Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-15
Successful Farming.

Successful Farming.
The question Of successful farming is
question Of manure. The farmer who has
learned how and with what materials to
feed his land in order to keep 1t at high
standard Of prOductiveness, has found the
key not only to his individual success, but
also to social progress and great national
prosperity. Such a position is proud
one and well worthy to excite the ambi-
tion Of the best blood of the land. The
hopes Of the human race-its future con-
tinuance and glory, or deterioration and
extinction (hOwever heterodOx) depends
upon this issue. Countries that have been
devoured by generations of the past, pre-
sent to-day the melancholy proof of the
statement. We may, therefore, assert
that except future generations learn to
fertilize the soil and restore what they
take away, "they shall all likewise per-
ish." There is no escape from this con-
clusiOn, whether we treat it lightly or
seriously. Like the locusts of Egypt, we
are now devouring this goOdly land, and,
while we are fall of its fairness, in the
plenitude and joy OF our strength we
swell out with pride and laugh to scorn
the idea of calamity; but the tmpover-
ishment Of a country creeps on with the
certainty of fate; nor does the past fur
nish us with any example of nation
aroused so sense of the danger suffi-
GENTLY strong to cOunteract the tendency
to depletion and ruin. Only in modern
times, under the light Of science, do men
begin to look at the root of this question
and endeaVOr to repair the waite which
has destroyed or rendered effete so many
nations of the earth. The whole super
structure of society and government,
with all their ramifications, machinery
and accommodations of wealth, rest upon
the single industry OF agriculture, whether
that be scientific, enlightened and vigor-
Gus; or whether it be baTbarOus, blum
dering and weak, keeping alive the nation
but furnishing no materials for progress
and advancement.
If this is truth it is one of the very
first Importance to Rll orders Of men, and
whatever may be our pursuits our first
| duty and great anxiety should be for the
D
the people may be fed, And the supplies
are not to be diminished, but increased in
proportion to population. But what if a
period arrives, as in France at this mo-
ment, that wealth cannot be acquired In
the pursuit of agricultureT That eight
or ten years of scientific economical man
agement and industry, even with large
capital. fails to return remunerative prof
its on the investment? If sGch cOnei-
ton could be announced OF American
/ agriculture to-day it would create uni
/ versal alarm aud CONSERVATION; and get
we are tending in the same direction with
/ all the glorious advantages of new con-
/ tinent before US. cur forests are rapidly
| disappearing, millions of acres of the best
| lands in the cOaEtry when first settled
are worn out and lie idle; our rivers, once
navigable, are turning into shoals, with
/ the soil we have permitted TO be carried
/ away with the rains, and the earth is bald,
/ barren and deserted in many sections
! where once pOpulOus and wealthy. To
/ cap the climax the trades, though de-
/ pendent upon agriculture, are saPping
the foundation upon which they rest.
( They do not mean to do it, but the fact re-
mains all the same, as the outgrOwth of
the desperate speed now universally made
to get rich. The profits OF the farm
go into stocks and bonds, into public
works, into useless taxation to support
/ useless offices, into worthless works in
rivers and harbors, and to magnify the
pride and pcmp Of towns and cities, while
the country which surrounds them SINKS
into poverty and wretchedness. In the
] desperate struggle the farmer has no time
/ to study science, no time to contemplate
/ his future condition. His sole concern is
how he shall live to-day, and all resources
| are taxed to the utmost and his land hur-
riedly drained of its strength in the hope
/ of finding more when it ceases to yield.
OF course there are exceptions to the
rule and some are found availing them
/ selves of the advantages of modern i'm
prOvements and prodting by the diseov-
cries of science; but the masses are still
unawakened to the danger of drawing
continually upon thu fertility Of the land
without adequate returns for the improve
ment of the soil. Neither is it sufficient
to rely upon barnyare or compost manure
for long series of years. These are val
liable and ought by no means to be neg
lected; but they furnish the vegetable
elements mostly, when the mineral may
need replenishing as well.