F A 11 INI E K S ' REGISTER 



315 



in" compelled to resort to the tedious and horrible 

 diudirery of hriulin^ oat and ppreading manure, is 

 trill V a trrand desideratum to the piaciical larmer; 

 and it is niuch to he reirretted, that ihe wriier otthe 

 above extract did not liivor us with tiie details ofa 

 plan, Irom vviiich sucli desirable results can be ob- 

 tained, ir you are not yourself acquainted with 

 the system in question, perhaps you can, through 

 «he medium of your paper, obtain the requisite in- 

 Ibrmation, which no doubt will be thankfully re- 

 ceived and put into operation by many olyour sub- 

 scribers." 



Beinirat the <late referred to, the editor of the 

 Franklin Farmer and the author of the remarkson 

 manure, quoted by " D." I am disposed to respond 

 to him. iJut in doing so, I waive exception to the 

 spirit of incredulity which, it appears to me, lurks 

 in his tone. Any one who has ever intelligently 

 observed the operations on the highly improved 

 farms in the calcareous lands of Kentucky, would 

 at once refer my remarks on our manuring, quoted 

 above, to the |)rocesses connected with our grazing 

 system ; and these would embrace almost the entire 

 agricultural operations on such farms. I cannot 

 pretend, in the limits to which I am n»*cessarily 

 resiricteti in a weekly paper, to write out all the 

 " details" of the system rel>"rred to ; lor it would re- 

 quire a volunie to do them ample justice; but I think 

 1 can present the general outlines ot the system 

 in a manner to render it intelligible. In speaking 

 ofmariunn^", as connected with thegrazingsystem 

 of Kentucky, I use the term in a general sense; 

 signifving, not only the application of putrescent 

 matters to the soil, but all those ameliorating pro- 

 cesses, embracing a judicious rotation of crops, in- 

 cluding grasses, which serve to produce and main- 

 tain an increased state of fertility. I am aware that, 

 in some quarters, our system is sneered at, on the 

 ground that we do not, technically, manure our 

 fields, that is, haul materials liir making manure 

 into a barn-yanl, and then, afier certain processes, 

 haul out the same upon the fields, iiut as, besides 

 deriving profits from the products of agricultural 

 labor, the great object of cultivation is to improve 

 the fertility of the soil, I cannot see any objection 

 to the em[)loyment of the term, manuring, lor the 

 result of any practices or processes by means of 

 which these two great ends are reached. If, by 

 the agency ofditlerent processes, equal results are 

 obtained ; the only subject of consideration, in the 

 choice ol" one or other of those processes, to efiect 

 the desired result, would be, thatol its comparative 

 convenience, apjilicabihty or economy. That an 

 exceeding deiiree of'lertility is produced and main- 

 tained and that large profits are realized under the 

 operations of the grazing system, I need only 

 point to the heavy ()roductionsol the grazing firms, 

 and to the great prosperity ofihe graziers, to sliow. 

 And in speaking of the I'erUWly produced under 

 this system, 1 mean, literally, that, under its ope- 

 ration, lands taken in what is called a ^' ivorn-uuV^ 

 state, are brought up to a state of the highest [iro- 

 duclive capacity. 'Fhat the same s_\'steni, there- 

 fore, would preserve, if not increase, Ihe oriiimal 

 richness of the virgin soil, is two well establishetl, 

 even if experience were wanting on iliis particular 

 point, to admit of a doubt. It is to be taken into 

 consideration that this system is of but compara- 

 tively recent adoption ; that it is not yet fully prac- 

 tised in many sections of our calcareous lands ; and 

 thai it was commenced in a section where the pre- 



I vious systems, (or rather, bad practices,) had ac- 

 tually skimmed the land of its richest soil. What 

 I of leriilily was left in tiie soil, even of this new 

 land rich land, after years of exhausting cultiva- 

 tion, first, in that horrible scourge of land, tobac- 

 co, and next in grain, exported to distant markets 

 or consumed in the inliirnal distilleries of whisky, 

 may be best told by these who, appalled at the 

 prospect of impoverished fields and purses, fled 

 from out this garden of Eden, to procure, still 

 furiher west, fresh lands. Now let us suppose one 

 of these farms, ihus exhausted and deserted, pass- 

 ing into the possession of a farmer whose sysiara 

 of husbandry has two cardinal objects in view — 

 to realize annual profits and at the same time main- 

 tain a steady progressive improvement in the fer- 

 tiliij' of the soil. If he gets possession in the fall, 

 he sows down the exhausted fields in rye or wheal, 

 generally rye, and if in the spring, in oats ; and in 

 the winter or spring, seeds with red clover, timo- 

 thy and blue-grass. When the small grain ia 

 ripe enough, he turns his stock upon it, feeds it 

 down upon the ground, and then, taking the stock 

 off, allows ihe clover and other grasses lo come 

 Ibrvvard. The clover coming forward, if the sea- 

 son be favorable immediately after the small grain 

 is eaten down, shades the ground from the intense 

 heat of the sun, which so injuriously afl^ects naked 

 fallows. The field is ne.xt grazed by stock ; and 

 the mixture of timothy and blue grass with the clo- 

 ver prevents the latter hooving the cattle. The 

 second year the field is also grazed, but the stock 

 is taken off' long enough to allow the clover, which 

 is a biennial plant, to ripen its seed, which being 

 shed, clothes the field with clover for two more 

 years if it is desired to keep it ihat long in grass; 

 but a frequent practice is, if the land be not ex- 

 cessively exhausted to turn the clover under and 

 plant in corn the third year; and this may safely 

 be done, with a confident expectation of gathering, 

 in a favorable season at least, 50 or 60 bushels of 

 corn to the acre, if the land had not been reduced 

 previouslj-, to a state of exhaustion producing less 

 than 25 or 30 bushels. If the exhaustion be more 

 excessive, reducing the production to a point low- 

 er than I have stated, it is advisable to let the field 

 remain in pasture lour years. The third or fifth 

 year as the case may be, the sod is turned over 

 flat by a sod-plough running just through it, or 

 say two or three inches; then following in the 

 same furrow with another plough, commonly a 

 Gary, from four to six inches deep, bury the sod to 

 lhat depth ; some even follow with a third, to lay 

 the sod ten or twelve inches below the surlace, 

 where, being out of the way of the after culture, it 

 gradually decomposes, lurnishing Ibod to the grow- 

 ing crop, protecting it Irom the excessive influences 

 of drought, and deepening the tilth. Whether a 

 third ploughing in the same fnno.v be proper, is to 

 be determined by the depth of the soil and the cha- 

 racter of the subsoil. If the subsoil, that is, the 

 earth below the surlace soil, containing no mould, 

 or dark, decayed vegetable matter, be a light, fria- 

 ble, yellow, reddish or brown clay, the plough may 

 run down to it, and, indeed, bring up some of"it to 

 the surliice. wliere exposure lo the influences of 

 frost, sun and atmosphere, renders it into a liirtil- 

 izing earth incorjioraied with the vegetable matter 

 turned under; and this process also effects the very 

 desirable object of deepening the soil. But I sus- 

 pect it would probably be better to defer this deep 



