The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-10-29
vs.. UNPROFITABLE FARM
MANAGEMENT.

N64U0 Oh 00SG at ABOUT O4V ESE Agre-46HQ
no More Fertile in Pennsylvania Brings
1926 per Acre-Difsrencs Due to Less
Thrifty MethOds-A Paper That Can be
Studied With Profit by Farmers Every.
where.
The Department. of Agriculture
has just issued q bulletin treating of
the exhaustion and abandonment of
soils. The report is compiled from
the testimony. of Prof. Milton Whit
ney, Chief of the Division of Soils,
before the Industrial Commission.
The abandonment of soils Is at
tributed to exhaustion, development
of new areas, attempts TO grow crops
unsuited to particular soils, scarcity
of water, unfavorable climatic con-
ditions, flooding and inundation by
storms and tides, labor and expense
of maintaining proper physical oon-
ditions, social conditions and trans
portation conditions.
MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA.
In speaking of the cause of the de-
terioration and abandonment of lands
in Maryland and Virginia Prof. Whit
ney says;
"The exhaustion of the soils, of
which we have heard 80 much in
Maryland, Virginia and the South
ern States, is due unquestionably TO
improper and iniudioious methods of
cultivation and cropping. 1t is also
due to the decrease in value of farm
crops, due in turn to the cheaper
production in the West and to the
reduced cost of transportation, and
to the increase and development of
special industries in other localities
for example, in the production of
the white hurley tobacco in Ohio,
which yields more per acre, is grown
at less cost per pound, and can be
sold at a cheaper price than the
Mary land leaf, and has largely taken
the place of the Maryland leaf in the
foreign markets, particularly in the
French and Belgian markets.
OLD MORTGAGES A BURDEN.
sFurthermore, the changes in the
social conditions due to the Civil
War and the mortgages which are
still outstanding against the lands
have been a contributing cause to
the abandonment or to the deteriora-
tion of many of these areas. 1t has
been found posi- BILE in many portions
of Maryland, with the prevailing
crops and methods of cultivation, to
obtain a fair interest on the labor
and expense of cultivation, but it
has been impossible to obtain hv-
ing from the land if at the same
time the interest on mortgages,
which have been running since the
war, has had TO be met. And know
of once prosperous communities in
Southern Maryland where they could
still be successful, where they could
produce sufficient TO maintain fami-
lies without stint and with fair
degree of comfort, but where nearly
all the farms are mortgaged as an
inheritance of 80 years ago, and it is
impossible to support the families
and to pay off the mortgages at the
same time. Areas now are being
abandoned from that cause through
out Maryland and the South.
SOILS NOT EXHAUSTED.
zone of the most important causes
of deterioration, however, and I
think should put this first of all, is
the method and system of agrioul-
ture that prevails throughout these
States. The division of soils made q
careful survey with soil maps of two
of the counties of Southern Mary
land this year-St. Mary's county
and Calvert oounty-and of Lancas
ter county, Pennsylvia, and the
study of the conditions which have
pre- called and the methods particu-
larly which have been used in these
two areas has been matter of con-
siderable interest to me.
sin the first place, would state
that the soils of Southern Maryland
are in no way exhausted in the sense
that that term is generally used
that is, a chemical analysis shows
that they have sufficient food for in
Vulnerable crops and that there is
apparently no lack of plant food in
the soil.
WHERE ST. MARY's EQUALS LANCASTER
"Unquestionably the soil has been
abused, the methods of cultivation
and of cropping have been injudici-
ously selected and the soils are not