134 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3. 



pents in field beets and potatoes, and 96 arpents, 

 instead of being in naked fallow, are entirely 

 laid down in common clover, of which only one 

 cutting is taken, and in crimson clover, [trefle in- 

 carnat,] rye, vetches and peas, grazed or cut 

 green lor feeding cattle. 



To the potatoes and beets cultivated on 24 ar- 

 pents succeed oats, on which common clover is 

 sown. Alter the first mowing of this clover, this 

 piece returns under fallow. The crimson clover is 

 sown upon the stubble of the wheat or oats, and 

 after being once mowed, it also returns under tal- 

 low, with the advantage that, this crop being very 

 forward, the land is ploughed in the same time as 

 if the (allow had been naked. 



The rye and the vetches of winter and spring, 

 are made upon the stubbles of wheat and oats, and 

 even a sowing of vetches is again made partially 

 after the grazing of the green rye; and after their 

 being grazed or mowed, these lands are also 

 thrown into fallow, which, as may be seen, lbllows 

 every year, upon 24 arpents which had borne 

 wheat the preceding year: that is to say, this por- 

 tion of land is cultivated as if in two-shifts; but 

 only one time, until its turn comes again, which 

 depends on the quantity of land to which this ex- 

 hausting culture may have been applied. 



The numerous flocks of the farm secure the 

 means of suitably manuring from the farm-yard, 

 or by folding, the land designed for the wheat crop. 

 But as one part, which had produced wheat the 

 preceding year, exacts a greater abundance of ma- 

 nure, and as there are 24 arpents of beets and po- 

 tatoes, which require a great quantity of the bet- 

 ter manure, the superintendent of the farm, M. 

 Lecuyer, has sought to multiply his supplies of 

 manure, by composing it of poudrette and urat$* 

 with the cleanings of moveable privies, and the 

 urine of the cattle, collected, as before stated, in a 

 covered pit. He showed us the experiments which 

 he has made with this manure this year, on some 

 furrows, compared with manuring by penning, and 

 from the farm-yard: and the wheat on this manure, 

 applied at the rate of ten to twelve hectolitres the 

 arpent, was as good as on the land folded on, or 

 manured from the farm-yard. This manure is 

 made, in part, of matters which ordinarily remain 

 in the farm-yard manure; there is this advantage 

 however, that being destined for a particular use, 

 these matters, which are the excrement of horses 

 and urine of cows, are collected and used with 

 more particular care. We have not seen that the 

 manure in the yard of this farm was inferior to 

 that of other farms. In short, if this supply ol 

 manure is not entirely a new product, it is certain- 

 ly an improvement. 



There are on this property many thousand fruit 

 trees, now in full bearing. They have already 

 yielded near 300 casks [pieces'] of cider; and it is 

 believed that this year, that number will be dou- 

 bled. The average may be counted at 150 casks 

 a year. 



A quantity of forest trees are planted, especially 

 wherever there is a waste spot, however small it 

 may be. 



Further — the farm of La Grange, a useful rao- 



*Urate, in chemical nomenclature, means salt form- 

 ed by the combination of the uric acid with any base. 

 But as used here, it must be intended for urine collect- 

 ed in, or absorbed by, any other matter whatever. — tr. 



del in many respects, is subjected also to very good 

 and careful tillage. The 24 arpents of roots, the 

 100 arpents of lucerne, the meadows and pastures, 

 tiie 100 arpents of clover, rye and vetches, which 

 occupy the fallow, the whole pastured or mowed, 

 give an immense product of forage, so that every 

 year there are sold from the farm ten to twelve 

 lu ndred bottesj which is an important profit, and 

 which has been so for some yeais. 



The root crops, followed by oats, and then by 

 clover, offer a partial rotation well arranged: but 

 what appears to us a limit, is the necessity of 

 taking again tor wheat one-fourth of the land 

 which had borne wheat the preceding year, and, 

 to make barley, 24 arpents of the land which had 

 borne wheat. This is to return to a bad syslem, 

 after having come out of it happily. Wheat made 

 upon common clover may often succeed well; but 

 the success of it in our country, is not enough as- 

 sured to make it the foundation of a rotation. We 

 do not conceal that we found the land, otherwise 

 well ploughed and manured, giving evidence of 

 the defects of this rotation; and that called, each 

 part in its turn, to undergo this forced production, 

 some are found not in that state of cleanness and 

 fertility, which insures good crops. The lucerne 

 also, made in too large proportion, yields less abun- 

 dantly: it is to this disproportion that we believe 

 ouo-ht to be attributed the defects of this rotation. 

 The four-shift rotation founded upon the sowing 

 of clover on the grain crops, with a less quantity 

 of lucerne, might furnish as much forage lor con- 

 sumption and for sale, and not imposing on the 

 land the bearing of forced products, would main- 

 fain it in a better state of fertility. The compari- 

 son, while we acknowledge the merit of the good 

 culture of La Grange, has confirmed us in our 

 opinion that the four-shift rotation, such as is fol- 

 lowed on the farm of Noas, is the most rational, 

 and the most conformed to the invariable princi- 

 ples of good culture. * * * * 



From the Cultivator. 

 AGRICULTURAL BOOKS. 



We have been requested, by a correspondent of 

 the Genesee Farmer, to furnish a list of agricul- 

 tural books, suitable for a farmer's library. This 

 we do cheerfully, remarking by the way, that the 

 number of Shnerican books is very limited; and 

 that in selecting those of foreign origin, we must 

 take much chaff with the wheat. The elemen- 

 tary principles of husbandry are pretty general in 

 their application, while the practical operations of 

 different countries must necessarily be variant, 

 not only on account of difference in climate and 

 soil, but in productions for the market, price of la- 

 bor, habits of the people, &c. No European 

 system of practice is therefore exactly adapted to 

 our wants, though it may embrace much that ii 

 highly beneficial. 



Independent of the memoirs which have been 

 published by the agricultural societies in Pennsyl- 

 vania and Massachusetts, and by the Society of 

 Arts and Board of Agriculture in New York, the 

 slmerican works on agriculture, that we have been 

 acquainted with, are, to name them in the order in 

 which they appeared, 1. Deon's New England 

 Farmer; 2. Boardley's Husbandry; 3. Arator, a 

 series of agricultural essays, by John Taylor, of 

 Virginia; 4- A Treatise on Agriculture, by Gen. 



