The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-07-26
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Exhausted soils,

The impression has long prevailed that the
soils of New England are badly exhausted,
sworn out" and altogether "run down.
No doubt there is a good deal OF nonsense in
all this, or that it is entirely overstated. We
have almost all kinds of soil, some OF them rich
and as good probably as they ever were, some
of them poor and worthless from the beginning
and as poor now as they ever were, and some
1t may fairly be confessed, that have been
cropped from time immemorial without the
application of sufficient manure in return.
THESE are far worse now, perhaps, than
they were originally.
1t we go back in our history a hundred
years or more, we shall find that when Mas.
sachusetts was first settled, the farmers went
into the woods with their axes, cut down the
trees and burned them on the ground, forty
fifty, or hundred cords to the acre. That
left a rich coat of ashes, which made abund-
ant feed for their cows sheep and hogs, and
for all their cattle through the summer; they
had a pretty hard struggle to get them
through the winter. About half century
ago our farmers in Massachusetts began to
talk about the exhaustion of their pastures
They did not know the cause, but we cannot
fail to see the cause. They had been draw.
ing off the potash for fifty years, and had put
nothing on. What is to be done with this
land--with these sixty acres out of hun.
dred? There is great deal of it which is
sour. which is not in state for the appca-
ton of plaster of Paris or sulphate of lime,
because it will do no good; it will do no good
where there is the appearance of iron in your
land, because there is already too much sui.
phate there. This land you can tell by sim
pie observation, without any chemical texts.
Look at the vegetation. There is one axiom
of chemistry that we can always remember,
and that is, that acids turn vegetable greens
to red. You will recollect having seen red
plants at the side of the road where the land
was well cultivated, and you will see upon
trees that grow upon such land something Of
the same appearance. There is often some
acid elements detrimental to our land, and il
takes SO much manure and so much alkali to
neutralize it, that successful farming is near
ly impossible. You may plant that land with
corn, and put an ordinary quantity of ma
Hure on it, and it not go to seed; but with
sufficient manuring it may be brought up tc
be equal to the best land in the world, by be-
ing opened to the rains and the air.
Another thing you will notice about sou;
lands. You will notice sorrel. That viii
grow for few years, and be followed by
white clover. 1t is the pioneer of something
better. 1t is the pioneer of such plants as we
want to feed our animals with, containing
starch. The farmers in many parts of the
country have left this old land. They die
once cut off the bushes, but they found little
profit in it. The food was gone; the plants
that grew contained very little nutriment
and consequently they have let it grow up to
wood, and they have made money by it. Ar
acre OF land that produces pretty good crop
OF wood will grow cord year. We should
be thankful that we have no barren land in
Massachusetts. We say our land is exhaust.
ed. 1t is not exhausted. 1t is exhausted fol
particular crops. but something will grow.
The cone-bearing plants will grow first on
this sour soil--.the pines, the hemlocks, the
spruces, the birches. These are the older
race of plants than the naples, the chestnuts,
the oaks; and these are filling your land for
another rotation, if you choose to call it so.
II you will wait thirty years, and then burn
the land over as the early settlers did, you
will renovate your land.
However much a soil may appear to be ex-
hausted, the proper treatment will restore it
In some cases the growth of clover will do il
in reasonable length of time. In others
pasturage with sheep will do it more certainly
and quickly, but where these modes are NOT
practicable manure higher and till more COM
Observation-Disclosures Ploughman.