The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-07-16
[Cor. THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER
TALKS BY AN OLD FOGY.
No. Z.

In my last l stated that any analy-
sis of soil or plant would fail to give
us the proper formula for enriching
the land or producing plant growth.
If the analysis of a plant when it is
fully grown, when decay has com
menced, forms an index to the needs
of the plant while young, while it's
little roots are scarcely capable of
taking up nutriment, then the Old
Fogy needs to have his head put
under a pump and his head cooled.
We must learn by natural methods.
In the West lands we're made rich
by decaying vegetation, the soluble
parts carried down into the soil by
shading, and possibly preventing the
escape of ammonia by retaining the
nitrogen carried down by rain, and
such OVERLAPPING masses decomposing
and becoming soil-again by burn
ing of the vegetable growth, the
ashes left to fertilize the soil. This is
the Biblical method of rest which all
lands were to have under Jewish law.
This is equally true of the fertile
lands on the tops and sides of our
mountains.
In Virginia and North Carolina,
where the Blue Ridge attains great
heights, these heights are fertile.
Why? Because of decay, of shade,
of ash, all combined. In the far
West, where the mountains attain too
great an altitude for these processes
to obtain, these results do not follow,
and the SUBMITS, where not snow
covered, are barren rocky heights.
We may safely conclude, then, that
natures plan will produce satisfactory
results. Let us initiate her.
Cover our depleted lands with
peas, with rye and clover. Nature
had ages to produce her results-we
only a lifetime. Let us turn under
this vegetable matter and cover the
soil again with peas, rye and clover,
and let our kind friends who manu-
facture fertilizers know that we have
gone into partnership with Mother
Nature, and we propose to furnish a
few materials, and that Gods immu-
table laws will do for us, without cost,
the mandatory processes and save
the millions we are annually expend-
ing. Let as no longer heoraze, but act
on knOUn facts.
Brethren, it has been my fortune or
misfortune to have visited almost all
parts of the United States where
agriculture has been carried on sue
cessfully. l was not born in North
Carolina. Whatever of preference I
might have-if it were not for cold
facts-would be in favor of another
State. But [ say to you, on my obi
cation as an Alliance, man when you
find a State in this Uuion that has as
many natural advantages as North
Carolina has, and as few drawbacks,
send me word and 1 will buy you the
best hat you ever wore, even if |
have to sell the coat off my back to
get it. Deplete the forests of North
Carolina today; in two decades you
will have more timber than any State
west of the Mississippi river and north
of Mason and Dixon's line, save Ore
gon. Let us utilize these advantages.
We are annually clearing land. Burn
your waste wood into charcoal. Now
| have got into a hornets nest. You
are ready to ask, what good is char
coal? Has it any manurial value? l
shall not give you my theory, but the
facts.
From New York to Texas may be
seen thousands of "hearths" where
charcoal was burned twenty five or
fifty years ago, and of the thousands
that 1 have seen in my geological ex-
plorations of the Blue Ridge, 1 do
not know Of one where the land is
not black, richer than the lands around
railways mellow and moist, seldom
wet, never bakey-and I am sure that
they have for all these years pro
duced more than the lands around
them. We also know that charcoal
will take up rancid odors, it will re,
lieve butter, meat or fish of their dis.
agreeable odors when old; and I know
of an old fogy farmer in a sister State
who has made his lands rich by grind.
ing and spreading charcoal all over
the farm on which he lives. 1t is in.
fnitely better than plaster or kanite
for stables or cesspools and it is the
finest absorbent for liquid manure
that has ever been found, and loo
bushels of charcoal placed on a sink
to absorb the liquid from the barn lot
spread on two acres of land, will en-
rich those acres permanently aid will
cause better corn or wheat to grow
than 800 pounds of the best guanc
now on the market. 1t is believed
that it absorbs the nitrogen of the at
mosphere, retains moisture, etc., but
I am not giving theories, but stating
facts, and [ am willing that the chem
list shall find out the why and tell you
Ono o+bor 1hioot on6 7 o1oco M