Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1881-08-27
Green Manuring.

Green Manuring.
UnwiSe farmers too often continue to
crop their fields until, like an utterly
worn-out and broken-down horse which
falls and dies in the harness, the soil
fails to produce any crop at all. And
then they are led to suppose that green
manuring will restore them. But the
great difficulty is to get anything to
grow on such a soil, and a poor, light
crop plowed in is of very little benefit,
so that long course of recuperation is
required, and it necessarily proceeds
very slowly. For nothing can come OFT
of the soil that is not already in it, and
it is in vain to look to the atmosphere
for any help in fertilizing a poor soil.
The atmosphere contributes carbonic
acid to plants in abundance no doubt,
and even carbonaceous matter may be
made toundergo process of notification
in the soil and in its decomposition mey
act upon inert potash and phosphoric
acid and liberate portion of them;
but plants can only avail themselves
even of this source of supply in proper
ton to the supply of other elements re-
CURED for their growth, and a weak
plant has only a very small ability to
help itself even to the superintendent
carbon of the air. So that green ma.
nuring is a very poor resource for poor
land, ard, what is lacking in power for
recovery in such case must be made up
in time and labor.
The common opinion that green ma
nuring is the universal panacea for worm
out land needs to be exploded and its
futility exposed. 1t is questionable if it
can be used in some cases with any good
effect at all without some expenditure
for artificial fertilizer to start it, and if
it would not be cheaper to borrow mon
ey to start the process of improvement
in this way than to spend weary years
in the slow work of recovering what has
been lost. A course of improvement of
really WORKOUT land that is based wholly
upon green manuring must necessarily
be very slow, because practically moth
ing is added to the soil that is of any
fertilizing value, all that can be done
being to change the condition of what
inert and insoluble matter already ex-
lists in an unavailable state and by the
slow action of tillage, of the atmosphere
and of the action of the decaying veg
etable matter to gather together some
plant food out of the present useless
elements. 1t must be obvious to every
thoughtful and considerate farmer that
this can not fail to be an exceedingly
slow operation, and that expectations OF
an early and conspicuous result will GER
tainly be disappointed.
But this is no good reason why the
practice should not be made use of for
restoring worn-out lands when there is
no other method available. 1t may be
a last resource, and in such q case the
best Judgment needs to be exercised tC
prevent loss of time and labor. The
crops chosen should be such as are moi
exacting upon the soil and such as car
be most easily grown with the help Of
cheap and active fertilizers, such as lime
OF plaster. The method of tillage, too
is of importance, because this has much
to do with the result. The best cropfo
this purpose is buckwheat, which viii
grow upon poor soils with far greater
vigor than clover. The blowing anC
narrowing should be thorough, and {
summer following and lining would bt
advisable before crop is sown. Ther
buckwheat may be sown in May at the
rate of three bushels per acre, which il
four times as thick as for an ordinar,
crop, but is requisite for this purpose
The buckwheat will be in blossom earl,
in July, and may then be plowed dow
in its turn in September when in bios
som, and the ground seeded torye. Tn,
rye may be plowed down when in full
growth late the next May, and corn ma,
be sown in drills for fodder, a dressing
of 200 pounds of plaster per acre being
given. This crop may be cut when il
blossom, which will be early in August
and the ground may be sown to man
moth clover with white turnips. TIL
clover will make sufficient growth be
fore winter to escape damage, and tn
turnips should be left for shelter, al
7 though the best of them may be pullet
and sold if there is market for them
or they may be fed to the stock. Wit
b fair crop of clover success is within
. sight, and it only remains to act witt
, caution to insure it. The clover shoulC
be cut only for seed, and all the refus
returned to the land and plowed in wit
: the stubble. The seed will pay NOR
I than the hay would and the land will b
in better condition for the next crop
which should be corn. The ground ma,
be sown with turnips to be plowed in il
the spring, or clover may be again sow
with the turnips among the corn, tn
: turnips being chiefly left as before 70
9 protection and manure, crop of ha
' taken and the sod plowed down the mex
| spring, when oats may be sown. Ry
e may next be sown and plowed in tn
; next spring for corn, and turnips an
t clover again sown with the corn. Afte
: this the land will be in fair course Z
, Teoovery.-N. Y. Times,
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