722 



FARMERS' R E G I S I £ K 



evaporation, in a degree so far below walcr, Ihat 

 a complete dressing of atmospherical manure, 

 conveyed in tlie vegetable veliicle, will discover 

 Its benefit for years, wiiilst one conveyed in rain 

 will disappear in a few weelis. Ii ibllows that 

 the nearer the vegetable vehicle ol" manure from 

 the atmosphere, approaches to wood, the longer 

 it will lasi, and that the nearer ii approaches to 

 water, the shorter it will last. 



It' this principle is sound, a point of great impor- 

 tance to ihe inclosing system is settled; whether 

 it is bet;er to plough in vegetables in a succulent 

 or a dry state 7 Every experiment I have ever 

 made, decides in lavor of the latter, and these 

 decisions correspond with tiie requisitions ot" our 

 theory. By ploughing in the vegetables suc- 

 culent, we stop the process lor extracting, elabo- 

 rating and condensing atmospherical manure, and 

 chiefly bury water, liable to the laws of evapora- 

 tion, demonstrated in the case of rain, the richest 

 but the most short lived ot every species of ma- 

 nure. The rapidity with which ilie water of 

 vegetables in a succulent state evaporates, is de- 

 monstrated in cuiing grass for hay; and the loss 

 IS probably greater when the vegetable is never 

 reduced at all to a dry and hard state. On the 

 contrary, by suffering the vegetable to acquire its 

 most solid lijrm, it will extract more manure from 

 the atmosphere, and this manure will be retained 

 vastly longer by the earth ; so long indeed, that a 

 good fiiinier will ai'cumulale fresh supplies upon 

 a remainmg stock Irom lime lo time, so as to 

 replenish liis land ai a compound raiio. And by 

 eullering the vegetable cover, whatever it is, to 

 gain its hardest lorm, it affords longer shade lo 

 the surliice of the eanh, whilst it is also making 

 daily exiracis from the atmosphere, during its 

 whole succulent existence, to be deposited within 

 its bowels. 



To draw from the atmosphere the greatest 

 quantity ol manure, to check the loss the earth 

 sustains fiotn evaporation during tiie process by 

 shade, to give the n)anure the most lasting (brm, 

 and to deposite it in the most beneficial manner, 

 are primary object? of the inclosing system. 



The best agent known lo ns lor effecting the 

 three first, is the red clover. Its growth is rapid ; 

 its quantity exceeds the product of any other 

 grass ; it throws up a succession of stems in the 

 same summer; and ihe.-e stems are more solid 

 and lasting than those of other grasses. These 

 successive growths constitute so many distinct 

 drafts from ihe great treasure of atmospherical 

 manure in one year. Whilst ikese drafts are 

 repealed, the clover is daily securing the treasure 

 in a Ibrm able long to elude the robber evapora- 

 tion, whom it also opposes by shade. To its ex- 

 tracting from the aimospliere the grealestquantiiy 

 of manure, and elaborating it into a lasting Icjrm 

 the most suddenly of any other vegetable cover, 

 clover lays lor wheat are indebted for their lame. 

 Their success has been attributed to the poition 

 of the vegetable in a succulent state, whilst it was 

 owing to the giealer portion which liad arrived 

 to maturity previous to the lallovv. To ascertain 

 this liict, let one moiety of a clover field be turned 

 in as soon as its fust crop flowers, and the other 

 after the stem of the last crop is hard, and the 

 whole sown on or.e day in wbeai. 



The peculiar propensity of clover lo be im- 

 proved by u top dressing oi the gypsum, is another 



striking circumstance of its aflinily to the system 



(or (ertilizing land by its own cover. As its growth 

 is suddenly and vast'y increased by this top dress- 

 ing, it furnishes reason lo believe, that the ellecl 

 flows from a disposition conununicated by the gyp- 

 sum to the clover, (or imbibing atmospherical lood 

 by its external parts ; and so much as it thus gains, 

 adbrds to the earth a double benefit. One, that 

 this Ibod not being extracted from the stock of at- 

 mospherical manure, possessed by the earth, does 

 not impoverisli it ; the other, that being bestowed 

 on the earth from whence it was not taken, it adds 

 to i's fertility. 



The tap root of the clover also advances the in- 

 tention of the inclosing system in several respects. 

 By i)iercing the earth lo a considerable depth, 

 apertures or pores are created for imbibing and 

 sinking deeper a grealerqiiantity of atmospherical 

 manure ; so well delended by the shade ol the 

 top ; and the fiiability thus communicated to the 

 soil, affords a n)Obl happy facility lo the plough, 

 lor turning in its vast bed of veojetable matter. 



In commemorating the value of clover as an 

 agent for Iranslerring a portion of the inexhausti- 

 ble wealth of the atmosphere to the earth, we 

 must not lorget thai every member of the vege- 

 table world, contributes to the same purpose ; and 

 that these auxiliaries to clover will powerfully 

 second its efforts, and may be successfully substi- 

 tuted for it, wliere circumslances deny its use. In 

 the exhausted lands, sandy sot! and dry climate oi" 

 the country below the mountains, clover will not 

 live. Recourse must iherelore be had to oilier 

 means of improving the land to endow it, with a 

 capacity of resorting to its use. Ii is eminently 

 endowed with this capacity by a certain degree of 

 (ertiliiy, and thencelbrih good management will 

 retain and increase if. 



In the (nean time, the best suljslitute for clover 

 should be sought /or by experience. The bird 

 foot clover, as it is called, is one of considerable 

 promise ; it will flourish m a sandy soil, is equally 

 improved by the gypsum, affortls early and good 

 shade, makes a multitude of seed, and may by a 

 small deuree of skill, be kept up without being 

 sown. Though it perishes early in ihe summer, 

 it yet leaves a great cover of dry ve<ielable matter 

 on the eanh, which defies evaporation, until the 

 plough can turn it in. And its dead coat is fre- 

 quently pierced b}' other grasses, and sometimes 

 by luxuriant growths of weeds, belbre unknown 

 to ihe soil, vvhich seem to come forward as wit- 

 nesses to the fact of its li^riilizing the land. This 

 grass is an enemy to wheat on account of its early 

 and rapid growth, and of course ought only to be 

 used to lerlilize land in vvhich wheat ought not lo 

 be sown. And as wheat cannot be beneficially 

 sown in land, unable to produce red clover, ilio 

 bird loot clover seems designed to take up the care 

 of the soil, at the point of impoverishment, wliere 

 the red lays it down. As red clover is the bcbt 

 associate of wheat, (or the purpose of saving and 

 improving a good soil, bird loot is the best asso- 

 ciate of Indian corn, for rendering the same ser- 

 vices to a bad one. 



Indiviiiuals of the vegetable world are quoted, 

 not lo insinuate ihat their powers (or the object 

 proposed are extremely peculiar, but to illustrate 

 my hypothesis. The entire vegetable creation 

 must contribute towards sustaining this hypothesis, 

 or ii must full. If it is supported by this spacious 



