EXHAUSTION OF SOILS.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 887, 28 February 1878, Page 3

EXHAUSTION OF SOILS.

I have never aeen the subject of exhaustion usefully, intelligently, consistently, or decently treated m any book. If any person has, I ! should like te know where the bock is. My heart sorrows at the prospects of dying without the sight. But this, it may be hoped, is ray own peculiar misfortune and shame ; for if such a book exists, tho shame is universal — a million times more than I can ever feel. I believe the question of exhaustion to be of greater moment, especially to farmers m the old states, than any other. Exportation of the crops — the principal, if not the only means assigned and elaborated by the writers — m my opinion, does not take five pounds m one hundred of what the soil loses. I do not think that sinking and evaporation take five per. cent, of the loss away. We will never find the bnlk of escaped plant food m the marts, nor m the snbsoil, nor m the air ; but remote generations moy find it m the deltas, bays, gulfs, and seas, to which it has been propelled, for the most part by ignorant and destructives modes of cultivation. As m ages past, the great bodies | of water will abandon their present beds, and occupy exhausted fields, future generations will plough the beds of present seas as we, now do the fertile deposits of ancient waters. Bnt we cannot await the reversion. We must find plant food where accessible, and incorporate it m our depleted soils. We must so cultivate as to restrain the washing away m solution or m solid form — the chief features of which are thorough drainage and deep and level cultivation- Deep furrows should be avoided as much as possible. These as well as creeks and rivers draw the surface water together, creating a velocity and power almost unknown on level surfaces, and like the creeks and I rivers, wash away the loam, and m i time penetrate to the gravel and clay, startiug all above on the way to the sea. In this way furrows exhaust the soil more rapidly than all other agencies together- In general, with few exceptional subsoils, and a,lso disturbance of plant roots, the deepest cultivation is the best. Not that the subsoil should be tnrned np if poorer than the surface. We can cultivate the soil without turning upside-down, or creating rivulets all over ib. The deeper the porosity, the less will the plant food wash from the surface. If it penetrates deeply, evaporation will bring the most of it back ; if it was away, no natural force would bring it back. A deeply porous soil, levelly cultivated, will absorb most of the water of ordinary rainfalls, and pass it off slowly, carrying almost no plant food away m solid form and very little m solution ; while the ammonia drawn, from the atmosphere, instead of rapidly running off m channels, will be absorbed and deposited m the soil. — Cor. ' American (Marland) Farmer.'