The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-06-05
CULTIVATION or THE SOIL.
The Object of Such Cultivation Not the
Destruction of Weeds Only.

The Object of Such Cultivation Not the
Destruction of Weeds Only.
If farmer were asked why he hoed
or cultivated his crops. such as corn,
potatoes, beans. roots, etc., he would
in nine out of ten cases say it was done
for the purpose of destroying weeds.
In this he would be quite right as to the
purpose most frequently intended. but
altogether wrong as to the real effect
produced by the working of the soil
For if there were no weeds, and the
soil were perfectly clean and free from
them, cultivation of all these crops
would be indispensable for their profit
able growth. 1t is a great mistake
made by American farmers universally,
| and English and European farmers tor
the greater part, that every crop-even
the small grains-is not as well worked
as are corn and the various root crops,
for those crops need the benefits which
accrue from frequent stirring of the soil
quite as much as these do, and where
the small grains are cultivated in a
AhCohONAASoA 1lALASt bliC YiClOS dlO dS
largely increased as are those of corn
and other so-called hoed crops. Wheat
rarely yields thirty bushels an acre I'M
der the usual system of cultivation, but
has produced more than twice as much
when hoed several times in the earlier
stages of its growth. Oats have yielded
| eighty bushels per acre when drilled in
rows twelve inches apart, using only
one bushel of seed per acre, and have
been worked with a suitably devised
horse hoe which stirs the soil between
| the rows. Potatoes which have been
| hoed every third day through the grow
ing season have yielded at the rate of
twelve hundred bushels per acre, and
corn cultivated every week for eight
weeks and then hoed by hand until the
corn was glazed has yielded one hun
dred bushels and over per acre.
1t is interesting to consider how these
| results are produced by this frequent
stirring of the soil. We have often in
these columns mentioned the analogy
which exists between the vital functions
of animals and plants; how in their sex
ual differences, their productive meth
DDS. their modes of feeding, and their
manner of deriving substance from the
atmosphere, plants closely resemble an
imals. The fundamental principles of
| life seem to be similar if not the same
for all creatures, animal or vegetable
whose life, started by creators act,
in whatever light we may view the cree
alive act, whether by distinct and
singular process, or by gradual evolu-
ton from primitive germ, springs
nto action, exists for period, and ter
inmates by the operation of the same
laws. Thus while animals take food
into q stomach where it is digested,
| pass it into the circulation where it is
assimilated and changed into blood,
which is kept pure and fitted for con
version into tissue by the effect. of the
atmosphere inhaled by the lungs, so
vegetables take food into their sub
stance by the roots and pass it into the
circulation, where it is acted upon by
the atmosphere and prepared for assim-
ilation into the cellular tissue. Now, it
is known that the greater part of the
solid substance of Il plant consists of
carbon, and the next larger portion is
made up of nitrogen. We also know
that the atmosphere is the sole
source of carbonic acid and of the
nitrogen which originally furnished
all organic matter with its supply, and
that it is also largely the source
from whence growing plants procure
this part of their food. We have
learned, too, that the roots are the
feeding organs of plants, and these
must be supplied from the soil. We
begin now to perceive how necessary it
is that the soil should not only be made
actively absorptive, but tenaciously re-
tentiye of the carbonic acid and the
nitrates from which plants derive their
subsistence. This, however, can only
be done by making the soil ex-
tremely porous. A porous body is an
active chemical agent; we know thus
far; but precisely how much further it
may act than our present knowledge
indicates we can not tell. Porous bodies
are such active oxidizing agents that they
not only maintain slow combustion but
actually produce it in many cases, and
in some cases cause active inflammation
and conhagration. Then, when we
make the soil porous by frequent Guilt
walton and stirring of the surface, we
| produce constant circulation of airin it,
which effects such changes in the exist
ing organic matter as to make available
large quantities of plant food it also
sets free large quantity of nitrogen
which may form combinations as we
know it does with mineral matter, and
so produces food for plants; it also lib
crates large quantities of carbonic acid,
OF which plants need such large guam
tity. All these facts 60 to show that
were there not weed in existence we
should nevertheless cultivate our crops,
and that this process is as requisite for
the. good OF every crop as it is good for
a single one. Henry jSteaOart, IN N. ].
Times.