1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 81 



" It is also destructive to insects, and to their eggs which lie 

 ill the soil or turf. It forces the earth-worms and wire-worms 

 from their lurking places, to come to the surface and die, par- 

 ticularly when laid on in a larger quantity than I have named ; 

 some farmers being in the habit of patting on double and even 

 treble the quantity above stated ; but, I believe, without hav- 

 ing produced proportionately larger crops from inferior land ; 

 though it has been asserted that its effect is very permanent, 

 being especially apparent on the succeeding clover crops."* 



These statements come from the very highest practical 

 authority. Whether our farmers would think of incurring so 

 large an expense in manuring an acre of land, as is here men- 

 tioned, is doubtful. The expediency of its application must 

 depend altogether upon the returns obtained from it. This 

 with us can only be settled by actual experiment. The mate- 

 rial is easily procured, and it is hoped that trials of it, at least 

 on a small scale, will be made.f 



Green Crops for Manure. — 1 pass now to the enriching land 

 by green crops ploughed in. No experiments of this kind are 

 reported in the returns, but the practice has prevailed in many 

 cases, with apparently great advantage. Several remarkable 

 instances of its advantages have come within my own observa- 

 tion. Clover has been denominated the mother of wheat. In 

 many places it is the practice to sow clover with all grain 

 crops, to be ploughed in with the stubble, and grain has been 

 repeated on this land with supposed advantage. Under such a 

 husbandry, it has been thought that the land was placed in a 

 course of improvement. Some things in this matter are settled, 

 and therefore deserve the particular attention of farmers. 



Clover ley, as it is termed, seems to be a better preparation 

 for wheat than any other green crop. The roots of clover are 

 abundant and furnish a large amount of vegetable matter to the 

 soil. In the next place the tap-root of clover penetrates the 

 soil deeply, and the ground is kept more loose and friable than 



* Le Coteur. t Appendix D. 



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