Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-07-16
Feed the Farm.

OF all the operations connected with
scientific farming that of providing the
soil with proper manures, or fertilizers,
seems to be the least understood. 1t is
astonishing to find on conversing with a
large portion of our farmers what vague,
indefinite ideas they have about it. Many
of them seem to regard it as kind OF
dernier resort, and look doubtfully upon
the farm where it is necessary, or at best
regard it as only to be resorted to for
certain favored varieties OF garden vegeta-
bles, etc. They will fall tree after tree
from any tract of timber which may be
on their land, recognizing fully the fact
that every one cut down is so much done
toward finally exhausing the source of
supply, but fail to perceive they are pur-
suing precisely the same process on the
farm from whence, year after year, they
remove heavy, luxuriant crops without
making any return for those elements
which they thus take away. 1t is plain
case of subtraction, so plain that the
veriest school boy will promptly decide
that, sooner or later, they must get moth
ing' for an answer. And this answer is
only a question of time On rich alluvials,
or bottom lands, it will Take some time
for these to obtain a constant though
limited supply from neighboring hills or
mountains, or from the overflow of
sediment laden streams; but on lands not
so favored, those which are fiat, or those
from which the sediment or wash that
enriches their more fortunate neighbors
must come, the wOrn-out" time will
arrive much sooner.
Of course there is no such thing as lit
orally wearing out a farm, any more than
there is of blotting out of existence the
space it occupies; worn out simply
meaning that we have taken from the soil
certain elements which it will be neces-
sary to restore by proper manuring be-
fore expecting it to furnish again crops
composed largely of these very elements.
A farm must be .fed; just as regularly,
just as sufficiently as the laborers or
teams that work it; and it will repay the
food given it far more faithfully than IL
is possible for them to do Farmers in
the East are beginning generally to rec
ognize this principle, and are reducing
their farming to certain definite results;
but here in the West we depend too large
ly upon the supply which nature has
been thousands of years in storing up;
and literally waste her generous gifts. In
the East farming is recognized to be what
it really is, a simple problem in chemis-
try, and the farmer puts the necessary
elements into mother earth's great labo.
ratory, expecting to-and does-receive
back just as certain, definite compounds
as the chemist who mixes his acid and
base in his comparatively petty laboratory
to get his resulting salt
The age is progressive one, and our
farmers are too intelligent class to ig-
more the plain principles laid down in the
above. Let us have more common sense
infused INTO our farming, even if it is
necessary to ponder over some of the drier
details of chemistry in order to accom-
plish it; and we will at once recognize
the fact that our farms ERE far more mex
haustible sources of wealth than all the
dazzling lodes and chambers Of an Ophir
or an Almaden.-Paclic Rural Press.