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Manuring Land
The system of farming which has prevailed in Texas is very exhausting to
the land. No manures are applied to
the soil. The vegetables products
in the shape of corn and cotton stalks instead of being restored to the land are
burned up. Comparatively little
pains is taken to secure rotation in the crops.
Under this system, our best lands after twenty or thirty years begins to
give signs of exhaustion.
There is no question but in the past we have labored to cultivate too much surface. One acre of ground well manured, and thoroughly cultivated will produce as much as two or three well managed after the old style of farming.
Among various experiments for improving and increasing the productive capacity of the soil, a Frenchman of great skill, Prof. Ville, has perfected a system, which having been tested from flower pots to large fields, culminated in presence of hundreds of farmers and others who had met to witness the crops as they were being harvested, and convinced the most incredulous.
An English writer says: “It is not extravagant in stating that light has replaced darkness: that order has succeeded chaos, and that the phantom of sterility is laid.”
It has been demonstrated that bones pulverized form one of the very best manures. Let a cask be placed conveniently in the garden and gradually filled with bones and ashes, and kept moistened with the slops from the chamber, and in a very short time a barrel of manure may be prepared superior to the best of guano.
In an address delivered before the Farmer’s Club of New Hampshire, by John A. Riddle, Esq. We find another mode for manufacturing the fertilizer” Take a used common molasses cask, divide in the middle with a saw, into one half of this place half a barrel of finely ground bone, and moisten it with two buckets of water, using a how in mixing. Have ready a carboy of oil of vitriol and a stone pitcher holding, one gallon. Turn out this full of the acid, and gradually add it to the bone, constantly stirring. As soon as effervescence subsides, fill it again with acid and add as before; allow to remain over night and in the morning re-... (end of article is missing)
(Title: Manuring Land
Author: Unknown
Location Texas
Date estimated 1870
Media: One column newspaper article, glued to Page 200 of the Ledger of
Captain W. B. Blair)
Copyright 2002 ©
This compilation is for
individual research or private study only. Any unauthorized reproduction,
distribution, public performance, display, or modifications of the materials
contained in is website, is subject to copyright law.