FARMERS' REGISTER 



747 



nure, wit houl which a rotation ofcrops will be deiu- 

 Bive, and pernicious cflects would follow, as (iir sur- 

 papsin<r in usefulness those oCnicre rotation theorj', 

 as ihe Atlaniicoccan surpasses in extent the lake of 

 Geneva. JMany of these funds of manure, ready 

 to pay the drafts of industrj', have been heretofore 

 noticed ; more perhaps are overlooked. They 

 are scattered every where around us; and Pro- 

 vidence has blest our shallow soil witli a capacity 

 of suddenly throwing up thickets, consiiiuting a 

 bountiful provision for manuring and curing galls 

 and gullies. I have tried this vegetable manure 

 by strewing the whole surlace, by packing it green 

 in large furrows and covering it with the plough, 

 b}^ packing it in such furrows in the same state, 

 and leaving it to be covered with the plough three 

 years afterwards, and by covering it as soon as 

 the leaves were perfectly dry, sowing it previous- 

 ly with plaster. Each experiment of which the 

 result is determined, id highly gratifying. The 

 Jast on nearly a caput mortuum of a galled and 

 gravelly hill side, exliibits good corn planted over 

 the bushes, as soon as they were covered. It is 

 in vain to begin at tlie wrong end to improve our 

 system of agriculture. Fertility of soil alone can 

 give success to ingenious theories. These ap- 

 plied to barrenness at best resemble only the 

 beautiful calculations of a speculator, who demon- 

 strates a mode of making fifty thousand dollars 

 from a capital of a hundred thousand, to a man 

 worth only a hundred cents. The capital must 

 precede the profit. 



Manuring only can recover this capital, so 

 much of wliich is already wasted by bad husban- 

 dry. It is the great object lo be impressed, and 

 all its modes sliould be tried. When that has 

 provided a I'und lor experiment, and an excitement 

 to ingenuity, by presenting to industry and genius 

 a fertile area, the time will have arrived for ex- 

 ploring the more recondite principles of agricul- 

 ture, and descending lo the diminutives of im- 

 provement. 



The eli'ect of manuring and inclosing united, in 

 stopping gullies and cuiing galls, is a hundred 

 Ibid greater, than the most ingenious mechanical 

 contrivance. Land filled with roots, covered with 

 litter, aided by buried bushes forming covered 

 drains, protected against the wounds of swine and 

 hools, and replenished sex-ennially with the coarse 

 manure of the farm and stable yards, will not 

 wash. Under such management, the bottoms of 

 the gullies will throw up a growth capable of ar- 

 resting whatever matters the waters shall convey 

 from the higher lands, soon become the richest 

 parts of the field, and thenceforth gradually fill up. 

 I have long cultivated considerable gullies created 

 by the three shifts, grazing and uniTianuring sys- 

 tem, and cured in this mode, which produce the 

 best crops, are secured against washing by their 

 great fertilitj', and are gradually disappearing by 

 deepening their soil. 



A succession of' crops is utterly incompetent to 

 Ihe ends so necessary to our lands, as it will not 

 produce their renovation ; and the portion of truth 

 tlie theory possesses, if it has any, is so inconsi- 

 derable, that it will produce the most ruinous 

 errors, if it leads us to believe, that our efibrts to 

 manure them may be safely diminished or super- 

 seded, by any rotation ofcrops, however skilful. 



LIVE FENCES. 



This subject, so extremely material lo a country 

 requiring to be raised from the dead, by vast and 

 repealed doses of Ihe only genuine terrene elixir, 

 certifies in every quarter of ihe United Stales, to 

 the scantiness of our agricultural knowledge ; and 

 is one of the presages, ihat it is doomed to live 

 and die an inlfuil. If it is an idiot, its case is 

 hopeless ; but if it is only a dunce, it must in lime 

 discern the vast saving of labor to be applied to 

 draining and manuring, the vast saving of wood 

 and timber lor fijcl and building, and the vast 

 accession to arable, by rendering less woodland 

 necessary, as acquisitions arising from live fences. 



In the "JNlemoirs of the Agricultural Society of 

 Philadelphia," several modes of raising live hed'ges 

 suitable for ditfcrent soils and climates, are stated 

 and explained. Two volumes of these memoirs 

 have been published, containing more valuable 

 information upon the subject of agriculture, than 

 any native book I have seen ; and if we have no 

 relish for the wit, learning and experience, with 

 which they abound, but little good can be expect- 

 ed from these ephemeral essays. To say much 

 upon a subject, copiously handled in a book which 

 every farmer ought to have, would insinuate the 

 existence of a general apaihy towards the eminent 

 talents which have presided over, and greatly con- 

 tributed lo ils composition ; to say nothing, would 

 be a neglect of a subject of the utmost impor- 

 tance. 



Several plants are mentioned in these memoira 

 as proper for making live fiances, but I shall con- 

 fine my observations to one, because my know- 

 edge experimentally, does not exlend to the 

 others. The cedar is peculiarly fitted for the pur- 

 pose, throughout the whole district of the United 

 States. If throws out' bows near the ground, 

 pliant and capable of being woven into any 

 form. They gradually however become stiff. 

 Clipping will make cedar hedges extremely thick. 

 No animal will injure them by browsing. Ma- 

 nured and cultivated, they come rapidly to perfec- 

 tion. The plants are frequently to be found in 

 great abundance without the trouble of raising 

 them. As an evergreen they are preferable to 

 deciduous plants ; and they live better than any 

 young trees I have ever tried, planted as follows: 



From December to the middle of March, the 

 smallest plants are to be taken up in a sod of a 

 square conformable to the size of the spade used, 

 as deep as po-sible, which sod is to be deposited 

 unbroken in a hole as deep, made by a similar 

 spade ; the earth coming out of it being used to 

 fill up the crevices between the sod and the hole 

 for its reception. I plant these cedars on the out 

 and inside of a straight fence, on the ridge of a 

 ditch, the plants in each row being two feet apart 

 both in the direction of and across this ridge ; but 

 so that the plants on one side of the fence will be 

 opposite to the centre of the vacancies between 

 those on the other. Each row will be one foot 

 from the fence, so that the top of the ridge will be 

 about eight inches higher than the position of the 

 plants. They should be topped at a foot high, and 

 not suffered to gain above three or four inches 

 yearly in height, such boughs excepted as can be 

 worked into the fence at the ground. Of those 

 great use may be made towards thickening the 

 hedge, by bending them to the ground, and cover- 



