182 WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



trate the clover, the better to cover it. After my work was 

 about half accomplished, my bush got out of order and I dis- 

 pensed with it, as I found it covered almost entirely with the 

 exception of little more than the heads. I found before sowing 

 my rye the first of September, that those heads were fully ripe 

 and well filled with seed. The thought occurred to me that 

 this might prove a means of re-seeding my land, as I designed 

 to do, which was fully realized in the result, for although I 

 seeded the part where I used the bush, freely, using six pounds 

 to the acre, while on the other, I scarcely used two pounds, 

 the latter has come in the best. I sowed my clover in March, 

 on the top of the snow, and the clover now looks finely, since 

 taking off" the crop of rye. I had twenty-five bushels to the 

 acre, of excellent rye. 



The buckwheat is a desirable crop, notwithstanding its 

 impoverishing tendency, or if it does not impoverish, it unfits 

 soil for any other crops, always costing much to restore it for 

 them. It is desirable for many reasons. Because it requires 

 no attention whatever, in any of the busy seasons. It is a 

 valuable grain for the table, for poultry, swine or cattle. It re- 

 quires a less per centage for seed than most grains ; it does not 

 require half the labor to harvest and thresh it that other grains 

 do, and it does not require so strong soil as other grains. And 

 I think I have found a complete remedy to the objection first 

 stated, which is, to appropriate a field exclusively for that pur- 

 pose. I have found by spreading six loads per acre of good 

 rich compost, that there will be no diminution of crop from 

 year to year, and in fact an increase, and the straw, (if rather 

 green when threshed) salted a little, will be taken readily by 

 cattle in winter. 



In the beginning, the eff'ect of draining dry, was unfavorable 

 to my interval, but afterwards, when connected with irrigation, 

 or flooding, from the close of haying to the following June, the 

 effect was most surprisingly beneficial ; the method was, wher- 

 ever I had a ditch intersecting the main ditch, to construct a 

 check or dam across the main ditch, immediately below where 

 the cross ditch entered, in such a manner that the water would 

 escape fast enough at the bottom, to draw all off in a day or 

 two day's time ; the operation of which was, that after being 



