108 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



rowed yellow." Mr. Williams aJds: "Our fann- 

 ers are beginning to grow it with like success. It 

 wants a well-manured, dry soil." 



PLASTER AND CLOVER. 



We do not propose to trouble the readers of the 

 Oenesee Farmer with our views in regard to the 

 action of plaster. Let it suffice us for the present 

 that on some soils, and on certain crops, it is de- 

 cidedly beneficial. That it is, to a certain extent, 

 " a stimulant," must be admitted : that is to say, it 

 furnishes only two elements to the soil — lime and 

 Bulphuric acid — while it enables the crop to take 

 from the soil an increased quantity of the other 

 elements of plant-food — phosphoric acid, potash, 

 soda, &c. ; and if the crops so produced were sold 

 off the farm, the use of plaster would accelerate 

 the exhaustion of the soil. Fortunately, plaster 

 has the greatest effect on those crops wliich are 

 usually fed out on the farm or plowed under, and 

 in this case it serves to enrich the soil. Thirty or 

 forty years ago the oak-openings in Western New 

 York were considered far inferior to the heavily 

 timbered land and to the low land on the borders 

 of the Genesee river. The Indians had for years 

 burnt over this land, and consequently it was, to a 

 great extent, destitute ot organic matter. On this 

 soil plaster and clover aoled like a charm. Large 

 crops of clover have been raised for years and 

 plowed under. The plaster stimulated the growth 

 of clover, and the clover, v/lien plowed under, 

 furnished the soil with large quantities of organic 



matter; and the result is that this land, which 

 was formerly considered poor, is the best and most 

 productive in the State. 



How long the fertility of our wheat soils can be 

 maintained by the use of clover and plaster is a 

 question of great importance. If the clover was 

 exported from the farm the soil would soon be ex- 

 hausted, and plaster would cease to have any bene- 

 ficial effect. By a judicious system of feeding 

 cattle and sheep — by selling nothing but wheat, 

 meat and wool — we can see no reason why our 

 lands should not improve for many years rather 

 than deteriorate. Of one thing, at all events, we 

 may be assured : the first effect of exhaustion will 

 be apparent in the clover crop, and not in the 

 wheat crop. As long as we can raise good crops 

 of clover, it is certain that there is plant-food 

 enough in the soil to produce good crops of wheat. 



In certain circumstances it may be better to plow 

 under the clover instead of feeding it to stock on 

 the farm. It is a quicker way of enriching the 

 soil. But w^e think a good farmer will soon find it 

 to his interest to feed out his clover on the land, or 

 make it into hay for winter use. He can not en- 

 rich a given piece of land in this way so soon as 

 by plowing under the clover, but in the end the 

 result will be the same, and we have, in addition, 

 the profit derived from the sheep and cattle fed on 

 the clover. We think, too, that when clover is 

 plowed under for a series of years, there is danger 

 of getting too much carbonaceous matter in the 

 soil, and the effect of this carbonaceous matter is 

 to produce too much straw, and also to retard the 

 ripening of the wheat. On the other hand, this car- 

 bonaceous matter is just what animals require to 

 sustain life. 



As to the best time of sowing plaster there is 

 some difference of opinion. As a general rule it 

 is sown on the young clover early in the spring. 

 There are those who sow it on the wheat in the 

 fall, and then sow the clover the following spring. 

 It is thought to improve the " catch." It generally 

 has little effect on wheat, or on timothy or other 

 grasses. As to the quantity, a bushel per acre is 

 usually sown ; but some good farmers sow as much 



as four bushels, but at longer intervals. 



^ • ^ 



Hemlock fob SnEBP. — A correspotfdent in Wy- 

 oming county, N. Y., writes us that he keeps his 

 sheep healthy in winter by placing hemlock brush 

 in the sheep-yard. The sheep eat the brush 

 readily, as well ae the bark from the limbs. In the 

 summer, if his sheep have the scour?-, he takes 

 tiiem off the grass for a few days, and confines 

 them strictly on hemlock bark on the boughs. 



