No. 1. 



The Tare Culture. — JVational Agricultural Society. 



27 



summer tare, as it is smaller, rounder, and 

 blacker ; these will bear the severity of tlie 

 winter ; rye is often mixed, to enable the crop 

 to stand up, when it attains a considerable 

 height, but a sprinkling of wheat has been 

 found best for this purpose, as it remains ^ 

 longer succulent in the summer. The crop i' 

 from this sowing will be tit for cutting for 

 soiling in May, and the stalks, if left in the 

 groun'd, will afford a second growth for sheep- 

 feed ; but as the tare is a fallow crop, it is the 

 best management to cut all oft' and plough 

 the land deep as soon as the crop is removed, 

 well working and cleaning it during the 

 summer, preparatory to wheat-sowing, early 

 in the autumn, after a dressing of well-pre- 

 pared compost, if this has not been given to 

 the tares — a far better arrangement for both 

 crops. The next sowing is with the summer 

 variety of the tare, as early in March as the 

 season will admit, on land that has been 

 ploughed preparatory in the autumn or win- 

 ter; again in April another crop is sown, and, 

 if necessary, two other sowings might take 

 place, the last so late as the end of June, that 

 so a succession of this most valuable crop 

 might be secured for the whole of the sum- 

 mer, and until the end of September. Such 

 crops produce immense quantities of manure, 

 which is carried from the sheds and compost- 

 ed for dressing others ; turnips, for instance, 

 which may be sown on the land from which 

 the first crop of tares has been carried, and 

 fed off in time for wheat-sowing in the au- 

 tumn. It must not be forgotten, that the 

 richer the land, the greater will be the crop 

 of tares, and none will pay so amply for ma- 

 nure ; but when the crop is very heavy, there 

 is less chance of obtaining good seed, and if 

 that be the object, it is recommended to mow 

 the first crop early for soiling, and permit the 

 second growth to stand for seed, which is 

 sometimes a precarious business, nothing 

 being more uncertain ; I have purchased seed 

 at a guinea and a half a bushel, and sold the 

 next year's produce obtained from it at six 

 shillings a bushel ! When the price of seed 

 is moderate, the quantity sown is two bushels 

 or two and a half per acre, but whatever the 

 price may be, it will be repaid in the crop, if 

 the land be in good heart. As much as 30 

 bushels of seed per acre has been obtained, 

 but 15 bushels, and often half that, is more 

 common. Under a heavy crop of tares, the 

 land will be found perfectly clean and mel- 

 low, and will turn up like an ash-heap: and 

 there is no question with me, that the crop 

 may be raised with success in this country, 

 if well cultivated on good land, rather stiff in 

 its nature, and lying cool. 



With regard to the value of the tare for 

 soiling, it has been calculated that ten times 

 the stock might be kept on them than on any 



other commonly cultivated crop; horses re- 

 quire no corn or any other food, and cows 

 give more butter while feeding on them than 

 on any other food whatever. Is it not strange, 

 that no regular experiment on an extensive 

 scale has yet been made on such an invalua- 

 ble crop in ihis country 1 D. 



National Agricultural Society. 



Mr. Solon Robinson has proposed a Farm- 

 ers' and Planters' Convention for the nation 

 — I second the motion. When a lad, I de- 

 sired to be a farmer from inclination, but now 

 I am getting old, I am a farmer from neces- 

 sity. My lands will eat me up, unless I can 

 cultivate them ; to sell and live upon the pro- 

 ceeds is now out of the question — all business 

 is at a stand, and all human existence de- 

 pends upon bread ; stop the plough, and all 

 civilization comes to an end. For the last 

 five years I have felt confounded and over- 

 whelmed with the consideration, that the very 

 bone and sinew — the heart's-blood and life of 

 the nation — the Farmers, have in Europe 

 been hag-ridden for centuries, and in America 

 for half a century, by persons who knew no- 

 thing of, and felt no interest in the main 

 branch of national wealth. The real estate 

 of the nation is its only solid wealth — this is 

 subject to taxation, and is the only permanent 

 support of government; it is folly to speak of 

 commerce without it, for what profit can there 

 be in commerce, to make great importations 

 for a nation of paupers'? And it is strange to 

 me — next to the barbarous shackles of despot- 

 ism — the imprisonment of an unfortunate 

 debtor — the sacrifice of real estate under exe- 

 cution, without any regard to its value ! This 

 should never be ; on this subject my mind has 

 never changed, after more than fifty years' 

 serious reflection. 



So we go for a Convention of American 

 Farmers and Planters on rational principles; 

 there is a necessity for it, and volumes could 

 not contain half the reasons that might be 

 urged ; we have a constitution of the United 

 States to protect every thing but the vital in- 

 terest of the nation, Agriculture; for touch 

 this and urge it as of national importance be- 

 fore Congress, and we are told, it is uncon- 

 stitutional ! With this view, therefore, I con- 

 sider it high time that every farmer and plant- 

 er should be awake to his duty and interest, 

 and urge on with all diligence, the meeting 

 of a Convention of Farmers and Planters, ac- 

 cording to the plan proposed by the respect- 

 able and highly intelligent individual who 

 has the honour of moving first in the great 

 cause. — West. Far. and Gard. 



If twenty bushels an acre be considered a 

 remunerating crop, all that the product falls 

 short of this must be a loss. 



