544 



FARMERS' RE(iiSTER— Farming, kc. in new york. 



is called the western, to the southern seed, because 

 the first affords triple the quantity of herbage, 

 ivhich is the great desideratum, whetlier we want 

 it for pasture, hay, or a lay to turn under. The 

 southern ripens sooner, but it gives too small a 

 bulk to be as profitable as the western, and we 

 cannot think of sowing the one, wiien we can, 

 even if it is at a high price, obtain the other.* But 

 it is not clover only that is used ; timothy is often 

 sown, particularly for land that is to remain for 

 any time in grass; and while the first is always 

 sown in the spring, the other uniformly does best 

 if sown in the fall. So common has the practice 

 become to use artificial grasses, and so useful have 

 they been found, that many farmers will sow clo- 

 ver seed with their spring grain, even if they in- 

 tend to take a crop from the same lot the succeed- 

 ing year; and I have a lot now in my eye, which 

 was in wheat with clover seed sown in the spring 

 of 1832, that this year, 1833, bore a very good crop 

 of corn. This however, is not advisable flxrming, 

 but it is occasionally done by those Avhose fiirms 

 are small. It is a conceded point by all our most 

 intelligent formers, that the best and surest prepa- 

 ration for a grain crop, is a clover sod that has lain 

 for a year or two. Stable manure will add to its 

 fertility, and enhance the product, but the sod 

 is of much more importance to the succeeding 

 crop, if taken singly, than the manure. There 1s 

 an ameliorating and a fructifying quality about the 

 sod that imparts its powers to the grain tiiat suc- 

 ceeds it, which is not so discernible in the proper- 

 ties of the manure ; and in dry seasons, the effects 

 of the last are almost entirely lost. To plant our 

 corn therefore on a clover sod, or to sow our wheat 

 upon it, are great desiderata. Thirty years expe- 

 rience has amply satisfied us that the ground so 

 prepared, yields by far the most abundant returns. 

 A rotation of crops is adopted, but not adhered to 

 with that punctilious observance as to rule, that I 

 sec obtains among your best farmers — inasmuch as 

 we are more governed by our opinion of the 

 strength of the ground to produce the desired 

 crop, than by any regular rotation ; and while at 

 the same time we are so careful not to exhaust the 

 soil of its fertilitj", as often not to take more than 

 one, sometimes two, and never more than three 

 grain crops from a lot, before it is again put down 

 to grass. It appears to be a law of nature that an 

 animal or plant will not feed well on its own re- 

 mains ; so of clover, without the ground is in a 

 measure exhausted of its remains, the seed does 

 not, in the first, take, and in the second place, do 

 well. As clover is so generally used upon these 

 plains for pasture, and for imparting a fertilizing 

 quality to the soil, we are careful when it is used 

 for pasture not to crop it too close ; and therefore it 

 is considered essential to the interests of the far- 

 mer that his stock of cattle and horses should be 

 as small as is consistent with the careful tillage of 

 the soil and the uses of the dairy. As small a num- 

 ber of these animals therefore, is kept, as can easily 



[* If the western and southern clover seed here spo- 

 ken of, are so named merely from their origin, (and not 

 as being different varieties,) the great difference in 

 their products presents a striking proof of the truth 

 and value of Dr. Bronn's theory of the "Influence of 

 the origin of seeds, &c." Seep. 257-8, No. 5, Farmei<s' 

 Register.] — Ed. 



be supported — but not so with hogs ; in sunimef 

 they do remarkably well on clover — aftef harvest, 

 they have the droppings of the grain in the fields — 

 in the commencement of autumn, they have the be- 

 nefits of the orchards with which almost all our 

 faims are supplied, so that they require but little 

 corn to finish their fattening. 



I have thus given you an abstract of our method 

 of farming. If it is of any service in the sugges- 

 tion of a single idea that may be useful towards the 

 management of a similar kind of soil elsewhere, I 

 shall feel myself amply compensated for this com- 

 munication. I have appended to it the agricultu- 

 ral report of the products of a farm in my neigh- 

 borhood for the last year; and as the method of 

 farming which obtains here, is very uniform 

 among our best farmers, it may be taken as a 

 proof of the success of our practice. The product 

 from this farm is not taken because it is an evi- 

 dence of the most successful cultivation. I have 

 no doubt — indeed, I know that there are many far- 

 mers in this vicinity who have been quite as suc- 

 cessful ; but this gentleman, having acquired a 

 competence and just sold his farm at sixty dollars 

 per acre, we have a fair criterion to rate the per 

 centage of his farming investment. 

 Most respectfully, yours, &c. 



' J. p. BEEKMAN. 



Kinderhook, Colinnbia County, } 

 New York, Dec. 20th, 1833. 5 



Sir, — At the solicitation of a friend, I am in- 

 duced to give a statement of the products of my 

 farm for the year 1833, and of its general manage- 

 ment. In doing this, as my grain is not yet all 

 thrashed and taken to market, I cannot now arrive 

 at perfect accuracy ; but, from what is thrashed 

 and sold, I can make a correct estimate of the quan- 

 tity, and I have ascertained the price for such as 

 has not been actually sold. 



My farm is situated on an extensive plain that 

 was once covered pretty generally with small pine 

 timber. The soil is sand, occasionally gravel, and 

 more or less mixed with loam. It consists of about 

 two hundred acres, of which thirty are in wood, 

 twenty in meadow, and ten acres of waste, leaving 

 for cultivatian about one hundred and forty acres of 

 arable, or land used for the plough, which is di- 

 vided into seven lots of twenty acres each. One of 

 these lots is planted each year in corn, on clover 

 sod : the corn is the large twelve rowed early yel- 

 low, and my usual produce is about fifty bushels 

 per acre. My mode of cultivation is, that after 

 the lot has lain one year in clover, to plough it the 

 last of Aprd T)r first of May, about six inches 

 deep — then furrow both ways with a light corn 

 plough, the first time across the furrows about two 

 feet nine inches apart, and the next about three 

 feet. I plant immediately after furrowing. As 

 soon as the corn is up the length of the finger, I 

 harrow it with a large heavy harrow, lengthwise, 

 with the furrow, as the ground was originally 

 ploughed, and take two rows at a time. Two men 

 or boys follow the harrow with aprons, out of 

 which they plaster the corn — and also to raise any 

 plants which may have been thrown down by the 

 harrow passing over them. In about a week af- 

 tfer, I plough once between the rows, as they are 

 planted the narrowest way ; the men follow with 

 the hoe, and they will finish twenty acres in ten 



