The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-01
KeepinR Up Fertility.

In our southern country, young and fresh
compared to the various countries of Eu-
rope and the east, that thoughtful care of
maintaining the fertility of the soil up to
a certain standard does not prevail. Dur
ing the days of slavery, and up to the very
close or the war, the common custom of the
cotton planter was to make all that he could
out of his lands without a thought OF using
manure of any kind and when the land be-
came badly worn and incapable of produce
ing profitable crops of cotton would sell
out for what he could get and HE away to
a new place. Cotton seed even was not
valued at all, as a rule, but allowed to go to
waste.
Up to the close of the war commercial
fertilizers had been little used and on many
plantations" the accumulation OF stable
manure was barely considered worth the
trouble of hauling on to the land. The case
is different now. After thirty, forty or
fifty years Of continuous cultivation in cot
ton and corn all the old settlements Of the
country have lost their original fertility.
One or more of the valuable elements have
been exhausted, and will not produce pro-
fitable croEs until the lacking elements have
by a long resting of the land. In
accounting for the depressed condi-
ton Of southern farming politicians press
with considerable emphasis one or more
reasons for it, and fail frequently to give
the proper one-and TIE ope-sufflcient Que
in the majority OF instances-and that is
that southern farmers-South Atlantic
farmers especlally-aEe tilling lands too
poor to produce profitable crops in COMPETE
ton with more favored sections that regu-
late the prices of products. This alone has
been the drag that has kept down thousands
of economical, steady-working farmers for
the past fifteen years, when for one good
bor bax hoA
poor land cannot stand drought. Our small
white farmers, as a rule, are the victims of
circumstances, and deserve much more
sympathy than blame. They have shown
bad judgment in allowing their
land gradually to become too impoverished
that now it cannot return them a living
after all these years Of toll. Under the in
fiuence of bad general system, growing
out OF q lack OF capital on the part Of the
farmer end the forced reliance on his mer-
chant, who required that he should plant
cotton to meet his indebtedness he is not
altogether, as blamable for the final serious
consequences as he would hage been if the
possession of suthcient capital had left him
untrammeled- The general system was un-
favorable to thrifty, rational farming, it
must be adrnittnd, and'he was prevented
from changing to diversified system that
required for his good and almost total
abandonment of cotton planting
and a close attention toe those
crops that would tend to maintain or restore
the fertility Of soil. A system. whers clean
culture is the main feature is necessarily
exhaustive, when the one that gives due at
tention to grain, moving and pasturage
crops, is restorative. and this system must
be adopted by the bulk, of cur farmers if
they would make our agriculture prosper
GUS A farmer must appreciate more fully
the fact that his land Is his capital stock,
Els principal, that must be made to return
him yearly a satisfactory interest Or div-
dend. II he allows the fertility of his soil
to be diminished year by year to any con-
siderable extent he is in the same category
upon his principal or capital to meet ex-
penses, instead of drawing it from the
profits-both are tending toward bank
ruptcy. s. A. c.