The Osceola times., 1878-01-12
The study OF TiliAge.


The leading article in the December
number Of the American Farmer, from
the pen of l.. II. McGinnis, discusses
ably the question, "How does plant feod
escape from the cultivated soilY" The
writer remarks: Gas to how the grea.
body goes, 1t could hardly be subject
of doubt with any farmer who has ever
had the fortune or misfortune to be
sought on plowed field during heavy
rainfall, where he must have seen it
plant food runnina off in channels,
every furrow forming a rivulet more
rapidly than 100 men could carry it on. !"
The above strikes boldly at a lact to
which we have often called public atten-
tion, and especially in an essay on the
philosophy of tillage," published some
thirty years sgo in the Transactions OF
the New York State. Agricultural socie.
ty. Tillage places soil In the best pos.
sible nd ton to b. thoroughly washed
and secured by many rains which send
its fertilizing elements into brooks,
creeks. rivers and the ocean. Mr.. McG.
.ays; "In general plant food applied to
soil is lost neither by sinking nor evaps-
ration, nor by both together" He thinks
that less than one-tenth OF the loss re-
suits from the removal of crops.
This is probably an underestimate.
All know that meadows and pastures are
impoverished by moving and grazing
where there is no plowing, while annual
crop, of grass are taken off the land
Depletion and ultimate barrenness follow
the removal of rich agricultural
plants without tillage. But let us ex-
anime the exhaustion of soils little
farther Our author makes this quite
unusual statement: 81 have never seen
the subject of exhaustion usefully. in
telligently. or decently treated in any
book. My heart sorrows at the prospect
ef dying without the sight" He adds
"lf no such book exists, the shame is
universal-a million times more than !
can ever feel. believe the question of
exhaustion to be of greater moment,
especially to farmers, than any other.
Expectation of crops, the principal, il
not the only, reasons assigned and elabo-
rated by writers-in my opinion does
not take five pounds in leo pounds OF
what the soil loses"
River bottoms, deltas, gulfs, and the
sea receive the dissolved and solid parts
of farms denuded, depleted or rendered
sterile by the labor of man according to
this student OF agriculture.
That the plow desolstes the soil by the
million acres, we have no doubt; but how
to stop il under our low type of civilizs-
tion and intelligence is the grand ques.
ton. All men can no more be wise,
prudent or thoughtful than they can be
angels. The element do most to create
good soils for man and beast, and do most
also to destroy them. Old continents
wear out by the action of frost and the
friction of rain and dissslving snow,
which carry them as mud into the
ocean, whether man tills the ground or
not. Tillage, however, hasteps the re-
movsl of fertilizing atoms.
Let these precious atoms be as well
known to CAPITALISTS as iron, coal and
gold, and capital In q virgin soil will
be better husbanded than 1t now is, not,
perhaps, for the benefit of the husband
man, but to increase the income Of the
bondholders and creditor class generally.
The misers of the cities do not see the
wealth buried in their sewers, else they
would coin it into geld paying national
bonds Concentrated manure pays a
better interest than any other property
in the present age. 1t is the power O!
production brought to focus.