74 
NAKED FALLOWS AND NAKED SOILS TEND TO STERILITY. 
NAKED FALLOWS AND NAKED SOILS TEND 
TO STERILITY. 
There is no doubt of the truth of this proposi¬ 
tion. Any observing man who has travelled far 
and observed carefully what was before him, 
cannot have failed to note this result. Occasion¬ 
ally old fields, or commons, at the north, and 
whole plantations at the south, illustrate the 
assertion; while in ancient kingdoms, once 
world-wide renowned for fertility, as Palestine, 
large portions of Syria, Greece, Italy, and Spain, 
sterility now reigns supreme, where once the 
golden harvests waved in the richest profusion, 
and lowing herds and bleating flocks fattened 
on the luxuriant meadows and grassy hill sides. 
A few years of bad cultivation, followed by 
abandonment of the naked surface to the ele¬ 
ments, have wasted the remnant of fertility left 
by the last thriftless occupant. A little consi¬ 
deration will show the inevitable tendency of 
such management to similar results in our own 
country. 
A soil judiciously cultivated, where all that 
is produced upon it is fed otf upon the field; or 
the refuse vegetation, as of stalks and roots, after 
its consumption by man or animals—the offal of 
the finer portions, as of grain, the leguminous 
plants or farinaceous roots—where these are 
carefully husbanded and returned to the soil, 
with the addition comparatively of a trifle in 
some of the essential mineral ingredients, as of 
plaster, lime, or salt, when they are deficient, the 
soil will be constantly improving. The reason 
of this is perfectly obvious. Vegetation draws 
no inconsiderable share of its carbon, which is 
between 40 and 50 per cent, of its entire weight, 
from the carbonic acid of the atmosphere. This 
is stored up in the roots, stalks, and leaves; and 
if carried back to the soil and incorporated with 
it, tends greatly to augmenting its fertility. In 
fruits fed to man or animals, much of this carbon 
is converted into carbonic acid and given again 
to the atmosphere by their respiration. Yet much 
of the carbon, and nearly all the salts, or mine¬ 
ral ingredients of the food, are retained in their 
feces, and if these are applied to the field, they 
will be found to have improved rather than dete¬ 
riorated the soil from which they had been 
taken. 
It is the loss by the partial fermentation and 
decomposition of plants, grains, and grasses, in 
the curing' and preparation for food, in addition to 
their large waste from respiration in the animal 
system, which renders the process of improve¬ 
ment by manuring with green crops, (in which 
the whole product, as of oats, buckwheat, rye, 
clover, or cow peas, grown upon a field, is turned 
under by the plow,) so much more speedy and 
efficient, than the slower, yet not less certain mode 
of restoring all the offal and manure derived 
from the crop to the soil where it has been 
grown. Even a small quantity of such mineral 
manures, as lime, plaster, salt, or bonedust, has a 
tendency to absorb carbonic acid and ammonia; 
and by a small outlay, the fertility of the soil may 
be greatly increased, and the loss of these fer¬ 
tilisers by respiration and perspiration, when 
they first pass through the animal system, before 
their residuum is given back to the soil, may be 
fully compensated. 
One exception is to be admited of the tendency 
of uncultivated fields to sterility. This is seen 
where they sustain a natural growth of vegeta¬ 
tion, such as is exhibited in woodlands, prairies, 
and the spontaneous growth of other plants in 
tolerable profusion; for here the work of a self- 
sustaining fertility is constantly in operation. 
In all other cases, the rule holds true, and from 
this perfectly plain and obvious principle. If 
the soil be upturned and exposed to the sun, air, 
and rains, unsheltered by the kindly protection of 
its natural covering of vegetation, the oxygen 
from the air and moisture it imbibes, stimulated 
by the sun’s rays, acts upon the carbon of the 
soil and converts it into carbonic acid; and this, 
finding no rootlets of plants to absorb and con¬ 
dense it, speedily escapes to the surface, where it 
mingles with the atmosphere, and is wafted 
thousands of miles from the spot of its origin. 
As they become soluble, the earthy salts, finding 
no plants to appropriate them, are soon washed 
out of their native bed by the drenching rains, 
and pass onward through rills, brooks, and rivers, 
to the mighty ocean, hopelessly beyond reach. 
Calcareous and aluminous soils are partial, and 
only partial exceptions to this general result. 
They absorb a certain amount of these fer¬ 
tilising salts and gases, while all beyond pass 
off into irreclaimable waste. 
The relevancy of these principles is shown, 
by the devastations of numerous and once fertile 
cotton plantations in our southern states. It was 
not the quantity of carbon and salts, (ash,) 
abstracted in the comparativly small proportion 
of lint, (pure cotton,) taken from the fields,' 
although this, in a long series of years, would 
be considerable; but it is owing to the neces¬ 
sarily cleanly cultivation required by this crop, 
and the nearly naked fallows thereby exposed to 
the drenching rains and an almost tropical sun. 
No weeds nor grass must be suffered to grow 
where a good crop is to be secured; and the nar¬ 
row strips, (rows,) of vegetable growth, which 
alone are suffered to usurp the field, except for the 
brief time when the crop is in full foliage, gives 
every facility for the escape of fertilising mat¬ 
ter through the action of the elements. Added 
to this, is the too frequent waste of the stalks, 
leaves, and seeds; the two former being often 
suffered to decay on the surface and gradually 
disappear from rains; and the latter succeeds at 
a later period, the other portions of the plant; or 
if fed to cattle or swine, their manure is dropped 
in the roads or by the side of gullies, where it 
soon follows the same channels. 
A similar effect is produced from the constant 
cultivation of grain, tobacco, flax, and most other 
plants; and from their abstracting a greater 
amount of the fertilising elements to give them 
maturity, than are taken out of the soil by cotton, 
this result is sooner reached. 
What is the remedy for this ? is the very per¬ 
tinent inquiry. There are but three, and one or 
more of these must be applied, or sterility is 
inevitable. The fields must have a frequent 
rotation of grass, clover, or some of the forage 
