1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



171 



previously mixed or composted with enough marl 

 to combine with, and secure it; 2ndly, that the rich 

 town manure, be not sullercd to pass through vio- 

 lent and destructive Icrmentation; and 3dly, as tiir 

 as may be eflected, that such manures bo a|)piied 

 to crops as iiist as brought to the I'arms, and, in pre- 

 lerence to jirain crops, to be given as top dress- 

 ings to young clover, or other grasses. 

 [To be continued.] 



THE I3IPOUTAIVCE OF GRASS CROPS UNSUC- 

 CESSFUL EXPERIMENTS. 



To the EJitor of the Farmers' Register. 



Port Royal, May IWi, 1S37. 



My annual contribution has too long awaited its 

 convoy, which I now (eel was perhaps incautious- 

 ly promised, and without due reflection that the 

 lapse of twelve months would find the ice as thick, 

 and my nervous horror of the pen as great as ever. 

 In truth, too, my want of alacrity is not a little in- 

 creased by a natural reluctance to record, in lieu o!' 

 successes rather triumphantly set forth, some re- 

 traxits, creating a discount even upon so small an 

 amount. The latter, though less gratelul, is a du- 

 ty even more obligatory than the former, as its ne- 

 glect would be a confirmation of error instead of 

 truth, and tend to the increase of that distrust, (the 

 result of hasty or prejudiced enunciations of only 

 apparent lacts) which, as I fjrmerly remarked, is 

 justly a Ibrmidable obstruction to the general re- 

 ception of established truth. 



The experiments stated in my former commu- 

 nication,* (to which I have not now the means of 

 direct reference,) and which the experience oi the 

 last year has contradicted, were 1st, in regard to 

 clover, orchard grass, and highland meadow oat 

 grass seeds sown with rye, in the latter part of 

 iJuly, 1S35, upon about 10 acres of very steep, and 

 a portion poor land, and which the succeeding year 

 exhibited a growth very superior to any I ever had 

 on such land. I was thereby encouraged to sow 

 the greater portion of my field the 1st of last Au- 

 gust, and some a little later, (with the exception of 

 about 20 acres on which no rye was sown,) in 

 rye, which was put in with cultivators, and the 

 clover sown thereupon. Although my foreman 

 declares he never saw seed come up better, I was 

 grieved to find, on my return home in October, 

 that there was scarcely a spire to be seen; and the 

 spring confirms the failure. This, it is true, was 

 owing to a pretty severe drought soon after, and 

 the omission of the harrow, as to which my in- 

 struction was lost sight of; but nevertheless, my 

 confidence has been rudely shaken, if not destroyed 

 in the success of a practice, from which, especial- 

 ly on light lands such as ours, I had hoped the 

 most beneficial results. The experiment will, 

 however, be repeated on a smaller scale by me, 

 and I hope by others. 



2dly. I spoke, though not very flatteringly, yet 

 with some confidence, of the effects of green 

 crops turned in as manure; and enumerated those 

 from buckwheat, rj^e, cow- peas, and Indian corn 

 sown broadcast. A more attentive observation 

 has convinced me that the degree of improvement 

 from all of them, is in the inverse ratio of the 

 lightness of the land; and when the latter was 

 greatest, the former is now, from the indication af- 



* Inserted at p. Gl,vol. iv. Fanners' Register. — Ed. 



forded by the growth upon it, scarcely at all per- 

 ceptible. 



Another result too, and that the reverse of my 

 previous conviction, has been established to my 

 satisfaction, at least upon light land, and that is, 

 that they retain less of fertility imparted by green, 

 than dry crops. There is a marked difference in 

 favor of a strip sown in cow-peas and turned in 

 after they were gathered, and of course, dry, over 

 an adjoining one, v/hich received two crops of buck- 

 wheat when in bloom. INly inference liom these 

 facts is, that however much etifler soils may bor- 

 row, and permanently appropriate, of the fertili- 

 zing gases which compose these substances in their 

 green state, yet that the rapidity and violence of 

 the fermentation excited in a hot and too perme- 

 able soil, so ed'ect'ially prevents their retention, aa 

 to render them quite an unprofitable loan. Indeed, 

 before I became bold enough to hazard any theory 

 on the subject, my practice fi-om observation alone 

 had been conformed to it. My manures, of what- 

 ever description, for I know not how many yeara 

 past, have generally been applied on the surface 

 of my light land, even in corn. I think the waste 

 but little before that receives its first (and with me 

 except siding, only) ploughing, and that the fer- 

 mentation is, thereby, retarded until the wants of 

 vegetation require its products, whilst for even a 

 longer period its similar application upon young 

 clover and grass lands has claimed my decided 

 preference over every other mode. In combina- 

 tion with marl, its effects have been thus most 

 striking. 



I touched briefly in my first contribution upon 

 the benefits which I have derived, and am still fur- 

 ther anticipating, from the extension of permanent 

 pasture to lands whose steepness or infestment with 

 sassafras, locust, &c., render them unprofitable 

 subjects for the plough, but whose fertility eminent- 

 ly qualifies them lor the richest pasture. Of such, 

 my farm presents a considerable portion; as indeed 

 what farm of any considerable extent does not? 

 And what is the condition which it usually pre- 

 sents? When the grubbing hoe, imbelle telum, 

 cam multo ictu et gemitu, has performed its ever 

 recurring biennial task of scotching the hydra sas- 

 safras, persimmon, locust, &c., the scratcher re- 

 peats its toilsome up and down office until its pro- 

 duct threatens its terminals with starvation; and 

 the soil has all found its way to the bottom, and 

 the gullies to the top. What a contrast does not 

 such hideous deformity afford to the rich and smi- 

 ling aspect of the undulating bosoms of verdant 

 slopes studded with picturesque clumps of beauti- 

 ful trees (for there are few more so than the locust 

 and sassafras,) afibrding shade to the fat kine lux- 

 uriating beneath? How often, years back, in my 

 northern peregrinations, have such contrasts made 

 me long for the sight, on my return, of such oases 

 in our deserts, and which, until within a few years 

 back, I had almost thought attainment hopelessly 

 denied us by our sod and climate. A little perse- 

 verance has convinced me, as happily it will others, 

 of the contrary. An orchard of a few acres ad- 

 joining my dwelling afforded the first encourage- 

 ment. Afier having remained somewhat accident- 

 ally unbroken for five or six years, it took on a rich 

 cover of greensward and white clover, whose in- 

 creasing value soon determined me to let itremain; 

 and so it has remained now for twenty years, un- 

 violated by the plough. Another lot of about ten 



