No. 1. 



Lime — Improved Husbandry. 



31 



first sowing of the summer variety ; oats must 

 not, however, accompany those sown in the 

 autumn. As fast as the land is cleared of the 

 earliest crop of tares, or oats and tares mixed, 

 which might be commenced cutting in May, 

 it should be ploughed and worked, and be 

 drilled with sugar beet for a winter crop ; 

 and the later cleared land of tares and oats 

 will be in time for a crop of ruta baga ; while 

 the land cleared of them in July, may be sown 

 with the common turnip, of the tankard spe- 

 cies, all which are to be housed for winter 

 use, the turnips being fed first, and the sugar 

 beet and ruta baga, secured in frost-proof cel- 

 lars, may be fed until the first crop of tares 

 is ready to cut in the spring. 



Now, the ease with which the business of 

 soiling with this crop can be carried on, is 

 well known to those who have witnessed it 

 in England ; a stout lad, with a short scythe, 

 a small horse or ox and a sledge, built after 

 the manner of those in use in Wales for the 

 purpose of bringing their hay from the moun- 

 tains, are all that would be required for a 

 feeding establishment of many oxen ; for, 

 while the grass-crop on a nieadow would re- 

 quire the labour of a strong and expert mower, 

 a lad of sixteen would find it easy to cut 

 tares and oats sufficient for such a number o^ 

 cattle and tend them too; while the loading 

 and binding on the sledge is the labour of 

 one person only and easily accomplished. 



A few acres of the most impoverished land 

 upon the farm devoted to this purpose, would 

 soon be recovered to fertility, and afler a 

 course of such cropping, might be returned 

 to the grain culture, to yield crops far supe- 

 rior to those on better land — and when per- 

 sons begin to find that land ivill pat/ for good 

 management, it will no longer be the custom 

 to cultivate a hundred acres, to procure a crop 

 that might be obtained from fifteen, and then 

 they will be sensible of the value of summer 

 soiling with green crops raised from arable 

 land. ViR. 



Lime. 



A Pennsylvania paper states that a Mr. 

 Cadwell, of Valley township, near Danville, 

 raised 400 bushels of wheat from a field of 

 land, the past season. Five years ago the pro- 

 duct of the same field was but thirty bushels. 

 In the meantime, Mr. C. has spread fifteen 

 hundred bushels of lime on said land. Lime 

 is not everywhere to be had with the same 

 ease, but, on the other hand, it is not every- 

 where wanted. What is wanted, is science 

 enough, on the farmer's part, to know when 

 and where he has occasion for it, and to what 

 extent. The Geolon-ical Reports are throw- 

 ing great light on these matters, and they are 

 disclosing, at the same time, numerous new 

 locations of valuable lime. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Improved Husbandry. 



Sir, — If the farmer would cultivate less 

 corn and grain, and devote more of his land 

 to the growth of the different kinds of green 

 crops, with roots for winter feed, he would no 

 longer complain that the value of farmino- 

 produce is too low to give a remunerating 

 profit for his labour. I am much pleased with 

 the following observations of a writer in the 

 Carolina Planter, and consider them worthy 

 a place in the Cabinet, believing that they 

 will be found seasonable and applicable to 

 any part of our country, and under any cir- 

 cumstances. A. D. 



" Hay, from England, Ireland, and France, 

 is sold in Charleston, shipped into the interior 

 of our state, and, at this very time, is selling 

 at a price for which our farmers will hardly 

 bring it to market! Surely there must be a 

 profit derived from its supply, or it would not 

 be brought to our ports. What a commentary 

 on the condition of our agriculture ! The ob- 

 stinate adherence to old modes of practice 

 keeps down knowledge, and retards useful 

 and productive operations as innovations. 

 We are called agriculturists — but do we de- 

 serve the name ? We are planters, to be sure, 

 for we put the seeds into the ground and ex- 

 pect them to germinate, but here we stop — 

 we trust to the chance of our stock getting 

 fat on grass, and to get through the winter 

 on what shucks we might have, but we be- 

 lieve it would be ruinous to grow green crops 

 for this express purpose. In summer, when 

 grass is plenty, we eat lamb, and in the fall, 

 before the stock begins to fall off, which it is 

 expected to do, we eat mutton ; but when 

 the winter sets in, we look with anxiety to 

 Kentucky or Tennessee to give us something 

 to eat until next grass. Thus our domestic 

 comforts are diminished ; our stock dwindles 

 away to skeletons, and we trust to chance 

 that they may live through the wintry blasts 

 in the open field ! Now, how many of our 

 farmers sow rye for their cattle and sheep ■? 

 or how make provision for them in winter? 

 are there no grasses suited to our climate'? 

 are they of slower growth or more difficult 

 of cultivation? are they with more difficulty 

 converted into a state fitting them for preser- 

 vation in a dry form ? They flourish with a 

 luxuriance far above the produce of higher 

 climates, and are more easily cured than in 

 more northern climes. Are lands exhausted 

 by the cultivation of lucerne, or clover, or 

 peas, or the different varieties of the root 

 crops? The reverse is the fact — they are 

 renovated by these very means — and is it not 

 reasonable to supply our own wants, which 

 we could do at a cheaper rate than by import- 

 ing from other states. But the practice of 

 other countries must be followed here, to 



