Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-04-23
agricultural department.
[Original.]
MANURING.

1t is well-known fact to the world that
the soil of England is not naturally rich.
Much of it is what is known as chalk lands.
From this circumstance, the country was
originally called Albion, meaning white. 1t
is equally we'll known that to-day, and for
many years in the past, England is, in many
respects, the best farming countryin the world.
The fields bring forth, in abundance, every
vegetable that is adapted to the climate. If
it be asked how this result has been brought
about, we reply, that it has been done by con-
stantly manuring the soil. What is true of
England may be said, with equal truthfulness,
of many sections of our own country. By
nature poor, they have been made rich by the
annual application of manure. In the South
but little attention has been paid to this SUBJ
ect. In fact to use the word manurng in
its proper sense, it may be said that the south
ern people never have, only in few iso dated
cases, devoted any attention to it at all. 1t
is true that on most plantations, the accumu-
lated litter of the stables and barn-lot is
hauled out into the fields; and within the last
few years large amounts of fertilizers have
been bought and applied.
The system of manuring which our people
generally have adopted, is not calculated to
materially improve the character of the SOIL
A small handful of some compost is placed at
the root of the growing plant, or small
quantity of guano is sprinkled in the furrow
in which the seed is designed to be planted.
Under favorable circumstances, such a system
is calculated to increase the yield of the soil,
and if the circumstances are not favorable the
manure does an actual injury. Every farmer
is aware of this fact, and every body has
heard of crops being "burnt" up with manure.
The proper way to manure land is to apply
the manure broadcast, and with good turn
ing plow turn it under and incorporate it
with the soil. 1t may be said that if manure
is thus applied, only a small patch can be
manured, Oh account of the scarcity ofmanure.
This is true; but this is the way the soil of
England has been made rich, and the only
way that our poor lands can be made rich.
1t would be much more profitable to the land
holders to make an acre of land permanently
rich, than to manure ten acres according to
the system now in general practice
1t is easier and cheaper, and in the end
more profitable, to thoroughly manure old
worn-out lands and make them rich, than to
clear forest lands. All that most Of our worm
out lands need is to have them we'll filled with
vegetable matter. Year after year they have
been run in cotton, and what little vegetable
matter sprang up on them during the summer
was consumed by cattle in the winter. In
this way the soil has been exhausted and
made poor. If, in some way, the vegetable
matter could be restored, the land would be
made productive. Applying manure, howev-
er, as we usually do in this country, there is
no hope that this will ever be done.
During the fall and winter months, leaves
could be hauled from the forest, and muck
from the swamps and marshes and piled up.
By spring, the leaves, if piled up when wet,
would be rotten, and make most excellent
manure. The proper time to pile up leaves
is when they are wet. They become hot and
decompose in short time, and make ma
nure which is admirably adapted to renovate
old and exhausted lands.