402 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



the third year; hence the necessity with them of drilling and 

 hoeing to keep down the weeds. Some that I sowed this year with 

 my barley, as well as a crop which my neighbor, Mr. De La 

 Bigarre, sowed with his, yielded, on being cut this very autumn 

 after his barley, almost 11 cwt. per acre, convinces me that its 

 growth here is more rapid than in England. (In this, however, 

 it is not particular, as I shall on some other occasion show that 

 plants grow more rapidly by two-fifths here (New York State) 

 than in Britain.) I am, therefore, very doubtful whether it will 

 pay as much and as early, provided from 15 to 24 pounds of seed 

 are sown to the acre, as the mixed crop would. This I shall next 

 year ascertain with accuracy. Should it be established on experi- 

 ment, the clover seed should be omitted, as it tends to check the 

 lucern, and to render the crop thin when it dies out; besides, that 

 neither springing so early, nor bearing drouth so well, it must be 

 considered as inferior in every respect to the lucern. There is 

 one consideration, however, in its favor, and that is that in 

 warm situations the lucern will be fit to cut before the clover 

 rises to the scythe. The second crop in this case will be earlier 

 on account of the clover, which will consist almost wholly of 

 it, because having escaped the wounds which the lucern received 

 it will be ready to take the field before the lucern has recovered 

 from amputation. 



" There are two considerations which render weeds here less 

 troublesome than in Britain ■ — the severity of our winter and the 

 heat of our summer. Many from the first of these causes are 

 annual here, which are perennial there, by being able to live 

 through their mild winter. The slightest fallowing in the heat 

 of summer kills most weeds here, while, in England, their moist 

 climate enables the greatest part of them, like Ante us, to bid 

 defiance to wounds and bruises, if they are permitted to but 

 touch their parent earth. We may add to this that the indi- 

 genous weeds of this country are few, because the children of the 

 forest, as well of vegetable as of animal tribes, fly the haunts 

 of men; the only troublesome weeds we have are convicts, that 

 have been transported from our mother country. They must, 

 therefore, necessarily be much fewer than those that remain be- 

 hind, not only because the habits of many of them are too deli- 

 cate to assimilate themselves to our unpolished climate, but be- 

 cause their number in both countries must be proportioned to 

 the time from which they began to be cultivated, and to the ex- 

 tent of their commerce, for weeds and vices are the children of 



