The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-12-26
Exhausting" the Soil.

That curious organization, called the
New England Agricultural Society
(Which is much like the odd chaps or
chard that " consisted of one scatter
ing tree ~, held meeting in Boston
lately. The Ne,c England Farmer re-
ports it under the graphic heading,
getty and Suburban Farmers" As
usual, DR.. George b. Loring was the
principal speaker, and Editor Cheever,
commenting on his statements, says:
Few men in America have had
better opportunities for wide observa-
ton in agricultural matters than DR..
Loring, and his opinions should carry
much weight. But when he speaks
lightly, not to say sneeringly, of the
opinions of chemists who tell Us how
the cow eXhausts or improves a pasture,
or of botauists who give specific names
to grasses, and explain the influence of
thistles and other weeds in vineyards
or cultivated fields, he is imperiling the
confidence farmers have had in one so
long and closely identified with the
agriculture of the country.
Brother Cheever seems to be infected
with an illusion very common in a part
of southern New England, that Massa-
chusetts is the country" 1t can
only be under such mistake that "the
handsome doctor" is to be looked upon
as identified with anything of agricul-
tural importance in America. He is
man of wonderful assumption and
great pretensions, based mainly on his
fine figure and stupendous cheek. Few
men who take prominent part in
agricultural meetings have made so
many stupid blunders as DR.. Loring;
and it is safe to say that few are more
entirely ignorant of practical agricul-
ture. DR.. Loring is a good example of
the political farmer, and his principal
agricultural love is confined to what he
knows about blowing with heifers. In
this branch of agriculture he has been
pretty successful, having got himself
into the perpetual presidency of the
above-named society, into congress and
into the commissionership of agricul-
ture. His success in this wav certifies
to the worldly wisdom of an eminent
Kentuckian, whom we once heard la
menting the physical insgnifcance of
his son and declaring that he would
rather he should have been stalwart
and handsome, without a penny, than
to be able to start him in life with a
hundred thousand dollars. His idea
was that the youth so endowed could
have easily married the money, and
still have had his good looks for future
use. What DIR. Loring has done in
these positions to benefit those deluded
farmers whose votes helped to put him
there must be regarded as minus
quality. Mr.. Cheever says, with
straight common sense:
DIR. Loring's statements that cows
milk removes no more from pastures
than OK fat, and that taking cattle to
the barn at night is of little consequence
so far as the pasture is concerned, must
have been a surprise to his hearers. 1t
has become automatic that an animal at
pasture extracts from the soil certain
elements of nutrition and that if it gets
all its feed in the pasture, but leaves a
considerable portion of its eXcrements
in distant barn-yard, the loss to the
pasture must balance the gain made
elsewhere; that just so sure as milk
contains mineral matter, just so sure is
the soil depleted of that plant food if
the milk is disposed of in any other way
than by returning it to the soil; that
Just so sure as milk contains more Of
the elements of plant nutrition than
does tallow, so surely will a COW in
milk exhaust a pasture faster than
an animal storing up fat in its body.
Agricultural chemists teach, and OBJ
serving farmers know, that a pasture
will maintain its condition or not accord
in as the plant growth is removed OF
retained. Pasture-owners who take
animals to keep are accustomed to base
the price upon the proportions of plant
food the animals may remove.
These are the views of a practica
dairyman, and will be approved by al
of like experience. Dr. Loring's sue
cess as a farmer is well eXemplifed b,
his own statements in the course of hi
speech, as reported in the Farmer, a
follows:
DIR. Loring said he had two hundred
acres of run-Out pastures within tiv,
minutes walk from the farm buildings
but every attempt at reclaiming it hat
been failure. Improvements ant
taxes amount to more than its valu
when improved. He contended that i
makes no difference whether or not cat
tie remain in the pastures over night
nor are COWS in milk more eXhaustiv,
to the land than fatting oxen; it cost
no more to make milk than to make fat
He would let the pastures alone an
give his attention to moving fields an
the soiling system; but even a field
mile away from the stables is not wort
manuring and moving. He once trie
muck and lime instead of manure o
distant fields and obtained corn stover
bnt 10 o,aaE Of crclyx Nae