Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-09-08
Wearing Out Soil.

Prairie Farmer.
We hear a good deal said constantly
about soil deteriorations and their ulti-
mately wearing out. In all old settled
countries where slack system Of farm
ing is carried on, the soil soon loses its
fertility, the resort must be had to
heavy manuring, or such a system of
fallow rejuvinating, that while the soil
may have rest in the direction in which
it has been depleted, some crop may be
raised to shade the ground, and eventu-
ally be turned under to furnish food
for succeeding crops. tits quite true
that we may not draw on any soil
year after year in the special crops,
without uniting it for fair production.
We may easily unfit most soils me-
chanically SO that their productive
qualities will be locked up; yet this be-
ing done under Indifferent cultivation,
a practical man will take the farm, and
in few years bring it again up to a
fair standard of fertility. 1t is a fixed
law that whatever elements of fertility
are carried away from soil must again
be in some way replaced. Hence the
well known value Of manures, of clo-
yer and grasses, and of various plants
that may be plowed under to again
render the soil fertile. Hence again
: n we'll conducted farming the necessity
of well-digested rotation of crops,
adapted to the special soils worked.
All farms are not adapted to wheat, OF
to corn, or stock grazing or dairying.
Hence every farmer grows such crops
as his judgment dictates as best adapt
ed tc the nature of his land, and the
more intelligent ones seek by DIVERSE
fed crops not only to keep the fertility
intact, but to improve it.
In this way the soil is rich and fer
tile over vast areas of country. There
are plenty of instances where farms
have been cultivated for over forty
years to corn as principal crop, withou
especial diminution of fertility. Will,
so growing corn, stock has been made
a speciality. This necessitateS plent.
of grass, and grass in the rotation j
one of the best possible means of fertili
zation. In other words, nothing ha
been carried off from the the farm bu
the net products made. In this wa,
the soil of ordinary fertility may b
kept intact indefinitely, if the mechan'
cal texture of the soil be kept intact
This is done by careful blowing, neve
when the soil will not cleave, in a frii
able state, from the plowshare, and b
good and clean cultivation. Anothe
man has a farm well adapted to whea
Does he make this the sole crop! B
no means. 1t may be the crop frol
which he gets his money profit, bl
clover is the strong integer in the sy
tenn of renovation, and thus aga
stock must be used. The good farm,
cultivates not only such crops as al
best adapted to his own, market, al
by exercise Of good business sagaci
keeps his soil not only intact, but {
ten increases his yield material
There is indeed much sense as well
nonsense, mixed up with this questi'
of soils running down. 1t is however,
non-reading and generally slack farm
who lets his farm run down, while t
business farmer is not only careful
keep his farm up to the natural fl
tility, but seeks by every means in
power to make it more productive ye
by year until at last he is gratifed wi
knowing that he has reached the POI
of maximum and more fertility.
Massachusetts, Crops.