12 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 1 



turn the most to the soil, are required to be grown 

 the mosi, and vice versa. The grasses stand at 

 ihe head. This woulJ require a period ot from 15 

 to perhaps 40 years, before the repetition of any 

 one crop. By a wise and beautiful provision of 

 nature, it is obvious that those crops which return 

 the most to the soil both in vegetable and aninaal 

 manure, are required to be grown the most. 

 Again, those crops which return the most to the 

 soil, are the least expensive in their cultivation; 

 those which return the least are the most expen- 

 sive. Nothing is plainer, than that the crops for 

 stock must be grown in the largest proportions. 

 The more the grass crops are cultivated under the 

 convertible husbandry, the more will be the whole 

 produce, although the arable crops will be so much 

 less in acres, and the less will be the expense and 

 labor. Nature has been peculiarly bounliiiil, kind 

 and considerate to the farmer, if he and society 

 will only obey and observe her laws. | 



The great purpose and secret in agriculture, is j 

 system — that is, the ritrht and proper rotations of j 

 crops; these being right, the (gradual, increasino- j 

 and permanent pcrfrct full fertility ol" the soil, will i 

 be mainly accomplished, at no labor and expense 

 whatever; nature producing the intended and j 

 required effects, by the silent, costless operation of 

 her own laws, the crops themselves producing the 

 means of subsistinnf each other. If the rotation is 

 wrong, no expense and labor will remedy the con- 

 sequent errors and defects. Machinery is of very 

 Hmited ap|)licaiion in agriculture, thereliire nature 

 has given the liirmer similar advantages to the 

 use of it in other professions, by sj/s/em. All the 

 essential wants of human nature, are justly be- 

 longing to all, therefore if not attainaMe by all by 

 means of manual labor, there are clearly means of 

 making them so, by machinery, system, &c. 

 Knowledge is essential to all; this could never be 

 communicated by writing, therefore some cheap 

 method was attainable, which is printing. There 

 is no better guide than this principle in attempting 

 any new discoveries; that is, in all we do we must 

 begin with first principles. 



As a proof (amongst hundreds) of how little 

 principle and system are even yet understood and 

 practised by the fanners in Ensrland, we shall of- 

 ten see them em[)loyin2 a very large additional 

 temporary force in harvest; sowing and hoeing 

 turnips; weeding grain crops, &c.; and, if they can 

 afford it, even boasting of having employed a 

 more than usual temporary force in some particu- 

 lar operation, deeming it an act most meritorious 

 and skilful ! Again, how often do we hear far- 

 mers say, "but I farm differently from others; I 

 buy a great deal ol' manure, I keep stage-horses 

 upon my farm, and I can fi^irm as I please ! I 

 can take two or three crops of wheat together!" 

 The fact is, the true principles of agriculture are the 

 same every where, and under all circumstances. 

 Animal manure is not the only indispensable 

 principle — the sole panacea. If one farmer can 

 procure double the quantity of manure another 

 can make, this does not do away with the necessi- 

 ty for practising the same system. Rightly ap- 

 plied, this increased quantity of manure, would 

 greatly increase the crops — but the farmer who 

 presumes upon this aid alone, to depart li-om the 

 true principles of agriculture, will find himself, 

 eventually, a severe sufferer. The farmer who 

 has no fixed, steady, undcvialing principles of ac- 



tion, whatever may be his means of procuring 

 manure, (ofany kind,) is in the infancy ol'his pro- 

 fession. How wild, random, and unsettled are, as 

 yet, the best apparent practices of agriculture! 

 What would be thoughi of the commander of a 

 ship, who steered now here, the next day there — 

 one vveelf required 10 men and the next 100 — and 

 so with others? Yet this, and Ifir worse, is the 

 every-lay practice of farmers. I know, as yet, no 

 reason why a farm should not lie carried on with 

 the same fixed steady principles as a ship or manu- 

 factory. If we read the works on airriculture, if 

 we examine the voluminous reports of the English 

 parliament, we shall find no two men agreeing 

 u|)on the same principles. It is surely time that 

 all this ignorance, tor it is nothing else, should be- 

 gin to have an end. 



Manure is only one principle in agriculture; 

 the important one, vegetable matter, (grass and 

 other roots,) is another, and succession of crops is 

 a third. Of all the principles in agriculture, still 

 so obscure, hidden, and little understood, none is 

 apparently so obvious and clear as tiie imperative 

 demand of nature, that crops should be varied to 

 the extent of all the difl'erent kinds in existence. 

 Yet we continue to cultivate not a tythe of them, 

 and repeat them everlastingly; and biiterly do we 

 pay lor our wilful ignorance and wretched arro- 

 gance and presumption. Even in the United 

 j StateSj/n-'m the population being too purely agri- 

 cultural, during the French revolutionary war, 

 j (although wages were very hiijh, and the people 

 I'ully employed in agriculture, conmierce, building, 

 making roads, bridges, &c.) and the demands of 

 Europe beino; chiefly lor bread-stuffs — a system of 

 almost exclusive arable cultivation, and consequent 

 destructive one, was introduced and established, 

 which will require years and years to remedy and 

 counteract. That war, with the home exclusive 

 agricultural population, was as destructive of the 

 fen ility of the soil, and the means and powers of 

 its improvennMit in the nori hern states, as is the 

 present system in the southern states, of supply- 

 ing Europe, &c. with cotton, together witia its 

 present exclusively agricultural population. 



I attribute the extensive and disastrous fliilureof 

 the turnips, potatoes and clover in England, of 

 late years, to the deficiency of vegetable matter, 

 (grass) and the too close repetition of them. The 

 crops are diseasetl, and consequently are attacked 

 by insects, which are supposed to be the cause of 

 ail the mischief! ' This is a very shallow and very 

 common way ot"investigating things, viewing the 

 last effects as the primary cause. 



The true successfil period of sowing and plant- 

 ing all arable crops is very short; therefore, ma- 

 nure can only be directly applied to them with 

 ijreat expense and additional labor, and risk of 

 failure by consequently sowing too late; therefore 

 it must be wrong so to apply it, however other- 

 wise advantageous the direct and immediate ap- 

 plication of manure might be, which it conse- 

 quently is not. Manure is much more economi- 

 cally and better applied to grass than to any other 

 crops. By applying manure in the spring and 

 fall to the grass crops, there is the least possible 

 waste of it; Uie greatest possible quantity of grass 

 is raised at the least expense, and the soil put in 

 the best possible condition at the least expense, for 

 the subsequent arable and grain crops. 



Is straw an essential, jirofitable, economical 



