Drew Bledsoe Quotes

Illinois surpasses every other spot of equal extent upon the face of the globe in fertility of soil and in the proportionable amount of the same which is sufficiently level for actual cultivation.

All soils are not fertile.

Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses.

Apples hate strong wind and damp, cold soil so try and place them on well-drained, rich soil in a sheltered position.

Many African smallholder farmers did not share in the 'green revolution' productivity gains driven by modern seeds and techniques, irrigation, and greater fertilizer use in Asia and Latin America in the 1960s.

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds.

The older, thinner, and less productive grass lands, however, frequently can be made to produce much larger yields of feed in corn than if left, as they are, in unproductive grass.

If you know how many acres you have sown of each kind of corn, inquire how much the acre the soil of that land takes for sowing, and count the number of quarters of seed, and you shall know the return of seed, and what ought to be over.

If you build up the soil with organic material, the plants will do just fine.

Let me tell you about a place where technology won't work. When you walk onto a farm and are standing on soil, there is no technology that is going to take that soil and transform it into something that is five times more productive.

Civilization depends on our expanding ability to produce food efficiently, which has markedly accelerated thanks to science and technology.

Topsoil is a place of digestion. It sucks and chews things into smaller pieces. When it's hungry, it turns grey and stony; when it's thirsty, it opens thousands of cracked lips. Subsoil is more skeletal: it doesn't digest.

The country has been of better character since leaving the Buttes than E. of them, but has now a very fertile appearance. This may be said to begin about the 3rd crossing of Milk R of the line.

The agricultural potential of Africa is unlimited.

Farmers are farmers in the first place because they have the deep-seated instinct to raise crops, not to cut them back, not to leave the land unproductive.

The land is excellent and agreeable, full of noble forest trees and grapevines, and nothing is wanted here but the labor and industry to render it one of the finest and most fruitful lands …

We have to stop treating soil like dirt.

Improving the productivity of crops is fundamental to ending extreme poverty. Sixty percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa earn their living by working the land. But given the region’s generally low agricultural productivity—yields of basic cereals are five times higher in North America—Africa remains a net importer of food. This gap between supply and demand will only grow as the number of mouths to feed increases.

Green Revolution technologies are scale-neutral but not resource-neutral. Inputs are needed for output; therefore market-purchased inputs become important in providing soil and plant healthcare for higher yields.

I believe that agriculture land - productive agricultural land with water on site - will be valuable in the future.

You can't chemical your way out of soil infertility

Friends, the soil is poor, we must sow seeds in plenty for us to garner even modest harvests.

That dark laboratory we call the soil.

Since chemical fertilizer burns out the soil organic matter, other farmers struggle with tilth, water retention, and basic soil nutrients. The soil gets harder and harder every year as the chemicals burn out the organic matter, which gives the soil its sponginess. One pound of organic matter holds four pounds of water. The best drought protection any farmer can acquire is more soil organic matter.

The Earthworm plows the whole world with his tunnels, drains and aerates the earth… If you ever buy any land, be sure it has plenty of Earthworms toiling and moiling all day so that you can sit down and relax.