408 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



and which he is confident may be adopted with 

 profit by others. One of these is raismg potatoes 

 without earthing. For this crop a young clover 

 ley is preferred. The manure is drawn out and 

 spread as the <2;round is plouiihed, the p.otatoe sets 

 are drojiped in every third furrow, and of course 

 covered wiih the next lurrow slice. Tlie ground 

 is alierwards harrowed, and the crop kept free 

 from weeds, by the harrow or cuUivafor. and hoe, 

 but the plants are not earthed. The plougii is only 

 used in gathering the crop. Another mode is to 

 draw shadow furrows, at the distance intended lor 

 drills, drop the seed, and cover by gathering two 

 furrows upon the seed. The intermediate spaces 

 are ploughed when the crop is first dressed, and 

 turned in equal parts towards the two adjoining 

 drills. The soil a sandy loam. 



We have practiced the first mode, except that 

 our crop was earthed with a plough; and we are 

 persuaded, that had we lei't a plane surface, the 

 crop would have been benefited — for three rea- 

 sons: first, because by earthin<>; with the plough 

 the seed was too deep, 10 or 12 inches, and could 

 not receive the genial influence of heat and air : 

 second, because the crop suffered more from 

 drought in consequence of the sharp ridges into 

 which the surfiice had been moulded, than it 

 would if the surlace had been left flat; and third, 

 because the plough, by throwinir a portion of the 

 manure and sod to the surliice, diminished the fer- 

 tility of the ground. Our ground was [(artiy in a 

 moist swale, and partly on a sandy knoll. The 

 crop in the swale gave at the rate of more than 

 600 bushels to the acre product ; while thatonthe 

 knoll, a severe drought having intervened, wive 

 less than 300 bushels. The whole was highly 

 manured. From this experiment, v.'e infer, that 

 in damp and stiff' soils, it will be best to deposite 

 the seed near the surlace, and to earth the plants 

 with the plough ; and that where the soil is light 

 and dry, the seed should be planted deeper, and 

 tlie plants not earthed. By earthing the plants, 

 it will be perceived, that double the surfiice is ex- 

 posed to the drying influence of the sun, that there 

 is where the ground is left flat. Ridges correct 

 the defects of a wet soil, and they increase the 

 evils of drought on a dry one. 



Clover. — The practice, says our informant, is to 

 mow clover only one year, as cattle food, and then- 

 to turn it under as food for the crop — thus ensuring 

 the return to the soil of a mass of rich vesretable 

 matter. Clover is a biennial plant, and of course 

 cannot be depended upon as a green crop after the 

 second year ; and as this there constitutes the main 

 dependance for winter forage, the timothy not be- 

 ing grown, it cannot be depended on, after the se- 

 cond year, for hay. Hence clover is not only 

 sown with small grains, but in the Indian corn 

 grounds, at the last dressing of the crop — the corn 

 not being hilled. The latter practice is found 

 highly advantageous, and is being extended. 



We can add our own experience in favor of 

 sovvino; clover with small grains. It is our gene- 

 ral practice ; and we find we are doubly paid in 

 the autumn feed, and quadruply paid in the fijed 

 and the manure which the green crop returns to 

 the soil. The clover not "only imparts fi^rtility, 

 when turned under, but its roots divide and break 

 the soil while growing, and render it pulverous as 

 they decay. In sowing clover designed for a 

 green croj), and indeed in all cases where it is to 



constitute the only herbage, at least ten pounds of 

 seed should be used on the acre. The thicker the 

 plants the finer and better the herbage ; the more 

 abundant the roots, the greater benefit to the soil, 

 both as it regards pidverizalion and fertility. 

 With regard to the uii'ity of seeding corn fields, 

 the only doubt we have, is, whether the clover 

 would acquire sufficient strength to withstand our 

 northern winters. As it would be sown in July, 

 about the time we put in our ruta baga, we are in- 

 clined to think it would acquire sufficient maturity. 

 While on the subject of clover, we will state our 

 belief, resulting from experience, that it may be 

 profitably grown on stifi' soils and marsh land, 

 providing they have been sufficiently underdrain- 

 ed — the only impediment to its growth on such 

 soils being water upon the soil, or sub-soil, within 

 the reach of the roots. 



Sheep in Corn. — Our informant states it to be a 

 good practice to turn sheep into the cornfields, af- 

 ter the last hoeing in July. They will not eat or 

 injure the corn, but will eat the srrass which 

 springs up. The corn affords the shelter which 

 those animals require, and serves to protect them 

 from the fly, which is vexatious, and oflen serious- 

 ly prejudicial to them, during the hot weather of 

 Anirust. But for the hioh respectibility of our 

 informant, we should be disposed to doubt the util- 

 ity of this pructice. 



Liming. — The use of lime for agricultural pur- 

 poses in the valley oftiie Susquehannah, between 

 the Blue Ridije and the Alleghany, where our in- 

 formant resides, is o*' recent introduction, but it is 

 Ibuiid highly efficacious, and is increasing. The 

 common application on the alluvial flats is fifiy 

 bushels the acre. As lime-stone abounds in the 

 neighborhood, it is sold at the kilns at ten cents 

 the bushel. It is burnt with anthracite coal, 

 which is there bought at two dollars the ton. 

 The process of burning is cheap and simple. A 

 hole is excavated in the side of a hill, in the shape 

 of an inverted cone, with an open passage from 

 the base of the pit to the base of the hill, by 

 which to ignhe the coal when the kiln is filled. 

 The pit is then filled with broken limestone, and 

 broken anthracite, intermixed; the top is well 

 covered with sods artd earth, and fire connnunica- 

 ted below. No attendance upon the kiln is re- 

 quired, and in about eight days the lime may be 

 drawn lor use. 



Ascending the valley of the Susquehannah, and 

 above the Alleghany range, we meet with no 

 limestone till we pass some distance into the state 

 of New York'. Hence this material, as soon as 

 the llicilities of water communication, which are 

 beo'un, shall be coirqileted, must form a prominent 

 article of export li-om our state into the upper val- 

 ley of the Susquehannah. The application of 

 lime to the red sand stcne formation is found to be 

 particularly serviceable. As this (ormation ex- 

 tends, with partial exceptions, from the Connecti- 

 cut river to North Carolina, the publication of this j 

 fact may excite new attention to the subject. If 

 our recollection serves us, this formation shows it- 

 self, according to Professor M'Clure's geological' 

 map, twenty or thirty miles on Connecticut riveryl 

 is seen to underlay the Pallisado rocks upon the| 

 west bnnk of the lludson, emerges to the surface! 

 near New Brunswick, and occupies a districtj. 

 twenty to thirty miles broad, through West New[ 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, &c. 



