1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 89 



sowing, and allowing it to remain in this condition some little 

 time before sowing, will in general prove a certain preventive 

 of smut. 



Cleanness of Cultivation. — With respect to cultivation, 

 too much stress cannot be laid upon having the ground as clean 

 as possible from weeds. In this matter we are grossly negli- 

 gent. In several parts of the State, I have seen frequent cases 

 in which a crop of wheat of luxuriant growth has been 

 destroyed by weeds. This often comes from the use of 

 green manure directly from the barn yard, which is surcharged 

 with the chaff of the barn floor. The practice, therefore, of 

 applying manure in that state, is to be strongly condemned. 

 But unpleasant as the statement of the fact may be, it cannot 

 be denied, that little of our cultivation is of that clean charac- 

 ter which it ought to be ; and it would be better in many 

 cases to have a naked fallow than to plant after a crop 

 which has been infested with weeds. It is idle to expect to be 

 successful in our wheat crops under such circumstances. But 

 there are various crops, susceptible of a perfectly clean cultiva- 

 tion, which might precede wheat without losing the use of the 

 land by a fallow, if we will only do justice to the cultivation. 

 In this respect, the carrot crop may be strongly recommended ; 

 for besides the clean and rich cultivation to which it is, to say 

 the least, entitled, its tap root serves to divide the soil and 

 reduce it to a fine tilth. 



Draining. — Another fault in the cultivation of wheat is the 

 neglect of draining our soils. This is done to no considerable 

 extent among us. The least measure of superfluous moisture 

 or what amounts to wetness, is exceedingly prejudicial to 

 wheat. Under ground draining is scarcely practised among 

 us ; and the practice of laying our wheat land in ridges, so 

 that the rain may immediately pass into the intervening hol- 

 lows, is not at all attended to in Massachusetts. This, indeed 

 is a poor substitute for thorough underground draining, and is 

 attended with considerable loss of surface besides rendering 

 the crop uneven from the accumulation of the rich mould in 

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