Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-08-28
results of good harvest, and if an early
winter does come, let us be prepared for 1t.
Agricultural Intelligence.


EXHAUSTION OF SoIL.-Ihe following,
from the pen of DR.. j. r. Lawes, to the
London agricultural Gdzette, is worth the
attention of all farmers: Ii Is now exactly
forty years since we began to exhaust per-
ton of one of my felds by continuous I'M
manured wheat crops. IL may therefore be
interesting to show the evidence we are IN
a position to bring forward upon the sub
iect of exhaustion as regards the soil at
Rothamstead. 1t would appear probable
that the annual decline due to exhaustion
may amount from one-quarter to one-thlTd
of bushel of wheat per acre per annum. Ii
we take the smaller quantity and add to 1t
the ordinary proportion of straw. the
result would be equivalent to about
forty pounds of produce, and as there
is but little doubt that the'bulk of the organic
matter of the crop is obtained from the
atmosphere, the amount of matter annually
taken IRON the soil by these forty pounds OF
produce Gncluding the nitrogen 1t contalnedj
would be between two pounds and three
pounds. The evidence derived from other
experiments in the same field proves that the
decline in produce Is due to an absence OF
nitrogen. as also that minerals are II
excess, but the actual amount of nitrogen
that these forty pounds of produce
would have contained would be less
than one-half pound IN weight. Ii will,
[ am afraid, appear TO your agricultural read
erssomething Ike an absuTdity to suppose that
one-half pound, more or less, or any substance
upon An acre of ground could have an apprecl-
able influence upon crop. / may obssrV e,
however. that this annual decline Of forty
pounds of produce, small as it appears to be,
amounts in forty years to ten bushels per
acre. Analyses of the soil made at dlherenG
times show that the nitrogen Is declining, ana
as the free use of minerals IN an adjoining
experiment does not prevent the decline OF
the crop, we can come TO no other conclusion
than that the gradual decline in the produce
is due to the diminishing amount of nitrogen
in the soil. As far as the wheat crop Is con-
cerned it would appear that the total amount
OF produce to be obtained from any soil
must depend very much upon the
stores of nitrogen already in the land.
It is true that the soil obtains certain
amount of ammonia from the rainfall, and 1t
probably condenses more or less from the
atmosphere but, on the other hand, drain
age carries away every year more or less
nitrogen in the form OF nitric acid and 1t Is
evident the atmospheric, supply whatever 1t
may amount to. does not suffice to prevent
decline of the crop; and it is therefore also
evident that the sources from which forty
crops obtained their supply must have been
the stores Of nitrogen already existing IN the
soil when the experiment commenced; fur
tber, it seems most probable that the yield
Of future crops will depend upon the amount
of nitrogen liberated each Year from the soil !"
Wool PROsPECTs AND PRICES. prin-
Sipal markets on our Atlantic coast are quiet
for obvious reasons. Dealers, in their mad
efforts to depress values, have been endeavor-
ing to brighten our farmers into the belief
that the market was oEerstocked with wool.
and that there was no demand Tor woolens
worthy of consideration. But nowhere has
the farmer listened to this pleading outside Of
Michigan, and as consequence they hold
the bulk Of the clip, confident that they will
yet obtain higher prices. The farmers OF
this country are men of intelligence and
sound Judgment. They do not dig and plow
and now and worry themselves to death
with the cares Of the world. They buy and
employ machinery to do all the labor Of their
own hands, and they read the agTicult-
ural country and national papers so
that they keep ''posted, and know what is
going on as well as the merchant and manu-
facturer There has not been place OF note
in the entire wool regions where the intelll-
gence contained in these journals has not
been read with avidisy every week, because
they have confidence that what is as
serted IS positive truth. Farmers cannot
see any sound reason why prices Of wool
should fiuctuate ID to 20 cents a pound in
couple Of months, at moment when the
whole country is in fourishing and prosper
Gus condition. Nor can we. The country is
more prosperous to-day than ever before, and
money IS cheap and abundant. 1t win not
do to assert that this is a bad sign Of the
times, to have money cheap, because we have
only to look across the sea to find it still
cheaper, and yet, with all their standing
armies, they do not regard it as bad omen
~ 5, Economist.