FARMERS' REGISTER 



plough in the earth of a dry season. A good four- 1 

 Jiorse ploiiirh will ploiifrh one acre a day, even in] 

 Ihe dryest season, and ii" the eeason is lavorable, ! 

 two acres with ease. I have ploiifrhed as much! 

 as two and a half acres a day with one plouifh. 

 It is moreover questionable whether a Ibur-horse 

 {)iough will not liUlow more in a day (supposing j 

 the season a (iivorable one,) than two tvvn-horse j 

 ploughs. The fiirrow slice of the Ibrmer, will 

 be nearly double of the latter, and then the ob-j 

 eiructioris from choakinfr will be triuch less in ihe| 

 one case than the other, f will here remark, that ; 

 this obstacle of (he ploughs choakinir, is greatly | 

 prevented by adding another block to the breast i 

 of the plough, thereby raising the beam. There 

 is in truth, no operation on the firm that gives me 

 Jess concern than fallowing; although unquestion- 1 

 ably the most important. And in verification of 

 this fad, my purtmse is to enlarge instead of di- 

 minishing, my (allowing operations; all that you 

 have to do to have it perfected, is to furnish good 

 ploughs, a suffi 'lent force to propel them, and un- 

 deviating instructions tjiat tli^y are never to slop 

 unless the earth shouKl be too wet. With these 

 provisions and instructinns the great difficulty is 

 easily overcome. So easy and valuable is this 

 feature in the system that I do not think I could 

 be induced to adopt any in which I did not fallow 

 for wheat at this season. You are not only so 

 well remunerated for it, but it enables you to get 

 in your crop with so much more ease and cer- 

 tainty. 



1 have asserted and still maintain that a good 

 clover IhIIow liir wheat will double in a term of 

 years the same land in wheat after corn. My crops 

 liave more than done so, in the last 10 years. 

 Now let us reason a little on the f()re(Toing. This 

 season I had 50 woikingdays for fallowing, be- 

 fore the season arriveil for see(hng, say li-oin the 

 12ih Auffust, to Ihe 8ih October; no deduction 

 ehoulil be made fur rainy days, as they accelerate 

 instead of retarding the fal!owin<i. Now, in these 

 60 days, a good four-horse plough would have 

 lallovved 50 acres of land ; this 50 acres seeded in 

 wheat woidd have produced almost witfi certainly 

 1000 to 1200 bushels, and if a favorable season, 

 nr.ore ; but we will put it at its minimum, 1000 

 bushels; when the same land in wheat alter 

 corn would not on an average have produced 

 more than 600 bushels. You will at once see that 

 here was a clear loss of 10 or 12 bushels a day 

 from not employing in this way, four horses, a 

 man, and a boy, which must be necessarily kept 

 on the larm at that season. So that I do consider 

 ihat you lost the season above referred to at least 

 600 or 600 bushels of wheat, from not applying the 

 four horses, which I saw attempting to iallow with 

 two small ploughs and (ailed, instead of atiachinii 

 the whole to one large plouiih, whicli could and 

 wo'ild have accomplished ii ; for my ploughs on 

 much siiffer and more difUcuU land to fallow did 

 en diiriuir that time.* And [ will here state, al- 



though not as good land as that at Coggine, it ne- 

 vertheless brought me upwards of 20 bushels to the, 

 acre. We will sup[)ose the task a " difficult " one ; 

 can there he any employment of labor and capital 

 li'om wliich so great a per cenlage is given, espe- 

 cially so, when wheat is tlie staple crop, as it is in 

 this part of the state. I have heard it asserted 

 that it would ruin anyone to fallow at this season. 

 Some of these very persons* I am pleased to say, 

 now (allow with three and (bur horses, and double 

 their crops from the same land. I have enlarged 

 more upon this subject tiian I had intended, but 

 it is one in which I feel the deepest interest, as I do 

 sincerely believe the fiillow system for wheal the 

 only true basis i'or its successful cidiivation. 



Third, the "succession of the three fibrous 

 rooted, narrow-leaved, exhausting grain crops of 

 wheat, corn, wheat," has with me been the almost 

 only objecliunable feature in the system ; particu- 

 larly the last in the succession, wheat after corn. 

 For wheat after corn, I think, can never be relied 

 on (or a heavy crop, unless it be on very rich land, 

 and then rarely. I am satisfied of the fact from 

 my crop of this year; my fallow field averaged 

 me 27^ bushels of wheat to the acre, only from 

 ploughmg in a clover lay ; whereas my corn land, 

 every acre of which was both heavily manured 

 and limed for Ihe corn crop, produced me 15^ 

 bushels to the acre, which by the by, was a good 

 crop, and by (ar the best I ever made after corn. 

 But my belief is, that with the same preparation 

 under the system that I am about to adopt, it 

 would have produced double that quanlity. I 

 should state that I last fall seeded only so much of 

 my corn land in wheat, as was both manured and 

 limed for corn. I am very certain that the re- 

 mainder of the field if it had been seeded in 

 wheat, although good land, would not have pro- 

 duced more than one-half, say 7 or 8 bushels; 

 when the same land after fidlow, would have pro- 

 duced fi-oni 20 to 30 bushels to the acre with al- 

 most a cerlainlv. It will be but proper to stale, 

 that the whole of the corn land seeded in wheat 

 was not accomplished indue time, one-half of it 

 being seeded in November, and of course had not 

 as good a chance ; but the oiher half was seeded 

 about the20ih October and should have yielded as 

 much or more than the fallow, which had never 

 been limed. But it did not, and this portion was no 



* I'he very faulty and small operation (or rather at- 

 tempt and failure,) referred to above, was not ordered 

 )T conducted by the proprietor of the land, and was 

 ■lot one of the numerous instances of bad manaj^ement 

 for which he was justly responsible. It was the last 

 '.ime that ploughs or teams so small as of two horses 

 jivere used on that place to break grass land, either in 

 glimmer or winter. Though throe-mule ploughs only 



have been there substituted, there is no doubt but Mr. 

 Selden is correct when recommending four-horse 

 ploughs, and good horses too, for the summer fallow- 

 ing of stiff and deep soils ; and that with a view to 

 economy, as well as to good execution. But after 

 making all dae admissions, we still deem that the pro- 

 cess of summer clover fallow, (when a regular annual 

 operation for an entire shift, and to be completed under 

 any circumstances,) must be sometimes a very labo- 

 rious and difficult operation, even when conducted 

 most skdfuUy, and with the best means and appliances. 



Ed. F. R. 

 * Dr. John Minge is one of the persons here alluded 

 to. I am authorized by him to state, that he once en- 

 tertained such an opinion; but that he is now con- 

 vinced to the contrary. He states that this season his 

 fallow field in wheat averaged him 26^ bushels to the 

 acre ; and bis corn land only about 4T)ushels ; that is 

 93 acres of fallow produced him 2500 bushels good 

 wheat; whereas 150 acres of corn land produced him 

 little upwards of 600 bushels. 



