630 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Some time last Tail or winter, 1 wrote you a 

 private letter, oC some length, containing state- 

 ments, and (as I believe) some inquiiie.--, on the 

 subject of melilot, an extract Ironi which was 

 j)ublished in the Register. Tiie number contain- 

 ing this being mislaid, I can recollect nothing ol' 

 it, but what is alluded to by Commentator. Ii 

 may appear strange that 1 should'- choose to 

 thus pursue a matter which" 1 " did not designed- 

 ly commence," or, that I should be so dispoiicd to 

 inagnily melilot— a thing of which I have proless- 

 ed to know so little — as to trouble your readers 

 vvitli it again. In so far as I or n)elilot maybe 

 concerned, I believe — in gambler's phrase — that 

 the game is not worth tlie candle. But, sir, I do 

 think that it is very important, both to agricul- 

 ture and the Register, that the kindest courtesy 

 Bhould be ielt and employed by your contributors. 

 Whenever our agricultural ijcriouicais become 

 arenas for gladiators ol the quill to light uj)on, 

 he who never reads them will |'r(;bably be the 

 best and happiest man. 



1 do not charge upon Coinmenlator the use of 

 any rude expression. Eut, in his remarks on my 

 slaiements with regard to meiilot's growing only 

 in calcareous soils — to its being easily turned 

 untier with ploughs made by Clute and Reagles, 

 and its ali'ording line grazing lor sheep and cows 

 in wmter — he insinuates very strongly a charge 

 of incredibility. Now, sir, these " assertions" 

 were made in a hasty letter to a friend ; but 1 

 find only one word, which needs the slightest 

 qualification, and that is the word "easily." It 

 certainly is not very easy work to the team, but 

 in comparison with tiie beneficial results, almost 

 any one would say it may be easily done. It is 

 true Commentator does quality his skepticism in 

 this particular, by supposing that I mean that 

 1 can plough this plant under belbre it reach- 

 es half its ordinary growth in good land. I nei- 

 ther claim, nor need the benefit oC any such sup- 

 position. 1 reside in a region where the melilot 

 grows to the height ol six leet, and sometimes 

 higher, having an undergrowth of tender, luxu- 

 riant, and not very strongly odorous branches, 

 which live through winter here — latitude about 

 37| north, according to our maps — although they 

 may be as " dead asdoor-nails" with you and with 

 Commentator. As soon alter sowing wheat as 

 practicable, I begin to break up my next year's 

 tobacco ground. On a part of one of my lots 

 melilot grows most luxuriantly. With one ollhe 

 large ploughs made by Clute and Reagles of 

 Schenectady, New York, 1 turn it under, and 

 it makes bigger and better tobacco, without any 

 other manure, than the remainder of the lot will 

 do, with all the manure lean put upon it. This is 

 more remarkably the case with one of my neigh- 

 bors, who has much more melilot than I have. 

 1 do not leel at liberty to use any man's name, 

 without his consent — he is now far from home — 

 lest I might hold him up, to be pelted by some 

 commentator. But, I will, in a private letter, 

 which I beg you to keep private — reveal to you 

 his name — and no authority can be better — and I 

 trust that you will visit us this fall, and see him, 

 with a ploijgh made by Clute and Reagles, bury 

 his grand crop of melilot. 



As to my sheep and cows eating melilot, they 

 may be great .'bols, for aught I know, or have very 

 bad tastes — they certainly eat it, whether from 



lOve of it, or from sheer mischief, I cannot say, 

 but they most certainly have exterminated a line 

 patch of it in my standing pasture, in less ihan 

 two years — leaving not a sprig. Nor is this from 

 starvation, lor they are never very poor. 1 can- 

 not say how they might compare with more 

 dainty competitors, a hlile liirther north, which 

 probably are lurnished with more savory Ibod ; but 

 I love to see them eat — even melilot, and some- 

 times brag of them. Indeed, shame on their 

 master to let Commentator know it though, I 

 have lately ascertained that my horses will eat 

 melilot, while in bloom, in summer, (when cut 

 and a litde willed,) discovering no pielerence 

 between it and clover when put together in a 

 manger. It was wondrous kind in Commentator, 

 alter ridiculing my poor sheep and cows lor eat- 

 ing melilot, to give them leave— -and that in Latin 

 too — to continue the practice, as long as their 

 wiseacre of a master may imagine that they en- 

 joy it. It n)ight be entirely out of lashion, in 

 the present day, to defend ihe odor of melilot ; 

 but I can recollect very well when our grand- 

 moihers, who — in matters of taste as well as 

 in many other things — knew lokat was ivhat, l\il\ 

 as well as some of our very well informed and 

 accurate commentators, were pretty sure to per- 

 fume their salve with it. 



But it seems that I said, that melilot " will not 

 grow in other than calcareous lands." I dare think 

 so still. In this region, il my observation be cor- 

 rect, it only grows about old settlements, which 

 have doubtless been rendered calcareous by ashes. 

 You have stated, that ihere are also occasional 

 veins of calcareous land in the state, particularly 

 in its tide-water region. Such I should expect to 

 find at Todsbury, and elsewhere, occasionally, in 

 ihe Gloucester flats. i know nothing ol the 

 mail indicator of the lower country, but I should 

 look upon melilot as an indicator of lime, wher- 

 ever I might find it. And in this, I think, you 

 would bear me out. It probably. may not grow 

 on calcareous lands wiien poor; but we have 

 abundant evidence in this neighborhood, that alter 

 such lands have become lertile, il will retain them 

 in that condition? We might judge, a priori, 

 that it would do this, being ot the trilblium fami- 

 ly, and aiibrding a prodigious quantity of vegeta- 

 ble matter. Is such a quality of no value? Would 

 not any vegetable which can enaUie land to re- 

 tain fertility, also cause it, if we could learn to 

 make such vegetable grow upon poor land 7 Were 

 gypsum properly applied to melilot, might it not 

 secure its lile, on poor land 1 I am ignorant, and 

 hope there is no harm in asking a lew questions. 

 It cannot hurt even a young larmer, to try a \evf 

 small experiments. I have entirely failed in mine, 

 upon what I consider poor calcareous land, as it 

 etferveeces with acii's and has a great many 

 calcareous concretions in it. However it might 

 be with wheat larmers, it certainly would be an 

 acquisition to us tobacco planters, to be able to 

 grow melilot, at pleasure. Out soils do not gene- 

 rally produce clover kindly. We need some har- 

 dy grass, and if a trelbil, so much the better, to 

 aid in furnishing vegetable matter to the land. I 

 have tried a variety, such as English rye-grass, 

 tall oat-gras3 and orchard-grass, as yet without 

 much success. The wild rye, which grows vo- 

 luntarily, in rank patches, all over my (arm, and 

 which I thought promising, has, like the melilot 



