The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-11-08

y
should not be turned under until fully
ripe"
r. II. Allen, in his Farm Book, ,
explains why green manuring is a ben
eft to some soils, and not to others, by
the presence or absence of lime in them.
He says: "The full benefit of green
crops as manures seems only to be re-
allied when there is sufficient lime in
the soil.' Every farmer knows that
nothing will grow where a quantity of
rotten apples or cider pomace has been
plowed under, be the land ever so
good; and he rightly surmises that
such substances makes the soil, so far
as their influence extends, too sour to
suit the taste of young plants.
That green manuring is benefit to
most soils there is not Il particle OF
doubt. The testimony is overwhelm-
ing, and some of it dates back for two
thousand years. The ancient Greeks
and Romans practiced raising crops
and plowing them under while still
green to enrich the land, before the
Christian era. as we learn from the
writings Of Nrnophon, Cato, Pliny,
Virgil and Others Among the modern
nations who first raised green crops to
be plowed into their soils for manurial
purposes, were the Inhabitants OF Flan-
ders (now Belgium), and the crops
which they chiefly raised for the pur-
pose were red clover, spurry and sain-
foln. Their soil generally consisted of
white loose sand, resembling the sandy
district on the coast of New Jersey
and Maryland. BY plowing under
green crops, the Flemish farmers grad
ually converted this unproductive sand
into fertile loan. There is no doubt
the sand contained an abundance of
pulverized shells and fish bones, and
possessed the elements of fertility, with
the exception of humus and nitrogen,
which the green crops supplied.
The benefit of thorough tillage, and
the application of dung to the land for
the benefit of crops, and even fruit
trees, has been known, and practiced
in all ages. In New Testament times,
the keeper of the vineyard we'll under
stood the value of tillage and manure.
He said of the barren fig tree: Lord,
let it alone this year also. till l dig
about it, and dung it,"
Jethro Tull was the great English
apostle of thorough tillage, or exten-
sive farming. He has been ridiculed
for maintaining that tillage was ma
nure, which he did rot exactly say.
What he did say was: adequate till
age is not only an economic substitute
for manure, but thorough tillage is
with or without the aid of
to secure the profitable growth
Of any given species of cultivated
plants year after year in succession"
He said ''year after year, he did not
say thorough til!age would secure a
profitable growth of plants for ever,
without any manure. Up to the time
Of his death, in l74l, he had grown l3
wheat crops in succession
On the same field without any decl,as,
in quantity produced. He raised
wheat much as we raise corn, in drills
ar enough apart to use the cullivator
or horseshoe between them, and gave
t several civilizations. He frequently
grew hundred acres of wheat in one
season by his method of horse-hoeing.
The Rev. Samuel Smith adopted
Tull's system with some improvements.
He succeeded in growing twelve sue
;essive crops of wheat, without the ap-
olication to the soil of any manure
whatsoever, and without any diminu-
lion in quantity, or degeneration in
quality. His system is known as the
Lois Weedon system, from the name
of his residence in Northamptonshire,
England
Numerous experiments similar to
hose conducted by Tull and Smith
nave been carried on IN the United
States with satisfactory yields Of grain,
out owing to the high price of labor
lerc, and the vast number Of acres of
lew wheat lands brought into cultiva-
ion every year in the Northwest, it
was found in most cases to be unprofit-
.ble.
An experiment of the Lois w eedon
~ stem, modified, was tried at Cornell
or four years, from 1874 till 1878.
The plats were 2Os rods long, and
Zach strip 81 feet wide. Every alter
nate strip was sown with Clawson
wheat. The vacant spaces between
,he strips sown were cultivated four
or five times each season, with the fol-
owing results: First season production
was at the rate of 1881 bushels per
acre; second, 1911; third, 67.23;
5ourth, 6l.42.-J. W. l., IL Country
"Yes, it suddenly dawned en- her
hat she loved me-
"When did the revelation come to
her,"
"When she noticed that | refrained
from smiling the first time saw her on
The street in her new automobile coat"
The more you speak of yourself the
more Won are likely To lie