Free soil

“ Hopkins, as the young husband paused in his tirade against the government stations. “Thanks to the experiments conducted by the government, millions of acres that were considered barren are now bearing crops, and it is cultivation that has wrought the change. Where the rainfall is light and the expense of irrigation is high, the lack of water can be overcome to a certain extent by keeping the soil free from weeds and from a sun-baked crust, which cultivation does. In other words, dry-farming where the subsoil is suitable. ”

“ if it comes to that, I can earn myself at least six feet of free soil,—the first and last I shall ever own in Kentucky!" ”

“ We must again dwell on the principles already emphasized, that soils must be treated according to their nature. If too damp, they must be drained; if of the fortunate quality of a sandy loam resting on a clay subsoil, they can be abundantly deepened and enriched from the start, if of a heavy clay, inclined to be cold and wet in spring, and to bake and crack in summer, skill should aim to lighten it and remove its inertia; finally, as we have shown, a light, porous soil should be treated like a spendthrift. ”

“ They smile when we boast about the rotation system having permitted us to take from the field one crop every year, or four crops each three years, because their ambition is to have six and nine crops from the very same plot of land during the twelve months. They do not understand our talk about good and bad soils, because they make the soil themselves, and make it in such quantities as to be compelled yearly to sell some of it: otherwise it would raise up the level of their gardens by half an inch every year. ”

“ Nations rise and fall; so does the productive power of vast areas of land. Better drainage, better seed, better implements, and more thorough tillage, all tend toward larger crops, but they also tend toward ultimate land ruin, for the removal of larger crops only hastens soil depletion. ”

“ And yet sacred as is the soil and binding as is the farmer's obligation to society, the means for providing the world's food is nevertheless at his mercy.
It is a well-known fact that the soil can readily be depleted of its fertility and thus robbed of its strength by a system of exploitation, commonly referred to as "extensive farming." Too much of our land is being thus exploited. On the other hand the productiveness of the soil may be very greatly improved. ”

“ Whether a greater accumulation of vegetable mould or enriching of the soil, would take place under a system of rotation of crops, stirring of the ground, and manuring, or under Nature’s own system of management—whether, under forest, or under the rich leafy grasses depastured by cattle, is a question of the greatest intricacy, and only admits of local decision, being dependent upon climate, soil, and circumstance. ”

“ The recuperation of the soil, too, is a matter of great importance. Some people think if they put manure on the land, that is all it requires. There is some land that would be better with sand mixed with the soil; some would be benefitted by having clay mixed with it. If we would pursue this course we might cultivate less land and receive a greater reward for our labor. ”

“ But picture a man of bold mind, a clearer, a conqueror, who should drain those lands and rid them of superfluous water by means of a few canals which might easily be dug! Why, then a huge stretch of land would be reclaimed, handed over to cultivation, and wheat would grow there with extraordinary vigor. But that is not all. There is the expanse before us, those gentle slopes from Janville to Vieux-Bourg, that is another five hundred acres, which are left almost uncultivated on account of their dryness, the stony poverty of their soil. ”

“ If you give the water a chance to make gullies in your fields, you lose not only the water but the best of the soil also. If you cultivate your fields with care, most of the water will soak into the ground. If you are a wise farmer you know also that cultivation of the soil helps to hold the water, for it cannot escape through loose soil as it can through compact soil. Thus if you know how to handle both the water and the soil, you can, with only a little rain, accomplish a great deal. ”

“ Each year the growing plants take certain substances from the soil. It is necessary for us to put back like substances if we would keep up the fertility of the soil. If we are neglectful of this law, or allow water to wash the soil away until only the bare rocks remain, poverty will be our lot for many years.
Nature will, however, if we give her a chance, renew the soil. The rocks will crumble and, by and by, seeds will sprout and tiny plants obtain a foothold. But it may take a whole lifetime, or hundreds of years, even, for a new and fertile soil to come again. ”

“ The pendulum is now swinging back to the farm, and our great Nation is becoming aroused to the fact that its most vital concern is the elimination of soil waste, the promotion of scientific methods of agriculture, and the conservation of that soil fertility which is the foundation of our entire social, political and commercial superstructure. ”

“ Judging even by his own imperfect test, that of local situation—how imperfect I need not stop to point out—is it true that in England or France at the present day the uncultivated part of the soil consists of the plains and valleys, and the cultivated, of the hills? Every one knows, on the contrary, that it is the high lands and thin soils which are left to nature, and when the progress of population demands an increase of cultivation, the extension is from the plains to the hills. ”

“ It would be necessary to undertake the amelioration of land on a grand scale, to plant forests here and cut down forests there, to irrigate and to drain; to mix different kinds of soil, to break ground and to plant, in order to attain the highest degree of fertility. ”

“ As a nation we have scarcely lifted a hand yet to stop the waste of fertility or to restore exhausted lands; practically every effort put forth by the Federal government along agricultural lines having been directed toward better seeds, control of injurious insects and fungous diseases, exploitation of new lands by drainage and irrigation, popularly called 'reclamation,' although applied only to rich virgin soils which can certainly be brought under cultivation at any future time either by the Government or by private enterprise. ”

“ Common prudence would suggest that we increase to our utmost our area of tillable land. The race between increased consumption and added acreage has been an unequal one. Modern methods of soil treatment have been helpful, but they have their limitations. ”

“ It rarely happens that there is much selection to be made in soils as we find them in nature, for gardening purposes, unless particular attention is given to the subject in choosing a site for a new dwelling. Generally, we have to take the land as we find it. Unless, therefore, we happen to find it just right, we should endeavor to improve it in the best manner. The principal means for making a perfect garden soil, are draining, trenching, and manuring. ”

“ The soil, if properly tilled, provides health as well as wealth, and be it remembered that in proportion to its productiveness so is the need of labour; and further, be it remembered that long after the eye is too dim and the hand too slow to keep time with steam machinery, the physical powers are amply sufficient for the cultivation of the land.
Many of our pressing social problems are inextricably linked with our duty to the soil, and any country in which the fertility of the soil does not increase cannot be rightly regarded as really in the van of civilisation and scientific progress. ”

“ The alluvial flats are covered with a luxuriant crop of grasses. But on the table lands the grass is not abundant. There has now been a year's experience of the capability of the soil, and there is no doubt that it can abundantly produce any grain, fruit, vegetable, tree, or shrub, which belongs to its parallel of latitude. The sandy loam is considered the best for present purposes, the stiff clay lands being difficult to break up, and requiring more time and labour than many are willing to bestow. ”

“ The older the country has become, as a rule, the more obnoxious has been the vegetation that the soil has produced of its own accord. But there has been in my recollection, which goes back more than seventy years, a great many changes in the crops of vegetation on those lands, showing to my satisfaction that there is an inherent potency in nature, in rich soil that will cover itself every year with a growth of some kind. If it is not cultivated and made to produce fruit, vegetables, and cereals, it will nevertheless produce a crop of some kind. ”

“ A further gain can be had on soils already in use by expert management in the direction of proper succession of crops and a thoroughness of occupation and tillage often seen in Italy, France or Belgium, but only exceptionally found as yet in our own land. We need not only better directed labor, but more labor on the same soil. In the regions of sufficient rainfall, which comprise nearly the eastern half of the United States, we shall find, or did find in 1900, seven men per average square mile, tilling the soil, or one to each lot of 91.4 acres. ”

“ The natural advantages of the soils are, however, more than counterbalanced by the bad system prevailing in such sections, viz.; large farms rented out in patches to laborers who are too poor and too much in debt to merchants to have any interest in keeping up the fertility of the soil, or rather the ability to keep it up, with the natural consequence of its rapid exhaustion, and a product per acre on these, the best lands of the state, lower than that which is realized from the very poorest. ”

“ When, however, the virgin soil is broken up by the plough and brought into cultivation the native vegetation and the crop are alike removed, and therefore the sources of gain are considerably reduced. ”

“ The additions which might be made to the nutriment of the civilized world by a judicious administration of the resources of the waters, would allow some restriction of the amount of soil at present employed for agricultural purposes, and a corresponding extension of the area of the forest, and would thus facilitate a return to primitive geographical arrangements which it is important partially to restore. ”

“ This matter of soil conservation is of the greatest [Pg 14] importance to every one of us. If you are to own a farm, or rent a farm, or till a garden, or plant an orchard ten years from now, it will make a great difference to you whether the man who owns it from now until then knows how to care for it so as to make it produce well, or whether, by neglect, he allows it to become poorer each year. It will make a far greater difference if twenty years elapse. ”

“ On rich land, which is maintained in this condition of porosity and mellowness, agriculture will produce its best results, and will encounter the fewest possible chances of failure. Of course, there are not many such soils to be found, and such absolute balance between warmth and moisture in the soil cannot be maintained at all times, and under all circumstances, but the more nearly it is maintained, the more nearly perfect will be the results of cultivation. ”

“ In short, the young farmer can scarcely have a safer rule than this—to subsoil his land first, whenever there is a doubt of the soundness of the subsoil, or a fear that by bringing it to the surface, the fertility of the upper soil will be diminished. ”

“ The portion of the farm reduced in productive power for the moment goes to grass, while the labor and fertilizers are concentrated upon the fields that are broken for grain and vegetables. The removal of all the crop at harvest, and probably the pasturing of after-math, are the only matters of interest that the fields, depleted by cultivation and seeded down to grass, have for the owner until the poor hay yield and the need of a sod for corn draw attention again to them. ”

“ The substances which we found in the soil teach us that it was formed from the rocks. If we could take the sand, clay, potash, soda, lime, and iron that we found in the soil and put them together as Nature knows how to do, we should have rock again.
But if we should take a piece of rock and crush it to a fine sand, that would not be soil, because soil cannot be made in that way. It takes Nature many, many years, as the rocks slowly crumble and decay, to change the materials of which they are composed into true soil with its swarms of bacteria and its plant food. ”

“ The arid plains of the Great West have the richest of known soils, if a little human sweat mixed with water in sufficient quantity could be kneaded into it. Government as the lord paramount of its domain, should force the growing of trees and should prevent the destruction of timber wherever the same is necessary to keep up or improve the land. It has parted with the title to the soil, but still retains the power to use it for its own support. ”

“ In the first place, you buy your land, of which there is a fair supply yet to be had, at about ten dollars per acre. The soil here is mostly strong, clayey loam, with a heavy top deposit of vegetable mould, very rich and lasting. It is easily cleared, and, if not on a steep hillside, where the perpetual rains wash the humus away, retains its fertility a long while. ”

“ Finally, land-plaster and quick-lime, still more powerful soil stimulants, are often brought into the system to bring about a more complete exhaustion of the soil reserves, and lastly the use of small amounts of high-priced commercial fertilizers serves to put the land in suitable condition for ultimate abandonment. ”

“ Admitting, for the moment, that the soil is most grateful to the husbandman, and the climate congenial to a native of England, still it cannot be denied that laws and regulations may exist, so irksome in their nature and so partial in their probable consequences, as not to be counterbalanced by fertility of soil or salubrity of atmosphere. ”