Year: 1866




Our fathers in agriculture quite gen.
orally held the opinion that summer
following greatly benefited the soil by
the rest which it gave. If the land lay
utterly idle through all the season of
growth, should it not recuperate its
power of productioni They believed it
would. And this opinion prevails TO
some extent at the present time among
farmers.


But absolute rest obviously addsnoth-
ing to the soil; no food for plants de-
scends from the air above or rises from
the subsoil below. No favorable chem
ical action is known to be induced by
exposing a naked soil q long time to the
elements; on the contrary, it may be
apprehended that the washing of the
rain, the parching of the sun, the evap-
Grafton of the atmosphere, removes
some of the volatile substances which
are found in fertile soil. Rest does
not impart fertility to the sands OF the
desert, nor are arabic soils in state of
nature where they are increasing in fer.
tility, ever permitted to be destitute OF
vegetable covering.


The soil then does need rest-it re-
ouires cultivation. By cultivation we
mean here those physical changes which
NAV be made. 1t wants deep and thor
ough workings so that the roots OF
plants can reach every particle OF soil;
| it needs draining to draw off the stag
nant water which is poison to the roots
of our cereals and cultivated grasses.
Deep, though frequent pulveriza-
ton of the soil, though 1t adds
nothing to the amount of plant
food, WILL. by making it all avail
able to the crops, cause the land to be
very productive. Then, except during
the brief period of this thorough work
| ing, the soil should be productive, for it
is by the sole agency of what grows
upon it that the farmers can hope to in
crease the amount of plant food in his
land.
But it is not land constantly produc-
ing crops, whether of grain or grass,
lex6austing itself Yes, if those crops
are removed from the soil and no re-
muneration made therefore; but II the
whole produce Of the ground is re-
turned to it, the amount of plant food
is increased: The soil becomes richer
| for the reason that the substance OF the


plant was only partly derived from the
soil but largely from the atmosphere
and when the soil receives again what
it gave, through the decomposition OF
the plant, it has in addition all that


was drawn from other sources. This ]:


the reason why the plowing under OF


clover or other green crops for manure


enriches the soil. The crops have drawn


only part of their fertilizing component:


from the soil-they have gathered from
the air likewise-and it is precisely


this which increases the previous rich


ness of the soil. And if all the manure


which crops will make by passing


through the animal system be returned


to the soil, its fertility will doubtless bC


maintained; enough will be returned


to replace the constituents of the plan


which alone were derived from th'


earth.


We conclude, then, that the soil does


not need rest to render it fertile. Il


needs cultivation and cropping. No


reckless wasteful unmethodicalf farming


but that so planned and executed as t.


grow large and varied crops, and dis


pose of them in such manner as to re


turn the extracted elements of fertilit.


to the soil.-Rurdl Nep Yorker.