226 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Feb. 4, 1831. 



the same course of husbandry be pursued, for two 

 hundred years to come, that has been, for the cen- 

 tury past, and it will require but a moderate share 

 of wisdom, to foresee the event. Spring might, 

 indeed, return, and the showers of heaven descend, 

 but no longer to moisten the tender grass, or deck 

 the fields in vernal beauty, for hungry sterility 

 will have rooted up tlie last blade, and destruction, 

 over the naked land, 'expanded her raven wing.' 



Let the plough, then, the most important of all 

 agricultural instruments, in the hands of a judicious 

 farmer, be used to preserve rather than to destroy 

 the food, wliich nature has so bountifully provided 

 for the nourishment of plants. Gi'ounds, which 

 are not entirely destitute of vegetable matter, may, 

 by proper management, be made highly productive, 

 without tlie aid of manure. If the small portion 

 of animal and vegetable substances, which may be 

 found upon our thin, gravelly or sandy, soils, be 

 turned under by the plough, and allowed to remain 

 there, secure from the wasting influence of winds 

 and otlier causes, which excite the evaporation of 

 tlieir volatile properties, there can be no doubt, 

 that by repeating this process for a few years, our 

 poorest lands may become essentially improved, 

 and be made to produce crops, that would richly 

 compensate for the labor bestowed. 



The course usually pursued, cannot but be at- 

 tended with a constant deterioration of the soil. 

 A field of matted and bound out green sward, is 

 broken up, tiot turned over, in the spring, some days 

 before planting, harrowed, then cross ploughed and 

 harrowed again. By this stirring and throwing 

 about the sods, by tlie plough and harrow, the roots 

 and tops of the grass, and all the light, vegetable 

 mould, are necessarily brouglit to the surface, and 

 exposed to waste from the operation of sun and 

 winds, and the poorer part of the soil, which should 

 remain at tlie top to imbibe the enriching proper- 

 ties of the atmosphere, is, by the same cross 

 ploughing and harrowing, thrown back into its cold 

 and lifeless bed. The next season, it is ploughed, 

 harrowed and cross ploughed again, and, if the 

 first year's crop were potatoes, and the owner hap- 

 pen to be ' book farmer' enough to knovv' the im- 

 portance of a rotation of crops, he plants the se- 

 cond year with corn, and in order that evaporation 

 and the winds may have their perfect work, in de- 

 priving the ground of the small portion of vege- 

 table mould that remains, it is hauled into heaps 

 about the corn, which, in this way, is left to find 

 its nourishment in the naked valleys between the 

 rows. The third year, the field is ploughed, har- 

 rowed, cross ploughed and harrowed again, and 

 sowed down with grain and grass seed, and then, 

 instead of the roller, to break down the lumps, 

 press in the small stones, and set the earth close 

 to the seed, the bush harrow is applied, which fin- 

 ishes the work, by leaving exposed much of the 

 seed, and bringing to tlie surface many small stones, 

 and the weeds and stubble of the former year's 

 growth. If tlie field happen to be on a side hill, 

 in addition to the above causes of wasting the bet- 

 ter parts of the soil, will be its liability to be wash- 

 ed away by the rains, thereby to enrich his neigh- 

 bor's grounds, or increase the alluvial possessions 

 of some more fortunate proprietor. 



After such a course of husbandry, without hav- 

 ing applied more than an ordinary quantity of ma- 

 nure, will any farmer pretend that the stock of 

 vegetable nutriment in his field has been increas- 

 ed ? Does not the impoverished condition of his 

 fields rather convince him that at the end of his 



three years' labor his soil has evidently become 

 poorer and less productive, than it was at the be- 

 gmning of his course ? If, on examination, such 

 sliould be his convictions, will not the provident 

 farmer be in some measure alarmed at what he 

 must see will be the certain eventual result, and be 

 anxious to apply a remedy ? 



Upon a field of eight acres, now in my posses- 

 sion, a course similar to the one above described, 

 had been pursued, to my knowledge, for more than 

 forty years. At each successive ploughing, it had 

 been manured, as well as grounds were generally 

 manured by the neighboring farmers. The soil 

 was evidently becoming poorer, and the crops di- 

 minishing. In 1822, when I commenced opera- 

 tions upon it, the soil was tliiu, ami the crops of 

 the first three years, it having been cultivated in 

 the usual way, hardly i)ai(l the expense of labor 

 and manure, which had been bestowed. Good 

 economy, then, would seem to require, that the 

 field should either be abandoned, or that some 

 mode of culture sliould be introduced, v?hich 

 should have the effect, either of increasing the 

 crop or lessening the expense. 



In May, 1829,* the field having laid three year 

 to grass, and the crop of hay so light as to be 

 worth not more than the expense of making, with 

 a view of ascertaining the quantity of vegetable 

 matter upon the surfiice, I took a single foot 

 square of green sward, and after separating the 

 roots and tops of the grasses fnm the loam 

 and vegetable mould, it was found on weighing 

 to contain nine ounces of clear, vegetable sub- 

 stance, giving, at that rate, over twelve and a quar- 

 ter tons to the acre. This convinced me of the 

 importance of taking some course, by which this 

 valuable treasure might be turned to good account. 

 That a great part of this mass of vegetable mat- 

 ter is exposed to useless waste, by the usual mode 

 of ploughing, cross ploughing and harrowing, 

 must be obvious to any one. In order, therefore, 

 to secure this, as well as the light veg<?table mould 

 at and near the surface, which is liable to waste 

 from the same causes, I had two acres of the green 

 sward of this field turned over with the plough, 

 as smoothly as possible. After removing the out- 

 side fur,-ow slices into the centre of the plough- 

 land, and thereljy efiecting the double purpose of 

 covering the vacant space in the middle, and pre- 

 venting ridges at the .sides and ends, the field was 

 rolled hard, with a loaded roller, by which the un- 

 even parts of tlie furrow were pressed down and 

 the whole made smooth. It was then harrowed 

 lengthwise the furrows, with a horse harrow, but 

 so lightly as not to disturb the sod. Twi-nty cnrt 

 loads of compost manure, made by mixing two 

 parts of loam or peat mud, with one of stable 

 dung, were then spread upon each acre. It was 

 then harrowed again, as before, and the poorer 



* Most ot the remarks in the writer's account of bis 

 method of ploughing green sward, were published in 

 1829, in the New England Farmer, in answer to some in- 

 quhies on the subject, made through the medium of that 

 paper, over the sionature of • Doi Chester. '—After ma- 

 king the experiment, and writino; the account, a gentle- 

 man, to whom he showed the field and described the 

 mode of culture, stated that the same method had been 

 pursued by the late Mr Lorain, of Pennsylvania; and in 

 a few days after, kindly sent him Lorain's excellent trea- 

 tise upon husbandry. He had not before examined this 

 work. Mr Lorain recommends turning over the green 

 sward and planting on the furrow, but the following sea- 

 son he ploughed as usual, and, in no instance does he 

 state, that ho tried the method of raising two crops of 

 grain and stocking the ground down to grass, without dis- 

 turbing the sod. 



part of the soil, which had been turned up, ant 

 rema'ned upon the surface, was thereby mix 

 ed with the compos^ manure. — Corn was tlies 

 planted in drills upon the furrow, the rows beinj 

 at the usual distance and (larallel with the fur 

 rows. At hoeing time, the surface was stirred bi 

 niuniug a light plough between the rows, but no 

 so deep, at this or the subsequent lioeing, as ti 

 disturb the sod. What Mr Lorain calls the ' sav 

 age [iractice' of hilling up the corn, was caiitiousb 

 avoided. As the season advanced, I carefulb 

 watched the )u-ogress of my cornfield. In tin 

 early part of the season, it did not exhibit a \ev\ 

 promising appearance ; but as sojmi as the root 

 had extended into the enriching matter beneath 

 and began to expand in the decouqiosing sward 

 which had now become mellow, and more minute 

 ly divided by the fermentation of the confined ve 

 getable substances beneath, than it possibly coul 

 have been by plough or hoe, the growth becami 

 vigorous, and the crop, in the ojiinion of those vvh 

 examined the field not less than seventy bushel 

 of corn to the acre. As soon as the corn wa 

 harvested, the stubble was loosened up by ruuuin 

 a light horse plough lengthwise, through the row 

 the surface then smoothed with a bush harrov 

 and one bushel of rye, with a sufficient quantit 

 of herd's grass and red top seed, to the acre, w: 

 then sowed, the ground again harrowed and rol 

 ed. The crop of rye was harvested in July fo 

 lowing, and the two acres yielded sixtynine and 

 half bushels of excellent grain, and over five tot 

 of straw. The grass seed, sowed with the ry 

 took well, and the present season I mowed, win 

 those who secured the crop, judged to be two an 

 a half tons of the very best of hay from eac 

 acre.* 



Thus, with one ploughing, with the aid of twei 

 ty cart loads of compost manure to the acre, 

 have obtained two crops of grain and stocked tl 

 land down to grass. 



The soil upon which this experiment was mai 

 was a thin loam upon a gravelly subsoil, and aft 

 stating the fact, that it had before, in the usua 

 mode of culture, yielded but about forty busht 

 of corn to the acre, and less than half that qua* 

 tity of rye or barley, and, with the exception 

 the first year after laying down to grass, a crop 

 hay that but little more than paid the labor of mj 

 king, the beneficial effects of this mode of plougg 

 ing green sward, would seem to be established b 

 yond a doubt. Other parts of the same field ha 

 been ploughed and managed in the same wa 

 and promise results equally gratifying. The V! 

 uable ends attained by this mod^ of culture, 

 will be readily seen, are a saving of iTiore thi 

 half the labor, a doubling of the produce, a retai 

 ing of much of the enriching master found upi 

 the surface, which by the usual mode of ploug 

 ing and cross ploughing is dissipated and given 

 the winds; and add to these advantages, wh 



* The writer's first experiment in this method o! ma 

 aging sward land was made upon a piece of wora* 

 pasture land in 1826. In the month of August the si 

 was turned over as flat as the condition of the land wj 

 allow. It was then rolled and harrowed, the same 

 with the furrows, and Buck Wheat, with herd's grass 

 red top seed sowed upon the furrow, without the u^ 

 any manure. The crop of buck wheat was pretty 

 In the spring following, the grass looked so promisii 

 was reserved tor mowing, and yielded a very goodf 

 of excellent clean hay, and as pasture land has aiTo 

 more than double the feed for cattle that it did M 

 ploughing. The field was harrowed and rolled afterf 



