Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1886-06-11
farmfrs' Column.
Give fools their gold " knaves their power
Let fortunes bubbles rise and fail;
Who sOws a field or trains a flower.
Or plants a tree. is more than all.
Restoring WORKOUT Land.

Land that has been cultivated for a
series of years with special grain crops
will sooner or later lose its fertility,
and in order to restore it quite an out
lay is required Of both time and money.
1t is not difficalt matter to secure
good yields on WORKOUT soils provided
special fertilizers be used, but when
the soil reaches such condition it
does not pay to attempt to recuperate
it and compel it to produce crop at
the same time. The greatest difficulty
with farmers in such cases IS that
while they are willing to invest in fer
tilizers they hesitate at the loss of
time and the products that would
necessarily be expected from the land.
And therefore, while the proper plan
for recuperating the soil is to omit
cropping it for season the method is
not generally adopted. The soil can
be rested from labor as is done under
the fallow system, but such plan is
too slow. Something should be added
to it in order to assist the process of
recuperation. AS an impoverished
soil is supposed to be too poor to pro-
duce anything, it is not an easy mat.
ter to resort to green manuring, bat
green manuring (the turning under of
some special crop for that purpose) is
the only lasting and permanent meth
cd Of improvement.
AS a beginning, lime, which is the
cheapest fertilizer, should be used as
dressing in the fall, broadcasting it
over the ground after ploughing it.
Then rye should be thickly sown and
the ground narrowed. There will be
but little benefit derived from the
lime before spring, its action being
slow, nor will the rye make much
progress, but when the spring opens
the lime will have liberated sufficient
nourlshment from the soil to induce
moderate growth of the rye. AS the
rye may be turned under at any time,
it should be turned under as soon as
it shows signs of failure. A begin
ming will have been made, for the
young, green rye will quickly decom-
pose, while the lime will still continue
to be beneficial. The rye may be fol-
lowed by mixture of oats and field
peas, which will derive their nourish-
ment from the lime and decaying rye,
and a fair growth may be expected.
AS it is not necessary to mature the
crop, it should also be turned under
in time for crop Of buckwheat or
millet, the former being preferable,
which will make sufficient progress to
thickly cover the ground by fall, when
it also should be plowed under, the
la ID again broadcasted and re-seeded
to rye. 1t will not require a large
quantity Of lime. Ten bushels of air
Stacked lime per acre, in fine coadi-
ton, at each application, will be suffi-
cient on a majority of soils.
The rye will make sufficient growth
to be turned under when the season
for for planting corn arrives, and, as
years time will have been lost in
growing the mauurial crops. the far
mer will be DESTROYS of securing some.
thing to recompense him for his loss.
If, however, instead of so doing, he
will hurdle sheep upon the land,
thereby deriving the benefit of their
droppings, and also turning under the
ground, as fast as the hurdles are
moved, other crops may be seeded
down for the use of the sheep, and the
land may be sown to wheat in the fall
and clover in the spring. By thus de-
voting the first year to manurial crops
and pasturing sheep with hurdles the
second year, the land will be perma-
nently restored to fertility, and may
be rendered annually productive with
good management, while the sheep
will not only pay for the expense the
second year, but give profit as we'll.
Considering the value impaired to the
land in being rendered more fertile,
and the increased yield it will afford,
the method is really economical, as the
grain the third year will more than
repay the loss of time and labor in
Cured in its restoration to fertility
r. Of Pa, in Maryland Farmer.