Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-06-11
Stanton Spectator.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE IL. 1880.
Drought Preferable to Rain. u

WHEAT AND GRAss-LIMING OUR LANDS.
What will our Valley farmers think of
state of things in agricultural economy
which involves the expense of digging
artesian wells for the purpose Of irrigating
lands and bringing about the necessary
moisture essential to successful culture
We take the following from the Prairie
(Chicago) Farmer of the Gath of May,
written by a correspondent from Huron,
South Dakota, abiding to the wonderful
artesian wells in that State -
"A wealthy Milwaukee gentleman who has
loaned large sums of money in this State, and
of course been compelled to take more or less
lands on his hands, has given it [irrigation1
much thought. Last fall he instructed MS
agent in this city to dig one of these gushers
on his farm close to town and experiment with
the same in irrigating the land which ne has
here. A high knoll in the middle of the farm
was selected and well sunk. To-day water
was struck in sufficient quantities to cover
the section. Seventy-fve acres of spring
wheat mad been thoroughly planted to operate
upon and now large amount of land is being
broken upon which to SOW fax. The question
Of irrigation with artesian wells will now be
sufficiently tested to show to the world by fall
whether or not it is practical. If 1t is the
drouth problem in this section Of country is
forever solved; and as matter OF fact drouth
would be preferable to rain.'
The above statement involves two con-
ditions inconsistent with healthy and pros
porous farming. 1t appears that the
original and emigrant farmers who have
opened the country are ruined by the
mortgages upon their property, and that
the industry, if continued, must be con-
Quoted by millionaires becoming fancy
cultivators of the soil. The former owners
of the soil with their poste1ity must become
mere laborers at wages of dictated value
and the prey of monopolists. The acquisi-
sion of wealth and the rewards of industry
are closed forever to them, and in free
land they are reduced to the level of the
kborers in the wheat.felds of India.
Wiater-wheat is the surest reliance e.
the world for good bread. ana.Pt me belt of
luagnrtry GROWING il in the United States the
preferred of all countries. The Atlantic,
Ohio, and Mississippi Valley States are the
choice of all locations; with the advantages
of moisture and warmth supplied. tes tSSnt
Atlantic States and IKE States of the Ohio
River Valley they bear the palm of success.
full culture under all the incidents to
climate and seasons of drought and rain
All scientific and practical tests are annual.
ly demonstrating the aforesaid facts.
When our eye fell upon the extract
made above, we were thinking of the con-
dition of much of the growing wheat an6
grass in our section of the Valley as vel
as in other parts of Virginia in which these
two crops are essential for income and
carrying with then in their culture soil
improvement and other advantages ir
thrift and profitable pursuits in farming
livestock raising, sc. Though not en-
tirely appropriate to the matter we pro
posed to discuss, yet it comes in to show
some of the greater difficulties experienced
in the Northwest than those we occasion
ally realize in this section of country.
Since 1885, when an unfavorable winter
shortened our yields, we have had choice
crops of both wheat and grass, and the
present season is the first for many years
that noxious growth and insect pests have
worried and harassed our farmers and dis
appointed their reasonable expectations.
The remedy for DISCRIMINATING these evils
is at our doors. 1t is nothing new. 1t is
all old and never-failing remedy, and by its
application, not only the enemies of fruit
full culture are destroyed, but the highest
degree of filth is secured, especially upon
the soil to be purged of their presence an6
freshened into richness and beauty.
Lime is the remedy, and no farmer who
has tested its value, nor hundreds of others
who have observed it's effects, will gainsay
the fact. In our section of country the
lands most needing the fertilizing qualities
of lime are the sandy and bottom soils
which, according to our observation, are
now most injured by hurtful growth and
insects preying upon wheat and grass
crops. Not only is this patent truth to
all observers, but the demonstrators in
agricultural chemistry have uniformly
recommended the free application of lime
to the soil of low lands which, from exces
sive culture or other causes, have become
infested with Objectionable vegetable or in
sect life. Here, where the resources exist
for making the best lime for agricultural OF
other purposes, it is little singular that
SO small quantity is produced for the
first named necessity. 1t is now urgently
required to eradicate evils which have
made their aggressive appearance to an
alarming extent-eyils which would no!
have existed if the free use of lime had
been system in our farming economy
We have not only the limestone on nearly
every farm, but mari, nearly if not quite as
valuable in producing lime, at many points
more easily mined than the stone which,
for the cost of production, would, as q
fertilizer, be almost equal to the SAME
amount of the commercial compound of 8
standard brand. Lime is the best, as 1t il
tie the Quickest remedy for destroying the
evils, the effects of which so many of oul
ueluS auO CEUpS dLO uoW 5uuCI1uSs
The resolution formed by a Riverheads
farmer-who is not an old one, but has
had good training and the advantages of 6
good share of experjence-as he saw the
daily encroschment this spring of noxious
growth and pests upon his wheat and grasi
fields, is one worthy of being promulgated
and acted upon. He proposes, as soon as
what is 1eft>of the growing crops is har.
vested, to turn the soil down and build his
lime kilns, and thus have in hand the
means of destroying the enemy, and at the
same time do that which has been too long
delayed-secure the good filth which lime
invariably produces.
In concluding, we can more appropriately
refer to the extract made above, than in the
commencement.