1S38.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



180 



France, on their ability, thereafter, cfTectually to 

 avoid the loss which they had been theretofre an- 

 luially subjecled b}^ tiiat disease. The lact was, 

 that the discovery was made by the writer of this 

 article, and published in the American Farmer 

 long before its pretended discovery in France. I 

 had saved my silkworms, and those of several 

 other establisiiments by the aid of the chloride of 

 lime. I pidilished an account of it in the Farmer, 

 (vol. XI., pp. 124, 383,) and the American Far- 

 mer was then rerrularly received in Paris. The 

 most singular part of .this story remains to be lold. 

 When thediscovery of the Madura (or silkworms, 

 and of the chloride for the tripes, were published 

 here, they were scarcely noticed by the newspaper 

 press; but no sooner did these same discoveries 

 come to us from France, than the whole newspa- 

 perpre.ss in the country seized upon them, and sent 

 them to all the ends of the earth. 



Excuse me lor thus troubling you. 1 have no 

 other excuse than a desire to see my country pos- 

 sess that which belongs to her. I cannot patient- 

 ly see her thus filched of her good thin<Ts. 

 Yours, &c., 



GIDEO^^ B. SMITH. 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 CLOVIJR AFTER CORi*.'. 



In the early part of July, 183-5, when giving my 

 corn its last ploughinir, t sowed clover seed on 

 about half an acre, inunediately after the plough- 

 ing. I did not see the land until September, and 

 then ob erved that the seed had been sown very 

 irregularly, or had not stood well, if they had been 

 distributed with regularity. Some parts were 

 well covered with plants — but generally they were 

 too thin, and many small spots were bare. I then 

 supposed, and still believe, that the fault was in 

 not sowing regularly. The land was too light for 

 clover — was originally very poor — but had been 

 well marled, manured slightly, and I believe, was 

 afterwards plastered. The place Avas again ob- 

 se^^'ed on June 14, 18.36. The clover was of the 

 sapling, or late kind, and was just getting into 

 bloom, and of course had not reached its full 

 growth. Still it was so luxuriant in the best spots 

 as to have been partly lodged by the rains — and 

 though most of the growth in other spots, was infe- 

 rior, the whole was full as good as I could have 

 expected on the like land, it sown in clover on 

 wheat (as usual) in the early part of 1835, half a 

 year in advance of this sowing. 



I was much pleased with this result — supposing 

 it to prove the certainty of getting a good and full 

 crop of clover, the next year afler corn; and I de- 

 termined to sow 20 acres or more of my present 

 corn crop. But my ardor was somewhat mode- 

 rated by hearing fi-om a very trustworthy and re- 

 spectable overseer of" one of my neighbors, that he 

 also last summer had tried the same experiment, 

 and that though the seed came up well, they near- 

 ly all died in August. His sowing was in June — 

 and the seed raked in on halfthe ground for a better 

 trial — and for both these reasons, I should have 

 supposed, his clover had a better chance to live 

 than mine. But without knowing the cause of the 

 difference of result, I state the facts as I have ei- 

 ther seen, or heard them. 



It; (as I would have inferred from my own ex- 

 periment alone,) a good crop of clover could be 



counted on from this mode, as surely as after wheat, 

 the adoption of the practice would promise consi- 

 derable advantages to both the three and the four- 

 shift rotations— serving to free both from the 

 strongest olijeclions to which they are now liable. 

 I will now merely allude to some of these, hastily 

 and concisely, and request that they may be con- 

 sidered by any of my brother farmers who will 

 repeat my experiment of sowing clovei on corrj 

 this summer — as I shall do, and report the success, 

 or the lailure, next year. 



If the usual three-shift rotation of 1. corn, 2. 

 wheat, 3. clover, could, by adopting this practice, 

 be changed to 1. corn, 2. clover, 3. wheat on clo- 

 ver lay, (or fallow, as it is commonly and impro- 

 perly termed,) it seems to me that the following 

 benefits would be found. 



1. The usual and remarkable superiority of 

 product of the wheat crop upon a good coat of 

 clover, ivell turned in, over that of wheat after 

 corn on the same land, would be gained. This is 

 often equal to 100 per cent. 



2. The corn, by following wheat, would proba- 

 bly be less in average product, than if after clover 

 — but probably the diminution would be' much les3 

 than the gain in the wheat: and this diminution be 

 compensated by the advantages of ploughing 

 clean stubble land, instead of land foul with clover 

 and weeds. The previous growth of wheat, (es- 

 pecially if thick,) would not only clear the land 

 of obstacles to good and easy tillage, but also of 

 the cut- worm and other insects which the clover 

 nourishes, and which are destructive to corn cul- 

 ture in proportion to the prevalence and the suc- 

 cess of the improvement by previous clover ma- 

 nuring. One of the greatest recommendations of 

 a crop as the precursor of another in a rotation, is 

 that it deslrojs the insects that would prey on the 

 succeeding crop. I think that this good efl^ect for 

 corn is ])roduced by its bemg preceded by wheat — • 

 and also to wheat, by its being preceded by a hea- 

 vy, smothering crop of clover, well and deeply 

 turned in: and that the corn crop does not do any 

 such service to a succeeding crop of wheat — and 

 that clover actually breeds devourers for a suc- 

 ceeding crop of corn. 



In the four-shift system, still greater, though dif^ 

 lerent benefits, would be found, by changing any 

 of its present forms to 1. corn, 2. clover, 3. wheat 

 on clover lay, and 4. clover after wheat — and 

 then recommencmg the rotation with corn on clo- 

 ver as now practiced, where two years in clover 

 (or clover and weeds) are allowed. But I have 

 already said enough in anticipation of sufficient 

 and satisfactory experiments of the foundation of 

 these plans, namely, making clover to succeed 

 corn, E. R. 



THE SEASON AND STATE OF CROPS. 



From all the accounts before us, public and private, 

 it is inferred that the wheat crop throughout Virginia, 

 will fall short of half of an average crop — and that the 

 whole wlieat crop of the United States will be not 

 much better than that of Virginia alone. We subjoin, 

 in extracts from private letters, many of the facts that 

 have reached us: but none of these, except the one 

 from Halifax, Va., even refer to the latest and worst 

 calamities, caused by the inundation of most of the 



