Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1884-03-22
Over Cropping.
Cor. Spirit of the Fam.

Cor. Spirit OF the Fam.
There is nothing more detrimental
to the young farmer-the old one knows
better-than to persuade him he can
cultivate an enormous amount of land
to the hand. 1t invariably results in
neglected fields, dispirited farmers and
ridicule of neighbors.
1t is not as generally known as it
should be that an increase of labor will
increase the amount of yield far more
than larger area of land. What /
mean to say is, one man can put all the
work of which he is capable on given
piece of land and the yield will be lar
ger from say fifteen acres than from
twenty-five.
No man has any idea of the benefit
of increased tillage who has never test
ed it. Take a field of corn cultivated
In our usual slovenly manner, gather
closely every weed, sprig of grass and
corn suckers left at ripening. Add the
nutrition of these pests to the product
Of the field and then estimate the loss
to the corn from the effects of this
noxious growth and you will begin to
see some of the evils of Negligent cul-
ture. The reader must not suppose
that blowing and hoeing are all the re-
qulsites for a good crop. By no means,
though they are essential.
The people of Tennessee do not
know, or at least, do not practice as if
they did, the benefit of manuring.
However fertile land may be it can be
improved by fertilization. The people
of the North began system of ma.
nurlng from absolute necessity, for a
large proportion of their land would
not produce crops without it. But
they very soon ascertained by experi>
ment the land would do better where
MANFRED even if it was rich in all nat
ural elements of fertility, hence they
now practice it with the same regulars
ty they pillow or hoe. When we dis
cover the same truth then will the
South be rich indeed. AS long as we
can lay aside field impoverished by
culture and open anoth er fresh one fill
ed with virgin soil, we may expect to
see manures confined to the garden or
lay in heaps about the barn yard until
it is corpus mort,atm, as is most gen.
orally the case. l have seen large and
valuable heaps of finest manure lying
out in the weather, exposed to rain
and sun until it lost all distinctive
value, on the farms of our best farm.
ers; such heap as a Northern man
would toll and scrape for in vain, and
for which he would gladly exchange
his gold. And yet the addition of that
heap to an acre of land will add fifty
per cent. to its yield, besides lessening
the trouble of cultivation.
was lead into this train of thought
by reading letter from correspon.
dent in which he says two men cultiva-
ted 100 acres of land with the follows
crops: Corn, sixty acres; wheat, forty
acres; oats, fifteen acres; garden, FIVE
acres; meadow, eighteen acres, and the
remainder in pasture.
Now, so far as the small grain and
meadow goes, the estimate is none too
large as the ability to sow grain is large.
ly increased by the use Of cultivators,
sulky plows, harrows, etc. But a crop
which requires manure, and the hoe
cannot be sighted SO, As to the gar
den, five acres is as much as two men
can attend to, with nothing else to dis.
tract their attention, while fifteen or
less acres of corn are enough for any
man. | believe, in fact, one man can
make more corn on ten acres intelli-
gently managed, than on twenty acres
with the usual course pursued, even
with good culture.
In short, land should be made to do
all it can in the production of crops.
Manure well, pillow often enough to
keep down all but the crop, stir fire..
quently enough to keep up circula-
ton of air in the soil, and you will
have done your duty. The blowing
which is done after the crop is up is the
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