Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1880-12-08
Restoring Worn Out Lands.

1SCSGVA1AS "VAA Wv Ao0NSs
Mr.. EDITOR: In one of our agri-
cultural conversations held in your
city, 1 heard one of the gentlemen
belonging to the set whom you once
facetiously called the horny handed
farmers of Gay street, affirm that our
lands in East Tennessee were not as
a general thing wearing out. But
though then comparatively stranger
in this state I did not give much
credit to the statement of the gentle
man Though no doubt very honestly
made) for about that time I met with
the very venerable DR.. Ramsey,
who said that fifty years before any
chunk of boy set to work upon any
of the uplands around, with pony
and pillow, was good for 500 bushels
Of corn; and another very aged man,
who had been a large slave holder,
told me that in the early times, away
before the war, he had raised eight
hundred bushels Of corn to the hand
on his plantation, on the
French Broad. Such things can not
be done nowadays. And then the
many worn out fields that stare US in
the face in this beautiful valley of
East Tennessee, are seen and read of
all men who have eyes to see. The
already large and still increasing
area in sedge grass and pines ought
to disturb the serenity of our minds
enough to provoke the inquiry why
are such trespasses here, usurping
the place of the corn and wheat, the
grass and clover, the orchards and
vineyards, that ought to occupy our
enclosures why are tLey here9 For
the best ofreasons, on natures side
of the question. Some one tells US
that the brown sedge is natures flag
of distress. 1t is equally true of the
young pines springing up in our
wasted fields. But it is more true
that both the sedge and the pine are
!defences that nature sets up to save
our fields in some degree from the
consequences of our bad farming
very kind on natures side of the
question-very shameful to us
farmers-to use land and wear it out
unless it be unavoidable) is robbing
our children of their heritage and
undermining the welfare of the state,
to say nothing of the claims of God
who gave US this land to use and not
abuse. Our cardinal mistake is in
keeping too much land under the
pillow. While we pillow so much and
SO continuously there is no power,
nor method, nor device under the
whole heavens, that can keep ou1
lands from wearing out, said gentle
man to me, pointing to an upland
field, ''For seventy years that field
has been either in corn, or wheat, OF
in oats. It's now played out" added
he very significantly. Under oul
past management the corn crop has
been the ruin of our upland farms
No other crop that we grow takes SO
much from the soil. None so heavy
burden, and the frequent blowing
while raising the crop leaves the sol
loose, to be washed away by the
heavy rains that so frequently occur
Right here is the dilemma where the
farmers of East Tennessee stand this
very moment We must pillow
Corn and wheat we must have. The
washing rains will come, and there
fore our lands will and must weal
out, is there no escape from thisi
Hitherto grant few of our farmers
have found any. It is the outcome
that is quite widely the result of oul
system of farming. Let US look al
it for moment. Fields lying waste
scattered all through the valley Of
East Tennessee after less than ar
average cultivation of half century
Land wearing out by fifty years cul-
tivation Why our cousin John
Bull has been living on his lands fol
some two thousands years and more
and he is said to carry the heaviest
purse In the world. The fields o
southern Europe for some three
thousand years, have felt the tread o.
the OK.
"Slow moving the plow,"
And in our own day we have seel
young Italy rising like giant from
his sleep and taking her stand amons
powers whom even the ancient
mother Rome might have hesitsted tt
encounter. There is a connection
vital and inseperable between tn
strength and progress of nation AM
the strength and productions of tn
soil, sheltered by its arms, and wbil
facts like these look us IN the face
and this connection between goot
husbandry sand national power an
prosperity remains fixed and IN
changable as the eternal hills, shal
! we consent TO the fact that our land
are helplessly ''gone and going, afte
: some nifty years of cultivation? Th
: wasted fields stare US in the face. I
1t the land and the climatep or is th
fault with the brain and muscle this
works the Hand? If:.the former, lie
, | r. L.