ORGANIC MANURES. 76 



ficial to succeeding crops. The material yielded by the roots 

 and stubble, is of itself equal to a good dressing of manure. 

 It has the further advantage, of giving two or more years of 

 growth from one sowing, and of maintaining itself in the 

 ground thereafter, by self seeding, when not too closely crop - 

 ped ; and it is equally suited to profitable pasturage and win- 

 ter forage. 



If the first season's growth be luxuriant, after the re- 

 moval of the grain upon which it was sown, clover may be 

 pastured in the autumn, or suffered to fall and waste on the 

 ground, the first being the most economical. The following 

 year, the early crops may be taken off for hay, and the se- 

 cond, after partially ripening its seeds, may be plowed in ; and 

 thus it carries with it, a full crop of seed for future growth. 

 It is usual when wheat is cultivated, to turn* in the clover 

 when in full flower in July, and allow the ground to remain 

 undisturbed till the proper time for sowing the grain ; when 

 it rnay be cross-plowed if necessary, or the wheat may be 

 sown directly on the ground and harrowed in. This system 

 gives alternate crops of grain and clover, and with the use of 

 such saline manures, as may be necessary to replace those 

 abstracted from the soil ; it will sustain the greatest fertility. 

 With a slight dressing of these, when the land is in good con- 

 dition, the first crop of clover may be taken off, and yet al- 

 low a sufficient growth for turning in. 



It is customary, however, to adopt a three or four years 

 course of cropping, in which grain, roots, corn, &c. alternate 

 with clover and barn-yard manures ; and this we think the 

 most judicious practice, when the land is within convenient dis- 

 tance of the manure. If the fields are remote, a still longer 

 course would be preferable, where stock and particularly sheep 

 are kept ; as they might be allowed to pasture the field during 

 a much greater time. Sheep would remove only so much of 

 the forage as remains in their carcass ; while milch cows 

 and working animals would, of course, carry off a greater 

 amount, the first in the milk, and the last in their manure, 

 dropped while out of the field. 



THE COW PEA, 



Like the pole bean, of which it seems to be a kindred 

 genus, grows with a long vine and abundance of leaves. It 

 is deemed the best of the fertilizers for the South. It v/ill 

 there mature in the same field with the corn, after that has 

 ripened ; or it will grow two crops in one season, from two 



