g2 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



New Jersey and Maryland. But they gradually converted this 

 barren soil into a most fertile loam ; they at first cultivated those 

 districts to a depth of three or four inches, but by degrees plowed 

 deeper as their soil became enriched by the application of manures 

 until they at last secured for themselves a very deep and loamy 

 soil upon those ancient sandy barrens. In 1819 their average 

 crops per acre were said to be 32 bushels of wheat. Radclifife 

 in writing about them says : ' Withoxd clover no man in Flanders 

 ivould pretend to call himself a farmer' — a maxim worthy of 

 adoption by our American fai-mers." 



Commending the use of clover as a manure, Mr. Wolfinger 

 says : " As a plant it has numerous and strong stems branching 

 upwards and sideways from a single seed or root, and broad, 

 succulent, and shady leaves, and long, thick, and strong tap roots. 

 When we consider that it is a very hardy plant, tillers well, covers 

 the ground thickly, displaces weeds, extends its roots more deeply 

 into the soil, than any of the grasses, yields largely to the acre, 

 absorbs much from the air, and also grows well on every variety 

 of dry soil, we need not wonder at its great celebrity as a manu- 

 rial plant in our northern and middle States. Its stems, leaves, 

 and roots, when ploughed down as a manure, not only renders the 

 soil porous, mellow and permeable to heat, air, and moisture, but 

 also enrich and fit it for the production of all other valuable farm 

 crops, such as wheat, corn, and the like. The wheat and corn 

 grown on clover lays are generally more free from disease and 

 larger in their yield and better in their quality than those grown 

 on or with animal manure." * * * " One square yard of 

 growing clover will, in an ordinary season, from the first of April 

 to the first of September, yield from two to three pounds weight 

 of tops and roots, and if we multiply this by 4,840, the number 

 of square yards in an acre of ground, and divide the product by 

 2,000, a ton's weight, we shall find that the clover tops and roots 

 grown on an acre of ground between these two periods of April 

 and September will weigh from five to seven and a fourth tons of 

 rich vegetable matter, all ready, too, without any. hauling, to bo 

 ploughed down as a manure, just where it stands. A well-set 

 clover lay imparts to the soil as much strength as ten or twelve 

 loads of barn-yard manure to the acre will. Hence our wisest 

 farmers never sow wheat, rye or oats without accompanying it 

 with clover seed to form manure for their after crops." 



lie enumerates the advantages of green manuring as follows : 



