THE FARMERS' KEUISTEK 



439 



It is not contended that all fields can with equal 

 ease be turned so flat as to be fit (or sowing with- 

 out tilling. We speak of the thousands and 

 thousands of acres, lying within foriy miles ofthe 

 capital, which may be so turned and sown. A 

 good plough will turn any tolerably easy land flat 

 enough to he sowed down ; and it may be laid 

 more even at this season than in the sjiring when 

 the land is lull of hard lumps. 



But in this system we are not confined to ihe 

 common tillage lands ol' the (arm. We ploinTh 

 all our low jrroimds that will hear a team. We 

 plough ihe strips lying between meadow and up- 

 land. We plough glades o( land that have borne 

 noihing but brakes and rushes, and low blue- 

 berry bushes. We plough land^ that are not 

 suitable for planting, on account ofthe springs 

 that gush up in the early part of the year ; and 

 welay tl)ese lands as even asa carroi bed. Lands 

 that we could not meddie with in May, we can 

 manage with perfect ease in Auo-iist. 



By turnins the sod under and keeping it there, 

 we render ihe soil more liirhf, and it holds in grass 

 two years lonijer than it will when it has 7ipen 

 thoroughly roiled ; and ihere can be no question 

 but that the green crop of grass, &o., that we 

 turn under will be very suitable manure for the 

 grass that is to follow. Grass must be as good 

 manure for grass as rye straw for a new crop of 

 rve, or as corn stalks for a new growth of corn. 

 But a light top dressing is required in all cases, 

 to insure a good growth for the scythe next sea- 

 son, and to guardagainst the frost of tiie comino' 

 winter. ^ 



As a general rule, the best time for sowing 

 grass seed is about the last week in August. f( 

 sown earlier than this, we are in more d"anser of i 

 summer killing— if laier, we run more risk~from 

 vyinter frosts. It frequently answers well to sow 

 rich land in the mon'h of September, and we 

 have known very good swaihs to be cut in the 

 summer, when the seed was sown the preceding 

 October; but we cannot recommend this late 

 sowing as a safe practice. 



If grass is not an exhauster of the soil— and 

 we cannot perceive that it is— how rich any tole- 

 rable farm may be made, when the principal pro- 

 duct is grass ! How light, also the labor of ma- 

 nuring a grass farm, compared with one that has 

 numerous acres in tillage! Lastly, and above 

 all, compare the profits of erass with the profits 

 of corn, or of any kind of crrain, in the district ex- 

 tending forty miles each way from the capital, 

 and you will see the propriety of so filling our 

 own markets with hay as to put a veto on aTl im- 

 porlations ofthe article froi7i other slates. We 

 would rather buy grain than hay. 



MAGKESIAN LIME. 



Extract from the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 He says, many farmers in Delaware are very 

 particular with respect to the purity of Ihe lime 

 they use : " One of them informed me, that some 

 01 the hchuylkill lime is so impregnated with 

 magnesia, that it is not worth buying ; and other 

 kinds so pure, that you cannot buy too much of 

 n. I hen follows the stereotyped authority of 

 lenant and others, " that magnesian lime is ex- 



ceedingly injurious to land." Now, if this know- 

 ledge or o(>inion of ihere farmers is the result of 

 a rigorous chemical analysis, conduced by them- 

 selves— foi- it does not appear that any body else 

 ex:imined it— I must congratulate them on their 

 advancement in chemical knowledgp; such at- 

 tainments were certainly very rare^arnong such 

 (armers as I mixed with someyears ago ; b7jt that 

 was in the benighted county o!" ChesTer,' where it 

 seems that the (armers long cherished an invete- 

 rate prejudice against all book-learning. Bit if 

 they are mere opinions, lormed without any 

 knowledge of the true composition of the article 

 they were using, what reliance can be placed on 

 ihem as a (bundalion for, or proofs in support of 

 a very imporlant theory ? It is against attempts 

 to base p. theory on mere opinions, assumed as 

 fac,ts, and from such a theory deducin? very im- 

 |)oriant practical consequences, that T have all 

 along been contending; if in doing this I have 

 used strong language, if was not for the purpose 

 of irniaiing any one, but to arouse attention, and 

 direct inquiry to the suhjpct, and bring theory to 

 Ihe test of ficls'and practice, closel^^and vigo- 

 rously investigated. We have had namby-pamby 

 essays enough on the subject, leaning on the 

 authority of great names, and meaning any ihino- 

 or nothing, jus' as you please. JVlv design was 

 10 state explicitly for what I was contending, that 

 my views need not be misunderstood, and'if er- 

 roneous they might be shown to be so; but in 

 this I may have (ailed. I havp slated it as a (acr, 

 ihat imt ense benefit has been derived from the 

 use o( lime in agriculture, in south-eastern Penn- 

 jsylvania, and parts adjacent, and that the whole 

 I improvement in agriculture, so far ae lime is con- 

 |cerned, is due to magnesian lime and to none other, 

 I also stated it is a probable conjeclure, though 

 not an ascertained (act, that magnesian lime w'as 

 better, oral least more economical (or some pur- 

 poses of the farmer, than pure lime. 



T he first of these propositions your correspon- 

 dents admit, with a salvo, however, that the im- 

 provements might have been greater, ifpure in- 

 stead of magnesian lime had been used. Upon 

 the second point then, the whole controversy 

 turns : Is, or is not the great body of llie limestone 

 of south-eastern Pennsylvania of Ihe magnesian 

 variety? All the authorities within my reach, 

 go 10 prove the affirmative of this proposition. 

 Judge Cooper, many years ago analyzed several 

 specimens (rom the great valley of' Chester and 

 Montgomery counties, collected between Coates- 

 ville and the Schuylkill ; all or nearly all of which 

 proved, if my memory serves me," highly mag- 

 nesian. Several years afterwards, the late Dr. 

 Joseph Coates of Downingtown, analyzed seve- 

 ral specimens from that neighborhood, which all 

 proved of the same character. The analyses of 

 lour specimens from the same district of country, 

 contained in page 309 of vol. 4 of the Cabinet, 

 show them all to contain magnesia; three of 

 them, however, in but small pro()oriion5 ; those, 

 however, it may be remarked, are from quarries 

 which have not been largely used for agricultural 

 purposes ; while the other, containing 41 per cent. 

 ol magnesia, is from a quarry whence immense 

 quantities have been taken for those purposes. 

 Professor H. D. Rogers, the state geologist, in 

 a letter which I received from him some time 

 ago, states explicitly, that "a very large excess 



