THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



358 



lar relirementatiheir quiet retreat. But another 

 lemp'ercame iu an.l lu.ed ih-ni Irom ii. l! Iheii 

 J am "Le Noir F..mea.ii,'' who is the editor! 



Now ilie eJaor is very slow in coming lo this 

 coniesi, but, as eoon as he finds tHat he has a 

 gallant as.oc,a.e .n arms, who w.ll lead on the 

 SltacU, he comes to it very boldly. D.sdamuit,^ 

 all aid from the Frenchmen and all oilier &cient,hc 

 auihoriiy, in the couhdence of his success, he 

 boldly re.ts his whole argument on two pomis. 

 '^ Ml Turner is an intelligent, observant, practi- 

 cal and successiui larmer." Mr. Tun.er is m 

 favor oC rotations, and I cue htm as my witness 

 ,0 prove it. Nature also alternates l^ei' cro||s. 

 Therelore roialions ore necessary-^. 1^. -L'. 

 But not 60 las., Mr. E.Utor, let u. look into ihts 



ihm" a little. , ^ 



lus true that 1 do practise a change of crops, 

 not Irom choice, but irom necessi-y ; and in a 

 n?eceding part oV thi. paper, 1 have stated the 

 Ixllnl and ihe reasons why 1 do so ; and he 

 ed t r may make the most o.' i.. Bat the editor, 

 us n- me as his witness, says, that " Mr. 1 ur.ier s 

 statement of his own herds-grass giving way, 

 alter a lew years, to green-sward or weeds, s 

 not only a prooC of this position, but ol nature s 

 urgent demand lor a change ol crops." Ihus 

 he°bnn-sboih his arguments to bear upon the 

 mam p°o,nt at the same time; and .his at once 

 opens the whole field ol controversy. 



Batbelore I enter upon the sutjecl in hand, 

 il u necessary lo p.emse a few th.ng.. 1 state 

 then in the mo-ldi»iincl maimer, that I make 

 no pretensions whatever to any thing like a cr^<^- 

 L acquaintance with vegetable physiology 

 VVith the exception of a lew short detached 

 nieces I have read nothing on tins subject. But 

 have eyes, somewlmt d,mmed by age it is true, 

 and I have ,hou^h:s, and 1 have tried to usethem 

 a so A book has been constantly belore me 

 f'fhe open volume of nature,"' the pages ol which 

 1 have made it n^y habit to consult more or less 

 ev ryda . Froiu .h.s book then 1 h we learned 

 .ome slrlnge things, which 1 propose now to 



'^"Amoncr other things I have learned that nature 

 and an, \n all their designs and in all their opera- 

 Uons! are a. completely and as thoroughly op- 

 nosed to eaeh other, as any two things can pos- 

 «Tb V be. By the term art, I here mean all the 

 operations of man in which cropping is concerned. 

 Considered in this re.peC, light and darkness are 

 noimore really and truly at variance than nature 

 and art They are not only opposed in their very 

 beinR but also in the whole course of iheir opera- 

 tions Whatever, therelore, the one endeavors 

 to do, ihe o her endeavors to undo. H man digs 

 a ditch nature in.mi diately begins to fill it up. 

 If man erects an enclosure around his field, nature 

 at once begins to pull it down ; and .1 man builds 

 a house to dwell in, nature directly begins the 

 work o( dilapidation upon it. . 



Nature and man are aUo directly at variance 

 in recrard to their wants. The wants ol man are 

 as numerous as the "stars ol heaven or the sands 

 on the seashore." Nature, on the other hand, 

 has but one want, and that is rich lertile lands. 

 This object she constantly pursues with the most 

 untiring and patient perseverance. If a weed 

 sorines up, and nature is not counteracted in her 

 course, «he uses it to enrich the spot on which it 



arew. If a Ze«/ Tails to the ground, nature makes 

 use of it to nourish the tree that produced it, 

 or if a limb or even a twig is broken oH, nature, 

 with ihe most admirable economy, changes it into 

 nutriment, to be employed in the ^^^'^ ^^J^' 

 Thus nature with her trees, her shrubs her 

 weeds, her grasses, and in laci wiih every ihng 

 else when she has under her exclusive con o^ 

 ,s constantly, is steadily employed in enriching 

 her lands B.U what is the case in regard to art i 

 !t is wed ki.own that the whole poluy ol cultiva- 

 tion is noi to enrich, but to impoverish the land. 

 Instead, therefore, of giving our '^r if aal crops 

 to the land, as nature does the whole ol her 

 natural crops, man takes them all o^- ^nd in 

 stead of enriching our lands as nature does, raaa 

 constantly impoverishes them. 



1 observe lunher, that the crops which nature 

 and art cultivate are just as distinct as the objects 

 ae for which they are cultivated. Nature has 

 her c'ops, and man has his also ; and they are as 

 J'.irt'as the objects are to which they are to 

 be annlied. N aiure rears her mosses, her licf^ens, 

 her hrubs, her grasses, called natural or indige- 

 nous but he crop in which she seems to take 

 espec.al delight, is' her own lorest tree. Man on 

 ,he other hand, cultivates his corn, hs wheat 

 ihose grasses which are called artificial, and the 

 ruit tree. Nature never cultivates the arlificial 

 brasses, because weeds and natural grasses answer 

 her pu pose beiter. li, therelore, the a lificial 

 brasses are made to grow, it is only at the ex- 

 Se of labor and trouble, and nature is trying 

 aS the t nie to destroy them. The whole system^ 

 cul vanon, therelore, is a counteraction ot 

 nature, and it is a counteraction which she con- 



•TroK^viththiswe see, that when w^ 

 (ell the lorest, nature immediately makes a strong 

 f oruo restore it. Sprouts spring up and young 

 ?rees make their appearance, so that tl we fail 

 remove them, nalure will soon erect a lorest 

 n ttie same place again. In the same manner, 

 win >^"t^ pb nts any of his crops, nature abhors 

 rhem ad does everv thing in her power to de- 

 trov'them Her gr^at object is to put fter oicn 

 siroy inem. i±ci o ^ ,•> ■ ■ ,i,„. „ ivar 



crops in the same place. Hence il '^ iha a war 

 \l , on.tantlv waging between them, and this war 

 'of^he Lst'deadly character,, ---ting to 

 noth.ncr short of actual extermina ion. Man 

 ries to destroy nature's crop, and nature t les to 

 d s roy man's crop. The whole object ot plough- 

 rnfwee line. &c., is merely to destroy nature's 

 r^p, and na-ure.'wi-h her weeds and grass 

 tries to destroy man's crop. Now, the editor 

 <new all these strange things very well when he 

 i" .practical larmer. ^^[^'^^'^^'^.^^^H'} 

 :" ido. tife plough, and taken the Pe.. m • s ^tead, 

 he has perhaps iorgotien them. 1 therelore take 

 he libe'rty ol' bringing them to h- remembrance^ 

 With these remarks, not «"'^/' ^,^'f ' * ^^^ 

 hold to say, can be controverted, I leel, as the 

 wines c-e'd in the case, no d'^-'-y '" ^^^ 

 Zhy " Mr. Turner's herds-grass gives place after 

 a lew years to ereen-sward, or to weeds. It is 

 not because the land i. tired oi ihe herds-grass 

 and requires a rotation; but it >« ^'y ^J^^ 

 irulv because herds-grass is an attifieial grass, 

 ts^ one of man's crops. Nature 'herefore ab- 

 hors it, and does every thing '" her powj > ^o^^ 

 the very beginning, to destroy it. If herds-grass 



