EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 311, 12 February 1875, Page 3

EXHAUSTION OF THE SOIL.

Under the heading of "' No lon<rer pipe, no longer dance," Mr. Mechi writes -Diseussious have been soing on as to how far a tenant can succeed in injuring his landlord by exhausting the soil without doing injurv to himself. ■ J think [ can throw a li< tie light on that-matter, bv practice as well as observation. My success here as a fanner depends upon my making much good manure, cultivating deep and ..welly eepin : the land cienn, and thus gruwiug maximum instead of uiini-

mum crops. . Unltvss J do this, 1 cannot make a profit.. The term, " making 'much f;ood manure,'" -means, 1 ", in

plain 'Englnh, keeping: a great deal of live stock in n fatteriinii condition. So sensitive is my fany in this matter, that if we diminish our cattle or sheep from their usual number we see and feel it - • immediately..• .in our crops, and our profit diminishes pro rata.- The farmer who keeps no ntock, and sells his crops away from the farm, unless he has .-icb .uw.xhansfcod.land .(of which there is ve ; y .liitie in Britain) ;or unless, near a town, he purchases abundant manure. Artificial manures, especially super ph sphate, may answer very well on certain soils, as- on tbo limestone of the prize farm, and on othrr'sxutable soils; but, with the-cr-cepticn of Peruvian guano, they are very little use on our Essex nou-calca-reous clays. A good farmei may be left unrestricted as to cropping, but such, a man will keep plenty of stock, grow plenty of root and . green crops, and consume them, and the buy and straw with plenty of cake and corn. One thing is certain, "no manure no crup ; " ." no loii«cr pipe'.no longer dance:" that is a conclusion I have arrived at after twenty-five years of 'practical• experience,- and 1 believe it Lo Ut! aouuii uiiC. Iji'ii iiiii ;!.•» il u ;iviu is nVit haliMarmcd..