Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-12-18
Wearing Out Soil.

We have good deal said constantly
about soil deterioration, and their ulti-
mately wearing out. In all old settled
countries where slack system of farm
ing is carried On, the soil soon loses its
fertility, and resort must be had to heavy
manuring, or such "a system Of fallow
renovation, that while the soil may have
rest in the direction in which it has been
depleted, some crop may be raised to
shade the ground, and eventually may
be turned under to furnish food for sue
ceeding crops. 1t is quite true that we
may not draw on any soil year after year
it the production Of special crops, with
cut uniting it tor fair production. We
may easily unfit some soils mechanically
so that their productive qualities may be
locked up, yet this being done under in
efficient cultivation, practical man will
take the farm, and i'll few years bring
it again up to fair standard of fertility.
It is fixed law that whatever elements
of fertility are carried away from a soil
must again be in some replaced. Hence
the well-known value of manures, of clo-
yer, and the grasses, and ofvarious plants
that may be plowed under to again rend-
er the soil fertile. Hence again i'll all
well-conducted farming the necessity OF
well-digested rotation of crops, adapted
to the special soils worked. All farms
arc not adapted to wheat, or to corn, to
stock grazing. OF dairying. Hence every
farmer grows such crops as his judgment
dictates as best apapted to the nature of
his land, and the more intelligent ones
seek by diversified crops not only 10 keen
the fertility intact, but to improve it.
In the West the soil is rich and fertile
over vast areas of country, There are
plenty of instances where farms have
been cultivated for over forty years to
corn as the principal crop without espe
cial diminution Of fertility. While so
growing corn, stock has been made
speciality. This necessita.es plenty of
grass, and grass in the rotation is one of
the best possible means of fertilization
In other words nothing has peen earned
off from the farm but the meat product
made. In this way, the soil of ordinary
fertility may be kept intact indefinitely,
if the mechanical texture OF the soil be
kept intact. This is done by careful
blowing, never when the soil will not
cleave, in triable state from the plow-
share, and by good and clean cultivation.
Another man has farm well adapted to
wheat. Does he make this the sole crnp7
By no means. It may be the crop from
which he gets his money profit, but clo-
yer is the strong integer In the system of
renovation, and thus again stock must be
used. The good farmer cultivates not
only such crops as are best adapted to
his homo market, and by the exercise of
good business sagacity keeps his soil not
only intact, but often increases his yield
materially. There is, indeed, much
sense, as we'll as nonsense, mixed up with
this question of soils running down. 1t
is, however. the non-reading and gener-
ally slack farmer who let's his soil run
down, while the business farmer is not
only careful to keep his farm fully up
to its natural fertility, but seeks by ev-
cry means in his power to make 1t more
and more productive year by year until at
last he is gratificd with knowing that he
has reached the point Of maximum fer
tility.