1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



m 



ing at too much, the whole is lost, as we learn 

 from the dog in the fable. The power of the cul- 

 tivator is increased by concentrating his operations. 

 How otherwise can it be explained, that the cul- 

 tivators of vegetables, in the vicinity of dense pop- 

 ulations, pay, and can afford to pay, three, four, 

 and five times as much for lands, as those of like 

 quality can be procured for, a f(?w miles distant ? 

 A great change in this respect has taken place on 

 the farms witli which I was best acquainted when 

 young. The carrot, the beet, the turnip, tlm onio?i, 

 and various kinds of herbs, now engross the better 

 part of the cultivated acres. In fact, other crops 

 are now looked upon as preparatory and subsidiary 

 to these, because these are the most reliable pro- 

 ducts of the farm. It is not over-stating to say, 

 that the net increase per acre, after a liberal al- 

 lowance for all contingencies, has been three-fold 

 by the change. AVhere twenty dollars per acre 

 was considered a good return from ordinary farm 

 products, sixty or more is now realized. And in 

 instances, not a few, double this sum. 



For the New England Farmer. 



EXHAUSTED LANDS. 



i:y a. g. comings. 



The sterility of New England soils is prover])ial, 

 From every quarter we hear the cry, '-Our lands 

 are exhausted. ' ' The suliject becomes of great im- 

 portance, when we know that exhaustion has taken 

 place to so great an extent as is indicated in our 

 soils. 



We may rush to a hasty conclusion as to what 

 constitutes the exhaustion of our soils, and spend 

 thousands of dollars to effect a remedy, wh.m the 

 whole amount may be little or no better tlnm 

 thi'own away. To avoid this, who will not sje the 

 importance of understtinding wherein the soil is 

 exhausted? It will be said by one that the soil is 

 exliausted of its potash ; by another, that tlie soil 

 has not enough of the constituents of common salt ; 

 by many, that there is a great want of lime, or 

 phosphate of lime ; and another still may tell us 

 that it consists in something else. 



The chemists of our time offer to settle the 

 question for us, by analysis of soils. If this would 

 meet the difficulties of the case in theory, it never 

 will in practice. Our uneven lands are so broken 

 and varied that almost every acre, (I might have 

 said almost every square rod,) of our gi'ound would 

 need a eliemieal examination. If examinations by 

 the acre might )je sufficient, (which certainly 

 would not be,) even then the cost of the examina- 

 tion would bo more tlian the worth of the land 

 after it was examined, in most cases. The far- 

 mers of New Engbind will never jiay the expense 

 of a chemical exuminatiun of their soils, to any 

 great ext(;ut ; and to expect a remedy from that 

 quarter would be little lietter tlian it would for 

 travellers to expect ships and steamboats to fly in 

 the air iu time to come. It is wholly out of the 

 question. There are and will be instances in which 

 analysis of soil will bo of the first consequence to 

 the farmer. But there are and alwaj-s will be 

 very few in New England. Tlio thing is entirely 

 out of tlie question, for the farmers of N. E. to 

 get tlii'ir W(Vi-n out lands analyzed. 



The worn-out or exhausted lands of New Eng- 

 land, or t'los) wiiieh are often spoken of as such, are 

 very generally supposed to be exhausted most in the 



mineral or inorganic substances required by grow- 

 ing plants. Is this idea coureet? Is it not, after 

 all, the real truth of the matter, tliat the exhaus- 

 tion of our soils consists much more in the organic 

 substances of plants ? I think it is so, and that 

 the remedy is pcrfectl}^ within the reach of onr 

 farmers, in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred. 

 (a.) 



There are in Nev.- Hampshire, I believe, thoos- 

 ands of acres which are regarded as pretty much 

 worn out, and whicli are sufficiently supplied with 

 the mineral or inorganic elements of plants to en- 

 dure cropping for hundreds of years, without thoae 

 substances being exliausted. At the same time 

 there is not a sufficient supply of the organic con- 

 stituents of plants to mature one good crop, in the 

 same soil. I can look in every direction over hun- 

 dreds of acres, where tlie land presents a like sur- 

 fiiee, having an- active surface-soil of comparative 

 little thickness, iu which the amount of old veg- 

 etixblc matter is not sufficient, if it could all Ix) 

 prepared at once as food for plants, to sustain one 

 half a decent crop of corn, potatoes or oats. At 

 the same time, the earthy or inorganic ele- 

 ments of plants, those which would remain after 

 the l)urning of a plant, as ashes, arescattered free- 

 ly through the entire subsoil, to any depth to 

 which we may descend, even if it were a thousand 

 feet. While the thin, surface soil may i)e in some 

 measure exhausted of the mineral constituents of 

 plants, (and still more of the organic,) every part 

 of the subsoil is as full of those mineral or earthy 

 constituents as an equal amount of the sur- 

 face soil was in its original state. Were it not 

 that those suljstances in the sul)soil are combined, 

 frequently, if not generally, with substances which 

 are injurious to vegetable growth, and which must 

 be overcome by the well-directed efforts of the far- 

 mer before t!ie subsoil will become an active agent 

 of good to vegetation, there would be no question 

 but the deepest plowing would m all cases secure 

 l)est results. ^\' here tlie subsoil is possessed of in- 

 jurious suits i:au!.-''s, it must be Ijrought up in 

 smaller quantities, or the land must lie fallow for 

 a length of time ; unless some extraordinary ap- 

 plication of neutralizing agents is to be made. 



Upon land where we are told that the phosphate 

 of lime is quite exhausted, we see trees growing 

 rapidly, of the very kinds which show the prcsenoe 

 of an abundant supply in the soil. The thin, sur- 

 fiice soil is perhaps exliausted of phosphoric acid 

 and lime ; but t'le kind of trees which grow there 

 may tell to a certainty that there is still an abun- 

 dant supply, 



^lany are led to suppose that the pota.sIi is all 

 taken out of their soil, and t'ley are procuring 

 large quantitii's of hard wood ashes to supply t'lC 

 lack, Avhile in much of the same land the amount 

 of potash which is contained is perfectly measure- 

 less and inexliaustable. 'J'iie soil needs working 

 and managing in a proper manner to bring it into 

 use, because it is now ct)inbined with otiier sub- 

 stances, forming coarse particles or lumps which 

 grooving plants cannot use. (/».) 



To prepare the abundant mass of eartliy or 

 mineral sultstances of the subsoil lor use, ccrtiiin 

 substances from among the organic constituents of 

 plants, or those which are thrown into the air by 

 burning, are necessary. These being exhausted, 

 there is a lack of power to a.ssimilate and prepare 

 the inorganic substances or eleniejits for use. 



