The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1882-09-01
Deer Creek Farmers Club.

Farmers Club was held at the residence of Mr..
August 26th. In the absence of President Munnik-
huysen, Mr.. John Moores was called to the chair.
Messrs. Archer, Lee and Rogers, the committee
appointed to examine the farm and premises, re-
ported, through Mr.. Archer, that Mr.. Hays had
made many improvements on his farm since the
club last met there. The chief of these is hog
house, to accommodate his pure-bred Berkshire
swine, of which Mr.. Hays is breeder. The build
ing is commodious and complete in all its ar
engagements and admirably adapted for saving
labor. 1t contains 20 separate pens. Mr. Hays
| had said that he had sold his best cattle and
that those remaining Ing %efe very poor but the
withstanding the dry weather. Mr.. Hays had two
| three-horse plows at work. The grass fields
around the house look well. Mr.. Hays has i'm
proved the place greatly since he took it and de-
serves much credit for the manner in which ne
has brought the place up to high state of fert-
MIR. Lee added that Mr.. Hays had built good
| sized tenant house, for the purpose of boarding
ra I for preparing food for his hogs and
| his Usage orange hedges are tlourishlng.
Mr.. Rogers asked Mr.. Hays how he liked barbed
fencing material he would use it for outside
| fences but would not use it for cross fences.
The question selected by MI Mr., Hays for discus
| was one involving so many abstruse problems in
| chemistry that the members generally confessed
their inability vt. to discuss i.t s 1t Thoroughly tS,
needed rest. Others thought land should be
worked year after year, getting all out of it you
need rest, as human beings do, or at least change
| of occupation. In the period of rest from active
cultivation they should be covered with grass,
and as Mr.. Lee would say, have in the meantime
plenty of cattle on them. If not covered with
grass they should be covered with something else,
straw for instance, to shade the land.
| r. John Rogers said it did not appear that lands
in this section need rest as much as pant-food.-
No land needs rest" Il judiciously farmed. Sim
ply resting the land will not improve it. regu-
lar system of farming and liberal application of
fertilizers, in the way of clover sod &c., will pre-
vent the exhaustion of soils better than rest
| Lands that appears to need rest most are those
that have been worked hard and lightly fortified.
Ii land is cropped for four five years and then
to e res Ss lie mink lana
so much by lying long in grass as by proper cult
walton.
deteriorating the soil-one by working and the
other by not working. That is, you may temper
arily exhaust the natural fertility of the soil by
| injudicious working. or you may temporarily ex-
| haust 1t by not working it at ALL He had noticed
| in the South a cotton-tield turned out TO rest,
| which was washed into gulleys. Wherever a
sedge plant had taken root the land was not
washed. That soil had deteriorated by rest. All
our lands contain, In greater or less degree, Gle
ments to produce all crops. Different crops eX-
| haust the soil of different materials Therefore
| some soils are better adapted for some crops
than for others. Soil needs no rest if judi
cously cultivated. 1t needs rest to accumulate
| sufficient amount of available matter for GER
| tain crops. These elements are restored by the
dsintegration of the SOIL by the action of the air,
| ments already in the soil, converting them into
| plant-food. BY rest, he did not mean taking Off
grass. He did not think it well to let the period
| of rest continue too long. Only certain amount
| of the lacking clements will get into condition to
| make plant-food quickly. Farmers should know
| what their crops require and supply by judicious
| cultivation and the application Of manures what
| is lacking in the SOIL This could be found out
| only by experiment. Every farmer should have
| a half or a quarter of an acre for experimental
purposes, upon which to try the effect of certain
| fertilizers on the various crops grown.
hate l. 1t,,I
by njudicious farming, but did not think it could
be built up by rest. Letting land lie In grass with
out top dressing will not benettit much. If land
is occasionally seeded in clover it will not deteri-
\ crate. Some land will deteriorate by blowing too
| shallow, causing it to wash other land will detc-
| rorate by too deep blowing.
| w. w. Castner said that his idea to prevent the
| exhaustion of soils was to apply to each crop
| what it requires. Chemistry tells us what plant
food will raise wheat, but can not tell us what ell
ements are wanted in the land fora crop of wheat
Mr.. Cashier had an article read showing the vast
amounts of pant-food annually carried out of
this country in various crops, and yet the soil is
not exhausted, but by proper applications of fer
| tilizera can be made to produce more than ever
before.
| Johns II. Janney said there are many ways of
exhausting the soil, such MS sovenly and bad cul-
tivation, but he did not believe with proper cuti
| character. One soil, naturally good. would inn
| prove when not cultivated while another, natur-
| ally bad, would deteriorate. Grazing heavily
while not cultivating IL not resting land The
only reason he would advise allowing lands To lie
| idle occasionally, is that they may settle and not
| become liable to washing. BY blowing every year,
fertiiizng judicously and turning under green
crops, say of rye or clover every three or four
| years, land will improve. Commercial fertilizers
will supply mineral matter To the soil but not
| vegetable matter.
Judge Walters said he had no symla thy with
those who try to prove that the fertility of the
soil is constantly going into the bottom of the
| ocean. The idea that for every blade of grass
| eaten an equivalent amount of the elements it
contains must be Immediately returned to the
| soil he did not think in nppOrlnDpn with tho
laws of God. AS for rest, nature provides that in
| the change of seasons. The elements of fertility
| toration to the soil are not understood. He had
seen an old meeting house, that had stood a hun
dred years, torn down. The soil under it for two
| feet was so rich that it was hauled out on the
| fields and wherever put it acted like guano. He
could not account for the manner in which this
| field for time and upon blowing the land you
will have good crop. If rest alone is required
some sedge fields ought to be garden-spots by this
constantly without diminishing its fertility, but
certainly there is some provision of nature by
which we are not REQUIRED to restore as much as
S)nnected with great deal of mystery on all
sides, but Il you farm properly, keep the ground
v wag anu reao yo W s sud eli sn as
poorer. 1t will get no richer by getting good
growth OF sedge on it and letting it rest.
James Lee said he did not sec how land would
improve by rest.
Thomas Lochary said land would not dcterior-
ate while III clover but let IL stand after the cO-
yer runs out and he did not think it would i'm
prove.
Samuel NJ. Lee said there was scriptural author
ity for resting the soil at regular periods EX-
perience proves that if ground is cultivated with
out being fortified or planted 1t will deeriorate
as much as If a crop were taken of certain
amount of rest Is necessary to soil In order to al
low the disntegration of particles of the soil to
furnish elements for future crops The effect of
rest varies on different soils. Some soils, If put
in moderate state of fertility and allowed to
rest, will go back. Other lands in the same state
OF fertility might improve by rest There Is an
improvement of land under shade, which is at
tributable to various causes No doubt the de-
cay of vegetable matter improves land, but where
this does not take place the growth and decay of
anmacule afford Improvement
Mr.. VIM. b. Sands Is not believer in the theory
of land needing rest, though 1t may be often con-
venient, economical and profitable to stop active
tillage to grow grass The experience of the gar
deners and truckers near the large cities is
opposed to it. They keep their land occupied by
successive crops cultivated persistently during
the entire growing season, frequently raising
three crops on the same lands in that time The
processes In the soil are mechanical and chemical
not vital, as In animals. The capability of rails
ing plants is due to the presence of available
plant-food; Yet the alienation of crops on the
same fields may have effects analogous to changes
In the kinds of occupation of a hard worked man.
The varying spread, direction and extent of roots
of different plants the changing proportions of
ingredients which those plants take up and assim-
ilate, and the condition In which the Ingredients
rotation Of crops but, with moderate supplies Of
the elements needed for plant growth and matur-
ity, there seems reason why cultivation should
not be continual. Exhaustion and fertility are
point TO the mechanical condition OF soils being
entitled to greater consideration than is usually
given, some going so far as to endorse the now
manure." I'M ~ u
Chemical analysis as q means of determining |
the degree Of fertility of soil is regarded no