Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-11-14
NavHl x:Httrstts,
Intensive Farming.

cultural paper you pick up now, and
many that are not strictly agricultu-
raj, are agitating the question. Let
them keep on agitating. A better
system of agriculture is imperatively
demanded, and will do more to- re-
lieve the general depression than any
other one thing. The southern cot
ton crop is assuming immense pro-
portions. We are now producing
eight millions or more of the eleven
or twelve million bales annually
raised on the globe. Yet this is
small crop-very small-compared
with what we are capable of raising.
Nine acres out Of every ten Of the
land devoted TO cotton culture could
be made to yield from two to four
times the amount of lint cotton now
raised upon it. Without one addi-
tional acre TO The area we plant in
cotton, the southern crop could easily
be doubled Or, better yet, we
could cut our cotton fields down to
one-third their present size, and sill
raise eight million bales annually.
The increased cost per acre for fertil-
izers aud better culture would be
over-balanced by the value Of the
increased yield.
In the earlier ages of the human
race, when agriculture was but slight
ly followed, little was known of the
nature of plant growth and the
necessary constituents of the soil to
insure the best results. Moses, how.
ever, knew enough to realize the inn
portance of rest for land, and so in
structed his followers. "And six
years thou shalt SOW thy land, and
shall gather in the fruits thereof; but
the seventh year thou shalt let it
rest and lie STILL" Elk. %: 10, H.
Resting land may therefore be con-
sidered the most primitive method
of restoring lost fertility. When al
J lowed to "lie STILL" it soon grows up
: in weeds and other uncultivated
plants entirely different in their
chemical nature from the cultivated
crops that were raised upon it. This
: fact teaches us the necessity of rota.
ton of crops, It also teaches that
the dense shade of the voluntary
growth exercises benign influence
over the soil by enabling it to retain
moisture and accumulate invisible
matter for plant life.
. While rest and rotation of crops
teach us valuable lessons, they are
merely the initiatory steps in agri.
cultural education. Experience
teaches us that in order to attain still
greater results, we must restore some
thing to our soil which the crops we
remove take away, and we must dc
this every year if we would make
our business pay. One of the great
est object lessons this country car
show, is the noted seed farm blooms
dale) of David Landreth & Sons
near Philadelphia. Here we SCI
land that has been in continuous cul
tivation for more than a century
J. still producing fine crops of garder
4 vegetables. There is no great secret
. as to how this is done. 1t is simply
:: by restoring to the soil the same ele
= ments of plant food that the crop
|. heretofore raised have consumed.
: We must not fail to bear in minC
that any land, even the most fertil
black prairie or the richest alluviun
of our river bottoms, will in tim
loose its fertility if nothing is givel
, back to compensate for the plant fooC
taken off. On these very fertile soils
the process of exhaustion is so grad
ual that it is scarcely perceptible a
first, but eventually the falling off il
the yield will make itself PAINFUL
s manifest. In the early settling {
our rich Western States, it was bt
lieved by many that the soil wa
really "ineXhaustible," but exper
. ence has proved differently. TIL
rich lime lands of Texas, so splel
didly adapted to grain-growinI
should not be allowed to run dow
by the starvation practice. Grail
growing and stock-raising should {
; hand in hand, and by combining IL
two, our farmers need suffer no i
>. convenience from want Of manure
plenty. They should adopt the i
tensive plan of agriculture, al
make every acre produce as near
full capacity as possible. Thu
should take timely warning from
grain-grswers of California, WI
thirty years ago, believed their Ian