126 



Renovation of the Soil. 



Vol. V. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet, 

 Renovation of the Soilt 



Sir, — In a late number of the Boston Cul- 

 tivator, I find an article under this caption, 

 which might be read to advantage by all who 

 cultivate the soil, whether for profit or plea- 

 sure ; it is a text from which an excellent 

 discourse is there delivered ; and, as much of 

 it is applicable to any " soils, situations and 

 circumstances," I take the liberty of selecting 

 from it some observations and reflections, 

 which will, I think, be found of great value 

 to the readers of the Cabinet, who I fear are 

 not all free from the charge of having dete- 

 riorated the soil by " improvident cultivation." 



" It is a fact not to be disputed, that by im- 

 provident cultivation some of the best soils in 

 our country have been deteriorated so far, 

 that they Vv'iU not now produce one-half the 

 amount at harvest, whicli might once have 

 been calculated on with great assurance. 

 An annual revolution of the surface-soil, al- 

 lowing it no rest, no time to recruit its wasted 

 strength, no means to replenish its drained 

 bosom with proper and natural nutriment, 

 proves almost as pernicious to the earth as 

 frequent political subversions and revolutions 

 do to the body politic, wasting its strength, 

 and allowing no time for the good seeds that 

 had been sown to take deep root, and fill the 

 country with perennial harvests. 



The grasses must take their turn in the ro- 

 tation of crops, and they must not be annually 

 disturbed ; in a few years, if properly sown, 

 they replenish the soil with vegetable matter, 

 of which it had been exhausted by continual 

 cropping with grain, and in this way, we suf- 

 fer the land to rest from severe labour, until 

 it has again become qualified to yield up its 

 stores, in the shape of corn and grain crops 

 of every variety. We are not certain that 

 the ancient scriptural mode of sufl'ering the 

 land to rest every seventh year — bearing no 

 crop whatever — was ever adopted by our fore- 

 fathers, but a practice somewliat analogous to 

 this, has formerly prevailed to a great extent, 

 both in England and in tlie northern States ; 

 it is called in England " a naked fallow," in 

 New England it is better known by the name 

 of summer tillage ; it consisted of repeated 

 ploughings of a field throughout the season, 

 and suffering no vegetation of any kind to 

 make its appearance. The fundamental doc- 

 trine was, that the land needed rest — rest 

 from the labour of production, the rules of 

 Moses being so far departed from, that, al- 

 though the soil was not allowed to act, yet it 

 might be acted upon by the plough, through 

 the whole season, without any risk of fatigue. 

 Repeated ploughings through the summer are 

 beneficial, particularly to heavy or clayey sur- 

 faces ; they serve to ameliorate and commi- 



nute the hard sods and lumps, and enable 

 them more readily to imbibe from the atmo- 

 sphere its enriching qualities ; but, after all, 

 these repeated stirrings serve rather to pre- 

 pare a soil for a crop, than to make a poor soil 

 rich; they fit the pulverized earth to yield 

 the riches it possesses, rather than store it 

 abundantly with food for future crops,* 



One of the greatest improvements of mo- 

 dern culture consists in substituting the green 

 fallow crop — the tilled crop — for the naked 

 fallov/ ; and requiring the soil, as well as the 

 farmer's children, always to be doing some- 

 thing ; and lands are naturally inclined to be 

 doing something, and never require rest, for 

 thorns, thistles and briars will always be 

 found in neglected fields ; and this universal 

 determination to be actively employed, should 

 instigate us to turn it to good account. 



One of the best modes for recruiting old 

 worn-out lands is, to plough down green 

 growing crops ; but by this we would not be 

 understood as neglecting or undervaluing the 

 usual manures and means of fertilization, in 

 practice throughout the country, but we 

 would say one word in this place as to the 

 great value of that manure. When the stock 

 is properly kept in stables having no floor, 

 and well littered with straw or any absorbing 

 matter, one head will make fifteen loads of 

 excellent manure, of thirty bushels to the 

 load, in a year; this, if counted by the cord, 

 will be four cords — sufficient for the dressing 

 of an acre of land ! In manure kept in this 

 manner, all the urine is saved, and no dress- 

 ing that we have ever tried is equal to it in 

 effect. Hog manure, and composts formed 

 from the back-house, called by the French 

 poudrette, will give to vegetation a more sud- 

 den start, but none will continue to act pow- 

 erfully so long as well-managed manure from 

 the horse-stable ; and where these are fed 

 upon hay and grain plentifully, there will be 

 no lack of material for enriching the lands to 

 a great extent ; but this article, together with 

 the contents of the hog-pen and the cow- 

 yard, must not be allowed to remain long 



* It must be admitted, however, that many of the 

 first writers on agriculture are of a contrary opinion. 

 Jethro Tull, for instance, and tliose authors quoted by 

 Mr. Evelyn, in his " Philosophical Discourse of Earth," 

 pp. 17, 18, and 19, where it is said, " Talie of the most 

 barren earth you can tind ; pulverize it well and e.\pose 

 it abroad a year incessantly af;itated— that is, stirred 

 often— it will become so fertile as to receive an exotic 

 plant from the farthest Indies, and to cause all vegeta- 

 bles to prosper in the most exalted degree, and to bear 

 their fruit as kindly with us (protected of course) as in 

 their natural climates." And is it not rational to sup- 

 pose, that if plants imbibe nourishment from the atmo- 

 sphere, that a surface, pulverized and continually agi- 

 tated, will become enriched by exposure to the rains 

 and dews, the sun and air— as indeed the writer admits 

 — and simply by these means? It is recorded of a man 

 who, too poor to purchase seed-barley for his field, 

 ploughed it on until whcat-soicing, and, by these means, 

 without the aid of dung, grew a crop of wlieat, worth 

 more than the inheritance of the soil. J. C. 



