160 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 3 



ried off, the trees grubbed up root and branch, again 

 replanted, and so on, the soil would eventually be- 

 come as barren as any cotton or tobacco planta- 

 tion in the southern states, and that is poverty 

 with a vengeance. Tiie cause of this is obvious ; 

 but not to the planters. They say it is the tariff. 

 Oh ! lor the school-master ! The lact is, when 

 wood-land is cleared in this country, the crops are 

 olten very moderate until the progress of decay has 

 brought the roots into action. I will illustrate this 

 farther. The general system ol liirming in this 

 state is, Indian corn, often very ibid — oats, (a 

 wretched crop in this hot climate,) or barley — then 

 a very moderate dressing of manure, and a boun- 

 tiful crop of weeds are ploughed in, producing a 

 very lair crop of wheat, much better than the skill 

 of the farmer deserves. The crops obtained are 

 not at all warranted by the quantity of manure ap- 

 plied. Clover and timothy lor two or more years, 

 and often as long as it will mow and pasture, then 

 Indian corn again, and so on. The old sod is usu- 

 ally ploughed in the sprin^j, then corn planted in 

 May. For some time it exhibits a very sickly 

 yellow and poverty-struck appearance, until the 

 green roots and weeds begin to decay; it then 

 grows with great luxuriance and beauty. If after 

 wheat, the land is ploughed before the weeds can 

 grow, and sown with buckwheat in July, which 

 is a very clean crop, the succeeding crop olTndian 

 corn is very poor. Further, Cruikshank says, 

 "Trees draw their nourishment from a much great- 

 er depth than any of the grasses, roots, or differ- 

 ent kinds of grain." I doubt this very much as 

 taking place to any extent. 



He would inler that trees fertilize the soil, not 

 by adding any thing to it, (except leaves, &c.) but 

 by not taking any thing from it. The great bulk, 

 •nearly the whole of all the trees' roots, I have seen 

 many, are within two feet of the surface. It is their 

 decay which enriches the soil. They exhaust and 

 then enrich. I lay no claim to the original disco- 

 very ol^this principle : it has been loosely hinted at 

 and described by various writers ; but I think I 

 may venture to say, that I am the first farmer who 

 has employed it in his rotation of crops ; and I 

 will venture to say, that at no distant day it will 

 entirely change the present results in the best sys- 

 tem of agriculture, especially in hot climates. 1 

 have had, and have several pupils, young men of 

 talent and capital, well convinced ol the truth of 

 what they have learned, and competent to prac- 

 tise it. As with all improvers, a due proportion 

 of sneers, scorn, derision, and ill-will has fallen to 

 my share; and, as usual, those who know, observe, 

 and ask the least, talk the wisest and most learn- 

 edly. To the want of vegetable food, I entirely 

 attribute the frequent failure of grass, clover, tur- 

 nips, saintfoin, &c., in England, and under the 

 improved system of farming ; and the cleaner the 

 land is kept, I suspect the more they fiiil. To 

 say the land is tired, proves something is wrong, 

 but explains nothing. I am quite satisfied that 

 the crops under the old wretched system of farm- 

 ing, were much better than under the new, in pro- 

 portion to the manures, skill, management, &c., 

 applied in both instances. Weeds, misplaced ex- 

 cept in summer fallows, were the old farmer's sal- 

 vation ; but he did not know it. Weeds do not 

 rob the soil ; they either enable the farmer to do 

 so, or pre-"ent him. as the case n:ay be ; they keep 

 up the fertility of it; they rob the crops, but not 



the soil. I see it often mentioned in your maga- 

 zine as a great advantage to leave Iruit borders 

 uncropped; this is not nature's way of proeedmg; 

 and those who do not follow her laws make sad 

 work of it, sooner or later. I should greatly pre- 

 fer sowing them with clover, grass seeds, turnips, 

 lupines, borage marigolds, or even weeds, yes, 

 weeds, the vile things, &c. &c., manure and top 

 dress them, and dig them in half, full grown, and 

 ripe. I do so in my garden with great success. I 

 shall not now say much of my own farm, as any 

 detailed account would be unintelligible and un- 

 satisfactory, for many reasons, and not altogether 

 belonging to your journal. My present purpose 

 is to direct the attention of horticulturists to vege- 

 table manures. Nine years ago, my farm was 

 almost a caput mortuum, owing to unusually bad 

 management long continued. One of my neigh- 

 bors, a farmer by intuition, a Minerva-born, learn- 

 ed at all points, said lately to one of my pupils,^ 

 " It will be so again in five years." Query— if 

 this system has put my farm on the road to match- 

 less Itirtility from utter exhaustion in a fevy years, 

 by what scorpion process is it to destroy it in five 

 morel Have you any Minervas in England now"? 

 They are far more plentiful here than rattlesnakes, 

 and far more mischievous: the latter bite only 

 when injured. 1 have reached 70 bushels of In- 

 dian corn per acre ; next year 1 fully expect 100 

 or more. Indian corn rather exceeds beans in 

 England, the land being equal. I raise finercropa 

 of Swedish turnips here than I ever saw in Eng- 

 land or Scotland, or grew myself in England. 

 They have never once failed in the nine years. 

 I sow them alter wheat and barley, the same sea- 

 son. My farm is 100 acres ; about 75 under the 

 plough : the rest in grass. My rotation is 8 years, 

 growing in that time eighteen to twenty crops, (in 

 the southern states much more might be done,) 

 above one-half harvested, and the remainder 

 ploughed in ; all the rest is in strict accordance 

 with English and Scotch principles. I have now_ 

 growing the fourth crop this season on some of 

 my fields. It matters not what crops we grow; it 

 is the use we put them to that does good or evil. 

 I shall make this season yard-manure sufficient 

 for 45 or 50 acres. I could manure my whole farm 

 annually by eating all my Indian corn, (18 acres,) 

 and not selling any straw, (next year I begin 

 to sell it,) with 18 acres of turnips and other crops. 

 This could hardly be done in any country in which 

 Indian corn will notgrow, with turnips as asecond 

 crop. This system leads me to the belief that all 

 crops are exhausters and improvers, (independent- 

 ly of their subsequent application,) just in propor- 

 tion to what they take out of the soil, (if one crop 

 really takes more than another,) and what bulk 

 ana quality of roots they leave behind. This I_ 

 take to be the true solution of the old doctrine of 

 rest, which signifies an accumulation of vegetable 

 matter in the soil, which, when man destroys, bar- 

 renness is the result. Clover is considered one of 

 the best improvers, and so it is ; yet it is one of the 

 greatest exhausters, until its roots are decayed, as 

 are all grasses and green crops. I have top-dress- 

 ed clover in the spring with yard-manure; mowed 

 the first crop; ploughed in the second; sowed tur- 

 nips, which were very poor ; the succeeding crops, 

 rye and corn, were excellent. I plant Indian corn 

 ibr green fodder, af.vr harvest, in June and July, 

 on wheat and rye ylubbles, and after a second crop 



