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and that of another farmer who year after year sowed rye upon 

 the same piece of land, always sowing freely clover with the 

 grain, to be turned under with the rye-stubble, and by this hus- 

 bandry found his land continually growing better, — are exam- 

 ples which show that a good deal may be done in this way 

 where there is a deficiency of barn manure. How well such 

 an experiment would succeed, if long persisted in, actual trial 

 only can determine. Without a question, where land has be- 

 come, as it is termed, bound out, the sward matted, and the herb- 

 age fine, small and stinted, much would be gained by simply 

 turning it over, keeping the sward unbroken, harrowing it and 

 freely sowing grass seed upon it, especially with the application 

 of ashes or plaster, or some other alkaline substance. But it is 

 alike settled that, in order to the greatest yield, an occasional 

 manuring, and the cultivation of the soil so as to break up its 

 tenacity and expose it freely to the mfluences of sun and air, 

 are indispensable. The coarse grasses will soon come in again 

 if the land is not cultivated and manured. The j)roduce of the 

 farm cannot be continually carried off without some means are 

 taken to replenish the soil for the substances thus abstracted, 

 and for the supply of that vegetable matter which, in a course 

 of nature, the decay of these products would furnish. In a 

 forest the soil is not injured by the growth of the wood but rath- 

 er is enriched ; that is, the vegetable matter, or humus, is in- 

 creased, because the annual decaying matter from these trees, 

 their leaves and rotten limbs, is continually accumulating on the 

 ground, passing into a state of decomposition, and increasing 

 the vegetable mould. 



One of the best farmers in New England, resident in this 

 county, is in the habit of turning up his greensward when he 

 deems the crop of grass less than it should be — rolling it, man- 

 uring it thoroughly, harrowing it well, and then immediately 

 laying it down to grass, without taking any other crop. Doing 

 this in April, he gets a good crop of grass the same season, av- 

 eraging at the rate of two tons to the acre. The same practice, 

 as I saw in repeated instances, was pursued by Ichabod Nichols, 



