230 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



wheat-crop has averaged from eighteen to twenty-* 

 four bushels per acre. 



USE OF CLOVER. 



Almost uniformly, clover (with plaster) is used as 

 an ameliorating or enriching crop ; yet the land is 

 but little benefited thereby. For, as soon as the 

 clover has attained to such a height that cattle can 

 'get a good bite," while the herbage is tender, and 

 before the stalk becomes in the least indurated, the 

 cattle are turned upon it, and are continued there as 

 long as they can get a living. Then comes the turn 

 for colts or sheep, which continue the spoliation till 

 the field is a complete waste, and almost as barren 

 of herbage as the Libyan desert. And now, per- 

 haps, it is time to put in the plough for a winter 

 crop ; so the soil is turned over, and if ten bushels 

 of rye, or fifteen or twenty bushels of oats per acre 

 are obtained, the proprietor is entirely satisfied. 



Now it strikes me that this is a very mistaken 

 policy. It is true, the stock that takes the first clip 

 fares most daintily, and the land is somewhat ben- 

 efited by the manure left upon the surface ; but, in 

 the case of a dairy farm, where the cows are often 

 driven a considerable distance from the pasture to 

 the yard, there is a great waste ; though many nev- 

 er think of that. But the root of the clover thus 

 sheared of its lungs can never attain to much size ; 

 and, as hardly a leaf or a stalk is turned under, the 

 soil can be but little benefited by the green crop ; 

 and if it does not degenerate, it certainly does not 

 improve. 



About three years since, in July, I called on a 

 gentleman in the north part of the town where I re- 

 side, who makes use of clover, " according to my 

 notion,' 1 in the right way. He went with me over a 

 considerable portion of his farm, and through fields 

 which he intended to sow with wheat or rye. The 

 soil was a gravel, and by nature not the most fertile. 



