The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1884-10-17
The Value Of Green ManureS.

Farmers have an exceed ngly made
quate idea of the vaue of green ma
Dures. Ine who will sow his seed and
wa patiently for the crop will be too
impatient to grow a crop of rye or corn
or clover to be plowed under to enrich
the so and return its rich harvest an
ut er year. Another will spend hum
dreds of dolla for pu chased manure
or fertiii ers, but will not spend tens in
growing crop to pillow into the soil for
the same purpose. And there are farm
ers who ave determined to pillow under
clover sod and have top-dressed in the
fall OF winter with this Intention, hut
who have lost hea when they have
Sc luxuriant growth on the ground.
viii b seemed to be "a waste of good
fodder" as trey have said, and so they
have waited and have either pastured it
er moved it off and robbed the soil of
food which it so ely needed. This
would seem gu tie different If farmers
would think of their soil as someth ne
to be fed and supported to ena lie it to
ED its produce, as much as cow
that yields milk or sheep that yields
wool. There are some 81 Sc analo lies
between our fields and our animals. An
an NAL is a machine-if we like to call
so-by which we make salable prod
ucts from raw materials. 1t is mex
haustible for its term of life 30 long as
it is fed; but it is really inexhaustib in
fact. because, before its useful life ends,
it reprodu es itself several times and
IMPLY becomes link in chain which
we may draw out indefinitely without
reaching the end of it. So that in this
, view of it even an an NAL is inexhausti
BILE SO long as it is fed. And so is the
soil. and no more and no lon er, and,
indeed. if it is not fed, field will be
mere dead, useless matter, just as a
starved cow or sheep will be. The
farmer must learn to think of his nd
in this way or he gets a wrong idea OF
it. He must not neglect to study up
the science of feeding rs fields as he
reads up that of feeding his live stock.
He must become nc ,uaInted with feed
ing tables and rations and kinds OF food
for the land as well as for animals, and
must prov de them literally. And as
clover is accounted an ex client food
for stock so it is an cellent food for
land. But, at the same time, as there
are UucI IOluciS NAsSu Noh 10 uSSN
along w tn clover, or as a substitute
when he'll ed out by more st mulating
food, SO there are other crops beside
clover which may be made to serve as
food for the soil. Indeed. The soil is
not very exacting in this respect, al
though it will never give som thing for
| nothing, and always returns freely in
exa t o soportion to what it receives and
no mo e; but it is omn verous and has
an exceedingly st ong dige ton. So
that the farmer can not go astray if he
will always provide something for it.
1t NAV be weeds and no more, but it is
better if it is q crop of buckwheat, and
better still if it is rye or corn or even
turnips or rape. but best of all if we can
give t rich clover which goes down
deeply and draws food from the subsoil
and opens it broad leaves to the al and
| gathers ron that source too, NJ well az
othe which other plants can no. reach,
and SO gives to the farmer hundred.
| old in return for the sell aud labor ne
has expended. There are other ways
of manuring the so l. but am ng them
blowing in of green crops has no supe-
rior.-N r IfDae&