84 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



burn for him alone, while all around is 

 day? 



Can science tell us any things about 

 j)ur soils? There are many things which 

 I would like to know about them, which 

 ray own experience does not enable me 

 to understand, the knowledge of which 

 would certainly make me a happier, if not 

 a more successful farmer. I believe it 

 would do both. If I were to ask the ten 

 oldest and best farmers in this room, what 

 kinds of original growth indicated a fertile 

 soil-— would I get a satisfactory answer? 

 Nay, would I not get conflicting answers ? 

 Some years ago, I visited the county of 

 Rockingham in company with several of 

 my neighbours, who were old farmers and 

 sensible men. A few miles beyond the 

 Blue Ridge we entered a most magnificent 

 forest of immense walnuts, oaks and hick- 

 ories, underneath which the ground was 

 covered with a luxuriant growth of rattle- 

 weed. We were all in extacies at the ap- 

 pearance of fertility, and the oldest man 

 of the party exclaimed in his enthusiastic 

 delight — I should like to make tobacco 

 here. Thisjand would bring pound plants." 

 At the en^of our journey we learned from 

 one who knew the land well, that it was 

 sterile and worthless, and for that reason 

 had not been cleared. I have known 

 worn out lands, when first renovated by 

 improved culture, combined with clover 

 and plaster, to produce for several periods 

 of rotation twenty and twenty-five bush- 

 els of wheat to the acre, and afterwards 

 to decline, and fall back again to ten and 

 fifteen bushels. But continuing all the 

 while to produce more corn, and seeming, 

 to all appearance, richer than when it pro- 

 duced the largest crop of wheat. Again, 

 we all know lands which will produce a 

 maximum crop with manure, and in a few 

 years show no effects of the manuring ; 

 while others will exhibit the effects of it 

 for many years, under just the same sub- 

 sequent treatment. I have seen contigu- 

 ous spots of the same field, of which one 

 w T ould seem to be entirely renovated by 

 one application of manure, and put into a 

 condition for indefinite improvement, while 

 another would produce a crop or iwo, and 

 then ungratefully relapse into its original 

 sterility, although both were cultivated 

 alike in every particular. Some lands 

 ploughed wet lose their productive powers 

 for a long series of years, others are in- 



jured but little, and some not at all by 

 such treatment. One man will tell you 

 he has tried lime in all proportions with- 

 out the least effect — another that it acts 

 like a charm on his land. One buys Mex- 

 ican guano at a high price, and 'says it 

 pays ; another says that for his land he 

 had as lief have the same amount of dust 

 from the main road, as Mexican guano. 

 I have before alluded to Gen. Washing- 

 ton's failure to improve the land at Mount 

 Vernon, with Plaster of Paris, yet we con- 

 tinue to pay thousands of dollars every 

 year for an article wholly worthless in his 

 estimation. Now is all this blind chance, 

 or is there some key to these mysteries ? 

 The geologist teaches us, with very plaus- 

 ible reasoning, that the soil is formed by 

 the disintegration of the original rocks of 

 the earth : the chemist has analyzed these 

 rocks, and found that some of them con- 

 tain the mineral elements of plants, while 

 others do not. Might it not happen, that 

 if our young farmers came to their work 

 with a proper knowledge of these two 

 sciences only, and observed things wisely 

 in the field, while others watched in the 

 laboratory, the combined appeal of the 

 two might extort from science an answer, 

 which would solve these mysteries ? which 

 would find this key for us ? 



There are many powerful causes affect- 

 ing vegetable life, which are entirely in- 

 dependent of the soil. Experiments have 

 been tried, which showed that different 

 rays of light affect vegetation very differ- 

 ently. A box was filled with an uniform 

 soil, planted with seeds, and covered with 

 glasses of different colours. The seed 

 came up best and grew fastest under the 

 blue glass ; while under the red glass they 

 came up badly, and were of an unhealthy 

 colour. After some days the red and blue 

 glasses were mutually exchanged; when 

 the plants which had come up well and 

 grown vigorously under the blue glass, 

 withered under the red ; and those which 

 had been unhealthy under the red glass, 

 became luxuriant under the blue. Will 

 any one say this is all nonsense, no good 

 can come of such things ? So men said 

 of the steam-engine at first. So even 

 kings and savans said of the heaven-born 

 impulses which swelled the breast of Chris- 

 topher Columbus. But the steam-engine 

 wasn't nonsense ; and Columbus discov- 

 ered America. We all know that light 



