FARMERS' REGISTER 



It is now actually the case that lands formerly | 

 rented Ibr ghilling?, now rent for pounds ; and what i 

 were once barren wastes, are now among the most j 

 profilalile .*oils for cuhivation. Cones are conveyed 

 from all parts of the world to the ports of that 

 country ; Brazil has furni.-hed a fzood bupi)ly and 

 even ihe United Slates have contributed to the 

 crushing mills uf Britain. I con!' ss ! have never 

 seen an account of vessels carrying out bones to 

 Europe, without leeling pained by the reflection 

 that ihey were precisely the best nuinure lor some 

 of our own lands. I have sometimes looked for- 

 ward wiih trratulation, to the da}^, when a regene- 

 ration shall be effected in certain parts of America 

 by skilful agriculiure ; wheti those parts of the 

 union, now deempd barren and almost worthless, 

 shall rise in the scale and furnish their fiill quota 

 of production. If turnips will not suit the soii and 

 climate of the West, perhips they would answer at 

 the East ; and who would not rejoice to see the 

 sands of North Carolina,, Virginia, Mew Jersey, 

 Delaware and Maryland, covered with countless 

 flocks of sheep, an animal furnishing as it does, 

 both food and raiment precisely the best suited (or 

 a dense population ! Who would not be pleased 

 to see the manufacture of wool more extensively 

 prosecuted and the fabric of American looms more 

 generally used by a healthy, prosperous and hap- 

 py population ! 



But the great change eflfected in the condition of 

 England, and which might probalily be wrought 

 by similar means in some section of the Uninii. 

 has been produced, like a magiciai delusion, by 

 the use of an easy system, and is but one result ol 

 ecieniific agriculture. Happy the day, when the 

 soil shall be considered, as in truth it is, a great 

 terra incognita, full of wonders and |)regnant with 

 unsold blessinirs to mankind. 



I remain, dear sir, your ob't. serv'f. 



HicNRY Clay, Jr. 



ON THE MANURING OF ARABLK LANDS BY 

 THKIR OWN VEGETABLE GROWTH. — ROTA- 

 TION OF CROPS. 



(Concluded from page 613, vol. vii ) 



No. 4. 



New schemes of rotations with green crops, 



Indian corn being the great and most important 

 crop in this country, and in this region more e>pe- 

 cially — covering as it does annually at least one- 

 fourth, and oitener a third or more of the arable 

 land — it is scarcely possible to devise a succession 

 of crops which shall not cause corn to be imme- 

 diately followed by wheat, or some other broad- 

 cast grain (or white) crop. This objectionable 

 Euccession is almost universal throughout this re- 

 gion, unless where the land is so poor, that to sow 

 email grain would eertainly cause more loss than 

 profit. The succession is objectionable Ibr several 

 reasons already stated in the preceding numbers ; 

 but the strongest of them I suppose to be — not 

 the mere confmg together of two narrow-leaved, 

 fibrous-rooted, grain crops — but still more because 

 the corn rears insects which live to prey on the 

 wheat. It is very desirable that this succession 



should be broken, by finding some grass, or broad 

 leaved crop, which can be interposed, and will oc- 

 eupy the ground the whole interval of time between 

 tlie corn and the next grain crop, i have tried, 

 Ibr this purpose, the sowing of red clover at the 

 last tillage of the corn, in June, and with great 

 and general success, but never over the whole of 

 the ground. Legions of minute insects were pro- 

 duced and fed upon the young clover, greatly to its 

 injury every where, and, in some pans, lo its entire 

 destruction. But for this, there might have been 

 obtained throuiihout, as there was in parts of the 

 ground, a good and clean ciop of clover, of (iill size 

 and perfection of growth the year next succeeding 

 the corn, and which would be ploughed under Ibr 

 wheat in August or September. Could the clover 

 crop, so sown, be but rendered sure, its interposi- 

 tion would add a most important value to any Ibrm 

 of rotation now in use. I hope that further expe- 

 riments will be tried, and success found, perhaps 

 in the later sowing the clover seed, and with sonje 

 protecting crop, as oats or buckwheat, which pos- 

 sibly might serve to attract and divert the insects 

 from the clover. 



It is also desirable to fill up every portion of the 

 growing season with some crop, which shall aid 

 either in tillage, manure, or grazing. Corn usually 

 ceases to draw fiom the land in August, and the 

 land then is left iille, and suffered to get fouler, 

 until in October, when ploughed for wheat ; or un- 

 til in February, if left for oats. If peas, or buck- 

 wheat, coidd be sown at the last tillage, in June 

 or July, this interval might be profitably filled. A 

 paper in the first volume of the Farmers' Register 

 (page 345) slates that a good crop of buckwheat 

 has been thus raised and reajied at very little cost. 

 If a good crop of buckwheat, (or peas,) thus 

 made among corn, and succeeding its ripening, 

 were ploughed under green, Ibr wheat, it would 

 do much to improve the succession of crops, even 

 if wheat shoulii follow, in the same year. And if 

 wheat were not to follow so soon, rye n)ight be 

 sown in early autumn, or oats in spring, and either 

 turned in for manure, to be followed by a broad- 

 cast crop of peas sown in summer, and that again 

 to be turned in for wheat in the next autumn. 

 Three broad-cast crops, of kinds of plants so dif- 

 ferent, and each turned in belbre forming seeds, 

 could scarcely fail to cleanse the land as efl^ectually 

 as possible, both of weeds and insects, and also to 

 enrich it greatly. But whether the profit would 

 exceed the expense, must be shown by carelijl ex- 

 periment and a sufiicient course of practice. 



In Britain, the turnip crop is the most important 

 in the rotation for improvement — the master- wheel 

 in the machine. If eaten by sheep, on the ground 

 where they aiew, the root tillage and growth, and 

 the dung of the sheep, together serve to improve 

 the concTiiion and fertility of the land, and prepare 

 it admirably for the succeeding crop. I lear that 

 turnips cannot be a like meliorating crop in this 

 much drier climate. If they can, we would have 

 a great advantage over England in this respect, 

 that common turnips with us are sown in August, 

 and ruta baga in Ju'y, but both late enough to 

 come on laud from which either wheat or oats 

 had been reaped. lu England, turnips require to 

 be sown so early, and wheat is reaped so late, that 

 both occupy the ground a whole year— while here 

 both have full time to ripen in succession in the 

 same season. Another great advantage we have 



