GREEN CROPS FOR MANURE. 



In my address, in which the turning in of green crops was merely incidental, it could 

 not be expected that the special cases, justifying a resort to such manuring, could be enu- 

 merated — I could but deal with the subject in a broad and general sense, and from a long 

 and close observation on the practice of husbandry, a sense of duty constrained me to de- 

 nounce the custom of raising crops to be plowed under, as " time wasting and land cheat- 

 ing." No one, not even yourself, Mr. Editor, can have a higher appreciation of vegetable 

 mold than I have, and I challenge New-York, or any farm in Pennsylvania, to show bet- 

 ter sods on uplands, after having yielded for as many years, heavy crops of hay, than I 

 can now show upon my place; and may safely add, that I am yet to meet the man who 

 would rejoice more in having such a sod to turn under, when it becomes necessary to 

 break it up; but with all this appreciation, I would not rely upon it to bring me a crop of 

 grain, potatoes, &c., without the addition of what is known among farmers as "barn- 

 yard manure," notwithstanding such a sod would be richer and more enduring than the 

 " scant crops of partly grown clover, buckwheat, &c," which I pointed at as unworthy 

 the name of manure. Had these fields I have mown for some seven or eight years, been 

 laid down in 1833 and 4, with only clover or buckwheat, and the like, turned in, would 

 thej', as they did, have yielded forty to forty-five bushels of wheat to the acre, as first 

 crops, and cut ever since close on two tons of fine hay, on an average, to the acre? 



Assuredly not. In the course of two or three years at farthest, the crop of clover grow- 

 ing, would be required to turn under, to serve as manure for a grain or some other crop, 

 involving prematurely the labor of breaking up, seeding, &c.; and what would be the 

 condition of the land, and the character of the crops, after another two or three years 

 shift under such a practice — I allude to such soils as we cultivate.^ It was in view of this 

 system that I said, " in whatever place it is practiced, however strong the land may be 

 at the start, the system, if persevered in, must inevitably bring the land, its owners, and 

 the country, into a state of poverty. No good husbandman would think of pursuing such 

 a course." 



If the address had been fairly read, its general bearing and scope properly considered, 

 it might, perhaps, have saved you and others from drawing the inference, that I held clover 

 and other green crops worthless as fertilizers. I never so thought, nor did I intend to be 

 so understood. I knew clover would in some degree serve the purpose of manure, and so 

 would potatoes, wheat, rye, barley, &c. &c., but I knew also that these, as clover, would 

 be costly and but indifferent manures, compared to barn J^'lrd manure, peat, and putres- 

 cent substances, which if not used to enrich theland, would become pestilential nuisances; 

 for we must have cattle and other live stock — while offal and other offensive matter would 

 be constantly accumulating. Insisting, as I did, upon the crops going to the barn, to be 

 put to their proper use, and the offensive matters applied, as the3' should be, to the land; 

 and in this, who shall be so unthinking as to say, I was wrong? Moreover, I had been 

 grieved to perceive a germ of quackery springing up with our efforts at scientific agiicul- 

 ture, and while I attempted to awaken the good farmers of Lancaster to a proper spirit 

 of improvement, I took occasion, husbandman like, to caution them against nostrums and 

 humbug, urging a chief reliance upon the cheap and excellent manures so easily obtained 

 in and about their barn yard and premises. 



To the question whether T have seen the statement of Mr. More, in regard to his pre- 

 mium farm — I answer that I have; and, instead of condemning his practice, have simply 

 to say, that had I been in his situation, I might, perhaps, have resorted to the same means, 

 recourse to for the improvement of his land. But did Mr. More depend solely 

 the turning in of green crops, pending the process of renovating it? I presume he 



