234 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



speaking, being applied to make good the waste of 

 materials." 



What is termed the "scourging system," is taking 

 from tlie land all the crops which shallow plowing 

 and imperfect tillage will enable it to produce with- 

 out the aid of manure. And it is said that "at 

 least a thousand million of dollars ($1,000,000,000) 

 would be required to repair the effects of this 

 wasteful and exhausting system of cultivation." 

 The estimate is based on the commercial value of 

 the potash, soda, lime, magnesia, sulphuric acid, 

 phosph(.>ric acid, chlorine, and ammonia, which the 

 crops and animals sold oft' the farm have abstracted 

 from the soil. Now, the amount of these sub- 

 stances contained in an acre of government land, 

 which sells for $1.25, would be worth, according to 

 such an estimate, at least $2,000 ; and it is just as 

 absurd to say that the soil of Massachusetts has 

 been impoverished to the tune of a thousand mil- 

 lions of dollars, as it would be to say that each acre 

 was originally worth $2,000. 



If shallow plowing Q,ud imperfect tillage — if "a 

 wasteful and exhausting system of cultivation" — 

 have removed a thousand millions of dollars worth 

 of the elements of crops from the soil of Massachu- 

 eetts, deeper plowing and better tillage, by increas ■ 

 ing the yield of produce, would have removed a 

 much greater quantity. By underdraining, by 

 thorough tillage, by a judicious rotation, by the 

 use of plaster, and by plowing in clover, many of 

 our best farmers have greatly increased the pro- 

 ductiveness of their land — they are enabled to sell 

 double the amount of produce which the land in its 

 undrained and imperfectly tilled condition would 

 have produced. They remove from the soil double 

 the quantity of the elements of plants; they im- 

 poverish the soil with two-fold rapidity! 



So far, therefore, from the views advocated by 

 tliese writers serving to stimulate farmers to an 

 improved systen:! of cultivation, fully canned out 

 they would rather induce one who has any regard 

 for future generations to let his land lie in its pres- 

 ent undrained and untilled condition; for every 

 crop he removes, according to these views, robs 

 the soil of a given quantum of fertility, and the 

 greater the crops — the better he farms — the sooner 

 will his soil be impoverished ! 



To suppose that aU the elements of plants which 

 have been removed from the State of Massachu- 

 setts must be returned to the soil before it will be 

 restored to its original fertility, is ridiculous. It 

 might easily be demonstrated that many farms con- 

 tain a sufficient quantity of the elements of plants 

 to last, under ordinary cultivation, for .two thou- 

 sand years; and yet oue of these farms may be so 

 negligently cultivated for a few years that it will 

 cease to produce profitable crops. Now such land 



is not "exhausted." As we have shown, it still 

 contains more plant-food than it would if it had 

 been better cultivated, and larger crops produced. 

 Tlie small quantity of availaile plant-food has been 

 removed by " this scourging and exhausting systen> 

 of cultivation," but the vast fund of inert plant- 

 food still lies untouched in the soil. Let this so- 

 called " exhausted " farm pass into the hands of an 

 energetic and intelligent cultivator, and he wiU in a 

 few years make it more productive than it had 

 ever been before — and this without introducing 

 one atom of foreign plant-food upon the farm. 

 This statement is strictly in accordance with sound 

 scientific principles, but it does not rest on them' 

 alone. This very thing Jias been done by hundreds 

 of our readers. There are few towns in any of the 

 older settled States that can not furnish an example. 



The first flush of fertility of much of the land in 

 the older settled States may have been removed ; 

 but the soil is not " exhausted." A better system 

 of cultivation may be necessary to obtain as good 

 crops as formerly, and we greatly err if the intelli- 

 gent land-owners of the United States and Canada 

 are incapable of adapting themselves to circum- 

 stances. Instead of censuring them, as many of 

 our popular writers do, for availing themselves of 

 the fertilizing elements accumulated in tlieir new 

 land, we think it was wisest and best to convert 

 these elements into such crops as would yield the 

 greatest profit. The country was new, the farmers 

 poor, and the land rich and cheap. Houses and 

 barns had to be buUt, the land fenced, and rail- 

 roads and canals constructed. The sturdy, enter- 

 prising pioneer, with little capital but his axe and 

 his stalwart arm, cleai-s the primeval forest. He 

 tickles the rich earth with a hoe, and it laughs with 

 a harvest. Thriving towns, smiling villages, and 

 prosperous cities, spring up as if by magic. Eail- 

 roads are built, canals dug, and lakes and rivers are 

 covered with floating palaces. Before the stnmps 

 of the original forest are decayed, churches, school 

 houses, academies, and colleges, testify of an en- 

 lightened civilization and a material prosperity un- 

 paralleled in the history of the world. Shall super- 

 ficial thinkers, quibbling writers, and self-satisfied 

 lecturers, be allowed to snarl and carp at men who 

 have accomplished such glorious results ? What if 

 they have reduced somewhat the fertility of the 

 soil, and made more thorough tillage necessary. 

 They dug wealth from the soil, but they did not 

 squander it. It has been expended in laying the 

 foundation of a mighty empire. 



We are in favor of taxing the soil to "its utmost 

 capacity, instead of letting the elements of fertility 

 lie dormant and unproductive. Nature had ma- 

 nured our land, and the fai'mers availed themselves 

 of the opportunity of obtaining good crops at small 



