FARMERS' RL:G1STER— WHEAT AND CLOVER. 



423 



leave the third to ripen with the stalks; and, at the 

 proper time, to husk, measure and weigh the three 

 ])arce!s separately. The results of a dozen such 

 exjierinienls will lead to pretty correct conclusions 

 as to the best method. We not only invite them 

 to make the experiment, but to comnmnicate the 

 results lor publication in the Cultivator. 



Selected for the Railroad Joiinial from Englith Magazines. 

 PROFITS OF RAILWAYS. 



The Stockton and Darlington Railway, wliich 

 was the first opened in this country for general 

 trafTic, has actually multiplied the hitercourse be- 

 tween these two towns fort y-Jbld. 



The shares of the Stockton and Darlington 

 Railway represent £106 paid on each; tiiey are 

 now selling at £299 10s. each. The dividends of 

 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway are li- 

 mited by Act of Parliament to 10 i)er cent, (in 

 consequence of the opjiosition of the great canal 

 interests, against which it had to struggle tor ex- 

 istence,) but notwithstanding this the £100 shares 

 arc now quoted at ^£200. 



The Liverpool and Manchester Railway conveys 

 now, on an average, about 1,200 passengers daily; 

 which is triple the number ever conveyed on the 

 common road daring the best days of the coach- 

 ing system. The quantity of goods transported 

 on this railway has also been constantly on the in- 

 crease, and falls noAV little short of 200,000 tons 

 per annum, though it has had to contend in this 

 branch of its business with an unusually strong ca- 

 nal opposition. 



That the value of property of every description 

 in the vicinity of railwa}-s should have risen 

 amazingly since their establishment, ceases under 

 these circumstances to be matter of surprise. In 

 the course of the evidence adduced betbre the 

 House of Lords on the London and Birmingham 

 Railway Bill, it was shown that almost immedi- 

 atel}^ alter the opening of the Liverpool and Man- 

 chester line, the value of the land adjacent to it 

 had risen generally 50 per cent.; and that portions 

 of ground at both extremities, similar to what the 

 Railway Company had purchased for three pence 

 per square yard, could not now be had for less than 

 from three shillings to lour shillings per yard, being 

 an advance of full 1,400 percent.! 



From the same evidence it appeared that the 

 Liverpool and Manchester Railway pays on an 

 average one-fifth of the poor rates of all the pa- 

 rishes through which it passes. 



Between Stockton and Darlington the charges 

 for carrying goods and passengers have been re- 

 duced more than one-half- between Liverpool and 

 Manchester, about one-third. 



On the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway 

 -—a bad line on a bad plan — the traffic has been 

 increased nearly eight-fold within the short period 

 of three years. 



The last returns from the Ediiiburg and Dal- 

 keith Railway exhibit, in one brief year, an in- 

 crease of nearly 100 per cent, in the number of 

 passengers, and about 30 per cent, in goods. For 

 1832, the numbers were — passengers, 91,814; 

 goods, 61,000 tons. For 1833— passengers, 160,000; 

 80,000 ton*;. ^ > > , 



From tlie Cultivator. 

 WHEAT ANIJ CLOVER. 



The practice has obtained, in Monroe, Orlean«, 

 and some of the neighboring counties, the great 

 wheat district of our state, and is rapidly gaining 

 ground, of alternating wheat and clover, that is, 

 of sowing wheat and clover seeds every other 

 year upon the same ground. This is said to af- 

 lord not only an increase of crop, but to effect a 

 great saving of labor. The clover is sown with 

 the wheat in autumn, or upon it in the spring. It 

 is mown or pastured the second year, and the lay 

 is then turned over, and wheat and clover again 

 sown upon the first furrow. Thus the grounds 

 receive but one jjloughing in two years, and the 

 green manure afibrded by the clover, is all pre- 

 served for the wheat crop, being dissipated by 

 cross ploughings. Thus, too, the clover promotes 

 the pulverization of the soil, keeps it light and fri- 

 able, and pervious to atmospheric influence, by its 

 gradual decay in the soil. We are advised, upon 

 respectable authority, that under this practice there 

 is seldom a diminution of crops, and that in some 

 cases the product has been nearly doubled in a ibw 

 years. 



The wheat country of the west is a deep secon- 

 dary formation,— the earth taken from the depth 

 of ten and twenty feet, ofien exhibiting a fertility 

 when exposed to atmospheric influence, equal to 

 that of the surface soil. It is a deep deposite of 

 vegetable, animal and earthy matter, abounding 

 in the specific food of the wheat crop. Hence it 

 often occurs, particularly in the oak openings, that 

 tillage, by fi^icilitating decomposition, increases i'er- 

 tility even without the aid of manure. But the 

 question \vorthy of consideration is, whether the 

 practice of alternating wheat and clover, even 

 upon these fertile formations, can be long contin- 

 ued, without impoverishing the soil ? A yoke of 

 oxen may be turned to a stack of hay, and they 

 may continue to thrive; but at length the stack 

 and the food will become exhausted, and without a 

 further supply, the oxen will ultimately become 

 poor and die. The vegetable and animal matter 

 in our western so.ls is to the wheat what the stack 

 is to the oxen, the food which causes growth, ma- 

 turity and profit, and constant feeding must ex- 

 haust alike both. Although the clover lay affords 

 vegetable food, it by no means makes up for the 

 exhaustion of the wheat crop; and we suspect it 

 benefits more by rendering the soil porous, and 

 thus tiaciUtating the decomposition of the vegeta- 

 ble matter which it contains, than by its own en- 

 riching qualities. We have little doubt but this 

 alternation would soon fail on ordinary soils; and 

 we believe it cannot be long persevered in at the 

 west without serious detriment. The banks of 

 the Hudson were once celebrated for their wheat 

 crops; and within our recollection, west Vermont 

 sent as fine wheat to the Troy and Lansingburg 

 markets, and it was their staple production too, as 

 now comes from the west. Now, west Vermont 

 consumes New York flour, her soil no longer pro- 

 ducing good wheat in any quantity. And Onei- 

 da, too, is no longer distinguished as a wheat 

 growing country; the specific food of this grain 

 being in a measure exhausted in her soil. We 

 are aware that the preceding cases do not afiijrd 

 exact parallels for the west. They are drawn 

 principally from transition Ibrmations, while that 



