Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-10-31
Farm xHttsstas,
Farming for the Future, Increasing
Fertility.
Cor. Country Gentleman.

Cor Country Gentleman.
Not only in the planting,of orchards
and hedges and the thing and tiliage
of large proportionate areas, was 1t
true in my farming that l "builded
better than / knew" but in certain
other respects that / shall mention.
never could seem to forget some
of our old college axioms in
mathematics, as for example, that
"the whole is greater than any Of
its parts" And so l could never
believe thata crop, which takes GER
tain positive and essential elements
of plant food from the soil, could
leave the snm total in the soil undi>
minished.
My own farm, while perhaps fully
up to the average of the'clay farms of
the Western Reserve in native
fertility, and rolling enough to
secure good surface drainage of
nearly every acre, was too clayey
and usually too wet and sticky for
tillage until too late in spring time
for best results with oats, potatoes or
corn. 1t was too wet in winter and
spring for winter wheat unless plow-
ed in very high, narrow lands, with
deep burrows for surface drainage;
and even then it needed very heavy
manuring to make the wheat crop at
all sure, or to insure a good catch OF
clover. Even then, too, the clover
would sometimes winter-kill the
first winter after the wheat was cut
with which it was sown in spring.
Manure enough could not be made
or profitably bought to go over any
considerable area of the farm as
heavily as was necessary, even after
it was tiled. Clover would not "bring
up the land" The clover itself need
ed manure to "bring it up" when
sown, and the drainage was needed
to keep the freezing and thawing o.
winter and spring from bringing il
upn clear out of the ground. l have
seen acres of clover on undrained
clayey soils with the big tap-roots
sticking up six inches or more al
over the field like long fingers lifted
heavenward in silent supplicatior
for the drainage
Our clayey soils needed not only
tile drainage, but they needed added
plant-food. Clover could not give it
For it to add by subtraction, wa'
like enriching oneself by taking
from one pocket and putting into TIT
other, or like pumping from a cisteri
and letting the water run back int,
it again. Glover itself needed boil
drainage and manure. When it haC
both, it was splendid crop in rOta
ton. 1t helped to loosen the soil
helped to render inert plant-fooC
available, and doubtless added SOM
nitrogen. But we needed something
in addition to all our available ma
nure, and in addition to clover, f
bring any considerable areas of GU
clayey soil rapidly up to large fer
tility and profitable cultivation. Ii
1879 / had not found what that was.
In 1880, 1 began work as Secretar.
of the Ohio State Board of Agricul
ture. One ofmy duties was to col
lect and tabulate monthly and an
nual crop statistics. In 1882, il
tabulating the total yield, and tn
yield per acre, of wheat for each year
1850 to 1882 inclusive, / noticed
very remarkable increase in both tn
area and the total product since 1881
and called attention to it in the fol
lowing note at the bottom of tn
table:
WHEAT AVERAGES PER ACRE (tS5O-1SS
INCLUsIvE).