The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1892-12-15
One or Two Plain Truths.
BY HON. R. T. NEsBITT, COMMISSIONER OF
I AGRICULTURE OF GEORGIA.

D1 hNNs H. Il NGSGAA SO4usuACoAO&NIR Va
AGRICULTURE OF GEORGIA.
From the November Southern Culivator.
know what am about to say will not
at first be pleasant, or perhaps accepta-
BILE, to the majority of farmers, but
when thinking men analyze these plain
truths, they will pardon their first dis
agreeable impression, for the sake of
the kernel of good that lies in them. /
do not claim originality in presenting
them ,-they have been repeated hundreds
of times, and the principles underlying
them are as old as the hills themselves,
but the urgency of our present needs
demands that they should be impressed
again and again upon the minds Of. our
farmers,
Farming all things considered, is the
best business on earth, and the safest,
where the farmer gives the same atten-
ton to his work that the doctor, tho
lawyer, the merchant bestows on hi
but under our present management 1t
actually cheaper for q farmer to bu
cotton, than it is for him to raise 1t
And this is the crop on which weexpend
all our enegies, all our means, and on
which we depend for our income
To the owner of land, this condition
Is 0oplOrdDle, DuG W tAO AdI LucA, WIZ
rents land and borrows money, or pro-
visions to make cotton, 1t is rulnous.
When we examine into the causes
which has led to this distressing and
almost general agricultural condition,
we find among other mistakes, two of
greatest prominence. The first is, that
we. have depended too much on common
fertilizers and too little on green crops
and home manures. The history of agri
culture throughout the world shows tina.
in those countries where commercial
fertilizers are relied on exclusively or
even mainly to produce crops, poverty
and want have resulted, while in
countries where it is used in conjunction
with thorough preparation of the land,
that is a preparation, which puts the
land in condition to utilize the fertilizer,
prosperity and riches, even, have blessed
the farmers intelligent efforts
1t is beyond contradiction that man
cannot permanently enrich his land with
guanos alone. They produce an artific-
ial stimulus, but they do not buildit up.
This building up must be done by
green crops. and by compost applied
broadcast over the land. The common
practice of running furrOw, drilling in
q little commercial fertilizer, covering
and planting on that, >is positively no
benefit to the land, and often proves of
little benefit to the crop. And this Is
not from any fault of the guano, the
failure most frequently comes from our
mistaken manner of using it. A most
important lesson, which we have got to
learn is, thai we cannot afford to use
expensive fertilizers, unless by means of
these, renovating crops and deep plow-
ing. we put our lands in condition to APP
nr0priate to the best advantage that
large proportion of these fertilizers,
which is now wasted. Our lands once
brought to this condition we need not
fear to fertilize heavily. The renovating
process is "slow and tedious" but until
we nerve ourselves to this task, and
undertake it earnestly and systematic
calIy, we cannot hope, for agricultural
prosperity.
This process of renovation is also
costly. but it is not more so than the
present plan of planting large areas,
hastily prepared and imperfectly Guilt
waited. And in the end the building
M" plan is far more certain, far more
remunerative.
Just here is suggested to our minds
the second grave error, that is, planting