540 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



steeped in the nitrate of potash, the produce 

 of all this year exceeded that of last year ; 

 and even that may be more au apparent than 

 a real exception ; for the quantity of straw 

 was neai'ly one-third more. It only remains 

 to mention that every alternate row having 

 been left unhoed, the produce of those rows 

 was less by 27 lbs. 4 oz. than from those 

 which had been hoed ; and the oftener that 

 . operation was performed the greater was the 

 increase. But it is necessary to be cautious ; 

 for though it is useful to keep the soil open 

 till the lateral fibres of the roots have pene- 

 trated it, yet afterward the hoe is mischievous, 

 for it cuts oif the mouths by which the plant 

 feeds itself 



Before I conclude, the obvious improve- 

 ment obtained in these experiments from so 

 small an amount of inorganic manure, leads 

 me to notice a vulgar error which a certain 

 agricultural fanaticism is propagating too suc- 

 cessfully all over the country. If any agri- 

 cultural radical boasts that he has slain his 

 thousands of trees, and claims merit for it as 

 a great benefactor to mankind, he not only 

 shows an utter insensibility to all the beauties 

 of Nature, and a utilitarian dullness destitute 

 of taste, but also a woeful ignorance as to 

 some plain matters of fact. I do not con- 

 tend that trees do no harm to crops ; I freely 

 admit that inclosures may be too small, and 

 trees too numerous ; but I do contend that to 

 proscribe them altogether, and to banish 

 them entirely from any extensive farm, is the 

 greatest blunder that can be committed by 

 au agriculturist. Ask the tiaveler whose 

 eye is wearied by the endless tracts of open 

 lands in France what it is that strikes him 

 most when he crosses the Channel, and he 

 ■will tell you that it is the richness of the 

 scenery formed by the inclosures ; and this 

 is no illusion ; it is not a mere impression 

 upon the eye from the intermixture of trees 

 in the landscape; it is a real riclniess of soil, 

 a real difference of verdure and vegetation 

 produced partly by .shelter and partly by the 

 fertihzing operations of Nature. When Mr. 

 Jacob published his account of Agriculture 

 on the Continent, he staled that the return of 

 wheat in the North of France was eight or 

 nine for one. In the inclosed parts of Eng- 

 land no good fanner would be content with 

 such a return, though in the most bleak and 

 exposed situations it would not be far from 

 the mark ; and w-hy ? Because protection 

 -from wind is an essential condition of fertility. 

 In a dry soil, especially, the unrestrained ac- 

 tion of wind absti-acts from the growing plant 

 more moisture than its roots can supply, and 

 therefore tends to weaken and to wither it ; 

 a7id the same effect is produced by the great 

 reduction of temperature which it causes ; 

 for it is well known that rapid evaporation is 

 the source of intense cold. But crops want 

 protection from wind in their state of maturity 

 as well as in their state of growth. Wheat 

 and oats sometimes suffer much from the ab- 

 sence of it, and for one bushel that is lost by 

 the neighborhood of trees, ten will sometimes 

 110-20> 



be scattered on the ground by the shaking 

 of the wind. 



But farther, though shade is injurious to 

 crops, yet both shade and shelter are wanted 

 for cattle. If they are to be kejit in the 

 highest state of health, shade in summer and 

 shelter in winter. Let any one observe what 

 a longing for shade is exhibited by animals 

 in a hot day ; how sheep, for instance, clus- 

 ter under the shadow of a tree, or a hedge, 

 or even a bank, and then say whether, by 

 depriving them of that comfort, you do not 

 subject them to a privation likely to be inju- 

 rious to their health, or at least very hostile 

 to their thriving well. In winter, again, the 

 want of shelter is admitted on all hands to be 

 hurtful to them, on account of the great com- 

 bustion of food in the lungs which it occa- 

 sions, and the great loss of animal heat ; and. 

 therefore some of those who have deprived 

 them of that which Nature gave them have 

 been driven to invent movable sheds to sup- 

 ply its place. The exterminators of trees, in- 

 deed, go so far as to say that all animals 

 should be kept under cover. Be it so ; if 

 tfiey can find their system answer to them, 

 let them manure their fields with gold if they 

 will ; it is not for me to complain of it. What 

 I do complain of is their propagandism, that 

 they beguile those who have not, and those 

 who cannot have their accommodation, into 

 a belief that, by a partial adoption of their 

 system, but omitting the most material part, 

 they are acting well and wisely. It may be 

 said that animals resorting to hedges and 

 trees for shade and shelter, deposit their ma- 

 nure in places where it must be lost. But 

 why must it be lost ? Did anybody ever hear 

 that manure is lost when it is deposited in the 

 fold-yard? And why may it not be collected 

 in one place as well as in another, especially 

 since there is the same intermixture of animal 

 and vegetable matters ? for where the drop- 

 pings fall the leaves fall also. It may be said 

 that they are scattered by the wind over the 

 surface of the ground ; well, but if they are 

 scattered, they are not annihilated, and 

 wherever they are deposited their decompo- 

 sition adds so much useful matter to the soil, 

 and before decomposition they protect the 

 young crop from frost, and prevent the ra- 

 diation of heat from the earth. Strange it is 

 that when the value of leaves and leaf-mould 

 is so well understood by gardenei's, it should 

 be so entirely overlooked by fanners ; but 

 since many persons are "extremely slow either 

 to perceive or admit inferences from analog)', 

 I determined to bring this question to an is- 

 sue in a method almost approaching to dem- 

 onstration. 



I had the leaves of a tree which stood 

 apart from all others collected and weighed 

 when they were so far dried by exposure to 

 the air as to be fairly considered diy leaves ; 

 their weight was 360 lbs., the space of ground 

 covered iSy the tree was from 8 to 9 perehes, 

 and beyond that area no effect at all from the 

 roots was perceptible. Here, then is more 

 than 3 cwts. of manure to compensate for any 



