FERTILIZING PINE PLAIN LAND. 191 



rt is then suffered to lay two or three years, during which time 

 it has probably been supposed it might regain, in some measure, 

 its original strength, so as to sustain vegetation. But a differ- 

 ent mode of culture has been found to be more correct, and 

 pursued with success, not only with the pine-plain land, but 

 with all lands, after having been newly cleared. Which is first 

 a crop of winter wheat ; second, Indian corn ; third, barley, 

 oats, spring wheat, or rye, with which grass-seed should be 

 sown, {clover and timothy may be preferred) and the whole cov- 

 ered at the same time, either with the plough or the harrow. 

 On the following season, the clover should be well plastered, 

 especially if th« soil is sandy, and the crop may be mowed for 

 hay. The next season it would be well to give it a top dres- 

 sing with plaster, and then may be fed until the latter part of 

 August, or the begmning of SeptembVr, at which time it should 

 be turned over with the plough, and prepared for a future crop. 

 It is well ascertained, both from experiment and the principles 

 of vegetation, that only three successive crops should be at- 

 tempted before the field be again seeded ; and then the same 

 rotation of crops may be pursued. 



Under this culture, it is obvious that not only the pine plain 

 lands,^ but all others, may not only be preserved in their ori- 

 ginal fertility, but the quality, as well as the quantity, of their 

 produce be improved and increased. 



It is to be regretted that those lands have been often aban- 

 doned from an erroneous opinion that their soil would not ad- 

 mit of a successful cultivation ; although it is a notorious fact 

 that some of the most fertile and pleasant townships in the 

 northern States consists of lands which were originally of the 

 description of pine plains ; but from the industry and wisdom 

 of their occupants, have been rendered fertile and profitable. 



*■ They are called pine plains, from the forest which they pro- 

 duce being composed principally of pine timber. But it is a fact 

 worthy of remark^ that when this timber is cut off, or destroyed by 

 fire, it is usually succeeded by a luxuriant growth of several vari- 

 eties of the oak, combined with the chesnut, and sometimes hick- 

 ory. 



