146 



Agricultural Shows. 



Vol. IV. 



table matter to be intermixpd with the earth ; 

 but in its green state affords little else than 

 water. Keeping clover up and preventing 

 any stock from feeding on it— suffering the 

 first crop to fall and the second to grow up 

 through it, and so on in succession, is a certain 

 mode of enriching lartds-rapidly and thorough- 

 ly. Generally, the quantity of seed for an 

 acre of clover will not cost more than seventy- 

 five cents, and the loss of the use of such 

 land for pasture, before it is improved, is very 

 inconsiderable. To compare such loss witli 

 the gain that would accrue in the increase of 

 crops from such lands after lying under clover 

 fijr two years, would certainly be measuring 

 a trivial loss with a great gain. 



Buckwheat will also render much service 

 in this way; by seeding it early it will mature, 

 producing a crop according to strength of land 

 and season, which, when 'ripe, may be rolled 

 down and turned in, and a second crop will 

 immediately spring fi-om this turning in, that 

 may also be rolled down and turned in ready 

 for wheat fallow that autumn. I have never 

 known the benefit in one year from buckwheat 

 thus managed, to be equal to that derived from 

 clover kept up the summer and autumn after 

 it is seeded and the whole of the succeeding 

 year. Yet I have seen most advantageous 

 results from the buckwheat in the subsequent 

 crop of wheat, 



I have no experience of the effect from 

 green crops of Indian corn or oats turned in, 

 but should suppose that little good result could 

 be expected from them in consequence of their 

 immature state. I know nothing of the cow 

 pea, but could readily believe from what 1 

 learn of its growth, (rank and luxuriant, filled 

 with leaves, growing large pods full of oily 

 peas) that it would answer well if suffered to 

 mature before it is turned under. Inquiry 

 and experiment upon this subject would be 

 well made by the board. 



There is a very common pea or bean which 

 grows luxuriantly with abundance of large 

 leaves and long pods filled with pons that are 

 exceedingly rich and oily when ripe, called 

 the crowder, that 1 have no doubt, if used a;- 

 a fertilizer like the cow pea, would be pro- 

 ductive of very good results, and take the 

 liberty of suggesting to the members of the 

 Board, among their practicable experiments, 

 to give a trial to this growth of our own coun- 

 try so commonly cultivated yet so little re- 

 garded, except among the laboring people as 

 an article of strong rich food. 



Regarding manure iis the great and essen- 

 tial principle in agriculture; without which 

 the best skill and practice must annunlly suf- 

 fer diminution in its returns and rewards, it is 

 difficult to account why it is so much neglected, 

 when the means of procuring it are so various, 

 80 easy, and bo ample. To ascribe it to sloth 



and indolence would probably be injustice. 1 

 know no more true and rational mode of ac- 

 counting for it than in our error in the distri- 

 bution of labor on our farms, proceeding from 

 another error in cultivating too much land.-- 

 The true measure of what ought to be culti- 

 vated is what can he manured — and if what 

 can be manured is alone cultivated and rests 

 under clover kept up, whilst all the other, or 

 such other means of manuring as we have 

 adverted to or practised upon the remaining- 

 fields in turn, the farm must be rapidly and 

 substantially improved amply to repay all la* 

 bor and expense thus laid out upon it, — Eoi- 

 ton Gazette. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Agricultnral SlioiPi'S. 



Agriculture is evidently attracting more at- 

 tention at the present period than it has hitlh 

 erto done in this country, and gives some rea- 

 son to hope that ere long we shall see the 

 farmer taking the rank, and exercising the i 

 influence in society which the importance of 

 his occupation should command. 



Amongst the measures that are inspiring 

 with energy and vigor the action of the farm« 

 er, the most prominent, and at this time pe^ 

 haps the most in favor, is agricultural displays 

 of stock, produce, &c., of which many have 

 been held during the present autumn through- 

 out the union. 



As an evidence of their extent and im- 

 portance in Great Britain, the following ac- 

 count is extracted from the report of the 

 Highland Society's Show at Glasgow, 1838. 



There were exhibited of 



Cattle 461 



Horses 121 



Shepp 274 



Swine 47 



Total 903 



Of competitors for other articles, there wew 

 for 



Rii 1 1 er 18 



Full-milk cheese 15 



Pkimiiiiik do 6 



Wm.l 8 



Roots and 8ec<i9 W 



luiplcnien t» "8 



Total 88101*. 



" Thf fiiim total collected at the gates was je?46 equal 

 to $:tTt"0. 

 Of this nhont £^'< were collected at the 



callerv at half a crown a head, equal 



tonhont 300per«»» 



XHIO nt 1 shillint'each i» IC.'JOO 



One piTson to take charge of each lot ^ 



c.vliibilcd ''22 



The number present 17,222 



liesides workmen and official peopn 



At four o'clock the gates were thrown OPW 

 to the populace, who entered in numbers be- 

 yond calculation. , 



Notwithstanding the great number aiw 



