Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-06-16
Good Tillage.

In the head line of one Of our agricultu-
raj papers may be seen every week the
broad statement that "good tillage is manure"
There is in this statement a good deal of
truth very concisely expressed While good
tilage is not really manure, It is capable Of
greatly aiding manure in It's work, and,
under certain conditions, may be made in a
great measure to take its place. There is
no doubt that with good culture as large
crops can be produced with small quantity
Of manure as can be obtained with a much
larger application of fertilizers and inferior
tilage. Ii is a we'll established fact that
very large crops have been grown on ordi-
nary land without manuring, and that the
only reason Of this success was the thorough
tilage which was given. Even worn.out
fields have been made by extra culture to
produce fine crops. Many years ago we
read Of an Irishman who bought little
patch of light land, which had been so thor
oughly exhausted as.to be considered inca
pable Of producing apaying crop. He dc.
termined TO SOW the piece with rye, and long
before the time for sowing he might be seen
almost every morning while the dew was on
plowing the field. After while he stopped
plowing, remarking that if he should plow it
any more the rye would lodge. The neigh
bors thought this was a good specimen Of
Irish intelligence and made great deal of
sport over it. They we're confident that he
would not get rye enough to pay for his
work. But the rye came up, grew and ri
pened and when a large yield was har.
vested, the neighbors concluded that the
lrishman knew great deal more than they
had thought hedid. They could not account
for it, but the fact was before them and
they could not deny it. Finally they came
to the conclusion that blowing when the dow
was on was the chief cause of the large
yield, but it was not the dew so much as it
was the fning Of the SOIL which produced
the heavy crop. Under the ordinary sys.
TEN Of culture the soil had become ex-
hausted, but considerable plant food still re-
mained in clods and Jumps, which the root
lets Of the plants could not penetrate and
consequently could not obtain. But the
constant plowiug and re-plowing Of the field
pulverized these clods and set the plant food
free. The rye was able to obtain and util.
ize it, aud consequently was very product
i've. A case somewhat similar once came
under our own observation. A man leased
tract Of land, which was cold and wet, and
produced nothing but sour grass and weeds.
He dug some bitches, plowed the land, har-
rowed it with q great deal of care, and
planted it with corn. He had but little ma.
nure and on much of the piece, used no fer
tilizer except plaster and ashes. But he
finely pulverized the soil beiors planting and
cultivated and hoed the crop very often dur
ing the season. The neighbors were conf.
dent that he would not have any corn on
that land without manuring it, but he did
obtain fine crop, aud when the piece was
seeded down, grass came in nicely and a
good crop of hay was obtained, This was
almost wholly owing to good tillage, for
without manure the land would not, with
ordinary culture, have produced half crop
Such cases are common enough to prove be.
yond doubt that good tillage is capable oi
largely increasing the production Of the land
and farmers ought to take advantage of this
Of course we do not advise any one to neg.
lect TO manure his land aud rely upon good
culture to produce good crops. All crop,
are obtained at the expense of either manure
or soil, and if no fertilizer is applied they
will inevitably injure the land. The true
way is to manure we'll and also thoroughly
cultivate the crop. Thus the advantages Of
manure and culture may both be secured
NeV England Homestead