Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-07-12
Alternate Cultivation.


suppose because a practice has been
tried years ago and has fallen into dis
use that its abandonment necessarily
stamps it as a failure. There are at
times ''men of whom the world is not
worthy" now as heretofore; and men,
too, who were born before the world
was ready for them. Intellect is. and
has always been, in advance of popular
appreciation, and the most extraordi-
nary successes in science and art have
grown to perfection under the pressure
of adversely, just as fire smOthered
under load of wet matter smOlderi
slowly and painfully, until by constant
persistence it has dried up the resisting
water and spread all through the mass.
and lastly burst out into brilliant
flame. There is nothing new under the
sun. Long after the world has been
startled by some wonderful invention,
such as the telephone or the electric
light, it is found by some patient exca-
vatOr in musty records that the inven-
ton was made, perhaps, a century ago.
but the time being unripe. the unfortu-
nate inventor lived and died in neglect
and poverty, pitied and suffered to ex-
list merely as a crank or an enthusiast
whose brain was little turned, its con-
volutions perhaps twisted the wrong
way. And he is forgotten, until in time
his remains are disinterred by some ac
cident 1t is so in agriculture and has
been so always from its earliest history.
And now, in the pursuit of investigation
and thoughtful observation of modern
practice, old things become new again.
A hundred years ago Jcthro Tull, an
English farmer. thought he discovered
that the soil could be greatly improved
in fertility by thorough tillage. and his
theory that ''tillage is manure" became
q by-word of the period. This brought
up the practice of summer following,
which became very popular. and re-
manned so up to within few years.
when it was discovered that the soil
might be made to grow a crop and at
the same time be subjected to a course
of tillage which we call cultivation with
equal advantage. Cultivated crops then
became the means of adding to the fer
tility of the soil, while it was made to
yield up portion of its fertility to the
crop grown. After Tull's time came
Rev. Mr.. Smith, OF Lois-WeedOn, an
English preacher, who cultivated his
''glebe'' himself, and became q thor
ough, practical and passable scientific
farmer. He mingled the two ideas
above referred to in one practice, and
called it alternate cultivation. His
method was to grow crops upon strips
two or three feet wide, saving a bare
strip of equal width between them,
which was frequently plowed and cul-
tivated. In this manner he
succeeded in producing unheard-of
yields of wheat, and yet preserv-
ing his fields in high state of fertility.
Last week there appeared commun-
ication in these columns from CORE
spondent in Alabama, which we hope
was carefully read as it deserved. 1t
describes what, to the author of it, is
undoubtedly new discovery, but yet it
is practically tried and successful
method of growing crops. But years
ago, when it come first into notice, it
was premature and found but few
friends, and was soon forgotten except
ing by few persons who keep them
selves acquainted with the history of
agriculture. Perhaps it is time to re-
vive this system of cultivation, for it is
undoubtedly worthy of practice both
upon poor and rich soils. 1t is rarely
believed that by giving plant four
times the usual space on the ground. up
the production can be grown. But this
is a fact that may be proved by any
farmer who will follow the method out
lined by the correspondent who favors
us with his valuable experience. Two
years ago the writer planted
mammoth sweet corn in rows nine
feet apart, with hills six feet apart, thus
giving the three plants in each hill six
times as much room as had been usual
and was given to the remainder of the
crop. The plants grew enormously,
under the stimulus, too. of six times
the quantity of fertilizer usually applied
to hill, and which could be afforded
without increasing the amount used per
acre. Each stalk produced two perfect
ears of much larger size than is usual
even in this large variety, besides an oc-
casiOnal nubbin of unusual bulk for a
"nubbin.' The grain was much larg-
er, cleaner, sweeter and finer in every
way than that of the same kind of corn
grown three, feet apart and the yield OF
the plot SO planted was considerably
more than that of any other part OF the
field. Besides the extra quality gave it
a greater value both for "sweet corn
in the ear and for seed when ma
ture. The advantage of the wide rOOmy
rows which gave facility for constant
cultivation up to the last helped consid-
erably to the result, and the succeeding
crop on the same ground, which was
planted in corn in rows in what
were the previous year the spaces,
showed that the soil itself had been ben
Gifted by the method of cultivation.
Few farmers know to what length
and depth the roots of corn extend. In
a case where freshet had washed the
soil out of several rows of field corn,
and had left the network of roots bare,
these were found interlacing the rows
and filling the soil, even spreading be-
yond the adjoining rows over into the
next spaces. Many roots were traced
eight feet before they were broken, and
one corn plant, whose roots were care
fully measured, was found to have more
than $50 feet in total length of roots
still remaining, besides the finer fibers
which had been torn away with the
soil.
Such experiments as these are of the
greatest value. We know really very
little of the ultimate possibilities of our
soil or our principal crops. And it is
of the highest Importance that farmers
should make experiments themselves
to cOrroborate those of which they read
others have made. We are glad to
1--we reports of such experiments,
knowing personally how much there is