34 



FARMERS' REGISTER— SPECIFIC MANURES, kc. 



plored, will, I am persuaded, furnish invaluable 

 instruction. 



It is highly presumable when man first subject- 

 ed the horse, ox, &c. to his control, as nature ap- 

 parently had provided only green vegetables lor 

 their subsistence, that he, confiding in her uner- 

 ring wisdom, also deemed other food superfluous : 

 but the earliest records of history present tliose 

 animals participating with their masters in tlie use 

 of corn, and experience evinces that in their in- 

 creased bulk and muscular strength we are amply 

 remunerated. The dog rejects vegetables; and 

 although he can subsist on bread, yet if entirely 

 deprived of flesh, (the food most congenial to his 

 nature,) it will be attended v/itli a proportionate 

 decrease of strength and courage. Eirds and fish 

 in like manner require for their maturity that ali- 

 ment which is adapted to their different constitu- 

 tions. The vegetable kingdom sustains the ana- 

 logy. Animal and vegetable manures are conge- 

 nial to the growth of every species of vegetables, 

 and yet the locust if planted in a soil the most fer- 

 tile, but defective in lime, like the dog feeding on 

 bread, although sustaining still its growth, bears 

 no proportion to trees of like kind on utterly ex- 

 hausted hill sides abounding with marl. Tlie pine 

 on the contrary, luxuriates on soils v/ortlilcss for 

 the production of food for man or beast beyond 

 any tree of the forest ; but if transplanted into a 

 higlily calcareous soil, however abounding with 

 putrescent vegetables, its growth amioiinces un- 

 congenial food, and like the sheep sorrel, it seems 

 (from the presence of lime,) divested of the power 

 of feeding on the abundance of manure by which 

 it is surrounded. This discrepance common to ani- 

 mals and vegetables, serves more obviously to il- 

 lustrate the similitude in nature's works, and 

 should teach us tha.t discrimination in food v. Inch 

 experience has ascertained to be indispensable to 

 the improvement of the animals under our imme- 

 diate care and observation, is equally expedient in 

 our agricultural operations : and as that unerring 

 instructer has shov.n that vegetables spontaneous 

 in growth are inadequate to the perfection of ani- 

 mals, we should infer their incompetence, wlien 

 rotted, to perfect the variety of the species of 

 plants whicli we cultivate : and this suggests the 

 expediency of our exploring that portion of the 

 earth itself accessible to us, to discover, if possi- 

 ble, any combinations v/ithin, congenial to the 

 growth of vegetables, which, from their position, 

 are inaccessible to the roots of growhig plants. 



I am the more confident in advising otlier agri- 

 cultuiusts to institute similar investigations, from 

 an experiment with gypseous earth, made under 

 anticipations of success so feeble, as barely to buoy 

 me under the operation on one acre of land— be- 

 cause I then was as I now am, uninformed of the 

 quantity of the sulphate of lime per bushel, and 

 knew not the duration, if any, of its nutritious ef- 

 fects on the growth of clover or other grasses ; 

 but at this time, I appreciate the consequences of 

 my trial as far more important than any other 

 (the use of marl always excepted,) which has ever 

 come luider my observation. 



Corn Avas cultivated in 1831, on a sandy ridge 

 in my field, marled in 1826, and yielded from 

 eight to ten bushels ; it was seeded with w heat in 

 October, and clover seed (in the chaff) sowed in 

 December following, and soon after from forty to 

 fifty bushels of gypseous earth carelessly spreai! on 



an acre. In June, the number of plants, and the 

 growth of the clover, palpably marked that por- 

 tion on which the gypseous earth had been thrown, 

 and v/asto me exhilirating indeed — while the yel- 

 low and feeble aspect of the pretermitted spaces 

 under any other circumstances, could not fail to 

 deter every prudent farmer from adventuring a se- 

 cond crop of clover on a similar soil. The wheat 

 languished, and appeared neither cherished or da- 

 maged by aliment the most nutritious to clover, 

 by which it was surrounded, and scarcely yielded 

 a recompense for its cultivation. This spring, ap- 

 pearances are equally flattering, the clover being 

 about two feet high, and a space of thirty or forty 

 acres Avhich was spread last fall with the same 

 earth, fully sustains the character of this manure 

 being the specific food for clover. How long its 

 beneficial influence will endure, experience will 

 hereafter determine. Annual applications of the 

 French and Nova Scotia i)laster are considered ad- 

 visable. The effects of the gypseous earth used 

 by me, are, I think, superior the second year, and 

 far exceed any benefit Avhich I have ever derived 

 from my use of the imported gypsum. 



On viewing the prospect before me, T can no 

 longer entertain a doubt that every acre of my 

 fields, (without aid from the stable and farm pen 

 manures,) at tlie trivial expense of carting and 

 spreading from forty to fifty bushels of gypseous 

 earth per acre, may be made to produce an exu- 

 berant growth of white, red, and bird-foot clover, 

 and I rely on the experience of others, as well as on 

 my own, for assurance that wheat sowed on a heavy 

 clover lay will yield an abundant crop ; and as I 

 am disposed to think that corn, aided by the stubble 

 of the preceding crop of wheat, as well as the pu- 

 trid clover, Avili yield as abundantly after Avheat as 

 before it, I would suggest the expediency of chang- 

 ing the present rotation, notwithstanding the al- 

 leged ol;jeclions of the extra labor, and the proba- 

 ble detriment to tl;e young clover. For the for- 

 mer, (admitting the fact,) ample recompense will 

 be derived in tlie increase of the Avheat crop, from 

 the improvement of the soil by guarding the ve- 

 getables ploughed in, from the waste which is in- 

 evitable from the corn cultivation ; and as the pre- 

 paration of the field may be commenced early in 

 September, and easily completed by the 10th of 

 October, — the liarrows drawn both by the horses 

 (then at leisure) and the oxen, will sufficiently co- 

 ver the sowed wheat by two operations, and com- 

 plete the seeding in fifteen or twenty days. Of the 

 effects on the young clover plants I am not fully 

 informed. My course will be to sow the seed, 

 (v.'itl!0ut separation from the chaff,) as I " lay by" 

 corn or give the last tillage. The cover on the 

 seed will protract their vegetation, probably until 

 the foliage of peas planted from the 1st to the 10th 

 June Avill afford protection from the sun. 



The cultivation of field peas has so long engag- 

 ed the attention of fai-mers, as to create a strong 

 presumption that every valuable property apper- 

 taining to them must long since have been ascer- 

 tained, and consequently, that farther speculation 

 on their value will be superfluous. But, as there 

 may be others as well as myself, v/ho again and 

 again have derived the benefit, and have not no- 

 ticed, or if they have, have not systematically 

 availed themselves of that crop for the suppres- 

 sion of v/eeds, grass, &c. and thereby greatly fa- 

 cilitating their sowing of wheat — to those, perhaps. 



