256 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



EXHAUSTION OF SOILS. 



A most gloomy theory has been suggested by 

 some writers, and readily adopted by a certain 

 class of dismally disposed minds, to the effect that 

 this good world of ours is gradually becoming un- 

 inhabitable by man ; that it is growing old and de- 

 crepid, in the same sense as men and animals grow 

 old ; that every successive crop diminishes the 

 capacity of the soil for production ; that every 

 breath taints and destroys forever a certain pro- 

 portion of the pure air of heaven ; that every 

 body which dies and is buried poisons and con- 

 taminates so much of the earth's surface ; and, 

 finally, in a word, that the world if not otherwise 

 destroyed, is eventually to shrivel up and die of 

 old age ; and many now think that they see un- 

 mistakable evidence that the poor old patient is 

 already "struck o' death," and they believe that 

 her final dissolution is just at hand. 



Now we have no sympathy with any such dark- 

 side view of the subject. We believe that the 

 world is very good, and that man was made not 

 only "to dress it and keep it," but also to improve 

 it, to make it better. The plain of Shanghai, one 

 of the most productive sections of the world, has 

 been cultivated from time immemorial, and is as 

 fruitful now as it ever was ; and this remark we 

 think will apply to the old world generally. 

 Those sections which were remarkable for fertility 

 as far back as history reaches, are still remarkably 

 productive wherever they are well tilled. 



A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer presents 

 the bright side of this subject in a manner that 

 we like ; and it gives us pleasure to copy his ar- 

 ticle, which will be read by many farmers who are 

 cultivating the "worn-out" soil of New England, 

 — some of Avhom perhaps will let us know what 

 they think of it. 



Can the soil of such States as Illinois and those 

 bordering upon it, be exhausted ? I believe not. 

 A succession of crops, of such a nature as to draw 

 largely upon one or two of those ingredients which 

 exist in but small quantities in any soil, may dis- 

 qualify it temporarily for producing those partic- 

 ular crops in such quantities as to be profitable. 

 Thus, if you grow corn, wheat, or both, alternate- 

 ly, in the same field, for many years, the phosphate 

 of lime will be unreasonably drawn upon. The 

 portions of it which natural causes had previously 

 brought into a soluble state, will be used up. 

 The knd will refuse to give such crops as it had 

 formerly. The land, in such a case, is not abso- 

 lutely exhausted. What you can say of it with 

 truth is, that so much of certain ingredients as 

 had become soluble has been used up, that it is 

 not good policy to tax the soil longer in the same 

 direction, till time and natural causes shall have 

 operated to bring other portions of these ingre- 

 dients into a condition in which plants can absorb 

 them. 



A person accustomed to having his beef cooked, 

 could not feed satisfactorily on raw beef ; a fatted 

 ox might be before him, and yet he might starve 



if pome of the beef were not cooked. It is so 

 with plants. In every good soil there is a portion 

 of those ingredients on which plants depend, in a 

 prepared state, and a much larger portion in an 

 unprepared state. When, therefore, a grain crop 

 has been long grown in a field, and the field re- 

 fuses longer to produce it abundantly, it does not 

 follow that this field is exhausted. The very in- 

 gredients on which that crop thrives, may be in 

 the soil, and the only trouble may be that they 

 are in an unprepared state, not soluble — not such 

 that the plant can take them in. They are to the 

 plant, as raw beef is to the man who has been 

 used to having his beef cooked. Time, in such a 

 case, is the remedy. Let thei'e be a rotation of 

 crops. Where a single crop has been growing for 

 years, let other crops intervene ; and while these 

 are drawing upon diff'er.ent ingredient, natural 

 causes will be operating to prepare the food re- 

 quired by the first. 



It is not in the power of man to aff'ect an ex- 

 haustion of any strong, deep soil, which shall be 

 permanent, because natural causes are in o])era- 

 tion to counteract the tendencies of even the worst 

 farming. A bad fiirmer may, in the first half of 

 his life, almost spoil a good farm for the last half 

 of it; he may, in the whole of his life, injure it 

 amazingly for his sons ; but he cannot spoil it for 

 his grandchildren. God has taken care to provide 

 laws by which the effect of a bad cultivation is 

 limited. But though we cannot spoil, for perpe- 

 tuity, any soil naturally good, yet the loss occa- 

 sioned by such cultivation and croppings as dete- 

 riorate the laud is great, falling mainly on the 

 man who does the mischief, and on his immedi- 

 ate successors, and less on those remotest from 

 him. This is according to our notions of justice. 

 The punishment falls first and muiuly upon the 

 one who does the wrong. Every kind of manage- 

 ment that deteriorates the soil, is, (not in the long 

 run, for it is a rather short run,) unprofitable ; or, 

 at least, is less profitable than a course which 

 keeps it fully up to its original fertility or above it. 



We do not like to hear persons talk about spoil- 

 ing land. The Almighty has made the land in 

 this great valley, such that not all human power 

 combined, can spoil it. But the cultivation which 

 diminishes its productiveness, spoils some part at 

 least, of the prosperity of the farmer who prac- 

 tises it. J. A. N, 



Potatoes. — The first potatoes grown in this 

 country were from seed brought from Ireland by 

 the Scotch Irish who emigrated from the old coun- 

 try in 1718 and in 1719 settled in Londonderry, 

 N. H. They were first raised in the garden of 

 Nathaniel Walker, of Andover, and gradually, but 

 slowly, found their way into gitiieral cultivation. 

 They are first mentioned in Newbury in 1732 ; in 

 Lynn in 1733. In 1737, Rev. Thomas Smith, 

 of Portland, says, "there is not a peck of pota- 

 toes in the whole Eastern country." So late as 

 1750, if any person raised so large a quantity as 

 five bushels, great was the inquiry among his 

 neighbors as to how he could dispose of the enor- 

 mous quantity. — Newhuryport Herald. 



I^ There were 10,803 births, 3071 marriages, 

 and 8541 deaths in Connecticut in 1862, which is a 

 less number of births and marriages than in 18G1, 

 and an increase in the mortality. One person who 

 died was 109 years old. 



