454 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 8 



and most lertile, contain but a certain proportion 

 fit for the purposes of vegetation ; and every crop 

 taken ii'oiii the soil, sensibly lessens this quantity. 

 The result therefore must be, that continual crop- 

 pintij will reduce the best soils to barrenness, until, 

 where circumstances admit, nature by her fjradu- 

 al method of repairing wrongs, imparts a degree 

 of lertJity. It is however possible to counteract 

 this tendency to sterility in soils ; to prevent the 

 exhaustion of the qualities necessary to support 

 vegetable life ; and the dilierence between good 

 and bad farming, or proper and improper cultiva- 

 tion, may be lietermined mainly by a reference to 

 this single result. 



In this country we can hardly form a correct 

 idea from anything around us, of the frighlful 

 barrenness to which fertile soils may be reduced 

 by improper management. Cultivation is here so 

 young, that had it been of the worst description it 

 would hardly have been possible to have exhaust- 

 ed so soon the treasuries that had for centuries 

 been accumulating in our soils. Still there are 

 examples in the United States, where soils have 

 nearly reached that point from which a restoration 

 to fertility is impracticable. Soils of a silicious 

 nature, or that are inclining to sand, are the most 

 easily and quickly reduced. 01' this the south- 

 east part of Massachusetts, and parts of the sou- 

 thern stales at the present time, and parts of Long 

 Island as it was some thirty years ago, turnish 

 striking proof. When cultivated without regard to 

 consequences, the nutritive part of such soils is 

 quickly exhausted ; the little vegetation produced 

 is not sufficient to prevent the burning effect of 

 the sun ; the roots of the grasses are unable to 

 fix and bind the soil ; it becomes loose and float- 

 ing ; plants root themselves with more and more 

 diificulty, and at last what was once a fertile plain 

 becomes a sandy waste, where cultivation is im- 

 possible. 



It is in the old world that this process of deteri- 

 oration may be the most clearly traced. To reno- 

 vate, seems to have formed no part of the ancient 

 profession of agriculture. In all the writings of 

 antiquity there is scarcely a hint that manuring, or 

 in any way improving cultivated lands, was prac- 

 ticed to any extent. Now and then, where nature 

 had set the example of imparting fi^rtility by the 

 annual overflow of rivers, man seemed inclined so 

 far to imitate her works, and irrigation for amelio- 

 rating land was frequently adopted. But this 

 was about the extent of ancient attempts at im- 

 proved cultivation, and the result has been such 

 as might confidently have been predicted. The 

 regions of the east that two or three thousand 

 years since were as the garden of Eden for beauty 

 and fertility, have gradually become sterile and 

 worthless; and tracts of country that once sup- 

 ported a thriving and industrious population, have 

 from the action of the causes alluded to above, 

 become deserts, in which the solitary camel can 

 scarce find a shadow of vegetation to supply his 

 easily satisfied wants. Mesopotamia ; parts of 

 Syria and Palestine; Edom, and parts of Arabia 

 Felix ; many parts of the North of Africa ; and 

 no inconsiderable portion of Asia Minor, have 

 thus become hopelessly barren. The finest of 

 wheat can now no longer be grown, on the plains 

 where once the reaper filled his arms with the yel- 

 low sheaves. They were ceas(^lessly cropped, 

 until the soil was so exhausted, that the unaided 



efibrts of nature were unable to restore fertility' 



and the result is perpetual barrenness. 



To counteract this tendency to sterility, is the 

 business of the firmer ; and on the possibility of do- 

 ing this, rests the whole system of improved agri- 

 culture. Science has here come to the aid of the 

 cultivator of the soil, and by revealing the agents 

 and [)romoters of fertility has greatly assisted and 

 simplified the processes without which all would 

 be siill doubtful and uncertain. The action of 

 manures has been ascertained ; the value and ac- 

 tivity of the various salts formed by llie decompo- 

 sition of animal and vegetable matter in part de- 

 termined ; the aid which the mineral earths af- 

 ford vegetation has been carefully examined; and 

 these combinations of soil the best calculated to 

 induce fertility been accurately investigated. It 

 has been shown that to take from the soil, without 

 making corresponding returns, is suicidal policy , 

 and that if this point is properly attended to, land 

 can be cropped without danger of deterioration. 



Manure then, is the sheet anchor of the farmer. 

 It is to this source of fertility he must look for 

 the renovation of the soil, and the means of con- 

 tinued productiveness. And it is to manures pro- 

 duced from his fields, from his herds and his flocks, 

 from decayed vegetable and animal matter, that 

 he must look for this result. These are the true 

 fertilizing ingreilients ; and though other agents 

 may be useful as exciting these to action, yet these 

 maj^ be considered as constituting the food of 

 plants, the cause of growth and nutrition. The 

 application of the exciting mineral manures, such 

 as lime and gypsum, is productive of the happi- 

 est effects, lor the reason assigned above ; yet they 

 are not so absolutely essential to the improvement 

 of the soil as those that have a vegetable or ani- 

 mal origin. Matter which has once lived, which 

 has already taken the forms of organized exis- 

 tence, more readily assumes the forms of organ- 

 ized lile, and is more easily assimilated, than that 

 which has never undergone such a change. It is 

 the office of the vegetable to take the crude atoms 

 of matter as they exist in the soil, and prepare 

 them for the support of animal life ; and when 

 (his has once been done, though a partial decom- 

 position may have been eflected. a renewal of the 

 process is comparatively easy and certain. 



In connection with the preparation and appli- 

 cation of manures, the next most important step 

 which modern agriculture has taken to prevent a 

 deterioration of the soil, is rotation in crops. Ju- 

 diciously conducted, the result is certain ; ex- 

 hausted lands are restored, and the profits of the 

 agriculturist greatly increased. It was formerly 

 the custom to let land suitable for grass remain for 

 that purpose alone ; while those suitable lor the 

 plough were annually subjected to its use until ex- 

 haustion forbid. It was then left to the restoring 

 processes of nature. There were at the begin- 

 ninir of this century, lands in the farming sections 

 of England which it was well known had lain in 

 grass for five hundred years, and there were other 

 tracts which had been as constantly submitted to 

 the plough, or at least as often as the soil promised 

 to repay the expense of cultivation. This sys- 

 tem has been abandoned; a more enlightened sys- 

 tem of agriculture has prevailed ; and the pro- 

 ducts in consequence have been more than dou- 

 bled. The course of rotation is indeed variable 

 in diflerent districts, both in Europe and in this 



