A N I) 11 O K T I C U L T U K A L U E G I S T E U . 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK k CO., NO. 52 NOttTH M.\RKET STREET, (Ao.icoiTOiiAt Wa.ihoo.e.)- ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APKIL 20, 1842. 



ITsa. 4» 



I. E. FARMER, 



We dcrote a large portion of our paper this 

 lek, to the following valuable article from the 

 in. William Clark, Jr., of Noriliampton. Mr 

 ark's experience as an agrictilturiiit, and his sue- 

 SI in the ili'pnrtmcnt of ajriciilttirc upon which 

 treats, oniillo his essiiv to a careful perusal. — 

 e should be happy to receive an account of tho 

 perimcnts alluded to in the closing paragraph. 



RENOVATION OF EXHAUSTED SOILS. 

 Mr Pvtna.m — Tho importance of some efficient 

 i more economical method of renovating exiiaus. 

 I lands, than any now commonly pursued, is 

 le deeply felt as the need of .i more successful 

 1 productive agriculture is better appreciated. 

 t is true that much has been done by means of 

 iproved husbandry," to arreet the desolating 

 reh of the scourging system of former days, 

 ich at one time bid fair eventually to depopulate 

 older settled parts of our country. Yet, judg- 

 from the past, it is also true that there are now 

 e fields to be won to former fertility, than ordi- 

 r methods of fertilizing will accomplish in per- 

 i a century to come. Tracts of exhausted or 

 rn out Innii arc found in almost every section 

 ere "pine plain.s" or sandy lands exist. Many 

 ds of this have been thrown out of cultivation, 

 . are considered nearly worthless. Others, by 

 nty crops, now impoverish those who work them, 

 -eturn a bare compensation for the labor applied ; 

 ,le some, from peculiar location, or other circum- 

 icefi favorable to their improvement, have be- 

 ae productive and valuable. Cases enough of 

 latter class exist to show beyond a doubt that 

 ae lands are capable of being made highly pro- 

 tive ; and after being put in good condition, it 

 liought by some that if well managed, few other 

 Js will give a belter return for the labor and 

 ense bestowed in their cultivation. 

 \9 a general remark, it may be said of these 

 austed lands that they are light, dry, and easy 

 ;ultivation, and possess all the constituents of a 

 ■d soil, except food for plants. This cxceptinn 

 a most important one ; but of this the land 

 been in a great measure deprived by severe 

 pping or cultivation, invited to excess by the 

 y and generous nature of the soil ; and the ques- 

 1 ever presented to the owner, or the passer by 

 n, is. How can this most essential element of fer- 

 'y (food for plants) be profitably and economically 

 orcd to this icastcd soil ? 



\ moment's reflection would seem enough to 

 w that ordinary means fall far short of meeting 

 whole case. The extent of these lands — their 

 ation, often distant from the dwellings of own- 

 — and the expense of labor oiid material, if ma- 

 e is to be hauleil, have a bearing, as regards 

 h practicability and economy. And farm-yard 

 nure, which affords the principal, of means gen- 

 lly employed to fertilize, is very limited in qiian- 

 , and together with the various animal subetan- 

 used for the same purpose, affords less than is 

 Urable for those lands which are now in a state 



of improvement, necessarily leaving exhausted 

 I fields to remain exhausted, unless succes.'tful re- 

 ' sort is had to some other equal or superior method 

 of fertilizing, as a substitute. 



In looking for this substitute, various inquiries 

 present themselves, naturally leading to the invca- 

 tigation of first principles, lo seek out tho cause of 

 fertility and il.s sources, or to loarn what is food for 

 plants, what its nature or qualities, and where and 

 i how it can be obtained. 



To assist in this investigation', Geology and 

 Chemistry have disclosed facts no less valuable 

 than those obtained by farmers from experience 

 and observation. Geology teaches that there was 

 a period in tho history of our earth, when vegeta- 

 tion or vegetable matter was unknown; and we 

 therefore infer that the plants or vegelablfs first 

 brought into existence, mnstof necessity have sub- 

 sisted solely upon elcmenta found in water, atmos- 

 pheric air, and the rock formations of tlic earth. In 

 support of this inference, chemistry tells ua that 

 upon analysis, all the elements of vegetable matter 

 are found to exist in water, air, and the rod; for- 

 mations. This is perhaps sufficient evidence as to 

 what are the original sources of fertility or food 

 for plants. 



Geology shows further, as the earliest coal for- 

 mations clearly indicate, that the first vegetable 

 products of the earth were lichens, mosses, ond 

 other inferior plants, none of them capable of pro- 

 ducing seeds or fruits suitable for the sustenance 

 of rr.en or animals. And no traces of the more 

 valuable plants are found, except where preceding 

 generations of the inferior orders had crumbled to 

 decay and their remains mingled with the primitive 

 earths or decomposed rocks, had formed what is 

 commonly termed a productive soil. 



From this wo might infer that the elements of 

 fertilily eristinf^ in a primitive state, were compe- 

 tent to the growth and perfection of inferior plants, 

 but were so diluted or attenuated, as to be incom- 

 petent to the perfection of the more valuable plants ; 

 and further, that the inferior plants when gather- 

 ing nourishniont from its primitive sources for their 

 own subsistence, were in fact concentrating and 

 condensing food for the benefit of their successors ; 

 and when decompneed, wont to the formation of a 

 soil, and themselves became food for succeeding 

 plants ; and by presenting food in a more condens- 

 ed form than in its primitive state, gave sufficient 

 nourishment for the perfection of plants of a higher 

 order — the latter of course exhausting tho soil of 

 nutrition precisely in proportion to the amount 

 which they drew of the remains of the former from 

 the soil. 



In support of these inferences, it is a well known 

 fact that mosses and some other plants of equal 

 merit, do flourish in situations where their organs 

 con have access ajiparently to little or nothing but 

 the primitive clemcats. And modem experiments 

 have repeatedly shown that seeds of grain planted 

 in pure sand or pounded glass, and supplied only 

 with air and light, and distilled or pure water of 

 suitable temperature, will grow up to the time of 

 flowering ; but after that period, literally die of 



starvation, and do not perfect their seeds, evidently 

 for want of more subslantial and abundant suste- 

 nance than is roiimsito in the first stages of (growth, 

 or than the organs of tho plants can gather from a 

 state of primitive diffusion for the last stages of 

 growth or perfection of the plants. Hero is evi- 

 dence that the primitive elements now possess what 

 we have supposed to be their primitive powers, 

 and evidence also that all plants draw a portion at 

 least of their early nourishment from its primitive 

 sources. The fact that plants require more food, 

 and make heavier drafts upon the soil when ripen- 

 ing their seeds — and of course exhaust the soil 

 more — limn (luring previous gt. wlh, is well illus 

 traled by the broom corn plant. This plant gives 

 the most luxuriant farm crop grown in New Eng- 

 land. Its weight of stem and foliage is perhaps 

 double the weight of stem and foliage of Indian 

 corn on land of same extent and quality, and from 

 its ponderous growth might be expected to exhaust 

 the soil more than any other crop; and yet it is 

 said by many of long experience with it, to exhaust 

 less than almost any other. The obvious reason 

 for this result is, that from the effect of early frosts, 

 a full crop of seed is not obtained oftencr than an 

 average of perhaps once in four or six years — the 

 principal object of the grower being the "brush"' 

 and not the seed of the i)lant. But where c full 

 crop of seed is obtained, the exhaustion — making 

 due allowance for the large return to the soil of 

 stocks and leaves of the plant left at harvest, is 

 thought equal to that of other crops. 



Experience has further shown that where the 

 chemist can find no vegetable matter in the compo- 

 sition of a soil, tlic farm<?r can obtain no valuable 

 product. And every farmer who cultivates in corn 

 an acre of sward laud of light quality, and observes 

 the difference in crop between where a good sward 

 was well plowed under, and where there was little 

 or no svard when plowed, sees full evidence that 

 dccomp^ced vegetable matter is food for plants. 



The universal practice among good farmers, on 

 lands lung cultivated, of saving weeds, brakes, re- 

 fuse hay or straw and like substances, to go through 

 the cattle yard or co:iipost heap to the |)low-field, 

 which observation and experience has always ap- 

 proved, is evidence to the tame point, as is also 

 universal crpcriencv where new lands with ages of 

 accumulated vegel.-ible matter, are brought under 

 cultivation, and can liardly leave a doubt in any 

 mind that decomposing vegetable matter affords 

 the essential food that in any soil is necessary lo 

 the perfect developement of grain-prodL'cing and 

 fruit-bearing plants, or plants of the iirghest order 

 ill the scale of vegetable excellence. 



This essential food for plants has been called 

 geinc. This term is not very familiar to farmer', 

 hut is nevertheless useful ns a definite name for 

 the solid aliment of plants", existing in the soil or 

 at the earth's surface, distinct from the gaseous ali- 

 ment which the atmosphere offords to plants in all 

 places, and also distinct from the primitive earths 

 or Balls which enter into the frame-work of plants 

 for their mechanical support, or which season* 

 their food or incites their organs to greater activity 



