—1857—Ten Fixed Factsin Agriculture

#76

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1.  

All permanent improvement of lands must look to lime as its basis.

2.  

No lands can be preserved in a state of fertility unless clover and the grasses are cultivated in the course of rotation.

3. 

Mould is indispensable in every soil, and a healthy supply can alone be preserved through the cultivation of clover and grasses, the turning in of green crops, or by the application of composts rich in the elements of mould.

4.  

To manure or lime wet lands, is to throw manure, lime, and labor away.

5.  

Periodical applications of ashes tend to keep up the integrity of soils, by supplying most, if not all, of the organic substances.

6.  

Abundant crops cannot be grown for a succession of years unless care be taken to provide an equivalent for the substances carried off the land in the products grown thereon.

7.  

All stiff clays are benefitted by fall and winter ploughings; but should never be ploughed when wet.

8.  

To preserve meadows in their productiveness, it is necessary to harrow them every second autumn, apply top-dressing, and roll them up.

9.  

Deep ploughing greatly improves the productive powers of every variety of soil that is not wet.

10.  

All highly concentrated animal manures are increased in value, and their benefits prolonged, by admixture with plaster, salt, or with pulverized charcoal. 

[Thomas’s Farmer's Almanac]

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