194 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4 



From my observations and experience, I deduce 

 the following conclusion. 



1. Th3.t to insure the best crop, lands should be 

 fallowed early, viz: before the middle of August. 



2. That the surface acted upon by this process 

 of a re-lbrmaiion of soil, is the proper one into 

 which the grain should be put. 



3. That a second ploughing wiih a large plough 



ari ng corn land tor 

 Nature, in both in- 



in tallows, and its use m prep 



wheat, is disadvaiitagous. T 



stances, has prepared a better surlace than can be 



prepared by art. 



4. That the mixing the newly formed soil, tully 

 saturated with carbonic gas. with the inferior soil, 

 prevents as quick and vigorous growth ot wheat, 

 and as earlvand as perfect maturiry. 



If the ild'lows have been ploughed early, and a 

 crop of summer grass has grown upon them, they 

 may be stirred with the small plough or coulter, if 

 hard, or harrowed, if mellow, so as to pulverize 

 and smooth the surtace, without regarding the 

 grass and the wheat sown among it. The first 

 frost kills the grass, and it acts as a beneficial co- 

 veringto the wheat. [&] When the fallows arepre- 

 pared^ and the corn crop sufficiently forward to 

 take off in September, the corn laud may be 

 ploughed with the small plough, and harrowed 

 ready for seeding, and thus enable the farmer to 

 put all his teams to the harrow, and sow a large 

 crop in a few days. Selecting his own time for 

 seedinff, he may hope to escape the dangers ol' 

 early and late fly, and do much to insure a fniv 

 crop fi-om his land. In anticipation of this, it is 

 desirable to plant a corn which will mature itself 

 somewhat earlier than vhe kinds now cultivated. 

 We have a corn in this neighborhood well adapted 

 to this purpose, which yields well. If the corn is 

 too late to commence removing in time to prepare 

 your land in September, the balks can be broken 

 before the corn is taken off. You will then, upon 

 removing the corn in the latter end of the month, 

 have only to plough the list and harrow the land, 

 to be ready for seeding. If a proper seed bed is 

 prepared, one harrowing is sufficient to cover the 

 grain. [c] In the October of IS33, I had sown m 

 this manner 300 acres in four days and a half^ em- 

 ploying eight harrows with two horses each, and 

 two with a yoke of oxen each; in all, ten harrows. 

 The teams were never hurried until the last day 

 lor a few hours, when there was an appearance of" 

 rain. The same hands and teams were closely 

 employed the next four days in putting in forty acres 

 of rough corn land. This present month (October, 

 1835,) six days have been taken, to put in three 

 hundred and forty acres of land, eighty of which 

 were rough with stone and slumps. The team 

 employed the same. 



When tobacco is cultiv^ated as a mixed crop, the 

 early corn ought to be planted. It does not attain 

 Buch size of stalk, and can be removed with less 

 labor, severing it at the ground, and stacking it on 

 the field without pulling the Ibdder or cutting the 

 tops. Enough hay should be made to serve the 

 farm, and the time given to tobacco and other ope- 

 rations which is usually spent unprofitably about 

 the fodder. I am satisfied that corn is less injured 

 to be cut up, Avith the fodder and top on, than to tak-e 

 them off and leave it standing in the field. In the 

 first place it cures; in the latter, it withers. I 

 have heard a judicious fiu-mer estimate, as fair 

 work, 200 lbs. i>er day, the average of hands em- 



ployed in gathering and securing fodder; of hay, 

 1000 lbs. The use of the revolving horse-rake on 

 smooth land would much increase the latter ave- 

 rage. I am aware, that in recommending the 

 slacking of corn on the field, I am running counter 

 to the oi.Miions of some of our best liirmers. I 

 would not recommend it where the corn could be 

 housed; but when it cannot be done, from atten- 

 tion to the tobacco crop, lateness of ripening, or 

 deficiency of labor, I deem it belter lo lose ihe 

 (jround covered by ihe stalks, than the greater 

 loss from late seeding. The injury of runrung 

 your teams and carts over the fields in dry weather 

 afier the wheat is sown and up, in removing the 

 corn, I estimate very lightly. 



Note [a]. That this process must be effected 

 by the action of the gases, is proven fi-om the uni- 

 fijirm f(?rtility of grave }'ards. Here the bodies do 

 not come in contact wiih the surffice. It must be 

 by the generated gas forcing its way through the 

 fresh dry earth. Would a culture of several feet 

 make poor land rich? I think not. Manures 

 never sink. Upon light, sandy soils, with too 

 small a portion of clay to imbibe and retain the 

 gases, they penetrate easil)', and escape rapidly; 

 such require frequent applications of manure, but 

 in smaller quantities — it acts promptiv, but evapo- 

 rates with the culture of a crop. Stifi'clays, defi- 

 cient in aperient particles, are not sufhciently per- 

 meable to the gas; (he particles become compact- 

 ed together by rain so as to expel it before it can be 

 sufliciently imbibed. They close so completely 

 over manures as to exclude the air, and arrest their 

 decomposition. Upon such soils, manure ploughed 

 under may be found, two or three years after, re- 

 taining its original appearance, but its fertilizing 

 principle gone; for such, straw, half rotted manures 

 that act as a temporaiy aperient, are best. Sand, 

 or some substitute for it, is necessary for its me- 

 chanical effects as an aperient to every good soil. 

 Its excess makes a quick soil soon exhausted; its 

 deficiency, a stiff, slow soil. In addition, there 

 are, no doubt, chemical combinations in all soils, 

 rendering some capable of lertilit}', others not. 

 The sterility of any soil may be temporarily over- 

 come by the application of animal or vegetable 

 manures. But, quare: Will not an originally 

 poor soil, if made ever so rich by manures, left to 

 itself without cultivation, lapse into its original 

 sterility ? and wilt not one, originally fertile, when 

 exhausted, become rich if left undisturbed long 

 enough ? 



[6]. Blue grass fiillows will probably require a 

 second ploughing to destroy it. The first plough- 

 ing on this grass should alwaj's be made befiire 

 the grass seeds, as the plants are easily destroyed 

 if disturbed about the time of their seeding. If" 

 fallowing is postponed until July or August, the 

 crop becomes veiy precarious. It will most frequent- 

 ly happen, that altermuch lime and labor has been 

 spent, it will be injured or destroyed by ihe turf, 

 li'such lauils cannot be ploughed in May, or early 

 ill June, this grass may be destroyed, or cri|ipled, 

 by hard grazing fi'om spring until Juneor Jidy — it 

 being a grass without altermath, or ground leaf^ 

 each spire is a seed-bearing spire, and the grazing 

 necessarily confined to these; and if it is not per- 

 mitted to seed, it perishes. It is a grass never 

 found upon commons, or on road sides, where it is 



