Huntsville gazette., 1883-03-10
Waste in Land.
Journal.

More than half of the land in occupa-
ton is waste. If / raise eighty bushels
of corn per acre, and my neighbor
raises but forty, although my neighbor
may think he does well-whch he does,
and better than is commonly done-yet
it requires double the amount of land to
equal my yield This is loss of inter-
est and taxes on half of my neighbor's
land, or virtually so much waste land.
The difficulty is, his land is half fed. 1t
therefore can do but half the work. But
usually land does much less than this,
and can be made to do more than in the
other case. This shows what an enor-
nous waste there is. Really, over two
thirds of our land is idle, the interest,
taxes and repairs lost, and this loss a
constant drain. And yet this is not the
worst; farmers, instead of disposing OF
some of their land, or working to its full
capacity what they have, grasp after
more, thus increasing the waste, and
too often decreasing the profit, with
sometimes loss Of the land in the end,
which is usually q relief If you men
ton improvement to them they know it
all, and will even assume to instruct
you, assuring you that some land is
''too poor to do anything with" and
pleading lack of manure, or the too
great cost of enrjching the land with
purchased manures. And yet it may be
that round about them are those who
never lack for manure, growing large
and profitable crops, on land originally
as poor as the land they COMPLAIN of.
Good tillage and homemade manure
are the most successful means of raising
full and profitable crops. The manage
ment must be to prevent not only waste
in the land, but in labor, in manure,
and in many other ways that may seem
small, but in the aggregate amount to
much. This must be done, as the aver
age profit per bushel or pound of pro-
duce is necessarily small. Economy is
valuable aid here as in everything
else, and the farmer can not well practice
it too much. Besides, he must have
knowledge and experience, not only ia
a general way, but as directly applied
to his own land. He NAV grow large
| crops--the largest, if you please that
will cost more than they are worth, as
is often the case with premium crops, or
with corn grown from the silo, or par
ticularly where commercial fertilizers
are used. The ground, very highly and
deeply enriched, will lose some of its
manure before it can be appropriated,
taking years to do it, with loss of the
Interest and the risks which accompany
overgrown crops. Less manure might,
on the whole, have grown as good crops
with less loss. The best way is-and
this experience must largely decide-to
use manure enough to grow Null crops,
or such as will secure the most advant-
age, all things considered, in which case
there will always be enough manure left
in the soil to favor the next crop, which
may not need additional fertility to
grow it, depending upon what is grown,
some crops requiring less manure, and
to some extent of changed character;
but there should always be enough to
tax the full capacity of the soil, so that
the greatest profit, all things considered,
may be realized. What is more than
this is a waste, to some extent, of
manure; what is less is lack and i'm.
plies waste in land.-F. g., ia Country
Gentleman.