SUMMER-FALLOWING.
This is not the place to discuss the merits, or demerits, of fallowing.
But an intelligent Ohio farmer writes me: --“I see that you recommend
fallow plowing, what are your reasons? Granting that the _immediate_
result is an increased crop, is not the land impoverished? Will not the
thorough cultivation of corn, or potatoes, answer as well?” And a
distinguished farmer, of this State, in a recent communication expressed
the same idea--that summer-fallowing would soon impoverish the land. But
if this is the case, the fault is not in the practice of
summer-fallowing, but in growing too many grain crops, and selling them,
instead of consuming them on the farm. Take two fields; summer-fallow
one, and sow it to wheat. Plant the other to corn, and sow wheat after
it in the fall. You get, say 35 bushels of wheat per acre from the
summer-fallow. From the other field you get, say, 30 bushels of shelled
corn per acre, and 10 bushels of wheat afterwards. Now, where a farmer
is in the habit of selling all his wheat, and consuming all his corn on
the farm, it is evident that the practice of summer-fallowing will
impoverish the soil more rapidly than the system of growing corn
followed by wheat--and for the simple reason that more wheat is sold
from the farm. If no more grain is sold in one case than in the other,
the summer-fallowing will not impoverish the soil any more than corn
growing.
My idea of fallowing is this:--The soil and the atmosphere furnish, on
good, well cultivated land, plant-food sufficient, say, for 15 bushels
of wheat per acre, _every year_. It will be sometimes more, and
sometimes less, according to the season and the character of the soil,
but on good, strong limestone land this may be taken as about the
average. To grow wheat every year in crops of 15 bushels per acre, would
impoverish the soil just as much as to summer-fallow and get 30 bushels
of wheat every other year. It is the same thing in either case. But in
summer-fallowing, we clean the land, and the _profits_ from a crop of 30
bushels per acre every other year, are much more than from two crops of
15 bushels every year. You know that Mr. Lawes has a field of about
thirteen acres that he sows with wheat every year. On the plot that
receives no manure of any kind, the crop, for twenty years, averaged 16¼
bushels per acre. It is plowed twice every year, and the wheat is
hand-hoed in the spring to keep it clean. A few years ago, in a field
adjoining this experimental wheat field, and that is of the same
character of land, he made the following experiment. The land, after
wheat, was fallowed, and then sown to wheat; then fallowed the next
year, and again sown to wheat, and the next year it was sown to wheat
after wheat. The following is the result compared with the yield of the
continuously unmanured plot in the experimental field that is sown to
wheat every year:
1. Year--No. 1--Fallow No crop.
No. 2--Wheat after wheat 15 bushels 3½ pecks per acre.
2. Year--No. 1--Wheat after fallow 37 ” -- ” ”
No. 2--Wheat after wheat 13 ” 3¼ ” ”
3. Year--No. 1--Fallow after wheat No crop.
No. 2--Wheat after wheat 15 bushels 3¼ pecks per acre.
4. Year--No. 1--Wheat after fallow 42 ” -- ” ”
No. 2--Wheat after wheat 21 ” 0¼ ” ”
5. Year--No. 1--Wheat after wheat 17 ” 1¼ ” ”
No. 2--Wheat after wheat 17 ” -- ” ”
Taking the first four years, we have a total yield from the plot sown
every year of 66 bushels 2¼ pecks, and from the two crops alternately
fallowed, a total yield of 79 bushels. The next year, when wheat was
sown after wheat on the land previously fallowed, the yield was almost
identical with the yield from the plot that has grown wheat after wheat
for so many years.
So far, these results do not indicate any exhaustion from the practice
of fallowing. On the other hand, they tend to show that we can get
_more_ wheat by sowing it every other year, than by cropping it every
year in succession. The reason for this may be found in the fact that in
a fallow the land is more frequently exposed to the atmosphere by
repeated plowings and harrowings; and it should be borne in mind that
the effect of stirring the land is not necessarily in proportion to the
total amount of stirring, but is according to the number of times that
fresh particles of soil are exposed to the atmosphere. Two plowings and
two harrowings in one week, will not do as much good as two plowings and
two harrowings, at different times in the course of three or four
months. It is for this reason that I object, theoretically, to sowing
wheat after barley. We often plow the barley stubble twice, and spend
considerable labor in getting the land into good condition; but it is
generally all done in the course of ten days or two weeks. We do not get
any adequate benefit for this labor. We can kill weeds readily at this
season, (August), but the stirring of the soil does not develope the
latent plant-food to the extent it would if the work was not necessarily
done in such a limited period. I say _theoretically_, for in point of
fact I _do_ sow wheat after barley. I do so because it is very
convenient, and because it is more immediately profitable. I am
satisfied, however, that _in the end_ it would be more profitable to
seed down the barley with clover.
We _must_ raise larger crops; and to do this we must raise them less
frequently. This is the key-note of the coming improved system of
American agriculture, in all sections where good land is worth less than
one hundred dollars per acre. In the neighborhood of large cities, and
wherever land commands a high price, we must keep our farms in a high
state of fertility by the purchase of manures or cattle foods. Those of
us in the interior, where we can not buy manure, must raise fewer grain
crops, and more clover. We must aim to raise 40 bushels of wheat, 50
bushels of barley, 80 bushels of oats, and 100 bushels of shelled corn,
and 5 bushels of clover-seed per acre. That this can be done on good,
well-drained land, from the unaided resources of the farm, I have no
doubt. It may give us no more grain to sell than at present, but it will
enable us to produce much more mutton, wool, beef, cheese, butter, and
pork, than at present.
“But, then, will there be a demand for the meat, wool, etc.?” The
present indications are highly favorable. But we must aim to raise
_good_ meat. The low-priced beef and mutton sold in our markets are as
unprofitable to the consumer as they are to the producer. We must feed
higher, and to do this to advantage we must have improved stock. There
is no profit in farming without good tillage, larger crops, improved
stock, and higher feeding. The details will be modified by
circumstances, but the principles are the same wherever agri-_culture_
is practised.