Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-16


| our American corn is a very valuable
crop to raise; but it may be useful to
call his attention to the fact that the
best European grasses, including clover
and lucern, yield twice as much bone,
brain, and muscle material for all farm
stock of European origin, such as
horses, mules, asses, cattle, sheep, goats,
and hogs, as our common sedges, prai-
RE grass, and edible canes and weeds
contain. A sparse population like that
of the Indians might subsist, in their
way, mainly by hunting and fishing;
but that is not proper farming.
Good farming demands the concentra-
ton Of plant food IN the soil to obtain
the maximum Of grain, meat, wool and
cotton from any given surface with the
least cost of labor. This problem
science is laboring to solve for the ben
eft of agriculture, and the world at
large. Some writers on rural affairs,
who appear ambitious to be regarded
as authorities, give Baron Leibig credit
for having taught English farmers the
value Of bones for manure. But the
import records of England for
1922, when Leibig was in his
teens, show that Germany exported
thirty three thousand tons Of
bones to be used as fertilizers.
This was only seven years after the
great battle of Waterloo; and it is not
too much to say that the countrymen Of
Leibig exported the bones of their ons
slain in battle to fatten the soil Of
England, and enable her to develop her
coal, iron, manufacturing and CONNER
cial resources, and become by far the
wealthiest nation on the globe. So
early as 1915, Germany exported eight
thousand tons of bones to England.
In the first, second and third decades
of this century our exports of bones to
the same grass and grain fields of the
Mother country were large. Had
American farmers possessed the intel
ligence of Washington when he corr
responded with Sir John Sinclair, our
trade would have been different.
In this brief historical sketch our pur-
pose is not to disparage Germany or
the United States, nor to glorify Eng
land; but to notice the curiousfact that
phosphorus which burns so readily at
the end of a friction match, and has
been in early times obtained from
bones, gave England the prodigious
energy to utilize the slower carbon in
her coal mines. Concentrated manure
is the main spoke in the wheel of mod
ern civilization. Peru has recently
discovered a deposit ofguano estimated
to be worth some two hundred million
dollars as nature formed it. Here our
farmer friends may see wealth without
any human labor. Agriculture is brim-
full of similar wealth, inviting enter
prize and study. The very flood now
seen in the valley of the Cumberland
should have been turned into coined
gold. Now before the water reaches
the Gulf, its excess may do great harm.
There is no manur or plant
food richer than water. Let us
utilize it as it drops from the clouds.
1t has baptized us often in our agricul-
tural ignorance with small benefit; let
US look into its deeper meaning and
grasp at once the wisdom and riches of
living, moving water. Without there
could be no life, either vegetable or
animal. 1t is the beginning of all that
increase which is sure to make the far
mer a wealthy man, provided he loves
wealth, and labors diligently and wisely
for it. From the eggs of one rock
bass IAN excellent fish a farmer last
year Matched out 100000 young fish
like their parents. This phenomenon
is typical of good farming, which
avails itself of natural fruitfulness.
Fish manure is now the cheapestknown,
and its cost may ibe reduced one-haf
if farmers will cooperate for that pur-
pose. The great wealth of boundless
oceans must be brought to our needy
corn and cotton fields. Life naturally
comes out Of the sea.