The Progress

FARMER AND PLANTER
RECLAIMING OLD LANDS

Response to an Alabama Farmer's
Inquiry With Reference to His
Worn-out Land.

A farmer from Uniontown, Ala.,
writes: "We have some worn-out land.
Please tell us how to reclaim it?"

This is by no means an isolated
case. All over the south there are thou-
sands of acres of "worn-out" land.
Land that has been so misused and
abused that it can no longer produce
crops that pay for the cost and trouble
of cultivation is called worn-out land.
What shall we do with these lands?
This is an interesting and important
question. Can they be made to pro-
duce paying crops again? If so how
shall we proceed to make them do so?
It will help us in answering this
inquiry to examine into the history of
these lands and see if we can find
what has made them poor. Many of
them were originally the finest and
richest farms in the south. Many
things have contributed to bring them
to their present almost worthless con-
dition. Among these we find three
prominent causes.

Chief among them is washing and
leaching. The water has been per-
mitted to run down more or less steep
grades and carry the finest particles of
the soil with it.

Soils generally contain all the ele-
ments or ingredients of fertility. These
are found in an insoluble condition.
In this state they can not help the
crops grow. To make them soluble and
available for plant growth we must
fertilize the soil. The fine particles
of soil dissolve in the water and the
plant food is thus fed by the water
to the growing plants. Hence these
fine particles make the soil rich or
productive. If we take these away the
soil is left with its plant food insolu-
ble. Such a soil we call poor.

Washing soon makes any soil poor
Often this washing produces gullies
and takes off the fine soil and leaves
the hard clay soil exposed. Very often
it does not do this, but only takes the
fine dust particles out and leaves the
coarser particles. This we call leaching.
Both of these results generally
go along together.

Another source of damage to the soil
results from stirring the land when it
is wet. As soon as the sunshine and
wind dry off such land, there are thou-
sands, yea millions of little brickbats
produced. These are absolutely worth-
less to the growing crop.

By constantly plowing when the clay
or subsoil is wet, we make a layer
of very compact earth just below where
we plow. This we call hardpan. This
layer prevents circulation of water,
increases the washing and interferes
with the growth of the roots of the
crop. Shallow plowing helps the wash-
ing and the formation of this hard-
pan.

Another great source of damage to
the land is the habit or custom of
burning off the grass, trash and other
vegetable matter. All of these are
needed to make humus in the soil,
which they do if permitted to rot. No
vegetable matter should ever be burned
on a farm. Without humus it is im-
possible to make large crops. We
thus see that by a misuse of fire and
water we make the lands poor. These
are intended to be our greatest farm
blessings. We make them our greatest
curses.

Now, having briefly shown how these
lands were made worn-out lands, we
are prepared to see how we can re-
claim them.

First of all, stop the washing and
leaching. This can be done by plow-
ing deep and on a level.

Repeated experiments have shown
that land plowed fifteen to eighteen
inches deep will hold all ordinary
rains. Below that depth the earth is
always sufficiently porous.

First, then, break your land so as to
destroy this hardpan and hold the rain
water. Many have advised that this
be done gradually, a few inches each
year. This is not the best. Do it at
once and do it thoroughly. It will
generally be found impossible to do
this with one plow. In such cases use
a subsoil plow to follow the first. The
first plow should be a turn plow, if
there is any vegetable matter to turn
under. If the land is clean, then it
does not make any material difference
what kind of a plow you use. It is not
the plow, but the plowing that is im-
portant.

Stirring wet land does more harm
than good. Be sure the soil is dry.
Make dust is the meaning of pulverize.
Making mortar has been one of the
great curses of southern farming.
Make dust.

Most of us have been taught that as
this wornout land is generally hard,
we must break it when wet. But this
is a great error. This plowing should
be done in the summer or fall.

We want a deep, fine soil, and we
need humus. So we can do all these
along together. When you have broken
this old, wornout land as deep as you
can, then harrow it as fine as you can
make it, and begin at once to grow
some kind of crop on it. Generally a
convenient plan will be to sow oats or
wheat in September or October. As
soon as you cut these, for hay or
grain, then sow in peas, with sorghum.
Cut this crop for hay, and sow oats
again. Continue this rotation a few
years and mix all the stubble in the
soil; and the land will become rich.

This plan does not cost anything.
The hay crops and grain crops more
than pay the expenses. This is not
the only way. You can plant any crop
you please from the first. When you
get the soil deep and fine it will pro-
duce any crop. The chief feature of
the above plan is that it helps to fur-
nish humus cheaply and quickly.

Stable manures will greatly help.
They start fermentation and assist
aeration to make the plant food avail-
able. Fertilizers will increase the
crops and in that way make more veg-
etable matter to be mixed in.

To sum up, (1) tend your land. (2)
p low by the levels, (3) break deep,
(4) harrow fine, (5) get all the vege-
table matter you can mixed in the soil,
(6) never work or tramp the land
when wet, (7) rotate the crops. This
programme will soon reclaim any
wornout lands and make them rich.

Peas, clover and grasses all help to
make land rich. Grow cattle and save
the manure and put it on and that will
make the land rich.-Southern Cultivator.