( 54) 
der ten months, and during this period, forbid the 
earth from being stirred; while, on the other hand,. 
leguminous plants occupy it but six months, and 
permit frequent ploughings. This is one reasom 
why culmiferous crops are greater exhausters than 
leguminous: another is, that the stems of culmife- 
rous plants become hard and flinty, and their leaves 
dry and yellow, from the time of flowering till the 
ripening of the seed—loosing their inhaling or ab- 
sorbing faculties—circulating no juices, and living 
altogether in their roots, and onaliments exclusive- 
ly derived from the earth—whereas leguminous or 
cruciferous plants, as cabbages, turnips, &c. &c. have 
succulent stems, and broad and porous leaves, and 
draw their principal nourishment from the atmos- 
phere. The remains of culmiferous crops also are 
fewer, and less easily decomposed, than those of the 
leguminous family. 
Sih. Meadoms, natural and artificial, yield the 
food necessary to cattle, and, in proportion as these 
are multiplied, manures are increased and the soil made 
belter. Another circumstance that recommends 
them is, that so long as they last, they exact but lit- 
tle labor, and leave the whole force of the farmer 
io be directed to his arable grounds. 
9th. Grasses are either fibrous or tap-reoted, or 
both. The remarks already made, in articles 1,2 & 
3, apply also to them. ‘Timothy, red-top, oat grass, 
and rye grass, succeed best in stiff, wet soils. Sain- 
foin does well on soils the most bare, mountainous 
and arid; lucern and the trefoils, (or clovers,)} 
