The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1882-04-22
Agriculture In America.

Most prominent among the factors
that have contributed toward the extra
ordinary development andz zprosperity of
agriculture in the United States is, un-
questionably, the great native fertility of
soils, as yet unexhausted in the newer
States and territories, which are thus
enabled to pour out upon the East and
upon Europe the accumulated soil treas
ures of many ages. That these cannot
hold ont forever, or even for years to
come, is an inexorable law of nature;
and the steady diminution per acre in
the States east OF the Mississippi river,
resulting in their increased inability to
compete in the growing of cereals with
the newer States. has long given warn
ing that the experience of the Old
World is being repeated on the new
continent, and that the old and ever re-
curing question is upon us of maintain
ing profitable productiveness by means
of systematic culture and returns to the
soil.
Whether this question shall be allow
ed to assume the aspect of the menace
that annually confronts the European
agriculturalist, "No manure, no crops" !"
or whether an ounce of intelligent pre-
vention shall forestall the heavy burdens
that will otherwise rest upon the coming
generation and 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 soils by heavy cropping
without change, or even the slightest
attempt at return, followed by the
turning out" of the tired" land, and
too often, by the washing away of the
the surface soil from the hard plow-sole
formed by shallow tillage, not uncom-
monty resulting in the defnitive ruin of
the land for agricultural purposes, is re-
peated more or less in every newly set
tied region. Deserted homesteads, and
melancholy old fields SCARED with gull
lies, mar the face of the land in the rear
of the pioneer farmer, and impose upon
his steadier successor heavy tax, in the
way of reclamation, On soils that if ra-
tionally cultivated would not have felt
| the need of manure for scores of years.
| For the want of the most rudimentary
knowledge of agricultural facts and
principles, the planters of the South
| have for three-quarters of century
wasted nine crops of cotton for every one
made, by failing to utilize the chief pro-
duct of their felds-cotton seed-for re-
turns to the soil, which needs but little
more to maintain its full productiveness
forever. Such crying evil as this would
hardly have been allowed to exist SO long
| in any country less averse to the least
semblance OF paternal government with
out something more than the faint warn
ings and remonstrances uttered from
time to time in the periodical press, or
| in government documents. The great
perfection attained by agricultural inn
| plements for large-scale culture under
the hands of American inventive skill,
serves but to add to the rapidity with
which the process of soil devastation is
| carried forward into new fields.-Eugene
w. Hilgard in April Atlantic.