Vol. 1.— No. 16. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



123 



the quality of the wool of the Scotsman's 

 flock. The resul: of ray experiments proves 

 that a flock of fulJ blood merinos, under high 

 keeping, and breeding indiscriminately from 

 the produce, may be reduced to three quart -rs 

 grade in six or eight years. I am not sure, 

 however, that considering the increased quan-i 

 lity of wool and mutton, they would be less 

 profitable. 



I have an additional inducement to give pub- 

 licity to my experience respecting the shearing 

 ■if lumbs, as on a former occasion, I advoca- 

 ted what I now believe to be an erroneous o« 

 pinion on the matter. In a letter, addressed 

 to John Hare Powell, Esq. which was publish- 

 ed among the proceedings of ihe Pennsylva- 

 nia Agricultural Society, and also, if I mis- 

 take not, in vour paper, I condemned theprac 

 tice of shearing lambs. Additional experience 

 has entirely changed my opinion. About four 

 years ago, 1 had my lambs shorn on one farm 

 I found they stood the winter better, came or 

 to grass in fine order and with less loss than 

 those on my other farms. Since that time I 

 have continued the practice, and with uniform 

 success. I believe the great advantage is de- 

 rived from the destruction of the 'ick. If a 

 lamb is closely and smoothly shorn, about the 

 last of June, or the first of July, very few of 

 those troublesome and destructive vermin will 

 lie found on it in the spring unless they are 

 communicated from other sheep. 



Tho present flattering prospects which are 

 held out to most growers, will no doubt induce 

 many to embark in the business without expe- 

 rience. To suoh these hints may be useful.— 

 Should this be the case, I shall be amply com- 

 pensated for my trouble 



It is high time our country should cease to 

 be dependent on Europe for either wool or 

 cloths. 



It is not less absurd for the U. States to im- 

 port wool, except the very coarsest kind, at 

 'his day, than it would be to import cotton. 

 Yours, very truly. 



ALEXANDER REED. 



Washington, Pa. Dec. 3. 1S30. 



Extracts from the Reports of the Massachusetts 



Agricultural Society in 1830. 

 TURNING IN GREEN CROPS FOR MA- 

 NURE. 

 To Mr. Win. Buck minster, of Framingham. 

 Middlesex County, the committee award the 

 premium of $20 for his experiment ' of turn- 

 ing in green crops as amannre.' This attempt 

 of Mr. Buckminster, in the judgment of the 

 committee, well deserves the attention of far- 

 mers, and particularly of those who live too 

 far from a city or town to buy manure. Th< 

 practice of enriching or renovating land by 

 plowing in green crops, is a very common one 

 in Europe, though hardly known here. But 

 would it not be well to try it? Our farmers 

 in general have more land than they can till, 

 owing to their not having manure enough, or 

 because it is too far from their barn yards;— 

 and hence it is that some large farms, and nat- 

 urally of good soil, actually produce less, but 

 with infinitely more labor, than much smaller 

 ones that are well cultivated. Indeed the de- 

 sire of having large farms, without giving them 

 the necessary outlay, is the common error of 

 our country. The inevitable result is scanty 

 crops and more labor. An acre is mown, oft-| 

 en, for a ton of hay or less, where with decent 

 care two tons might be had. A pasture often 

 ofadoion acres, which might be easily plow- 

 ed, does not afford food enough for one cow; 

 whereas at small expense, it might be made to 

 support four or five. Now in a country like 

 ours, where produce is so cheap and labor so 

 dear, this is unquestionably a wrong, not to 

 say ruinous mode of management, — a mode; 

 which drives our children to the Western or 

 Eastern conn'ry fur want of land, who might J 

 have enough here if rightly used. But if farm- 

 ers will have more land than they can till in 



tho ordinary way. for want of manure, what 

 better plan can be devised than that of plow- 

 ing, and sowing, and turning in the green crops, 

 with the sole view of fertilizing their landB? 

 Whether it be afterwards used for mowing, or 

 tillage or grazing, still it must be good husban- 

 dry, if we can rely on the testimony of Mr. 

 Buckminster, and on the experience of farmers 

 in England. 



The remarks of Mr. Buckminster on boggy, 

 meadow mud, are worthy of notice. It is quite 

 certain, as he says, that used in its crude state, 

 as dug from the "meadow, it is inert and seem- 

 ingly useless ; but when put in the barn yard 

 and hog pen, and trampled upon and mixed 

 with manure, it becomes an excellent compost. 

 As almost every farm has bog meadow, it must 

 be well known, that after being several months 

 in the barn yard or pig sty, it makes an excel- 

 lent manure" for com, in the proportion of a- 

 bout two thirds mud and one third dung. — 

 Whether Mr. Buckminster's notion of carting 

 it at once to the ground where wanted, to save 

 labor, and there mixing it with manure, is a 

 correct one, every man will judge for himself. 

 The common idea has been, that to take it to 

 the barn yard first is better. But all must a- 

 2i ee that it may be very profitably used as food 

 for plants, and therefore ought not to be over- 

 looked in the management of the farm. 

 To the Trustees of the Mass. Agricultural Society : 



I have been induced, partly by the premium 

 you offer and partly for my own satisfaction, 

 ton.ake some experiments as to the value of 

 green crops plowed in for manure, and 1 send 

 you the result. 



In the middle of May, 1828, I plowed up 

 'hrea and a half acres of pasture land that had, 

 for many vears, been tilled by the former own- 

 er until the crops would not repay the labor. 

 it was a light loam, but not sandy. It had 

 been so reduced, that ton acres did not afford 

 sufficient pasturage for one cow through the 

 season. We sowed immediately after thus 

 plowing, a bushel of buckwheat to the acre, 

 and in six weeks rolled down the buckwheat 

 in the direction we intended to plow, and then 

 plowed and sowed as before. In the latter 

 part of August we turned in a second crop of 

 buckwheat — having rolled it down flat as at 

 first, and then seeded it down with clover, 

 herds grass and red-top, one peck and a hall' 

 to the acre Most of the clover was winter 

 killed, and a great part of the herds grass and 

 red top. Early in the spring of 1829, we sow- 

 ed ten pounds of clover seed to the acre ; and 

 with a light harrow, went slowly over the 

 whole. The seed took well, but the clover 

 was not high enough for the scythe, when the 

 other grass was fit to cut. We mowed what 

 had not been winter killed; and where it yield 

 ded best, we obtained one ton of herds grass 

 to the acre Immediately after mowing, we 

 turned in our cattle, and fed the grass close. 

 Last soring, (i830) the grass was so forward 

 we turned in our cattle on the 19th of April. 

 There were eight acres in the whole field, but 

 there were only live acres that bore any grass 

 worth fifty cents. These five acres were the 

 three and a half managed as I have stated a- 

 bove, and one and a half on which glass seed 

 was sown in April, 1820; and fifty bushels of 

 I cache 1 ashes mixed with loam, spread on the 

 surface. On these five acres, (and the three 

 which bore nothing,) 1 pastured four cows 

 constantly for four months, wanting two days, 

 and they had an abundance of feed. I never 

 had any pasture ground yield so well before. 

 1 think these green crops improved the land 

 as much as a good dressing of manure, and the 

 comparative expense I estimato as follows on 

 one acre, viz, 



WITH MANURE. 



20 ox cart loads of manure $"24,00 



Hauling 3-4 mile and spreading 5,00 



Plowing once, green sward 2,00 



Harrowing a" 1 ' sowing 1,00 



$32,00 



WITH GREEN CROPS. 



First plowing, green sward $2,00 

 2d plowing, and rolling with man and 



horse 1,00 



3d plowing, do. do. 1,00 



Three harrowings,do. do. 1,00 



Two bushels buckwheat 1,55 



Sowing do. 25 



$6,80 

 Thus you will see, that it has cost mo less 

 than ono fourth as much to enrich my land 

 with green crops, as it would with manure.— 

 If my grass had not been winter killed the first. 

 vear, t intended to have 6hown you the pre- 

 cise weight of hay cut on an acre. The above 

 estimate of the cost of manure, is less by 12 

 cents per load than it can be purchased for in 

 this place. I have given more within two years. 

 Fanners "light, in duty, to make the trial 

 for themselves. i hey generally have much 

 land, (miscalled under improvement) ten acres 

 of which will not pasture a cow. Such land 

 usually lies distant from the house. They say 

 they cannot make manure enough for the whole 

 farm, and they find it more profitable to lay 

 their manure on lands nearer home. They do 

 not seem to con' cive it possible to enrich 

 them otherwise than with stable manure. It 

 they would plow and sow properly they could 

 make the whole rich. 



They farther object to growing crops to be 

 plowed in; for, say they, 'The growing crop 

 will exhaust the land as much as it will enrich 

 the same when plowed in, so that we end 

 whore we began.' This would be correct rea- 

 soning, undoubtedly, if the growing crop ob- 

 tained i's whole sustenance from the ground. 

 It probably does not one sixth part. It was 

 the knowledge of this principle that save me. 

 confidence of success in the experime»t. The 

 advantages of green crops for manure are great- 

 er where the lands are distant from the barn, 

 than in other cases. 



EOS MUD A3 MANURE. 



I have made another experiment on compost 

 manure. In April, 1S28, I carted thirty loads 

 of mud or muck from a pondhole, which had a 

 black soil four feet deep. I thought it must 

 be valuable manure, though nothing but rushes 

 and skunk cabbage had grown on it for twenty 

 years, owing to its sunken position. The thir- 

 ty loads were immediately spread on an acre 

 ofworn out land, and plowed in. While beaus 

 were planted on a part, buckwheat on a part, 

 and barley on another part. No crop worth 

 cutting was produced. The muck did no ser- 

 vice, either last year or the year before. Last 

 autumn I tried it again ; carted out fifteen loads 

 on to the high land aforesaid, and mixed with 

 those fifteen two loads of stable manure, the 

 whole was mixed together, and suffered to lie 

 in a heap till the 10th of last May. It was 

 then caned on to the same land as the oth- 

 er, and the whole heap produced all the good 

 effects of clear stable manure. I raised a good 

 crop of Indian corn from it. without putting on 

 over twenty loads of the compost to the acre. 

 Such was the difference between applying this 

 muck raw or green, and applying it afier it had 

 been six months fermenting in a mass, thaw- 

 in", freezing, &c. to become pulverized. 



All -our farmers in this quarter, in making 

 compost manures, carry the most bulky, heavy 

 ingredients many rods — some half a mile to 

 their cow yards and hog pens — and when these 

 materials have rested there long enough, they 

 are then carried back again to the fields. I 

 would save them most of this labor. Let them 

 make their compost heaps on or near the soil 

 whero it is to be applied and as near as possi- 

 ble to where tho chief ingredient lies. This 

 will save a double carting of half or three quar 

 ters of a mile. They will have to carry noth- 

 ing but a little stable manure to that distance 

 in most cases, instead of carting hack and for- 

 wards the whole mass. Respectfully yours, g 

 William Buckminster, 



Framingham, Nov. 10, 1830. 



