EXHAUSTIVE TILLAGE.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 240, 4 February 1888, Page 8

EXHAUSTIVE TILLAGE.

This ii a subject upon which the cultivators of rich virgin land require a great deal of preaching to. Wherever »uoh land is opened to European settlement, whether in. Australia, New Zealand, or elsewhere, it i* almost invariably robbed and plundered of its fertility with a recklessness that would be extraordinary if it were not for a knowledge of human nature. This teaches ua that wherever nature is generous man is greedy. Wherever she offers him riches easily gathered from her fruitful breast, he wrests them from her with feverish haste and ruthless hands, caring nothing for the desolation and barrenness he leaves behind. This has been done in the once fertile South Australian wheat growing land*, it ii bein<«j done in New Zealand in the rich grain growingjdistricts of the Middle Island, and on a smaller scale even on the East Coast of the North Island, where there is alluvialsoil which can produce 100 bushola of maize to the acre wifchouta pound of manure. In the same way the immense tracts of rich virgin soil which for some years produced crop after crop of wheat in extraordinary abundance in California and other Western States of America, are now for miles and miles rendered comparatively barren plains by the take-all and givenothing gystetn of land culture pursued by the pioneer farmers of the Far West. We are told by scientific men that if left to the ordinary processes of nature a thousand years would not be sufficient time to restore the plundered land to its original state of fertility. It is a, sad commentary on the boasted intelligence of the nineteenth century Anglo-Saxon, this deliberate killing of the goose that lays the golden eggs— this greedy and wicked disregard for the interests of those of the same race and blood that must come after us, to gaze helplessly upon the ruin we have wantonly effected through etifiah greed of rapid gains. It strikes us that readers of The New Zealand Farmkr will find some home truths well worth pondering over in the following extract from a paper contributed the American Farm and Home Any farmer who does not know that earing fertilizers with scrupulous care and applying them with discretion is a vital part of agriculture, hasn't half learned hia trade. If his land is rich and productive, he has the strongest possible reasons for keeping it so. A numbskull of a boy, who climbs a tall tree for a bird's nest, struggles desperately to get higher, determined not to Blip back, rigntly judging that it is easier to ntay where he is than to regain his position if he loses it. He is wiser than many of our esteemed fellow citizens of the agricultural profession. In nine cases out of ten, if a field gires a very satisfactory yield — say forty bushels of wheat to the acre, seventy bushels of oats, 250 bushels of potatoes, 60 bushels of corn—our fellow citizen aforesaid follows right up with another crop, without one pound of manure to help make up the large draft made by the previous bountiful yield. He won't " stand on the order " of his doing. With desperate alacrity and energy he stubbles in wheat, rye, winter oats, the furrow* full of balks, the harrowing rough, with plenty of skips, seed partly covered, seaton fur advanced, and other things too numerous tomention. Neglected the land is in good heart, and must get out of that fix as soon as possible. I have seen plenty of that kind of farming in my day ; I know very well what I am talking about. As withthe boy in the tree, it is easier to keep up than to got up. This depleting process soon reduces the yield to a half or a third of what it was when the land was new. To maintain this reduced yield and keep it from going still lower, coats about | *s much annually as would have been re- ' quired to maintain a much higher yield, if I the depreciation of the *oil had not been allowed to occur. In plain English, it costs as much to raise poor crops on poor land as to raise good crops on good land, the labour, the fertilizers, and every expense being counted. This will be perfectly apparent if we consider how many total and nearly total failures must be charged to the account of the poor soil. If an insurance company should insure yields, it would charge high rates for bad lands. Besides, if clover, timothy, or rye are sown to be ' turned under as green manure the rich j land at precisely the same cost, furnishes much more material than the poor land, and so the grain crop that follows is made good at the same cost that is expended on a oodr crop Manifestly it is bad business to let good , land run down. In my recent travels, I have seen what declining fertility comes ! to at last— thousands and tens of thousands of acres abandoned and turned out to the commons because reduced yields didn't pay the cost of cultivation; thousands and tens of thousands more making meagre, melancholy returns. la there no way this news can be got into the Western States ? My counsel to all pioneer farmers is, Don't let a single acre of your land decline in fertility. If it is so rich that wheat and oats lodge and don't fill, keep it in corn and grass ; probably that is what it is meant for : very few acres are troubled in that way. Strive to raise the standard ; if the land produces twenty bushels, see if you can't make it average thirty ; if you get thirty, try for forty— as a rule, the more you get the less per bushel it costs to raise it. Compare actual with possible yields, and it will be evident there is a severeloss somewhere, probably a good many. I venture to say that, with the exception of , some virgin soils, the average yields of our whole country are not one-third what they profitably might become. This " opening up of the West," ! when the rest of the country won't be half tilled or occupied, simply because sharpers i wanted to become millionaires by building railroads, and with other monopolists, seize of all good lands to levy tribute on future I occupants, is one of the saddest things in [human history. Dopleters of the soil hope to find innocents who will buy their run-down farms for more than they are worth, then they will go West ; soon they will get to the Pacific—may they keep right on.

TV omen as Ranche Owners. — In America there are numerous cases of women owning and managing farms and cattle ranches. Mrs Henry C. Meredith, of Cambridge City, Ind., has inherited a famous stock farm from her husband, who in turn received it from General Sol, Meredith, his father. Mrs Meredith is an authority in her business, and wa* the only woman present at the annual meeting of the. Indiana Shorthorn-Breeders' Association at Indianopolis, a few weeks ago. Miss Annie Thomas of Billings, Mo., has a big ranche and two paying mines near Butt© City. Mrs Rogers, the Texts ranche- woman, has made a million. :Mra Bishop Iliff, who i got her money from Iliff, the Colorado cattle I king, is a wealthy woman. She manages Her ranche personally, and shows excellent business' judgment. Besides these, many widows and unmarried women, own farms and work them with success, not 60 spqak of the numberless wives who manage alarm and keep » husband at the same time.