80 Aeitic^ii'roRAi. essays. 



A moist soil is favorable to oats ; they sliould therefore be 

 sown as early as the season will admit of, to avoid the injurious 

 effects of the drought, which sometimes greatly injures this 

 crop before it comes to maturity. 



It has been found that gypsum will greatly increase this crop, 

 if the soil be suitable for this kind of manure. It is the opin- 

 ion of some respectable practical farmers, that the next crop to 

 be sown after spring wheat and rye, should be oats ; and that 

 it grows well on hills, or even mountains, where the soil is- 

 ioam, underlayed by hard pan. 



When the condition of a farm is such, that the farmer can- 

 not procure a sufficient supply of- hay for the support of his 

 stock, without procuring it from l^is tillage ground, the expe- 

 dient of raising a crop of oats for that purpose, has often beeii' 

 practised with success ; but when oats are sown for that pur- 

 pose, a much larger quantity of seed should be sown, and the 

 crop harvested after the oats liave headed, and while the straw 

 is green. This grain, as well as spring and winter rye, may 

 be substituted for some of the artificial grasses, which are of-- 

 ten. raised for such purposes, on dry tillage lands.^ 



Culture of Flax. 



The raising of flax requires so much labor, and at the same 

 time is so impoverishing to the soil, that it can hardly be thought 

 an object in the United States to make a business of growing, 

 more of it than may be necessary for domestic uses. 



The same soil, it is thought by many good farmers, should 

 not be sown with flax oftener than once in seven years. 



It has been the practice of the New-England farmers gene- 

 rally, to prepare their ground for flax by previous hoed crops, 

 which have been well manured. And this practice may be 

 relied on for success, perhaps as well as any, especially when 



them in moat of our largfe cities, particularly in New- York and 

 Albany, where they are kept by seed merchants, who make it 

 their object to keep for sale the best kinds and varieties of set'ds 

 f»r culture. 



♦ See e»iay on artificial grasses. 



