Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-04-14
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
MEANS OF MAINTAINING SOIL
FERTILITY.
The Main Reliance Must Be Manure
Care of Wagons and Carriages
Uotbeds-Pork PickIngs and
Household Helps.
Maintaining Soil FERTILITY.

Is without DOUBT an important Item
in crop productions and its impor-
tance ought not to be lost sight of
by farmers for a single season if pos
sible. Saving and applying manure"
is another very important matter.
No doubt that the manure lost in
tho United States each season, if
properly saved and used, would pro-
duce an annual increase in the yields
Of farm crops to almost, if not entire
ly, extinguish the great ''war debt
Of the nation.
! But to assume that rotation of
crops and saving manure without the
use Of other means will even prevent
the further depletion of soil, to say
nothing of restoring fertility TO de-
pleted soils, is without doubt most
grievous error. 1t is hot claimed
| that rotation OF crops has the power
alone TO prevent depletion and, in
fact, only a small advantage is claimed
for it. Saving and applying manure
then must be the main reliance of
those who advocate this theory.
The manure carefully saved from
| u
given amount of land will not supply
sufficient amount of manure TO
cover all Of the land from which the
crop had been taken. IL viii only
cover properly about ono.tenth the
area covered by the crop so fed.
Thus the crop from 100 acres care
fully fed to stock and ali the manure
| nd 70
not cover more than ten acres. so
that ten years would be required to
go over the entire 100 acres, and
| long before the expiration of this
time the manure would be exhausted
on the first lands it was applied TO.
! SO that it is clear that manure alone
will not preserve fertility, But besides
this every farmer cannot, and, in
fact, but few can, feed all the pro
ducts to stock. The world would
perish for the want OF bread if all
farmers would feed the entire product
of their farms to stock. Then where
are you with your manure racket"
be it ever so good.
What then is the main reliance TO
not only prevent depletion of soil but
also to restore soils already depleted?
asks the Journal of Agriculture. A
good physician will seek to find the
cause of his patients ailments and will
treat the cause and remove it. A
! quack will treat the symptoms and
let the Gaze remain in darkness to
| himself.
What then is the cause of the de-
pletion of soils so usually complained
Of, and the cause of low yields OF
crops as shown by the census reports
for the past twenty years?
The attempt TO cultivate a much
larger area than could be properly
done has been the universal practice.
Shallow blowing with too little after
cultivation has been practiced as a
necessity and not because it was
| thought to be the best Careless
blowing and too little narrowing has
been the rule. And these failures
and overdoses are the causes of the
depletion of soils. The remedy is
reduction of the cultivated area, deep
and thorough blowing the ground so
that not only the thin surface soil is
cultivated. such thorough blowing
that will result in strict obedience to
the requirements originally made
when the first man YVES sent out to
"till the ground"
If the soil is broken up to such
depth that the moisture of rains and
melting SHOWS will be quickly alb
sorbed and carried deep down into
the earth where it is stored for the
use Of plants when needed, then it is
brought to the surface along with
the necessarily accompanying fer
tility by the capillary action of the
earth, there can be no depletion of
soils. This is tilling the ground, the
whole ground and not simply a thin
crust OF the earth, US is done by shall
low blowing.
Shallow blowing allows the surface
to soon dry out and with a dry sur
face the benefit of rising fertility and
moisture is lost to the growing
plants. and the air which is "a great
reservoir of fertility" fails to deposit
the moisture and plant food it con-
tains while the surface is dry and
hard. The air and the earth must
act conformity in the elaboration OF
plant food for the support of growth
and the conditions favorable to this
action must be supplied by the proper
cultivation of the soil. The failure
TO do this causes loss OF fertility and
loss OF crop yields. Deep blowing
and a thorough preparation of the
soil by frequent and thorough har-
rowings are indispensable requisites
in preparing tia soil to receive the
seed that is to produce the paying
crops. Cultivation is q term little
known among the average farmers.
To obtain from mother earth" the
fullest rewards the laws which she
has laid down must be implied with,
must be obeyed. True cultivation of
the soil coupled with true seed devel-
opment by the adoption Of special
methods suited to the natural demands
Of the various farm crops will recover
depleted soils and supply yields of'
crops 9 Amensurate with the rapidly
increasing demands of advancing
populations