The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-07-03

capitol at Washington from Arlington
Heights ? The question is one that
may we'll stir our thought, and may
well deserve our serious contempla-
ton.
The answer is not difficult. Natures
lesson is an easy one which even prim-
tive peoples have sometimes learned
and needed. We know that in China,
even though her civilization seems to
us rude and unprogressive, ways have
been found of meeting the demands
of fertility, so that the wants of a
great and ever-increasing population
are met by an ever-increasing supply
In India, there is even more strik-
ing illustration of the easy possibilities
within reach. For, although within
the present century the population of
that teeming peninsula has nearly
doubled, the resources of the soil are
commonly ample to meet this enor-
mously increasing demand To some
of the nations of antiquity the secrets
of successful agriculture were we'll
known. For so long as the Bucolics
of Virgil, and the letters of Cicero,
and the essays of Columella, remain
to instruct and delight us, the world
can never forget how carefully the
resources Of the soil and the conditions
of successful culture were studied by
the great Roman people.
But it is in modern, times that this
lesson has been most carefully learned.
Everywhere in Europe an enormous
increase in population has resulted
from the changes in civilization dur
ing the last century. The new inven-
tions have set up water wheels by
every running stream, and have put
the steam engine to work in every
village. Hamlets have everywhere
grown into villages, villages into cities;
and dense population has pushed
itself into regions which before were
unpeopled. Thus the demand for
bread has become everywhere more
and more imperative.
Now new necessity always leads
to new expedients. Prices we're in
creased by the increased demands, and
these prices in turn were met by new
methods of increasing the supply.
Thus there sprang up in all parts of
Europe systematic efforts to increase
the productiveness of the soil.
Let us glance for moment at what
has been done in those countries that
have felt the new demands most keenly
and that have been most successful in
meeting them.
Look first at England. In lS43
Mr.. Lawes established an experiment
station at Rothamsted, and from that
time to the present systematic expert
ments have been conducted with a
view to ascertaining the peculiarities
of soils in England, and the effect
upon those soils of different manures
and fertilizers.
Perhaps the most interesting Of
these experiments are those by which
the capacity of different soils has been
tested for bearing continuous crops.
From 1852 down to the present time,
certain fields have borne the same
crops without interruption,-some of
them without fertilizers of any kind,
some of them treated with commercial
fertilizers, and some Of them treated
with farm yard manures.
Not to 60 into any detail, it is per-
haps enough to cah your attention to
the results of experiments on the
growth of wheat. On the unmanured
fields the crop has steadily declined,
the average for thirty-three years be-
ing thirteen bushels per acre; the aver
age for the last ten years being only
ten and one-half bushels per acre The
fields treated with artificial manures
have yielded upon an average from
twenty seven to thirtysix bushels per
acre during the last thirty three years;
while the field treated with farm yard
manure has steadily increased in fer
tility, yielding upon an average thirty
three and one-half bushels per acre,
and in 1885 yielding forty and one
eighth bushels per acre.
The results of these and kindred
experiments are naturally awaited
with great interest by all the farmers
of the kingdom. The methods here
shown to be advantageous have been
very generally applied throughout the
kingdom. And what now do we find