The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1880-02-27


3 ExsToRE w0RN.oUr LANDS -
IS; 10 BE INDEPENDENT OF LABOR II
How no tMAKE our LANDED ESTATES
PR0TrrABLEl!l .
These are problems of the greatest con.
earn % us, and they have, in great measure.
been solved. Hereafter, the present system
: cfimpoverishment Of lands, of wear and
tear Of mind and body, of exhaustion of
-res0urces and credit, and of ultimate bank
ruptcy and penury, is to be supplanted by
~ new ,system, by which our worn out and
abandoned lands are to be restored to fertil.
~, our detected energies to be stimulated
! Into active and hopeful effort, happiness
{ and Fortune 70 be restored to ourselves and
chiIdrcn, and prosperity and gladness again
20 smile upon our prostrate and languishing
countfy. Agreat work, to be sure, as every
body Nill ssy; but one wrcughs out by a
!. life Of srduVus labor, aided, By xrare com.
bination Of talent and opportunity. And
this new system has been inaugurated by
our chemist, DR.. St. Julien Raveual.
through the iustrumentality of his com.
pound, called Ash Element
Just as the greatest and most useful in.
ventions in mechanics are always the most
simple, 80 that even child can understand
and use them, 80 it is in every other affair
Of life ; the most useful and effective things
are always simple aud easily understood, so
that from their very simplicity, indeed,
they often escape our observation.
The operations Of nature, 80 far as they
concern us practically, are plainly to be un.
derstood but il We attempt to penetrate
beyond this, we fiud ourselves involved in
inextricable difficulties. But although the
mind is thus eminently finite, yet it is promo
to overlook things that are near and super.
fcial and reaches after the remote and the
profound.
We find this tendency in agriculture as
well as in other departments of industry
We are digging aud delviug to great depths,
often when the object of our search is just
on tho surface.
Hence We have elaborate treatises on ag-
ricultue, based on fanciful theories and
hypothesis, ignoring plain facts, having
seemingly for their purpose the aggrandize.
ment of the author rather shan the advance.
ment Of agriculture.
The laws of nature arc inaexible, and she
will serve US only as we observe her laws.
Obviously, then, our study must be to find
out her ways And in the pursuit of this
study wo must be governed by observation
aud experiment. ~Iu.
Nature must answer our questions, and
net man.
For instance, if we want to grow wheat
We must learn by observation what are the
wants of wheat, aud 80 with cotton and
corn.
If we 6nd that wheat wants heterogeneous,
and peas inorganic material we must sup.
ply accordingly.
IF we find that after wheat Nitrogen is
diminished in the soil, and that after peas
the soil is repleuished with Nitrogen, we
have gained important information.
Aud so we will go on and observe next
the chemical processes which take place in
the soil, by which the reaction ofone ingre-
dient upon another produces a third diverse
from either. Nor will we fail to observe
the vital properties of plants by which they
effect such changes in the constituents Of
the soil as enables them to appropriate in
gradients that would be otherwise unavaila.
Sle.
In this connection DR.. Liebig says II,
have long since given up the prevalent idea
that fertilizers act in the mere capacity of
furnishing plant food, aud hold that they
their main function consists in celebrating
and making plant food out of ingredients
found in the soil"
Now, although the pursuit OF this study
is measurably within the power of every
man, yet to attain to high degree Of sue.
cess requires special talent combined with
opportunity.
The talent comes by the endowment of
God and by education, the opportunity is by
the furnishing of man. |g
Now it happens by fortuitous circumstan.
ces, that we have the combination of the
two under the most favorable conditions
and we begin our observations: we find
that cotton, the cereals and grasses, will
not thrive except in soil where there is an
excess Of Nitrogen.
At the same time, we find that Legumi.
uoids, (peas, beans, &C., are Indifferent to
Nitrogen, but that they require minerals
ashes, say--in other words, an Ash Ele-
ment. We find that cotton, the cereals and
grasses, leaves the land bereN Of Nitrogen
but that the Leguminoids, under this spe.
c6c treatment, leave the land replenished
wit Nitrogen.
NoU this Is most significant fact, and
It Is, indeed, the key TO the whole problem.
BY this, IL wound seem, that just as IN the
animal kingdom, one animal is made sub.
servient TO the life of another, SO in the veg.
etsble kingdom.
'As herbivorous animals are food for the
Carnivorous, SO Leguminous plants are
meant by nature to be food for the Grami.
nacious,, IT, then, We want to grow cereals
md grasses, II follows, that We must learn
hnu fr L.