The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-02-12

acres, barley and oats 600 acres, seed AID
palse 500; and roots 500.
The landlord insists upon rotation OF
crops and the Importance of such system
cannot be overestimated. 1t is we'll known
that certain mineral salts or salifable bases
are essential to the constitution of vegetables.
Indeed it is asserted by chemists that no seed
exists that is without phosphate and it is
wei! known that the alkaline salts powerful
~ promote vegetation. Such is their ascer-
tanned influence, that tobacco, barley and
buckwheat sown in soils absolutely without
organic matter, but containing saline sub
stances and only moistened with distilled
water, are known to have produced perfect
plants, which lowered and fruited, and
yielded ripe Seeds Whence it follows, that
the presence of saline matter favors remark
ably the assimilation of the azote Of the
atmosphere during the act of vegetation.
The Importance of considering rotations
in connection with the inorganic substances
that are assimilated by plants, was perfectly
we'll known to Sir Humphrey Davy. 'The
expectation OF grain from country which
receives nothing in exchange that car
be turned into manure, must exhaust the
soil in the long rum" says the illustrious
chemist, who ascribed to this cause the pres
ent sterility of various parts Of Northern
Africa and OF Asia Minor, as well as OF Sicily,
which, for long succession Of years was the
granary of Italy. Rome, unquestionably con-
tains in its catacombs quantities of phospho-
rus from all the countries Of the earth. Such
startling facts teach US that the extraordi-
nary production of the cereals which is now
going on in America is not an unmixed
blessing. The spirit of luxury and extrav-
agance which is growing in our country and
which causes our farmers to over cultivate
is impoverishing our soil; and unless coun-
terbalanced by an improving system OF
agriculture, the importation of manures and
judicious rotation of crops will leave US in
the course of time in the same condition OF
the people of Northern Africa-the posses
sors of kind OF desert which was once a
garden, Recent intelligence of grain
blockade at Chicago, Illinois, tells the story
Of our excessive production.
CHICAGO, Ill, Jan. 10, 1880.
A grain blockade, of prodigious proper
tons, is the feature of the grain trade In
this market at present. The elevators OF
OF the city, which contain an aggregate OF
sixteen millions of bushels. are very nearly
filled to their utmost capacity, and several
RI ro0oiva Grain for this
market, because when it arrives there are no
accommodations for it. In this condition
of affairs the directors of the Board of Trade
are considering the propriety of accepting
as regular the receipts in the elevators and
storehouses along the line of the various
railroads. 1t is also in contemplation to pro-
vide temporary storage outside OF the eieva-
tors, and to build new elevators in various
quarters of the city. Large numbers OF cars
are lying along the track in the city loaded
with grain and are unable to deposit it. There
are in storage 100000 bushels of wheat, 4,
1000 of corn and enough other grain to
make the total IA, $50, 900 bushels. against
100000 at this time last year. There are
also about million bushels afloat in The
harbor.
Windsor park furnishes large quantit les
Of fern, which are used as litter in the stables
and COW yards, and with the hay and straw
distributed as fodder to the stock, produces
an abundant supply of manure. On the
Shaw farm, as generally in! England, mo rule
Is more insisted upon than that all the straw
produced upon the farm shall be consumed
upon it. The land is thus kept in high con-
clifton. We were glad TO observe that the
wasteful practice of applying fermenting
and half-rotted manure to the ground as a
top-dressing for grain, so extensively prac-
ticed in every county of England, which we
have visited, does not exist on the Shaw
farm.
In portions of France ard Switzerland,
the practice OF top-dressing lands sown
with winter grain, is extensively prac-
ticed. The manure is applied when the
blade is already above ground, and the pas
sage of wagons over the fields, and the feet
of horses does not materially injure the
crop. Yet the farmers generally avail them
selves of time when the ground is frozen,
to perform the process. The good effects of
top dressing with unrotted straw, litter,
&c., have been too frequently witnessed to
make us doubt its value to the growing
crop, but we are decidedly of the opinion
that we'll rotted dung heap, charged with
volatile gasses, ought to be Immediately
plowed under to prevent the action of light
and air upon the mass, land that straw, woody
stems, leaves and weeds-what is called the
litter of barn yard and the farm-which
make good beds for the stock, may be and
ought to be applied before it has fer
mented, as top-dressing for winter
crops and on grass lands. Often, when
felt crumbling under our feet the dry fibre
of what was once mass charged with fer
tilzing properties, but which exposure to
the light and air had dried up and dissi-
pated. The most valuable qualities of a
manure heap being gaseous, it is surprising
that in England, where there is such DIFF
fusion of knowledge, and so much intelli-
gent investigation, such an ignorant sys-
tenn should continue. By Immediately
turning the manure under with the pillow,
all this waste matter would be saved. The
fertilizing properties OF the manure, acted
on chemically by the substances composing
the soil, would enter into and become part
Of the soil itself, and the beneficial effects
be felt and seen for years. A top dressing
of leaves or unrotted straw by protecting or
shading the surface, and causing decompo-
sition, is no doubt of considerable value to
impoverished soil and grass land, land is prob
ably the best mode of applying unrotted
straw, but how different is this from expos
ing to the action of the sun and air mass
charged with highly volatile gases? On
large majority Of the English farms, during
this and previous visit to the coun-
try, we have seen the manure, instead
of being collected in pits or watts,
with the liquid refuse, scattered over
the barn yards and perpetually exposed
to the action of the sun and air. The
advantage ofsuch pits are acknowledged, but
the tenants are unwilling to incur the
expense Of having them prepared. They