238 



amount of food from the air. Clover likewise, and the finer 

 grasses, after being cut, soon start again ; and, if not closely de- 

 pastured, leave a large amount of vegetable matter on the sur- 

 face, which decays in the winter and goes to enrich the soil. — 

 In this respect, herdsgrass is very inferior to the clovers and the 

 finer grasses. Clover however is not a perennial grass. Its pe- 

 riod is little more than two years ; and it is an established fact 

 that, if too long repeated on the same land without intermission, 

 it will cease to flourish. 



The turning in of clover has always been found materially to 

 benefit the land; and so likewise the turning under of any 

 grasses, or greensward which abounds in vegetable matter, (a 

 large proportion of which beyond all question has been drawn 

 from the atmosphere,) must essentially contribute to enrich the 

 soil. It has been supposed by some persons that in this way 

 the fertility of the soil may be continually kept up without arti- 

 ficial manuring. The soil will become exhausted of its alkaline 

 ingredients, which must be supplied ; and the effect of ashes 

 applied broadcast upon greensward, as well as when it is sown, 

 as it is by many persons at the rate of thirty or forty bushels to 

 the acre with their grass seed, is often very remarkable. Some 

 persons, accordingly, when their manure has been insufficient for 

 planting a crop, have simply turned over the sward, and, culti'- 

 vating it thoroughly with a harrow and roller, have immediate- 

 ly sowed it with grass seed. This I have seen done in Essex 

 and Middlesex counties with decided advantage. In the latter 

 county it was, in one instance, in the case of a low piece of 

 land covered with coarse and worthless grasses, which through 

 this process were succeeded by a fair crop of English grass. — 

 It is not however to be expected that the condition of land can 

 be permanently kept up in this way ; and yet the case of the 

 farmer referred to in Franklin county, who applied no barn or 

 compost manure to his corn land, but simply ploughed in his 

 stubble and clover and applied leached ashes and gypsum in the 

 hill,* obtaining ordinarily seventy bushels of corn to the acre, 



* See pp. 21, 27. 



