Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1875-11-20

crops would be considerably aug
ihented, even if the added mold contrib
Nuted nothing TO the sustenancc of the
Nplants; for il it did not nourish the grow
<Qg plants, it would, besides favoring the
\gress Of the ~rootlets in search of food,
Ne a more equable supply of water,
fair, and the substances with which
iey are fre;ghted.
Our latitude has, doubtless, something
to do with a speedy dearth of vegetable
matter, for the long hot weather determ-
ines a prompt conversion of vegetable
matter into carbonic acid gas, etc; while
farther north the same material would
remain on or in the soil a much longer
time without decomposing. But the loss
of the vegetable matter is not the sole
cause of the propensity to bake. The
withdrawal of the mineral ingredients
must be credited with some of it, for the
soluble mineral plant food in a soil ex-
ercises also a strong influence in keeping
it light and porous.
The question then arises: To what
causes are due the general exhaustion of
our lands? An easy answer is: Crop
ping without manuring. This is only
phiohdiy COiIcCt, lOi ououSil ~ 10 oiio
truth it is not the whole truth. 1t is the
truth, because all plants exhaust the
soil on which they grow. Clover espe-
cially, which is by many regarded as a
land %renovator, has been shown by emf
nent chemists to be, almost beyond any
other plant, a soil i%mpoverisher, mas
much as a single crop of it contains the
ingredients for two or three crops of
small grain.
The analysis of the cotton fibre would
seem to establish the fact that land
planted continuously to cotton ought to
grow better year by year, for the very
small amount of nitrogen and allied min
erals, which enter into the composition
of cotton wool are un~questionably much
less than that which is appropriated by
the plant from the air or which passes
over yearly from the condition of inap-
propriable to Appropriate plant food.
Why then should lands planted to cotton
deteriorate? Because, while the fibre
crop does not exhaust, even in a slight
degree, the seed crop is an enormous
yearly drain upon the soils fertility.
Taken as a whole, the cotton crop is
eminently exhaustive. But being, like
clover, a deep rooted plant, tho transfer
of material from the subsoil to the sur
face soil, insuring to surface roofing
plants which come after it an abundant
pabulum, the extent of its exhaus-
t~iveness has been measurably lost sight
of.
But the sublime folly of squandering
the cotton seed has been given up. 1t is
unur rpix,aruoUy o1pn;ttaI tho crnb n
course is eminently detrimental. But
even if all the seeds were returned to the
land from the gin, or as manure from
the hog and cow-lots, the cotton crop
would, we think, be still a degree ex-
haustive, unless certain conditions, to be
presently discussed, were strictly re-
garded.
There is one test which goes beyond
all others in determining the value of
any farmers tactics. 1t is this: Have
his lands become more fertile? Do his
fields yield, with the same kind and
amount of labor, larger crops than they
did five or ten years ago? Tried by
such a test-end the excellence of the
test is unquestionable-ther has been a
vast amount of bad farming in the Uni
Ou PtdoCS. iHo idCt 10, Uutlo dIc tilc
fewest good farmers from Maine to the
Rio Grande. The northern farmers
which are growing better, year by year,
are few and far between. 1--WE do not
here include vegetable farms in the
neighborhood of cities.) Clover deceived
them and made them believe that its ex-
haustive transfer, from the deep to the
superficial soil, were veritable additions
to the soils store of fertility. Deep
ploughing and undertaking deceived
in ways not essentially different. All
the time the process of exhaustion has
gone on, and if correct comparative anal
Uses of the whole plant food in a given
depth, on most of u farms, could be
gotten, they would show a very material
decrease in the last twenty or thirty
years. Up to this time we have been
rioting upon the bounty of nature, and
have at length gotten to the point where
II becomes necessary to be co-workcrs
fifth her, JIM order to secur q contin-
lance of her favor.
A few moments ago the opinion was
Expressed that if every seed Of a cotton
fop were restored to the soil, the crop
, Eould still be, under certain circum-
stances, exhaustive. Long observation
of the effect Of rains convinces me that a
very inadequate conception of their spoil
ations H. generally entertained. I have
intended for years past to subject this
matter to the test of careful experiment,
but circumstances have prevented. l
recommend such experiments to your
readers, as a most valuable vein for in
~vestigation. The amount is enormous,
as The billions Of tons of foreign materials
ih-otrr swamps and lowlands abundantly
testify.
The deterioration from this cause is
! specially great in lands planted to cot
htoh, for the reason that cotton having
A fw surface roots, the slightest obstacles
4 Are offered to the transporting power of
Aains, whereas both corn and the small
hgrains permeate, with a close net work of
\ roots, the surface soil, and bind it SO
firmly as to bar very effcctually such
d~epredatiops. The inclination, or lay of
the land and the row has, Of course,
mich to do with the extent Of these
spbliations. There are, / learn, in this
state some hill lands, cleared since the
war, that are already absolutely worn
out, and present to the eye a %congeries
of rod hillocks and gaping gullies. But
even when the inclination Of the land
and the rows is very gradual, an ex-
tensive observation convinccs me that
the deterioration from this cause is con
siderablcs In this connection it will be
interesting to mention a fact noticed by
Prof. Johnston in his Agricultural Chem
istry: Stiff clays kept in grass some wears
are very much amclioratcd-more than
the increase Of vegetable matter would
explain. Prof. Johnston in discussing the
phenomenon declares that there is an ac-
tual decrease of the proportion of alumni
UNI inthc superficial strata. He attributes
this to a sinking of the finer clay par
ticles. My own explanation is that
while the coarser particles, Of soil are en-