The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1882-04-19
OUR FARM BUDGET.
Agriculture In America---Inflamed I'd
ders---Salt on Land.
Rnsilage. Chambers, Lima Beans, Rhubar'
Farm and Workshop Notes.
Agriculture in America.

Atlantc.I
Most prominent among the factors that
have contributed toward the extraordinary
development and prosperity of agriculture
in the United Statesis unquestienably the
great native fertility of soils, as yet unex-
Gausted in the newer States and Territories,
which are thus enabled to po<r out upon
the East and upon Europe the accumulated
soil treasures of many ages. That these can
not hold out forever, or even for years to
come, is an inexoE@ble law Of nature; and
the steady diminUton of production per
acre in the States east of the Mississippi
River, resulting in their increasing inability
to compete in the growing OF cereals with
the newer States, has long given warning
that the experience of the Old World is be-
ing repeated OF the new Continent, and that
the old and ever recurring question is upon
Us of maintaining profitable productiyeness
by means of systematic CULTURE and returns
10 the soil.
Whether this question shall be allowed to
assume the aspect ola menance that usually
conironts the European agriculturist, No
manure, no crops" or whether an ounce Of
intelligent prevention shall forestall the
heavy burdens that will otherwise rest upon
the coming generation ard its industries, is
the issue that must largely be determined
by enlightened Government action, in the
face of the already inveterate bad habits OF
the vast majority of American farmers,
that are, as usual, promptly adopted BY the
European immigrant. The ravaging OF the
virgin soil by heavy cropping without
-
turns, followed by ''turningOut" of the
''tired" land, and too often, by the washing
away of the surface soil from the hard plOw
sole formed by shallow tillage, not Gncom-
monty resulting in the definitiye ruin of the
land tor agricultural purposes, is repeated
more soC less in every newly settled re-
gion. Deserted homesteads, and melan-
choly old fields SCARED with gullies,
mar the face Of the land in the rear Of the
pioneer farmer, and impose upon his
steadier successor q heavy tax. in the way
of reclamation, on soils that If nationally
cultivated would not have felt the need of
manure for scores of years. For want of
the NEST documentary knowledge Of agri-
cultural facts and principles the planters OF
the South have for threequarters Of a cen
tarv wasted nine crops of cotton for every
one made, by failing to utilize the chief
product OF their tields-cOttOn seeds-fOr re-
turns TO the soil, which needs bat little
more to maintain its full productiveness for
ever. Such crying evil as this would
hardly have been allowed to exist so long
in any country less averse to the least SEM
blance of paternal government without
something more than the faint warnings
and circumstances uttered from time to
time in the periodical press, or in Govern
ment documents. The great perfection at
tanned by agricultural implements Tor large
scale culture, under the hands of American
inventive skill, serves but to add to the
rapiGity with which the process of soil
devastation is carried forward into Aew
fields.