The Osceola times., 1875-12-25

|
where taxes and the rent Of land com
pels the most rigid economy as well a,
the utmost skill and industry to make il
pay, the farmer must have a sum o.
ready money quite equal to the cost o.
the same number of acres with which
to stock, fertilize and cultivate it.
am confident thatif manyof our farm
ers would dispose of half their acreage
to procure ready money TO cultivate
the other half to the full extent of it,
productive power, availisg themselve.
of the use of modern appliances and
fertilizers, that the prqj Jon the hall
would far exceed their former opera
tions on the whole.
ONLY HIGH FARMING PAYS.
1t is the surplus production of each
acre over the cost of producing any
crops which constitute the real profit 0!
farming. If lands are highly cult.
waited and richly tertilized, they will
produce double the usual crops, com.
pared with ordinary farming, and yet
at very little additional labor. An
improved reaping or moving machine
while cutting twice the quantity of
grass or grain uses but one pair OF
horses and the one man, and invest but
the price of one machine. Market
gardening exempli6es the profit and
value of limited acreage and liberal
cultivation, and many of our progress
sive farmers have followed the exam
pie near cities and large towns, where
lands are high and must be made pro-
ductive or abandoned altogether. In
such cases it has been found profitable
and convenient to soil cattle by keep
ing them up in spacious barnyards and
feeding them on cut grass and other
green crops instead of pasturage.
ATMOSPHERIC AIR AS A FERTILIZER.
An is, perhaps the most active and
efficient aid of the farmer, furnishing
not only the larger part of the fertil-
izing ingredients of our soil, but is the
prime means of utilizing the fertilizers
which we apply to our crops. Its
chemical action compounds up the
most worthless weeds and disintegrates
the hardest rocks, producing new COM
binations of productive energy as well
for the agriculturist as for the miner.
Mr.. Boyle informs us that exhausted
ores Of tin and iron being exposed to
the air become again impregnated with
their respective metals, The air is no
distinct element, lkut mass of heter-
ogenous things ve,\y ecch etherealized.
tbs ussvunsasv-- -Eah- tart s"Fa, iv-~-
wonderful medium and rich store-house
of nature; and top dressing of
Plaster Paris draws in the same manner
a supply of ammonia more reliable
than the promises of many of the pat
ent fertilizers sold by travelling agents.
The old English practice of laying
lands to fallow was intended to get the
fertilizing effect of the atmosphere.
But the present English practice of a
rotation of crops is far more speedy and
profitable, by which the tertilizing
qualities of the soil may be distributed
by cultivating, in rotation, crops which
respectively absorb different infredi-
ents. Indian corn or wheat draws
largely on phosphates turnips and
beets from potash and soda, and after
these crops there will sill be enough of
lime, &c, to produce a good crop of
hay, and this result too from one appli-
cation of manure. The land, by this
process, also derives the further advan-
tage of certain fertilizing qualities
which each crop produces of itself by
the chemical action of such portions of
the crops as may be left in the land,
or drawn from the atmosphere.
NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL MANUREs.
No practical farmer will undervalue
barnyard manure. 1t has keptits place
as fertilizer from the earliest ages of
agriculture, and embodying as it does
such a variety of qualities, will always
furnish a ready and potent means of
enricbing the soil. But the question
of cost and supply and for use in dis
tant fields, the expense of drawing il
out and applying it, must be consider
ed by the economical and enterprising
farmer IN this age of competition.
Nearly the entire crop of our country,
and a large portion of the agricultural
products of Europe are made without
1t, and the use of artificial manures has
become almost vital u production
because they are cheap compared with
their fertilizing value, light, and easily
transported to our fields and economical
ly applied. They are all peculiarly
suitable for the use of small farmers
who cannot afford to keep large stock
of animals to produce mmures, or thu
labor of manipulating it after it is pro
duced, as compared with advantages o
applying the exact chemical ingredient
which his crop requires. In view o
this necessity, it becomes the duty o
the legislature to protect the farme
against the frauds of the manufactur
and sale of this commodity. Law
making the adulteration cf fertilizer
a crime punishable. as counterfeiting
would do much to protect us by sendln
the culprits to the penitentiary. Th
forger who counterfeits a bank nott
merchant draft, or raises check to
larger amount than it was original
drawn for, commits pr cisely the SAN
fraud as the manufacturer who misr
nresents the constituents of his ferti