608 



lOARMERS' REGISTEK. 



[No. 10 



mode nmcii poorer than their former natural state 

 by severe croijpinir, lo [)IuiJi,'Ii in £2;reefi annuals 

 oi'any kind would be oCniore expense in seed and 

 hihor than ol profit in increased leriility. And 

 jjjreen clover, to be turneii in lor wheat liillow would 

 be out ol the quesiion, because clover could not be 

 produced on such land. The i=eeds of weeds 

 would here be but a small evil, because of then- 

 small product ; and a scanty cover of weeds would 

 not be much protection to insects. Hence, for 

 these reason-^, dry veijeiable manuring, and loni; 

 intervals between the use of the plough, should 

 here be adopted. 



On nuich better land, and of soil well consti- 

 tuted by nature to retain putrescent manure, or 

 made so by the previous application of calcareous 

 manures, cleansing will be as necessary as enrich- 

 ing; and therefore it will be preferable sometimes 

 to^now, and at others to plough in green crops, 

 both of clover and of annuals, both tor cleansing 

 and manuring, and for making the rotation as 

 much as possible conducive to the tliree great ob- 

 jects of enrichinu: the land, cleansing the land and 

 its crops, and yielding the greatest possible net 

 product. 



It is remarkable, (and would be astonishing to 

 all, if the fact were not so common, and oliered to 

 the observation of all,) that every soil is so filled 

 with seeds of weeds, that the longest known til- 

 lage, or coniinual close grazing, or the mixture of 

 the two, according to the Ibrmer general exhaust- 

 ing system of this country, has not destroyed any 

 where ihe seeds of weeds, or prevented a single 

 si^uare yard of arable land being covered by some 

 kind of spontaneous vegeiation, as soon as tillage 

 is intermitted lonir enough lor any thing to grow. 

 On the poorest and most worn-out lainl, on the 

 first year of rest, the growth may be scarcely any 

 thing but the dwarlish and slender spired "hen's- 

 nest^" or poverty grass ; but still this liglit cover 

 is dislribuied so fully over the land, that not a spot 

 is left naked. ( speak not of the broom-grass, 

 which follows on such lands, nor of any other 

 which like that has winged seeds, which may be 

 walled by the winds to great distances— but ol 

 seeds not thus provided lor transportation. On 

 our dry light soils of middling and good (pjality, 

 after wheTit has been reaped, the land i^ usually 

 soon covered by a general and thick growth of 

 carrot-ioecd, wliich rises from two to_ five feet 

 hi>rh, in proporiion to the streiiirth of the land. 

 Yet this viirorously growing plant, which has 

 such complete possession of the land, disappears 

 with that sea«ou, and will no more be seen, to any 

 extent, on the same land while it lies unlilled ; nor 

 until again produced in its Ibrmer and short-lived 

 abundance, by the recurrence of the Ibrmer cir-^ 

 cumstances of corn tillage followed by a crop of 

 wheat or other smaH-grain crop. In like manner, 

 and under other |)eculiar circumstances, other 

 grasses or weeds have almost exclusive, but only 

 Temporary possession o( the land. Among the 

 growing crop of corn, or other ground if well 

 plotiuhed and cleaned of all other growth in June 

 or jTily, the vulgarly calleil crab, or crnp-grass, 

 spniiirs up, and grows with a luxuriance prujjor- 

 lioneil to the richness of the soil and the moisture 

 of the season. When much favored by both the 

 latter circumstances, this grass sometimes also fol- 

 lows wheat. But it never continues to kee|) lon- 

 ger possession of the land, and is rarely seen in 



luxuriant growth, except where the smgular pre- 

 paration is used of thorough tillage, designed to 

 destroy all vegetation, in the early part ol summer. 

 This is one of the best grasses of the southern 

 states, and sometimes furnishes to the scythe a 

 heavy crop of excellent hay, in autumn, from some 

 spots in the corn field ; and it would be one of the 

 most valuable crasses lor hay, if its growth could 

 be obtaineil year after year, and without the ex- 

 pensive moile of preparation which it requires. 



Many other weeds, in smaller quantities, spring 

 up with and accompany the carrot weed ; and fox- 

 tail grass, another autumn grass, has the same 

 habiTs with, and grows like the crop-grass. I 

 have only aimed to cite some of the most remark- 

 able, for quantity and regular recurrence of growth, 

 even though the manner of tillage and long con- 

 tinued other treatment of the land would seem 

 sulficient to have destroyed every seed. Of course 

 then, these and other weeds alike in this remarka- 

 ble respect, are not to be expected to be eradi- 

 cated, nor scarcely thinned, by any degree of per- 

 fection of cleansing tillage. Nor is it desirable ; 

 lor these growths serve admirably to fill up inter- 

 vals in the rotation of crops, and give in some de- 

 .Tree the benefit of a green manuring crop inter- 

 posed between two exhausting, and otherwise suc- 

 cessive grain cro|is. In the absence of clover, or 

 as its more rapid precursor, the usual growth of 

 carrot weeds, which immediately follows the wheat 

 crop, is in fact a secondary and green crop added 

 to the rotation for that year; though probably levv 

 cultivators have so thought of the benefit, and 

 counted this additional crop of their rotation, thus 

 u-iven by nature. 



" The most remarkai>le and beneficial green crop 

 of this kind, is the lAlagothy bean, which covers 

 all the light lands of the Eastern Shore of Virgi- 

 nia, as sT)on as the oat cro[) is taken off. This 

 universal and luxuriant cover (lor such interior 

 lands,) is in fact a most valuable green and en- 

 riching crop added to the otherwise murderous ro- 

 tation'(of 1st year, corn, 2nd year, oats.) of thar 

 part of the country ; and the wild bean which fills' 

 up, and mitigates the rigor of the rotation, will not 

 grow if more rest is allowed to the land, than in 

 This scourginix course of a grain crop taken off 

 every successive year. 



Thus, nature, by operations which are scarcely- 

 valued, or even noticed by man, works lo counter- 

 act and prevent the utter exhaustion which the 

 usual modes of cultivation would certainly and 

 speedily produce, but lor this bounty of nature in 

 continually supplying resources lor resuscitation.^ 

 In fact, in the long continued wretched course ol 

 tilla<Te which has been and indeed still is most 

 usual in this country, there has been more or less 

 of vegetable manuring, either green or dry, in eve- 

 ry roration; but it has all been the work of nature, 

 permitted by chance, and in spite of every effort 

 of the cultivators of the soil— whose only object 

 was to get as many grain crops as possible in 

 each round of the rotation, and lo destroy as much 

 as possible, all otlier vegetation. 



The desultory observations in the preceding 

 pai'es leael, though by devious and irregular pro- 

 .rress, to a comparison of the views therein pre- 

 sented with the different rotations of crot^s in use, 

 or recommended. Such will be the P"IPOs« "^ 

 the following number. E. K- 



