The progress., 1904-05-21
FARMER AND PL ANTER.
REcLAIMINc OLD LANDS.
6esponse to an Alabama Farmers
Inquiry with Reference - His
WOrnOut Land.

S<@e~e
This is by no means an isolated
case. All over the south there are thou
sands Of acres Of "worn-out" land.
Land that has been so misused and
abused that it can no longer produce
crops that pay for the cost and trouble
Of cultivation is called worn-out land.
What shall we do with these lands? ?
This is an interesting and important
question. Can they be made to pro-
duce paying crops again? II SO how
shall we proceed to make them do SO?
4 1t will help us in answering this
inquiry to examine into the history Of
these lands and see If we can find
what has made them poor. liany Of
them were originally the finest and
richest farms in the south. Many
things have contributed to bring them
to their present almost worthless con-
dition. Among these we find three
prominent causes.
Chief among them is washing and
teaching. The water has been per-
mitted to run down more or less steep
grades and carry the finest particles Of
the soil with 1t.
Soils generally contain all the ele-
ments or ingredients of fertility. These
are found in an insoluble condition
In this state they can not help the
crops grow. To make them soluble and
available for plant growth we must
fertilize the so-.. The fine particles
of soil dissolve in the water and the
plant food is thus fed by the water
to the growing plants. Hence these
fine particles make the soil rich or
productive. II we take these away the
soil is left, with its plant food insolu-
BILE. Such soil we call poor.
Washing soon makes any soil poor.
Often this washing produces gullies
and takes off the fine soil and leaves
the hard clay soil exposed. Very often
1t does not do this, but only takes the
fine dust particles out and leaves the
coarser particles. This we call leach
ing. Both of these results generally
60 along together.
Another source of damage to the soil
results from stirring the land when 1t
is wet AS soon as the sunshine ard
Wluu uTy OIL ouCl ldHu, thClC oiO thOu"
sands yea millions of little brickbats
produced. These are absolutely worth
less to the growing crop.
BY constntly plowing when the clay
or subsoil is wet, we make layer
of very compact earth just below where
we plow. This we call hardpan. This
layer prevents circulation Of water,
increases the washing and interferes
with the growth of the roots Of the
crop. Shallow plowing helps the wash
ing and the formation of this hard
pan.
Another great source of damage to
the land is the habit or custom OF
burning off the grass, trash and other
vegetable matter All of these are
needed to make humus in the soil,
which they do if permitted to rot. No
vegetable matter should ever be burned
on a farm. Without humus it is i'm
possible to make large crops. We
thus see that by misuse of fire and
water we make the lands poor. These
are intended to be our greatest farm
blessings We make them our greatest
curses.
Now, having briefly shown how these
lands were made worn-out lands, we
are prepared to see how we can re-
claim them.
First of all, stop the washing and
teaching. This can be done by plow-
ing deep and on level
Repeated experiments have shown
that land plowed fifteen to eighteen
inches deep will hold all ordinary
rains Below that depth the earth is
always sufficiently porous.
First, then, break your land SO as to
destroy this hardpan and hold the rain |
water. Many have advised that this
be done gradually, few inches each |
year. This is not the best Do it at |
once and do it thoroughly. 1t will |
generally be found impossible to do
this with one plow. In such cases use |
a subsoil plow to follow the first. The
first plow should be turn plOw, If
there is any vegetable matter to turn
under If the land is clean, then it
does not make any material difference
what kind of plow you use. 1t is not
the plow, but the plowing that is i'm
nor,ant
stirring wet land does more harm
than good Re sure the soil is drv.
MoLa dust is the meaning of nulverize
Mol,ing mortar has been one of the
oroot curses of southern farming
WoLe dust
Meet Of nc have been tapybt tba, nc
th;s wornont land is generally hard
,,,o ,,ust hreak n whom wet Rut this
,s a great error. This blowing should
he done in the summer or fall.
We want a deem fira soil and we
mood bumus So we can do all these
along together. When YOU have broken
th;s o,d wornout land as deep.as Won
can then harrow it as fine as you can
make n and begin at once TO grow
.ome kind of crop ON It. Generally a
convenient plan will be to sow oats or
wheat in September or October. As