OROANIO MANURES. 67 



luxuriance and profit than any other of the cultivated plants. 

 It may be sown in the tall atler grain or early roots!, and 

 plowed in the following spring. Three crops may be grown 

 on the same land in one season. Van Voght says, by alter- 

 nating these crops with rye, it will reclaim the worst sands, 

 and yield nearly the same benefits if pastured o(t' by cattle ; 

 while it adds materially to the advantages of other manures 

 applied at the same time. It grows spontaneously in many 

 of our fields as a weed, and its cultivation on our lightest sands 

 which are too poor for clover, might be attended with the 

 best effects. Like the cow pea however, it is deficient in 

 the deep, tap roots, which give much of their efficiency to the 

 clover and white lupine. 



WHITE LUPINE. This plant has not to our knowledge, 

 been introduced as a field crop in this country ; but from the 

 great success which has attended its cultivation in Europe, 

 it. is a proper subject of consideration, whether it might not 

 bo advantageously introduced among us. It grows freely in 

 all except calcareous soils, and is best suited to such as have 

 a subsoil charged with iron. It is hardy, not liable to injury 

 from insects, grows rapidly and with an abundance of stems, 

 leaves and roots. The latter protects the plant from drought 

 by penetrating through the subsoil for a depth of more than 

 r\vo feet, which they break up and prepare in the most efficient 

 manner for succeeding crops. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF GREEN MANURES consist principally 

 in the addition of vegetable matter which they furnish to the 

 soil. The presence of this, aids in the liberation of those 

 mineral ingredients which are there locked up, and whicli 

 on being set free, act with so much advantage to the crop. 

 The roots also, exert a power in effecting this decomposition 

 beyond any other known agents either of nature or art. Their 

 minute fibres are brought into contact with the elements of 

 the soil, and they act upon them with a force peculiar to 

 themselves alone, and which is far more efficacious than the 

 intensost heat or strongest acids, persuading the elements to 

 give up tor their own use, what is essential to their maturity 

 and pnrfection. By substituting a crop for a naked fallow, 

 we have every fibre of the roots in the whole field, aiding the 

 ordinary decomposition which is slowly going forward in 

 every soil. 



Clover, and most broad-leaved plants, draw largely for their 

 sustenance from the air, especially when aided by the appli- 

 cation of gypsum. By its long tap roots^ it also draws much 



