412 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



ever, can only be supported upon the principle that 

 j)Iaiits are led more by the soil than by the atmos- 

 phere ; whereas it has been shown, by many cu- 

 rious experiments, that the air and water are the 

 chief sources of vegetation ; and it is a I'act, that 

 poor land, without manure, which by ilie fortui- 

 tous chances ol' the weather has produced tolera- 

 ble ffrcen crops, has been found more tcitile after 

 their production than before. 



V/hen plouijhed into the land, they however 

 often remain for several months, before they de- 

 cay, for their decomposition goes on slowly be- 

 neath the soil, and they are therefore (requently 

 more beneficial to the second than to the first crop. 

 To turn them in effectually, they should be first 

 heavily rolled, and then tbllowed by a trench 

 plough, for the operation cannot be completely 

 perlbrmed with a common plough; and, if not 

 entirely buried, their points stick out between the 

 furrows, by which they are partly prevented fi-om 

 fermenting, and a portion of their value as manure 

 is thereby lost. 



The time (f the year when they should be 

 ploughed in, must, of course, depend upon the na- 

 ture of the crop, which should always be buried 

 before it arrives at perfect maturity, or otherwise 

 it will rob the land of that nutriment wiih which 

 it is intended to supply it. Wost farmers lake the 

 first growth of tares and clover, which, i( fed off 

 early, is an economical plan; but if mowed, it is 

 only doing the business by halves, for the land is 

 thereby not only deprived of the dung of the cat- 

 tle,'but the operation is then too long delayed, for 

 the work should be done in the heat of the sum- 

 mer, or, at the latest, early in the autumn, ivhile 

 the sun has the power to forward the fermentation. 

 The effect, indeed, will greatly depend upon the 

 season, for the process of fermentation is only 

 slight when checked by the want of free commu- 

 nication with the air; and if the weather be cold, 

 the power of the manure will be in a great mea- 

 sure lost ; but if the season be moderately moist, 

 and very warm, the fermentation will be much 

 promoted, and the crop will be converted, by pu- 

 trefaction, into a mass of nutritive mucilage. No- 

 thing short, however, of an abundant crop will 

 have that immediate eflect, as a large mass de- 

 composes much more speedily than a small one; 

 and, if very scanty, the latter perhaps may not 

 putrefy at all, or its decomposition will be so very 

 gradual that the land will be very little percepti- 

 bly the better; but if such a quantity be turned 

 under the earth as will excite the force of fermen- 

 tation, there can be no doubt but that it will then 

 be greatly as well as promptly benefited. Sir 

 Humphry Davy, indeed, says, '"that this gradual 

 decomposition afiords a supply of vegetable mould 

 for several years;"* but although, as a chemist, 

 he may be right, yet every practical farmer must 

 know that, with such materials to work upon as 

 cannot materially enrich the staple of the soil, his 

 object should be to obtain such immediate effect 

 as will enable him to put the land into a slate for 

 growing one good crop, which by its means of 

 producing manure, will probably fead to others. 

 If the question whether it be most profitable to 

 appropriate green crops as the food of cattle, or as 

 manure, be put aside, and that the sole object is 

 the improvement of the land by the latter process, 



* Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, 4to. p. 244. 



then there can be little doubt that the crop should 

 be ploughed down as soon as it is in bloom, for 

 the land will thus have its fidl benefit, besides the 

 partial advantage of the bastard tallow; to which, 

 however, there is this difficulty opposed — that the 

 ground cannot be again ploughed until it receives 

 the seed furrow, and therelbre cannot be cleaned 

 except b}' the operation of horse-hoeing, or scari- 

 fying, which, if the soil be foul, we need not say 

 will prove ineffectual. 



The crops which are most generally applied to 

 this purpose are — buckwheat, winter tares, the se- 

 cond year of clover, and rape ; which last, from 

 its oily nature, has been found very effective. 

 There is, however, a plant which, although but 

 seldom sown in this country, is very commonly 

 grown throughout Flanders, for the pasturage of 

 cows, and is there sown, like brush-turnips, im- 

 mediately after a crop of wheat, yet in a couple 

 of months afterwards affords a large quantity of 

 succulent food. Several trials of it have also 

 been made with the happiest results in many parts 

 of Germany, of its efiects as a green manure ; for 

 it not only possesses the advantage of putrefying 

 with great rapidity when ploughed in, but also 

 that of producing a crop by being merely har- 

 rowed across the stubble, and the seed costs a 

 mere trifle;* it is called spurry.] Out of a num- 

 ber of trials which have been recorded in this 

 country, we select the following from the Essays 

 of Mr. Burroughs on green crops and on ma- 

 nures : — 



Experiments. 



1. A field of strong clay, containing three acrcp, 

 on Mr. B.'s own farm, was laid out in the follow- 

 ing manner. One acre was fallowed during the 

 summer, and prepared for wheat with sixty bar- 

 rels of lime, harrowed in ; the adjoining acre was 

 sown with winter tares, which were once cut, and 

 the second growth turned into the land when the 

 blossom appeared ; the third acre was planted 

 with potatoes, and manured with farm-yard dung. 

 The entire of the field was sown with wheat the 

 first week in November, at which time the acre 

 sown with tares was much cleaner and in better 

 health than those planted with potato or fallowed, 

 and the following year produced more wheat, and 

 of better quality, than either of the former. After 

 the wheat crop was carried off, the field was im- 

 mediately ploughed, and in the following May 

 sown with barley and grass-seeds. The average 

 of the corn off the three acres was nearly tlie 

 same ; but the meadow, the following year, pro- 

 duced more abundantly off that part of^ the field 

 where the tares had grown, and the land was 

 much freer from weeds. f 



* Annales de i'Agriculture de Basse- Saxe : 3me 

 annee, sect. Ire. 



t See also Lord Dundonald's Treatise on Agricultu- 

 ral Chemistry, regarding the cultivation of sorrel in 

 poor worn-out soils, for the purpose of a green ma- 

 nure ; in wliich its application to the land along with 

 lime is strongly recoinmondcd upon grounds which 

 are well worthy of attention, but too long for insertion 

 here. 



t Essay, No. I. On the Cultivation of Green Crops, 

 p. 29. 



J 



