1S1!> 



THE GENESEE FAIIMEK. 



59 



BASTARD FALLOWS 



The system of making trammer fallows, by allow- 

 ing land to lay a whole year in a naked and unpro- 

 ductive state, for the purpose of preparing it for 

 autumn wheat, is extensively practiced in all the 

 wheat growing districts of the United States. The 

 process of making naked fallows, when the loss 

 of a whole year's rent of land — or interest on the 

 value thereof — is taken into account, under the 

 most favorable circumstances is expensive, and 

 may be in most cases dispensed with, without in the 

 most trifling degree detracting from the annual pro- 

 ductiveness of the soil. If this proposition can be 

 sustained in practice, by the entire mass of. the wheat 

 growers of our country, then may the over populated 

 portions of Europe have confidence in being able at 

 all times to get a supply of bread stuffs from America. 



Naked fallows are expensive and useless, and that 

 a much more profitable system of managing land for 

 fall wheat can be adopted, are opinions which are 

 gaining ground, and are believed by many of the 

 most enlightened cultivators of this country. The 

 great bulk of the farmers, however, have not given 

 the subject much consideration, nor do they yet 

 understand the best and cheapest method of keeping 

 up the fertility of their soil, and at the same time, 

 increasing its annual products without subjecting 

 their land, in periods of four or five years, and in 

 some instances much more frequently, to the old 

 fashioned and extravagant practice of summer fal- 

 lows. With a view of promoting the interests of 

 agriculture, an attempt will be made by the writer, 

 to minutely discuss the subject in all its bearings, 

 during the succeeding six or eight numbers of the 

 Farmer. 



The ordinary practice of making fallows cost at 

 least eight dollars per acre; in this calculation is 

 included the rent of land a twelve month, and the 

 plowing and harrowing required to bring the land 

 into a clean state of culture. The expense of 

 manuring, draining, laying the ground into ridges, 

 and seed, fee., would be the same in one case as the 

 other, and therefore on the score of expenditure or 

 economy need not be included in the calculation. 

 In the term bastard fallows may be included the 

 various modes of preparing land for fall wheat by 

 which the loss of a whole summer or crop is not 

 required to effect that object. It has already been 

 shown that if land be summer fallowed, a direct 

 charge of about eight dollars per acre must be put 

 against the wheat crop, and as will be presently 

 proved to the satisfaction of every reflective mind, 

 without affording an equivalent return for such an 

 extravagant outlay. The system proposed to be 

 practiced will be based upon the soundest principles 

 of economy, nor will it require a large capital to 

 carry it out throughout the various ramifications of 

 a well managed arable farm. One of the most im- 

 portant features of the system is this : the green or 

 other crop grown upon the land with a view of pre- 

 paring it for fall wheat will be of such a description, 

 and grown upon such a scale, that in most cases the 

 proceeds thereof will pay the rent of land and the 

 entire expense of managing both the summer and 

 winter crops — thus leaving the latter clear profit to 

 the cultivator. The average yield of wheat, extend- 

 ing over a period of ten or fifteen years, on the best 

 managed wheat farms in this country does not 

 exceed thirty bushels per acre. Now, it is quite 



certain that even when this high average is obtained 

 by superior cultivation and by the aid of naked fal- 

 low s, quite as groat a yield of wheat may be had 

 without summer fallowing the land as with it, and 

 therefore, why. should such a practice be longer tole- 

 rated by American farmers. The Chinese, who are 

 noted for the superiority of their Agriculture, have 

 not found it difficult to "keep up the fertility of their 

 soil by annually growing heavy crops, without giving 

 it any rest. In the best cultivated portions of Eng- 

 land farms and even whole parishes are in great 

 abundance in which the yield of wheat, extending 

 over a long period of years has equalled forty bushels 

 per acre, and during the whole course of cropping a 

 naked fallow has not been made. Indeed, the en- 

 lightened and scientific portion of the farmers of 

 Great Britain have long since exploded the semi-bar- 

 barous practice of making naked fallows, and there 

 appears to be no valid reason, why a similar view of 

 this important question should not be favorably 

 received by the wheat growing farmers of America. 

 To enlighten public opinion regarding the various 

 systems of cultivation adapted to secure this object, 

 and at the same time keeping in mind the climate, 

 soil, the high price of labor, scarcity of capital to be 

 employed in agriculture as compared with Great 

 Britain and some portions of the continent of Europe, 

 and other prominent features that have an influence 

 to a greater or less degree upon the character of 

 American Agriculture, are the real grounds that 

 have induced the writer to take a bold stand in dis- 

 cussing this somewhat intricate subject, which in 

 many of its features will be found opposed to the 

 practice of many of our very best farmers, with whom 

 on many other points of husbandry we perfectly 

 agree, and the contributions of whose pens we shall 

 be pleased to receive, on this or other subjects. 

 whether their opinions and practice correspond with 

 ours or not. Without further prefatory remarks, we 

 shall briefly at this time take up the subject in a 

 tangible point of view, and in our next resume it in 

 several of its practical bearings. 

 INDIAN CORN. 

 The maize plant may be profitably cultivated in 

 nearly every portion of this great Republic. In the 

 most northern sections, where it is grown as a prepara- 

 tive crop for fall wheat, an early variety should be se- 

 lected, and by liberally manuring the land, and clean 

 culture, it may be pushed forward to full maturity by 

 the first week in September, after which it should be 

 cut up and drawn off, and the land plowed and pre- 

 pared for fall wheat. By planting the hills of corn 

 in rows about four feet apart both ways, and by pas- 

 sing the steel tooth cultivator twice in each direction 

 between those rows, the land will be in as good a 

 condition for fall wheat as if it had been summer fal- 

 lowed. Besides, the manure applied to the land for 

 the corn crop will have passed through its various 

 stages of fermentation, and the juices having been 

 partially absorbed or extracted in giving strength and 

 vigor to the maize plants, there need be but little ap- 

 prehension on the score of having a fallen or rusted 

 crop, as would probably have been the case had the 

 manure been applied to the land whilst being summer 

 fallowed. This influence however operates only on 

 soils where there is a great depth of decayed vege- 

 table matter on the surface, and where a strong and 

 luxuriant growth of straw is produced without extraor- 

 dinary means being used to secure that result. There 

 are but few soils on which unfermented barn-yard 



