1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



663 



young corn I'rotn iln' cut-worm, on lands not frr■,^7.p^\ 

 or mowed, nnd esperially alter clover, and ih^ ve- 

 trp.lable matter not ploughed under until lale in 

 winter, 'i'he, eggs of the parent stock of" inecct!?, 

 which had lived upon the clover, are not in such 

 cases killed hy being early exposed to cold, or by 

 being deep'ly buried in ploutrhinir, arjd the worms 

 hatch just in lime lo be fed upon ihe young corn ; 

 and if their change to the chrysalis stale did not 

 stop their eating, a crop of corn con'. I not possiblj- 

 be made to stand under this very common inflic- 

 tion. As it is, the corn is eaien, and replanted, 

 over and over again, nnlil the worms no longer 

 eat, and the later planis are suHered to grow. 



Now, if insiead ofkeejjing the clover as a seed- 

 bed lor cut-worms, it had been iiloughed under in 

 August, and thus a change suddenly made from 

 a heavy cover of grass, to a nakid surliice, oH'fr- 

 ing neiiher food nor shelter — the greater part oC 

 Ihe insects must have perished — atnl perha[)s even 

 field rats and mice n)iiiht have been thinned, or 

 driven off. In particular, ihe mother fly oT the 

 desiriictive cut- worm, would Itave (bund there no 

 suitable place to deiiosile her egtrs — or if earlier 

 deposiied, their new and unnatural position would 

 probably have destroyed ihcm. 



This is [iresenied as an illustration nf one oflhe 

 great benefits which may be secured, and which 

 is ifenerally lost lo improvers by "inclosing." As 

 to ihe pr'priet}' of"f'ollowiiigclover by wheal rather 

 than corn, as a general feature ol'the rolalion, that 

 must defjend upon olher and more important con- 

 suleralioiis. 



For Ihe purpose of destroying noxious planis 

 and insects, the more llequenlly during a roia.lion 

 Ihe veiielable cover can be changed, or destroyed 

 by plouuhing under, and then renewed in some 

 other kind, the more will ihat purpose be furthered. 

 With each successive coal, if" eflectually turned in 

 and covered by the plough, and the seams closed 

 by the harrow, there must perish all the unwinged 

 insecis which preyed on that crop; and if any 

 should linger and remain alive so long, they will 

 not he likely to thrive on the next crop, of a totally 

 difierent kind. 



If then ihe main objects were to clear the land 

 of insects and keep down weeds and vegetable 

 plagues, I think these ends would be best met by 

 ploughing well ihe corn-fields, as early as the corn 

 can be salely cut up, and shocked or removed, and 

 sowing rye, either immediately, for forward arowlh, 

 or after some interval, to starve insecis ; and 

 next spring, when the rye is in flower, lo plough it 

 under, close the seams well by immediate harrow- 

 ing, and sow field-peas broad-cast, of some kind 

 most productive in vines, which again are lo be 

 ploughed under in autumn, and wheat then sown. 

 It would seem, (hat, the ordinary tillage of land in 

 corn, and ploughing for and sowing in rye, the 

 ploughinij under that crop, say about the beginning 

 of JNla}', the thick and smothering alier-cover of 

 peas, and that co^ er being also well buried by 

 ploughing and harrowing, would all (orm so many 

 quick changes and dissimilar coudilions of ihe 

 land, that (tnv enemies, either vegetable or animal, 

 could escape des! ruction. For the shade and grow- 

 ing of the pea crop (Ibr example) might be as in- 

 jurious to some of these pests, as a continued ope- 

 ration of the plough. Such indeed there is good 

 reason to believe is Ihe case with the weed called 

 (he partridge pea, which is the one most absolutely 



deslruclive of the wheat crop; and which seems 

 staived out, and disappears Ibr the time, if field- 

 peas be grown thickly among the corn preceding 

 the wheat. I iofisr, that if a regular system of 

 irreen manuring, by crops of annuals, is at all pro- 

 fitable on the score of improveinetit lo the land, or 

 preparation for the succeedinir grain crop, that an 

 additional and very imporUml advantage will be. 

 gamed in the remarkable cleanness of Ihe fields, 

 and ihe greater security of ihe crops from weeds 

 ant! insects. In addition, therefore, to Ihe other 

 supposed and understood advantages of alternating 

 crops, and the superiority of a long and varied ro- 

 tation to a short and limited one — and still more to 

 the continued recurrence of llie same crop — I 

 think lliai a great, though unsuspected advantage 

 has been in Ihe frequent alterations, and violent 

 chanifes of condition, proving destructive to vege- 

 lable and animal depredalors. 



Admitting the soundness of these views, still 

 ti'iere will be much ground to exercise choice and 

 judgment in se!eciiiigplanis/()r ofreeii crops, and fix- 

 ing their order ofsuccession. It would b(^ presump- 

 tuous, u'ilh iheadniiilcd want of experience, forme 

 to prescribe any precise ru.'e or rolaiion. But I 

 would, in the choice, aim lo keep in view the great 

 objects of fertilizing and cleaning the land. For 

 the first object alone, leguminous planis, or al! of 

 ihe pea-trib'j (of which red-clover is one,) are bet- 

 ler than any others, because, by means of their 

 broad leaves, Ihey draw much more sustenance 

 from the atmosphere than from the soil, and of 

 course give most, by tiieir death, lo the soil. For 

 the other object, of cleansing the soil, ihe more fre- 

 quent the crops, and the more violeni the chanires 

 of Ihe kind of crops, and the condition oflhe soil, 

 so much Ihe better. 



Col. Taylor was altogether nnacqiiainled with 

 chemistry and vegetable [)hysio!ogy, and his want 

 of knowledge of tliese sciences, and of their bearing 

 on agriculture, caused him lo fail into, and to utter, 

 some remarkable errors. But by the mere grasp 

 of his strong mind and reasoning power, he ar- 

 rived correctly al the most important conclusion, the 

 correctness of which can be abundantly proved 

 by the lights which chemistry and vegetable physi- 

 ology might have furnished to him. lie speaks of 

 the atmosphere as the great and inexhaustible re- 

 servoir of manure for the earth ; and considers 

 crowing planis as feeding indirecily on air, wjien 

 sustained immediately by vegetable manures. He 

 was entirely right in his conclusion, though it was 

 not reached by the proper course of reasoning, 

 nor maintained on proper ground. Growintj ve- 

 getables draw, b)' means of their leaves, a large 

 portion of their sustenance directly li-om the at- 

 mosphere ; and by their roots, iliey take up the 

 solutions of vegetable matter, returned to (he soil, 

 (and then acting as manure,) and which ha<l for- 

 merly, when alive, also drawn directly from ih.e at- 

 mosphere the greater part of its sustenance. Thus, 

 direclly or indirectly, nearly all ihat serves to Ibrm 

 vegetables, comes iiom the air, and is nothing 

 more than new combinations of the constituent 

 parts of the atmosphere. All ihat can be converted 

 to charcoal, (and that is the frame-woik, and fills 

 the whole bulk of every tree and |)lant,) was formed 

 of ihc carbonic acid absorbod by the leaves ; and 

 all the balance of the plant is composed of oxygen 

 and hydrogen, the two elementary bodies which 

 by (heir combinaiion fi)rm water. All ol llie small 



