198 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 



mature their seeds. The remark extends to the narrow- 

 leaved grasses, converted into hay, when they are permit- 

 ted to ripen their seeds in the field. 



13. Indian corn, tobacco, and beans maybe embraced 

 in the second class of exhausting crops ; for, although they 

 have broad leaves, and derive much nourishment from the 

 atmosphere, they are nevertheless gross feeders, bulky 

 crops, and leave very little upon the soil to compensate 

 for what they take from it. But great economy in dung may 

 be eftected by feeding these crops with the long manure of 

 the yards and stables, instead of summer-yarding it, as 

 many farmers are wont to do. These crops will feed 

 upon what is otherwise lost in the yard, — the gaseous 

 matters of the dung. These afford exactly what the 

 crops named want, and at the time they want it. 



14. Roots come next in the order of exhausting crops ; 

 but they in part compensate for what they take from the 

 soil by the ameliorating influence they have upon it, pulver- 

 izing and freeing it from weeds — by their roots and the 

 culture they demand. 



15. Green crops, that is, clover, buckwheat, rye, oats, 

 turnips, and even weeds before they seed, ploughed un- 

 der as food for plants in their green^ succulent state, are 

 enriching crops, and powerful auxiliaries in keeping up 

 the fertihty of the farm ; but they are too seldom resorted 

 to for this purpose. 



16. Depasturing with cattle, and particularly with 

 sheep, enriches a soil. According to Von Thaer, it adds 

 20 per cent, to the fertility of an ordinary soil, that is, in 

 five years it will double its fecundity. This results from 

 the fact, that the crop is returned to the soil in the drop- 

 pings and stale of the animals which crop it. 



17. Not only do different crops tend to exhaust differ- 

 ent properties of the soil, denominated their specific food 

 — but different crops, in consequence of their different 

 systems of roots, draw their food from different portions 

 of the soil : the fibrous-rooted from near the surface, and 

 the tap-rooted from below, and partially from the sub- 

 soil, into which a portion of the humus is carried down 

 by the rains, and into which the tap-roots penetrate to 

 obtain it. 



