78 ON TURNING IN CROPS AS A MANURE. 



periment, certainly have not Introduced it into their settled modes of 

 farmino-. That land may be thus enriched and at a moderate expense, 

 is credited by many, but their faith has not become strong and con- 

 trolling enough, nor operative enough, to produce much action. The 

 truth needs still to be held up, the subject presented in a more bright- 

 enin"" form, the convictions to be made deeper, the benefits more 

 tangible. It is a subject of great and general interest. Its princi- 

 ples apply Avith equal adaptation to the smallest garden and the lar- 

 gest farm. Its utility is founded in the general and unchanging laws 

 of the material and vegetable universe. In many places it opens 

 almost the only hope that large portions of the earth, and -syhat is 

 more immediately the concern of the Society, large portions of this 

 County, now unsightly because unproductive, will soon, if ever, be 

 clothed with verdure and present to the eyes of a grateful and en- 

 lightened community a harvest sufficiently full to take away hunger 

 and want even from the poor. 



As it respects the expense of this mode of cultivation, every one 

 can calculate the amount with sufficient accuracy for all practical 

 purposes. The expense of the seed vised, and the expense of sowing 

 and ploughing, is the whole. Your Committee, however, think that 

 the expense of ploughing should not be reckoned in, as it is most 

 certain that there is not hardly a field in the whole County that 

 would not, by an increased yield, more than pay for an additional 

 ploughing without any reference to a green crop to be turned in. 



In the okoice of the kind of grain to be used in this mode of cul- 

 ture, there seems to be but little choice. That kind which from the 

 character of the soil or season of the year, is likely to yield the 

 greatest amount of vegetable material, should be taken. Buckwheat 

 seems to have been the kind more generally used, and perhaps with 

 good reason. Col. Benson, of Bradford, succeeded well with English 

 or white mustard. His lot is of a clayey character. 



Too high an estimate cannot be put upon the investigations of sci- 

 ence, especially those of chemistry, as a means of helping forward the 

 af^ricultural interest of the community, yet it cannot be denied that 

 there is many times a discrepancy between the theories which science 

 has formed and the results of experiments made in conformity with 

 them. This fact should not however disparage the importance of 

 such scie|itific investigation. Demonstration enough has been given 

 of their utility. The only inference that should be drawn from the 



