CALCAREOUS MANURES-PRACTICE. 9} 



when its cultivation was formerly abandoned. The soil, (that is, the depth 

 which has since been turned by the plough,) a whitish loamy sand, on a 

 subsoil of the same ; in fact, all luas subsoil before the ploughing, except 

 half an inch or three quarters, on the top, which was principally composed 

 of rotted pine leaves. Above this thin layer were the later dropped and 

 unrotted leaves, lying loosely several inches thick. 



The pines showed no symptoms of being killed, until the autumn of 1827, 

 when their leaves began to have a tinge of yellow. To suit the cultivation 

 with the surrounding land, this piece was laid down in wheat for its first 

 crop, in October, 1 827. For this purpose, the few logs, the boughs, and 

 grubbed bushes were heaped, but not burnt — the seed then sowed on the coat 

 of pine leaves, and ploughed in by two-horse ploughs, in as slovenly a 

 manner as may be supposed from the condition of the land ; and a wooden- 

 tooth harrow then passed over, to pull down the heaps of leaves, and 

 roughest furrows. 



Results. The wheat was thin, but otherwise looked well while young. 

 The surface was very soon again covered by the leaves dropping from the then 

 dying trees. On April 2d, 1828, most of the trees were nearly dead, though 

 but few of them entirely. The wheat was then taller than any in my crop 

 — and when ripe, was a surprising growth for such land, and such imper- 

 fect tillage. 



1829 and 1830. At rest. Late in the spring of 1830 an accidental fire 

 passed over the land — but the then growing vegetation prevented all of the 

 older cover being burnt, though some was destroyed every where. 



1831. In corn. The growth excited the admiration of all who saw it, 

 and no one estimated the product so low as it actually proved to be. A 

 square of four (two-pole) chains, or four-tenths of an acre, measured on 

 November 25th, yielded at the rate of thirty-one and three-eighths bushels 

 of grain to the acre. 



Experiment 1 7. 



In a field of acid sandy loam, long under the usual cultivation, a piece 

 of five or six acres was covered by a second growth of pines thirty-nine 

 years old, as supposed from that number of rings being counted on some of 

 the stumps. The largest trees were eighteen or twenty inches through. 

 This ground was altogether on the side of a slope, steep enough to lose soil 

 by washing, and more than one old shallow gully remained to confirm the 

 belief of the 'injury that had been formerly sustained from that cause. 

 These circumstances, added to all the surrounding land having been conti- 

 nued under cultivation, made it evident that this piece had been turned out 

 of cultivation because greatly injured by tillage. It was again cut down in 

 the winter of 1824-5. Many of the trees furnished fence-rails and fuel, and 

 the remaining bodies were heaped and burnt some months after, as well as 

 the large brush. In August it was marled, supposed at 600 bushels, (37 per 

 cent.,) twice coultered in August and September, and sowed in wheat— the 

 seed covered by trowel ploughs. The leaves and much of the smaller 

 brush left on the ground, made the ploughing troublesome and imperfect. 

 The crop (1826) was remarkably good— and still better were the crops of 

 corn and wheat in the ensuing rotation, after two years of rest. On the 

 last crop of wheat (1830) clover was sown— and mowed for hay in 1831. 

 The growth stood about eighteen inches high, and never have I seen so 

 heavy a crop on sandy and acid soil, even from the heaviest dunging, the 

 utmost care, and the most favorable season. The clover grew well in the 

 bottoms of the old gullies, which were still plainly to be seen, and which no 



