Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1901-04-05

IMPROVING WORN OUT LANDS.
A Matter of More than Passing Inn
pOrtance to the Farmers
of the SOuth.

us the land cultivated growing bet
ter, increasing in productiveness, Civ
ing larger average crop returns as the
years go by?"
The man whose fieldsg give an affirma-
tive answer to these questions may be
safely set down rs successful"
farmer, and whatever may be the |
temporary profits obtained, the man
who at the close of each season leaves |
his land worse than he found it, is a |
failure"
To begin with,we had in the country, |
"a goodly heritage" in many respects
the richest and most productive in the
world. This very eXuberance of fertili-
ty has in not a few instances tempted
us to prodigality, winch is little less
than criminal. We have regarded the
soil as bank on which year after
year we could draw unlimited drafts.
The deposit" part of the business has
been largely ignored or forgotten.
And so our drafts are coming back
''protested;" mo funds" says the soil,
and so over large portions of our
country, poor crops, poor improve
ments, poor people, do but emphasize
truth that should have been obvious
at the first. We can not forver con-
tinue to take from even the richest
soil without giving back something in
return.
Still even in the case of the most
"worn-out lands" the situation is
often not near as hopeless as 1t seems.
Where from bad systems of tillage
farms became unproductive, it is not
so much from the exhaustion of plant
food as from he fact that il is locked
up in inaccessible forms. The ques-
ton, how best to bring this elemental
nutriment within the reach of grow
ing crops, is often Difficult one. OF
course, the same prescription will not
answer for all "sick soils" any more
than the same dosage will answer for
all sick men. Still there are some gem
eral principles of soil improvement
which it is wise to remember and dill
gently apply.
Modern scientific research, coupled
with time-honored experience, has
placed in the hands of the farmer a
good many keys that are of the great
est value in unlocking the buried
treasures that exist in the land. Lime
is one of these keys; leguminous
plants another, and by growing his
own nitrogen and humus, draining
and aerating his soil. and adopting a
proper rotation of crops, it is marvel
GUS what changes an intelligent and
progressive farmer can often produce
under seemingly most unpromising
soil conditions.
In many cases liberal application
of lime, ton or so per acre, will in it.
self set in motion series of chemical
changes in the soil, which are of a
most salutary character. This aka
line earth has also the curious addi-
tional property OF rendering porous
soils more compact and dense, clay
soils more porus. 1t admirablypre'
pares the way for the subsequent cul
ture of leguminous crops.
Fortunately the number of these Ii
very large and there is no portion oil
the United States, where one or more
may not be cultivated with the great
est advantage and success. In more
northern latitude, the clovers, ant
Canada field peas, in the middle re
gions, these with the lupines and the
COW pea, whose range of usefulness
and of profitable culture is perhaps
widest of all, and in the far south the
velvet bean, furnishes a choice o.
"soil renovators" which leaves littl'
TO be desired. in most cases any rap
id improvement of the land involves
the more or less liberal use of com
mercial fertilizers. This is especially
true in starting the train of upwar'
progress. While all directions tina
can be given must be modified by loca
conditions IN most cases, the use o
three or four hundred pounds o
super-phosphate, and third as mucl
muriate of potash per acre will prov
a wise investment, especially as near
ly all of it goes back to the soil, and
ready for the use of the succeeding
crop. 1t is undoubtedly better j
most cases to utilize the product o
these various lcgumes for stock feet
save and return the manure to tn
soil, and then adopt some intelligen
system of rotation of crops, adapte
to the latitude. There are very fey
farms, however run down they ma
appear that can not in this way b
changed into increasingly productiy
land.--Bryan Tyson, in Southern Gu
tivator.