600 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. W 



it reached the perfection above stated. But in 

 nineteen-tvvenlieths of our fine state all tliar is re- 

 quisite is to iccpp the land in the condition in 

 which we found it ; and to do that, all that is ne- 

 cessary is to adopt a proper succession of crops. 

 This alone will do, wyhout the trouMe and ex- 

 pense of manurini;. All o'' our practical farmers 

 know very well that the continued growth ol" the 

 same kind of grain upon the same fitild will, in 

 time, greatly impoverish it, and lessen the product ; 

 but that by alternating the various kinds of grains, 

 good crops may be obtained for many successive 

 years. Siiil the land will be deteriorated unless re 

 course be had to manure, or some vegetable which 

 will give to the land more than it takes from it. There 

 are various articles which have been employed for 

 that purpose ; but, perhaps, the best of them all is 

 red clover. This grass has proved one of the 

 greatest blessings to the agriculturalists both of 

 America and Europe. With the aid ot'this grass 

 many farms in the Atlantic states have been 

 brought from actual barrenness to become very 

 productive. To accomplish this, however, plas- 

 ter, I'oiie, vegetable, or animal manure, are neces- 

 sary'. The Ohio farmer, however, wants none of 

 these, at least none are necessary to keep up the 

 natural fertility of his land. A crop of clover suc- 

 ceeding three successive g-rain crops, and remain- 

 ing two years, will efl'ectually answer the purpose, 

 and the faimer, who follows this course, will deli- 

 ver his land to his successor, after a forty or fifty 

 years use of it, in better condition than when he 

 received it. Every good farmer knows this ; but, 

 unfortunately, many understand the theory who 

 do not carry it into practice. Many, too, suppose 

 that if they change the crop from corn to small 

 grain of some kind or other, that they may then 

 go back again to corn, without injuring the land. 

 This is a mistake. The best of land will be 

 injured in time by this process. The fact that 

 a change of crops was necessary to produce 

 a good yield has long been known ; but the rea- 

 son of its being so was never guessed at until the 

 discovery of it lately by a French chemist. By a 

 series of ingenious experiments this gentleman dis- 

 covered that most vegetables fthe farinaceous 

 grains more particularly,) not only receive nourish- 

 ment from the earth, through the agency of the 

 vessels of their roots, but that they also' by the 

 same, or a diiferentset of vessels, made a deposife 

 •of a substance in the earth, which remained there 

 until taken up by the roots of other plants. This 

 substance being convertible into food for a different 

 vegetable, but not for that by which the deposite 

 was made. This sat isfiictorily explains the reason 

 why a good crop, (of wheat, for instance.) cannot 

 be raised for a succession of" years fi-ora the same 

 field. If the land is remarkably strong, two and 

 even three good crops, may be raised ; the plants, 

 , in this instance, finding sufficient nourishment 

 from the natural strength of the ground. But 

 it (the ground) from the yearly deposite becomes 

 at length so completely saturated with it, as no lon- 

 ger to afford the required nourishment, and the 

 plants, of consequence, are weak, sickl}', and un- 

 productive. Seeds of another kind, however, 

 committed to this same field will reward the sower 

 with an abundant crop; and after the lapse of a 

 lew years, it will be again ready to receive 

 another crop of wheat, the intermediate crops hav- 

 ing exhausted the wheat deposite, and left others 



peculiar to themselves, which been taken up by the 

 roofs of the latter plants, are elaborated in their 

 vessels, and formed into a suitable and wholesome 

 nourishment. As I have remarked, however, al- 

 though the white grain crops (corn, wheat, oats, 

 &c. ) may succeed each other for some years with- 

 out greatly injuring land that is naturally of good 

 quality, still it will be ultimately impoverished, un- 

 less some other crop is occasionally intervened, of 

 a character altoiiether dilTerent. These grains^ 

 although essentially different in their qualities, 

 and manner of growth, are still of the same class; 

 and there must, of course, be a considerable coin- 

 cidence in the character and support which they 

 draw from the earth, and the manner in which it is 

 converted into the farinaceous substance which is 

 the common and essential part of the perfected 

 grain in all of them. The plant, of all others, 

 which seems best calculated to exhaust deleterious 

 deposites left in the earth by the grain crops, and 

 to form a fresh supply of"fbod for them by the mys- 

 terious operations of its roots and vessels, is red 

 clover. To make the most of this plant, as a reno- 

 vator of the soil, it shotdd be (as is the prac- 

 tice with good fiirniers) ploughed in after it has at- 

 tained its full maturity. In this way it furnishes a 

 large mass of vegetable manure, which greatly 

 contributes to the fertility of the soil. But if this 

 were all the good it does, it would do no more than 

 ploughing in any other equally succulent plant. I 

 contend, however, that it imparts to the soil a de- 

 gree of fertility which cannot be accounted for 

 li'om the rotting of ils stalks, leaves, and roots af- 

 ter they are ploughed in, and that the mere grmo- 

 hig of the article upon the ground adds greatly to 

 its fertility. I do not know that any experiments 

 have been made to ascertain the quantity of depo- 

 site made by clover, as was the case in relation to 

 the farinaceous grains by the French chemist 

 above referred to ; but I am certain that any very 

 careful observer of the effect of clover in improving 

 the soil, will come to the same conclusion that 1 

 have; which is, that it possesses a fertilizing qua- 

 lity, which is totally independent of that which is 

 given by tiie decay of its roots, stalks, and leaves. 

 The best farn:\ers, as I liave said, plough in the 

 clover when it is at maturity, or at least when it has 

 attained a considerable part of its growth ; but the 

 greater part feed it down to the ground before it is 

 ploughed, leaving nothing to be convened into ma- 

 nure for the support of the crop about to be sown, 

 but the roots. Now the decay of these roots, 

 in the ground, could not alone produce the great 

 fertility which a two-years' growth of clover is 

 known to give. Three years ago I sowed a field 

 with clover, upon wheat, in February. It was re- 

 markably fine, being half-leg high in September. 

 It was fed down, and in the succeeding winter it 

 was entirely killed by the fi'ost. In the spring the 

 field was ploughed up for corn. The roots of the 

 clover were dry and withered, and would, of them- 

 selves, have given little or no assistance to the 

 crop ; but yet it was fine, and the land had 

 evidently been improved by the clover. It is for- 

 tunate that the theory, which has been established 

 in relation to the farinaceous grains, is true also, as 

 to many of the noxious plants, and those most 

 troublesome to the agriculturists ; such as the 

 common dock, the thistle, the dog-fennel, and the 

 thorn-apple, or Jamestown weed. Some years 

 ago a friend of mine, who was very desirous to rid 



