TILLAGE IS MANURE.
The Doctor has been invited to deliver a lecture on manure before our
local Farmers’ Club. “The etymological meaning of the word manure,” he
said, “is _hand labor_, from _main_, hand, and _ouvrer_, to work. To
manure the land originally meant to cultivate it, to hoe, to dig, to
plow, to harrow, or stir it in any way so as to expose its particles to
the oxygen of the atmosphere, and thus render its latent elements
assimilable by plants.
“When our first parent,” he continued, “was sent forth from the Garden
of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken, he probably did not
know that the means necessary to kill the thorns and thistles enhanced
the productiveness of the soil, yet such was undoubtedly the case.
“The farmer for centuries was simply a ‘tiller of the ground.’ Guano,
though formed, according to some eminent authorities, long ages before
the creation of man, was not then known. The coprolites lay undisturbed
in countless numbers in the lias, the greensand, and the Suffolk crag.
Charleston phosphates were unknown. Superphosphate, sulphate of ammonia,
nitrate of soda, and kainit were not dreamed of. Nothing was said about
the mineral manure theory, or the exhaustion of the soil. There were no
frauds in artificial fertilizers; no Experiment Stations. The earth,
fresh from the hands of its Creator, needed only to be ‘tickled with a
hoe to laugh with a harvest.’ Nothing was said about the value of the
manure obtained from the consumption of a ton of oil-cake, or
malt-combs, or bran, or clover-hay. For many centuries, the hoe, the
spade, and the rake constituted Adam’s whole stock in trade.
“At length,” continued the Doctor, “a great discovery was made. A Roman
farmer--probably a prominent Granger--stumbled on a mighty truth.
Manuring the land--that is, hoeing and cultivating it--increased its
fertility. This was well known--had been known for ages, and acted upon;
but this Roman farmer, Stercutius, who was a close observer, discovered
that the _droppings of animals_ had the same effect as hoeing. No wonder
these idolatrous people voted him a god. They thought there would be no
more old-fashioned manuring; no more hoeing.
“Of course they were mistaken,” continued the Doctor, “our arable land
will always need plowing and cultivating to kill weeds. Manure, in the
sense in which we now use the term, is only a partial substitute for
tillage, and tillage is only a partial substitute for manure; but it is
well to bear in mind that the words mean the same thing, and the effects
of both are, to a certain extent, identical. Tillage is manure, and
manure is tillage.”