74Q 



FARMERS' REGISTER— BURNING VEGETABLE MATTER. 



brooin sedge or very coarse grass, the first crop is 

 apt to suti'er, from the ground not being properly 

 pulverized in time. It" the crop be wheat or rye, 

 it is greatly helped by turning in any sorl of" cover. 

 Grasses and weeds with their roots and sods are 

 frequently gathered into |)iles by the harrow, after 

 bad ploughing; yet, upon these very spols the 

 crop is almost always more luxuriant and pro- 

 ductive — showing, plainly, the advantage of the 

 vegetable matter thus gathered together. 



After any heavy covering is ploughed under, 

 which is more easily done with the help of a 

 weighty chain, the harrow should follow while 

 the ground is mellow, and then the roller. The 

 harrow fills up all the cracks and breaks left by the 

 plough, levels and pulverizes the soil; the roller 

 mashes it down and presses the layer of vegeta- 

 ble matter into a small compass. When thus 

 treated, fermentation and decomposition ibllow as 

 soon as enough heat and moisture are supplied by 

 the seasons. Whatever is thus turned under in 

 the I'all or winter, will be tbund mouldy and tender 

 in the spring, and soon becomes food for plants. 

 Broom-sedge is the most difficult to make rot; but 

 even that rots time enough to benefit wheat. If 

 the unavoidable openings and seams left by the 

 plough be not filled up and pressed down, fermen- 

 tation will not take place soon enough, in conse- 

 quence of a too free circulation of air: and the 

 poil on top, not coming near enough to the earth 

 below, is apt the sooner to suffer from drought. 

 But these things are too plain to occupy more time 

 in explaining. 



Some of the largest corn crops ever produced 

 in the United States, were made on land, in good 

 heart, that was covered over with a thick sod and 

 coat of vegetable matter. It was well manured, 

 broad cast; whirled completely over, harrowed and 

 pressed down with the roller. But the after 

 tillage was not more than three inches deep; neither 

 breaking nor turning up the sod again. I am in- 

 clined to think that all vegetable matter put below 

 the operation of tillage and pressed down, must 

 greatly improve the land, and if not disturbed, en- 

 large the crop growing, durintr the process of de- 

 composition. The stratum will not be thick: it 

 freely admits and retains moisture, and as soon as 

 the mould commences to rot, supplies abundant 

 food to the roots that are spreading out in every 

 direction in search of food. 



The tobacco planter's mode of cleaning new 

 ground, by raking up the leaves and trash and 

 half decayed vegetable matter, and then burning 

 it all, is a wasteful operation. These materials, if 

 spread on exhausted spots in the fields, and plough- 

 ed in, would impart life enough to throw up such 

 a crop of rye, or oats and clover, as to make it 

 easy afterwards to restore them to their original 

 fertility. The use of wheat straw, chaff', or leaves 

 will result in the same benefit. It is contended b}- 

 some of the best lixrmers, that top dressings of 

 straw and chaff' is the best mode of using them 

 for improving land. 



He that advocates burning, will be convinced of 

 its rapidly impoverishing effects, by taking an acre 

 of his best soil, cultivating it in his usual way — 

 carrying off' all the crop, and after small grain, 

 burning off" the stubble, and then the grass in the 

 fall, and burning the grass also in the fall, after ' 

 corn. This process will entirely exhaust the vegeta- 

 ble matter in the soil, and render it literally steril. 



Those crops have been considered the most im- 

 proving which either leave the most on the ground, 

 or add most to the manure heap. In the culture 

 of tobacco, all other vegetation is kept entirely 

 down quite until frost, and all the crop, save the 

 root and a short end of the stalk, is carried off. 

 The renovating nature of the clover crop is mostly 

 owing to the tap root of the plant being so large 

 and long, keeping the land light and divided, and 

 its yielding such a heavy coat of vegetable matter. 

 It throws up successive crops of spires and leaves 

 in the same season — the earlier constantly falling 

 and decaying amid the springing verdure of the 

 V'ounger growth, until frost chills all vegetable life. 

 Below the mountains the heat of sunnner matures 

 the greater part of the first crop, and dries up that 

 as well as the younger shoots. But as soon as "the 

 dogs days" are gone, the vercUu-e starts again. 

 Whoever examines a field that has stood in clover, 

 will find it cov-ered with a black fertilizing dust or 

 mould, more or less perceptible, as the rains have 

 been light or heavy. Such of it as has become 

 decomposed is apt to be partly solved by rains, 

 and the whole to be partly mingled with the top 

 soil. From its tender succulent nature, clover rota 

 sooner than weeds m* grass, and becomes nutritive 

 to plants. But the same process takes place, and 

 for the same Avise purpose of nature, with every 

 species of vegetation, from the majestic forest tree 

 down to hair-like hen's grass — converting all into 

 fertilizing matter. The ratio of their value is 

 probably unknown to the most skilful in the sci- 

 ence of chemical analysis. But I did not take up 

 my pen to write an essay on manures. 



That ashes are stimulating to plants, or rather, 

 aid in the process of feeding them, is well known, 

 and they are highly valued b}^ every good hus- 

 bandman. But I have never seen any vegetable 

 srowingin pure ashes, and infer that their action 

 is in combination with earth and putrescent mat- 

 ter. The quantity of ashes left on land afterburn- 

 ing, is so small, compared with the quantity of 

 unquestionable food for plants that would be crea- 

 ted by the decomposition of the same covering, 

 that the loss by burning must be manifest. Let 

 any one burn a portion of hay, straw, grass, or 

 weeds in such a way as to save all the ashes. He 

 will be surprised at the smallness of the quantity. 

 Let him spread it on a plot of ground, and then 

 spread the same weight of the material burnt, on 

 another plot of the same size, and ehher plough 

 in or not. The mere contemplation of what would 

 be the result, it seems to me, will decide the ques- 

 tion. If not, I am egregiously mistaken in my 

 notions, and ashes are worth more than their 

 weight in silver ! 



It is sometimes necessaiy and "advantageous" 

 to burn meadows when they begin to be overrun 

 with broomsedge; for the three-fold purpose of de- 

 stroying the seeds of the sedge — giving the grass 

 a chance to rise and cover the ground in the spring 

 before the later growth of sedge puts up — and ena- 

 bling the mower to cut the grass clean. When it 

 is not convenient to plough up and re-seed the 

 meadow, burning will make it hold out against the 

 encroachments of wild growth two years, and 

 sometimes more, beyond the time at which, with- 

 out burning, the hay would hardly be worth cut- 

 ting. 



Wire grass and its roots should always be burnt; 

 and so ought thistles. Fire is the surest destroyer 



