1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



0S9 



liiuHi with the same cement to receive this valua- 

 ble lieposite. This liquid manure is commonly re- 

 served to enrich the *rround durintr the second and 

 third year's croppinij, an abundance of the more 

 solid manure having been spread the first year of 

 the court^e. 



Nor is the Flemish flirmer indifierent to the 

 conversion of weeds, waste straw, and other ve- 

 getable matter into manure. These he collects, 

 a:id disposes in such a manner as to produce fer- 

 mentation, by which the whole mass is decom- 

 posed and converted into a fertilizing substance. 



2. Digging. 



Under this head, 1 shall content myself with 

 th(^ following quotations Irom " Vanderstraeten's 

 Survey:" 



" In Flanders, before the introduction of the 

 operation of digging, tew lands, or rather none, 

 had a stratum of vegetable mould of eighteen 

 inches deep. It is art and industry which have 

 created this. The greater part of her beautiful 

 fields were then onlv moving sands, or soils even 

 still more ungrateful. Observe, then, the meth- 

 ods which were used to raise them to their great 

 fertility. In the beginning, they were du<r to a 

 smaller depth, and upon the moving sands was 

 spread a great quantity of dung, ol" which the 

 grosser parts, as well as the straw which was 

 mixed with them, were decomposed info fertile 

 soil. It was the sahie with the grain and stubble 

 lef't by the crops, with the noxious weeds and 

 roots. All tliose vegetable remains began to give 

 fertility and consistence to the sands, and in pro- 

 portion to the fertility and consistence which the 

 soil acquired, the spade was pushed to a greater 

 depth. The sand, of which the spade increased 

 the veiretablesiratum, was already no lontjer bar- 

 ren, because it was enriched^ with the juices of 

 the dung, which the rain had carried below the 

 depth to which the spade had not yet reached. 

 The abundance of dung and the annua! supply of 

 vegetable matter, changed, in the end, this mov- 

 ing sand into the blackest mould, which can possi- 

 bly be seen, in some places of a depth of eighteen 

 inches, and in others of two feet ! 



*'The methods taken with the other soils, 

 more unixraleful slill, were nearly the same. The 

 amelioration which the Flemish' agriculture pro- 

 duces in soils almost steril, is annually visible; 

 but, in all cases, the greatest possible degree of' 

 fertility can only be the work of lime. This auie- 

 lioration, however, may be produced very rapidly 

 in soils which have, at their commencement, only 

 four inches of verretable mould, and which repose 

 on a stratum of good earth, though rendered as 

 hard as a rock by the plough-share. A similar 

 low straium exisied in Flanders before the intro- 

 duction of (liutjing. 



" Periodii-ally, every three, four or seven years, 

 the spade, in Flanders, raises upon the surface a 

 stratum of earth, which, under the stratum that 

 has produced the crops, has enjoyed a fallow of 

 three, four, or seven years, and, in consequence, 

 has yielded no crop itself; a stratum already fer- 

 tilized, in some degree, by the decomposition of 

 the weeds wliir.h grow upon it till the moment 

 when it was buried, and enriched with the salts of 

 the dung, caused by the rains to filtrate, during 

 the interval, throuirh the upper stratum. This 

 stratum may, therefore, inconsequence, be regard- 

 ed as a virgin earth, possessing the most extreme 



degree of fertility, through the manure it has re- 

 ceived, and to which more is now to be added. 



" The operation of digging, especially in light 

 Soils, is performed with great rapidity. A good 

 workman can dig in the space of a day, the 

 Iwenty-fifth part of an acre, to the depth of eigh- 

 leen inches, at one stroke of the spade. He thus 

 buries the upper layer, and brings to the surlace 

 the lower layer, which has produced no crop for 

 three or for seven years, nor the same crop for six 

 or for fourteen." 



I shall embrace the earliest opportunity of re- 

 suming this interesting subject. 



Yours respectfully, 



Geo. Houstoh. 



Neiv York, Maij 1, 1820. 



ADDRESS TO THE DORCHESTER (mD.) AG- 

 RICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



By Joseph E. 3fuse, Pesident. 



Delivered on November 2nd, 1837. 



Requested by Resolution of the Society, to be published in th« 

 Farmers' Register. 



Addressing an audience so highly respectable, 

 intelligent, and informed — and too, upon a thenift 

 so fulTof dignity, utility and science, as the pre- 

 sent, it is natural that I should feel embarrassed 

 in the undertaking, and solicit their favorable in- 

 dulgence; resting my claim upon the integrity of 

 the purpose and the excellence of the cause, rath- 

 er than upon the hope of a successful performance 

 of ;he task. 



The character of agriculture, the great object 

 of our present devolion^s, has, fi-om the earliest me- 

 morials of man, been highly estimated — because, 

 it had been ordained by the author of all good, 

 and was co-essential and coincident with human 

 lile and sustenance; from the remotest periods of 

 civil history, it has occupied an elevated rank, cor- 

 respondent with that of the human intellect; and at 

 the present day, the impress of its divine authori- 

 ty, is to be found in the loftiest eminence of the 

 natural sciences. 



In this sublime group of omniscient creation, 

 we behold the faithful conftjderates of agriculture, 

 in unremitting attention upon tliis '^alma mater'' ol 

 the unrverse. At the shrine of this dignified ma- 

 jesty, we behold her numerous votarists, geologv, 

 mineralogy, zoology, chemistry, physiology, bota- 

 ny, meteorology, and a host of others, ofi'ering 

 up their daily contributions. 



Before an audience so enlightened as that by 

 which lam now honored, to dwell upon the me- 

 rits and excellence of an object of universal admi- 

 ration, by all whom providence lias blessed with 

 capacity to admire, would be vain and superflu- 

 ous. To demonstrate the importance of agriculture, 

 it has been justly said, would be"like demonstra- 

 ting the advantaofe of having food to eat, and 

 clothes to wear, " and the classic Ovid, belbre 

 the period of the christian era, has registered in 

 strong and comprehensive terms, the devotion of 

 the Roman citizens to this tutelar divinity, 'prima 

 dedit fniges — prima dcdit leges— Cererissunt om- 

 nia munus.'' 



I shall therefore call your attention to puch to- 

 pics as may appear to come within the immedi- 

 ate scope of the purposes of our society, and to 

 form the great motives of our institution — the pro- 



