The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-27

Dor must be used before anything can be
sold from it. Except in the case of new
lands, OF which there is now comparative
~ little left that is fit for farming there
must be some application of manure as
OFTEN as once in two or three years for
labor to be probably used in cultivating
IT, The fact that farming does not pay is
IN most cases due to lack of soil fertility.
where this is the fact labor applied TO
working such soils is mostly wasted.
There is no better rule in using manure
than to apply it chiefly to the crops that
require the most labor. Used thus, both
the manure and labor are made mora
effective. 1t is true that this requires good
judgment. Circumstances and locality
have to be taken into account. The value
OF fertility in soil is much greater where
there is good nearby market for every
thing that the land can produce. Hence,
market gardeners near large cities, or who
are near TO railroad stations where they
can easily ship their products, can buy
manures and chemical fertilizers that or
binary farm crops will not warrant the
purchase Of On the great majority of
farms, clover and the barnyard manure
made by feeding 1t to good stock make a
cheaper fertilizer than the farmer can
get in any other way. Yet if the farmer
attempts to grow grain, or fruit of any
KIND, he Will find phosphate or potash, or
both, essential to making profitable crops.
One of the conditions for making the
most of manure is to have it made solu-
bic so that plant roots can easily and ear
~ make use of it. Market gardeners I'M
derstand this, and it is we think one of
the reasons why manure is worth more
10 them than it is to average farmers.
While it may be said that there is no
waste of fertilizer when coarse manure IS
plowed under in spring for corn or pota-
toes, there Is a waste of the time which
70 in no hafn III
can get to fermcnting and become availa-
ole as plant food. Hence the great ad-
vantage of manuring with the seed when
planted some quick-acting fertilizer that
VIII help the plant TO a vigorous growth
from the very start. A very little finely
rotted manure. or if this cannot be had
some nitrate of soda, applied with the seed
at planting time, will make the roots eX-
tend much farther in search of plant food
than they would otherwise do. Besides
this will make the crop ripen much earlier
than it can where no manure is thus APP
piled There rs more advantage in thus
applying manure in the hill so as to give
a vigorous start where a plenty of coarse
manure is plowed under In fact, there
must be fertility in the soil within reach
If the very small amount applied with the
seed is to do any good whatever. We
have seen corn MANFRED in the hill on very
poor, sandy soil. 1t made strong growth
tended into the barren sand they found
no plant food, and despite the promising
appearance of the corn at first, the grain
almost entirely failed to ear Yet in con-
nection with stable manure a small
amount of heterogeneous commercial ferti-
lizer drilled or dropped with the seed will
nay on any kind of land
Most farmers try too hard to economic
with manure. They have much more land
they can make the best use of, and they
attempt to make what manure they have
cover it all. 1t is far better to concentrate
manure on few acres and make a large
profit from these, leaving the remainder of
the farm seeded with clover and grasses.
under which there is sure to be some in
crease in fertility. If the labor and cap
ital can be spared, pieces of this seeded
ground may be profitabiy added to the cul-
tivated area by purchasing additional fer
tilzers, so as to bring them up to the fer
tility required. In this way we have seen
large farms made as fertile as gardens
and able to produce crops that every year
Will sell for more than the original cost of
the land. 1t is after this has been made
extremely valuable, that the single tax
theorists set their eyes upon it and pro-
pose it's confiscation There are millions
of acres of land that can, by cultivation
and manuring, be made as productive and
profitable as is the valuable land in mar
ket gardens near large cities But in ali
such cases the productive value has been
put into the land by the labor and capital
applied to it by ats owner There is. no
system except private ownership that will
secure this result. Every proposal there
fore to confiscate land to the state by as
sessing all taxes ON it means the robbery
of it's owner, not of the land. but of the
labor and capital he has employed in i'm
proving and cultivating it, Except in
few and unimportant cases there is no I'M
earned increment in land All it's value
consists in what its owner has done to it;
and to take this from him is the eonfisca-
ton of what the labor he has put upon it
has Droduced