The Portland daily press., 1874-09-07
THE PRESS.
MONDAY MORNING, SEPT. 2. 1874
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
High Farming.

The question, how shall the productiveness
OF the soil be increased, in our opinion is the
most important one which can be presented
to the consideration of the practical and sci
entific agriculturists of this country. The
majority of American farmers begin with the
virgin soil and continue to make additions to
their territory, and, laboring for large and i'm
mediate returns. they have too frequently dis
regarded the future condition of their land,
| and the prospective welfare of their success
sors. In the present depressed state of agii-
culture, it would seem to be the part of Wis
dom, not to inquire how long can this course
| be pursued, bat how soon shall it be aban-
doned; and when shall we hegn the system
prevailing in some of the old countries, by
which the cultivator of the soil is able to
transmit his lands to his descendants, not in
| an exhausted and impoverished condition,
but possessing new elements of fertility, and
capacity for greater productiveness.
All those incidental and essential questions
| which relate to the kind of crop to be raised,
the special manures to be used, and the mode
| OF application, which have heretofore been
the first to be considered, we. think, should be
subordinated to the one supreme and govern
| ing purpose ofpreserving and increasing the
fertility of the soil. Let the farmer and the
scientist alike, first of all look at the soil and
examine its conditions and necessities, and
let them be entirely governed by the result of
this examination in all the adjustments and
improvements connected with wise cultiya
ton. No matter how expensive the required
method may be, Or how difficult to obtain the
special manure needed, or how undesirable
the particular crop best adapted to the
necessities of the case may be, let all be
sacrificed if the essential end can be obtained
We assert that this should be the vital part
OF .all advanced and progressive husbandry,
and should no more be overlooked or surren-
dered, than the honor Of nation, ..or the in
tegrity ola man. 1t sh ould be a fundamental
axiom in political economy, as we'll as all ag-
ricultural systems, that no rich man can af-
ford to exhaust his LAND, land no poor man can
afford to Withhold from his land whatever it
needs; for it is certainly self-evident truth,
that by impoverishing land the rich man may
be reduced to poverty, and by enriching land
the poor man be made rich. To guard against
any misconception however, we must admit,
that it does not necessarily follow that all de-
posits or investments in the bank of Mother
Earth will bring sure and remunerative re-
turn; Or even that the original amount may
always remain intact; there is such thing as
extravaganza and profigacy even in agricul
ture, as well as in other directions. We
have known men who have flung away
money over their broad acres as foolishly as
If they had cast it into the sea; and it is not
very uncommon for rich men to waste their
substance in spendthrift farming, as if regard
less, or unconscious, of the matter of equva-
lents; and also in such methods to waste
their lives, so far as their example and teach
ings might have afforded profit to the far
mers round about them.
1t must be admitted that the adoption of
judicious system of liberal expenditure in
manuring land, which avoids reckless waste,
will not only directly increase the richness OF
the soil, but also make large returns to those
who have the courage to venture in an unfa-
miliar road. In the uncertainties attending
every period of transition, it does not yet ap-
pear, how far man may go in this direction
and still retain his reputation as wise man;
nor is it quite settled, how much OF it really
belongs to him, if he chooses much longer to
await the return of those who are on their
way back, bringing their sheaves with them.
In order that single wild man of the
woods, Indian or African. or whatever he
may be, may obtain a subsistence, it is nec-
essary that square mile be added to square
mile and the whole given up to the forest
and the wild beast; and therefore the judg-
ment OF the civilized world has been pro-
nouncet. upon him in condemnation, and he
has been crowded to the wall. and his place
assigned to the man who can maintain him
self and family on a comparatively small
patch of earth. When men say as some do,
that they only farm for living and hardly
live by their farming, we are dissatisfied with
their theory and practice alike, and are re-
minded OF the anecdote related by DR.. john
son, who once censured a man for pursuing
some disreputable employment, and in return
received the reply, "Why, you know DR.. I
must live;" the gruff old moralst at once
annihilated him by saying, 81 fail to see the
necessity of it, SIR" So when we see in the
new lands of the West, as well as the old
lands of New England, farm after farm de-
preciating in productiveness, and hear farm
ers in the midst Of their exhausting processes
complaining that they can hardly live, we are
-
at any rate, and pursue some other calling,
and give place to him who by his methods
of enrichment, not only secures for himself
and those dependent upon him comfortable
livelihood, but leaves something handsome
deposited in the earth for the benefit of the
next generations.
Believing that the earth is the Lords and
not mans, that every tiller of the soil holds
it only in trust, and is under obligation to
see that it is not impaired, and is also ac-
countable for its abuse or neglect, we regard
it as important to set forth the necessity Of
''high farming to the agriculturist, as it Is
the doctrine of sanctification to the saint.
The great dramatist, so attentive listener
to the voices of Nature and so successful in
catching her sublimest utterances, found
books in the brooks, sermons in the stones
and tongues in the trees; and in further
quest we doubt not that he would have
| discovered that the land has its law and the
earth its equity. Still further, we do not
doubt that in 'the good time coming" when
| the rights of earth and man shall be in har-
u,op;ouc accordaDee If will hp a rare thinp for
| the husbandman to dare to defraud the earth
and himself fearing it may be that some
tribunal will declare, 'Thou art weighed in
the balance and found wanting, and thy
| l,;onGor, 4, rr;vop 70 ouothpr -