard, or concentrated
lands back to their former fertility.
" Will it pay2' Can afford not to plant
yearly all my land in cotton, and the few
acres give To corn p ais cotton q
great exbauster of the soil7' els there
any other crop that can be readily COM
Verted into cash like cotton p These
topics expect to discuss hereafter, but
my Communication is growing too lengthy
1 eh 70 aHH e.
the Fuin0us effects Of raising cotton to
the exclusion Of all cereals aud grass
crops; and so near to the exclusion
even of corn itself that but few farmers
with US ION the nplands) make enough
to feed plow stock plentiiully and bread
the family from Que year TO another
and still fewer, who make it in such
abundance as to Justify any increase in
their scanty stock of hogs, cattle, sheep
and mules.
The great error in Southern agricuI-
ture has been the almost total neglect of
the gTasses,-hay, pasture and the cereals
and the bending of our whole energies 20
the production of one crop only Cotton
Behold its destructive work From The
half exhausted soil of our oWn loved
land to where the Atlantic washes the
cutton galded shores of Georgia and the
CBrOlinas Through sunshine and rain,
up hill aud down hill from February till
August, with clean and shallow culture,
inviting, as it were, excessive teaching out
of all the valuable plant food III the soil,
to be readily carried BY every rain that
falls, down the rows, into the branches,
through the creeks and rivers finally into
the ocean. Hundreds of Thousands of
busy hands, aye, industrious ones. unite
in this twelve months onslaught (for u
long months are required to make and
gather this destructive crop, and had
they been employed TO destroy and ruin
the cotton States q better or more effica-
cet Us plan could not have been devised
THIS tyrant, King Cotton, demands our
whole Year's time To him is due tho sad
evidences of decay every where seen OUT
side of our towns and villages. TO hiaI
the unkept condition of the Old southern
homestead, and the gloomy surroundings
our loved ones have daily to contemplate.
To him the dilapidated state Of our farm
houses, barns and stables; the rotting
down of our fences; the widespread do
main of worthless brOomsedge the en-
croachments upon our arabic lands of
rampant briers, so thick in some places
as to Obstruct the very roadway to our
dwellings, and scarcely to warrant the
hope, that n the perilOus attempt to
reach its friendly sanctuary, we may be
able to save intact the legs and seats OF
our Sun day go to meeting trousers. To
him, that the cesspOol is unditched where
the ouw house was TO stand, but where
stands our wife's favnFite mich COW,
shivering through the SHOWS of winter,
and every piaintiVe low suggests blue
milk and another occupant Tor the Zone
yard. To him. that no fat porkers dis
port is festive gambOl upon the ate active
blackberry lawn To him, great inns
prOvement upon one Of the old togy prac-
tees of our fUrefathers, for they, strange
to say, believed the shortest line Of
transportation lay from the corn field
and Pig stye, to their barns aud sun Ike
houses, whilst We get our meat from
abroad through our grocery merchants,
and keep our smoke houses in the neigh
boring village And still a thousand
other things for which to thank this great
kingl But time fall. Does he not give
to Hardeman each year 81 r250. O0U worth
of his white fleece, and yet leave
each year poorer-still more poor? Well
might we with a heart bursting with the
plenetude of woe, exclaim With the pious
Eneas-" when played out What place
nOD, o Achates tohat region in all the
trOrId is not filled Nth the recitdk Of our
nlisfortuHes H. N. +.
One of the ablest letters which the
unf,.rtunate withdrawal Of Bishop Com
miDgs FROM the Episcopal church has