15S 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8. 



ble, and use the mould-board plough, or not, ac- 

 cording to the progress of the weeds and grass in 

 the alter cultivation. My opinion is, whenever 

 corn requires ploughing, it requires deep plough- 

 ing, unless it is when the corn has been planted 

 upon a recently well turned turf — that, I think, 

 should never be disturbed by after deep cultiva- 

 tion. Simply keep the land clean by shallow cul- 



tUl'P. 



I have been in the habit of using leaves and 

 straw, and coarse manure, for the corn crop, in the 

 following manner, with great benefit: plough the 

 land in nine feet beds — or rather open deep furrows 

 nine feet apart, in the fall or winter— fill them 

 with straw, leaves, or coarse manure — throw back 

 the earth immediately, and when you have finish- 

 ed, break the hmd at jour leisure — in beds of 

 coarse — and plant the corn in rows only three feet 

 wide, in the centre of the nine l'eet he'd — that is, 

 eighteen inches from the centre of the rubbish 

 row. You will then have a six and a three feet 

 row to each bed, giving the corn distance accord- 

 ing to the supposed strength of the land. In cul- 

 tivating the crop, the three feet row is simply to 

 be kept clean with the hoe or skimmer, the leaves, 

 &c. to remain undisturbed in the process of culti- 

 vation. The six feet row to be ploughed as deep 

 as possible, but not with a mould-board plough if 

 the land is very poor. 



When you give directions to plain farmers 

 about improving their lands, it would be well to 

 use the simplest terms, and such as the very igno- 

 rant are accustomed to use among themselves. 

 Say for instance, "gray land" with a "red or yel- 

 low foundation" may be improved by such and 

 such means — omit the terms "alluvial" — "loam," 

 &c. &c; and in all other respects adapt your 

 terms to the meanest capacity, if possible. The 

 wise will understand you quite as well, and the. ig- 

 norant will be delighted, and soon begin to prefer 

 the Reoister to all other publications. When it 

 is absolutely necessary to use scientific terms, de- 

 fine them, for there are thxv clod-hoppers who have 

 dictionaries, and many that don't know "how to 

 look for words in them."* 



* We take this advice in good part, but claim that we 

 have always endeavored to use terms as plain a9 pos- 

 sible. But while agreeing entirely in this respect with 

 our correspondent, as to proper ends, we differ alto- 

 gether as to the means by which to reach them. We 

 think that to render agricultural terms as plain as pos- 

 sible, it is necessary that they should be correct — and 

 that if correct terms are substituted by the provincial- 

 isms of a particular district, the terms would be- 

 come plain to that district only by being made ob- 

 scure, to all others. We can assure our correspondent 

 that even the meaning of "gray land" would be unin- 

 telligible to half the farming world, and that the term 

 is not known in some counties within ninety miles of 

 Goochland, except to those persons who have heard 

 its use abroad. We differ as to another mean for reach- 

 ing the end, plainness, which we both claim to approve 

 and to seek. Certainly terms purely scientific, or 

 technical, ought to be explained, at least often enough 

 for every attentive reader of the work in which they 

 are used, to learn the definitions. But if such terms 



When you allude to our now universal practice 

 of top-dressing with well rotted manure, you gene- 

 rally use the term "this novel practice.'''' Some 

 think you mean, thereby, to deride the practice. 

 My own experience does not warrant me in saying 

 the improvement is as permanent as the old me- 

 thod of turning in the manure — but I will state a 

 fact in relation to an experiment made by a friend 

 of mine, to which my attention has been repeat- 

 edly called. Five years ago last fall, this friend 

 had a lot of ten acres which he was desirous of 

 getting in clover as soon as possible. He thought 

 he had a sufficiency of manure (well rotted farm- 

 pen) to make the whole ten acres rich. He com- 

 menced hauling, spreading, and ploughing in the 

 manure, at the rate of forty thirty-bushel loads to 

 the aire, upon four acres of the best part of the 

 lot. After proceeding this far, he discovered that 

 his manure would not hold out, at that rale, to 

 complete the lot; he therefore determined to 

 plough the land — sow the wheat, and reserve the 

 balance of the manure for top-dressing. In the 

 succeeding winter he proceeded to complete his 

 work — sowed the land in clover, and top-dressed 

 the remainder of the lot at the rate of twelve loads 

 to the acre. The succeeding wheat crop on this 

 part of the lot was equal to the other — (he clover 

 crop was better. There has been one wheafcerop 

 on the land since, which was equally good through- 

 out — and as far as can be judged by the eye, the 

 lot is now about equal in fertility in all its parts. 

 This experiment has satisfied me as to the perma- 

 nence of "this novel practice of manuring land." 



I will call your attention to one circumstance, 

 which in mv judgement, o-oes, measurably, to the 

 refutation of your idea, "that land originally poor 

 can never be rendered more fertile, or raised above 

 its original fertility without the use of calcareous 

 manure." You have no doubt frequently remark- 

 ed the abiding fertility of an acre or two of land 

 where old settlements had been broken up and the 

 land put in cultivation, whde the adjacent landa 

 evinced original poverty of soil. This is certainly 

 the case here, where we have neither lime, nor 

 marl, nor oyster-shells. Admitting the fact, what 

 is the conclusion? Perhaps you will ascribe it to 

 the caustic quality of the ashes that have been 

 thrown out' lor fifty years. But you know that 

 ash heaps frequently lie undisturbed for ten or fif- 

 teen years; and such is the ignorance respecting 



as "loam," "alluvial" &c. are meant as requiring to 

 be always defined — or even if scientific terms are 

 to be explained every time they are used, the style of 

 many communications would necessarily be something 

 of the fashion of the account of "The House that 

 Jack built," and the end and meaning would scarcely be 

 sought by any reader among the mass of explanatory ac- 

 companiments. In short, the reader who expects every 

 piece to serve as its own dictionary, and who will not 

 ask or seek for explanation of a difficulty, would scarce- 

 ly profit by any facilities that could be afforded. The 

 next paragraph furnishes an example of the extent to 

 which definitions would be required, if it is necessary 

 to explain that when we spoke of top-dressing wheat 

 as a "novel" practice, we neither meant to deride, nor 

 to oppose it: but on the contrary, consider it as one of 

 the most valuable improvements made known through 

 the Farmers' Register. — Ed. 



