The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-03-09
FARMING IN PORTUGAL.

country are indeed, at last turning .heir
attention to the cultivation Of their lands
by machinery and by steam; but Portu-
guese agriculture in general is quite two
hundred years behind what it is in our
own country. For instance, the rotation
Of crops involves a simple principle which
| could never get a Portuguese farmer to
entertain. lie could perfectly understand
exhaustion of the land, but not that Ger.
tain constituents only Of the soil could be
taken out of it not that it could be ex.
hausted for one crop and not for another
In practice, indeed, the Portuguese dis.
regard the great principle thus involved
and they disregard it with curious impu.
nifty On farms suitably situated fol
irrigation fair crops Of maize have been
raised summer after summer, for over o
hundred years. Jetbro Tull himself could
never have proposed to carry his famous
and fallacious principle SO far as this
How, then, it may be asked, can the
Mimic farmer do what the English theo-
rist failed Of accomplishing how can he
fly in the face Of organic chemistry and
all experience, and secure a valuable
grain crop year after year from the
same field? The answer is curious
ono, and the solution Of the problem is in
perfect accordance with scientific law.
Even Baron Liebig would have admitted
its soundness. Every Minbote farm has
adjoining it piece of poor land occupied
with gorse it is usually part of the
pine forest The gorse growth is cut
every three years. The cutting is a
branch and root operation, effected with
the strong country hoe, The gorse is
literally scraped up, and with it are cut
moses, bent grasses, gentians, ferns, and
liberal portion OF the surface earth it.
self, All this is thrown into the cattle
byres, into which no particle Of straw (as
with us at homc1 is ever cast and this
system, Of course, results in three very
appreciabe advantages. First, much
larger quantity OF manure is made than
with the straw-fodder system. and, all
the straw being used as food, the land, of
course, "carries more stock" Secondly,
the seeds of plants taken from the forest
patches are of species whose seed will not
germinate in cultivated land, or, having
terminated, will not thrive, and the fields
are not in consequence weed dirty,
Thirdly, those forest perennials Of slower
growth and development are fuller Of en-
riching gradients s-phosphates, carbon,
alkalis, and | know not what besides
than straw-foddor, and benefit the land
accordingly: they put into it probably
what it never had before, and the earthly
particles which 60 with them are direct
TRANSMISSION, as it were, Of fresh blood
into the veins of the soil, emptied and
exhausted by successive grain crops,
This is the explanation OF the mystery
aud it is for our farmers at home to say
whether they think the plan worth adopt
ing. 1t is not, think, science that will
try to dissuade them. To return to the
farm system; the growing Of maize (the
chief bread CORN and the fattening OF
cattle bred in the mountains Of the intc.
rior, are the two chief operations Of the
farmer, where the small farm system pre-
walls. The oxen are stall-fed, because it
would be wasteful to allow them tread
down the tiny fields in feeding themselves,
During the summer they arc given the
male flower pannicles of the maize, and
the trimmings Of the fields, and straws OF
various kinds; in winter they get clover,
rye, and other grasses, and maize straw
"A comparatively sweet and fattening
food. Instead OF moving the fields with
scythcs, which will cut from half to three
quarters Of an acre day, the Portuguese
use tiny saw-tootned hooks that will cut
but the fourth or sixth part of that area
in a long summers day. The grass SO
painfully and slowly rcaped is carried on
mems or women's heads often the distance
Of mile; and yet, wonderful to say,
cattle SO fed and tattcncd can be sent to
England, pay freight and insurance, and
sell at an excellent profit and this ex.
portation, begun some twenty years ago,
has reached large proportions, and has
had much to do with the enrichment OF
the farmers Of the northern provinces,
The common plough 10 Portugal is form
ed Of crooked branch, and is SO small
that man can carry it on bis shoulder,
and the friable soil is rather scratched
than plowed. The maize is sown broad.
cast, and hand hoed two or three times in
the course Of the year. and irrigated with
little dribets OF water led to its roots
with all economy of the precious fluid and
a skillfulncss it is pleasant to watch-the
bareiooted laborer quickly cutting out
with his hoe narrow channels for the flow.
ing water. and stamping out little basin
around each plant, a Scotch or Engish
farmer would have no doubt, laugh al
the clumsy ploughs and harrow-, the ab
sence Of labor.saving machines, and til,
seeming waste OF manual labor but il
may be questioned whether, looking tc
the smallness Of the farms aud the abund
ance Of labor, the rideulc would be alto.
gether justified, The Portuguese farmer
makes his farm pay-and pay well-and
after all this is the surest test of farming
Until quite recently he has had, in the
North at least,a wonderfully prosperou.
time but changes are taking place oven
in Portugal, and | doubt whether the old
order OF things will continue long unmo
Tested and unreiormed Mines and rail
ways compete with the farmer for bi.
laborers, aud emigration to Brazil is going
on rapidly. The wages of day labor have
nearly doubled in thirty years, Already
farms are less fully cultivated than they
used to be. Tho prices Of cattlo and In
dian corn cannot continue always to ris,
in sympathy with the rise in wages, fol
cattle must follow the prices Of the Lon
don market, aud il maize gets mach dear
cr it can be cheapcned by importation
One or two thugs must therefore shortly
take place either the noncultivation o
the poorer lands. or a reform in Portuges,