ABOUT FRCrrS, FLO"^ERS AXD FARMING. 123 



lighter, and :i<Lls vegetable matter to its coinposition. This 

 is not what bottom land needs. It is too light, and rich 

 enough in vegetable matter. 



We believe a better course will be found in putting bot- 

 torn-lands to small grain. To be sure, there are difficulties 

 in the way of this ; but good farming is nothing but a com- 

 promise of difficulties. If the month of May be cold and 

 backward, wheat will do well and yield freely. But if the 

 spring is forward. May warm and wet, the grain will run 

 rank, break down when the head begins to till, and, of 

 course, the berry, however plump and well it might have 

 looked in the milk, will, after it falls, for want of nourish- 

 ment, light, and air, shrink and shrivel. But even in such 

 springy, might not an over rankness be prevented by pastur- 

 ing the grain ; or even mowing it, when, as it sometimes 

 happens, it gets ahead of what cattle are put upon it. But, 

 at the worst, the grain is not lost ; for if it lodges, and is 

 spoiled for the sickle, hogs may be turned upon it and they 

 will thrive well. 



But now comes the advantage of small grain to the soil, 

 which will be the same whether the crop is reaped or 

 hogged. The straw or stubble, in either case, remains 

 upon the ground. This should not be ploictd Iti. l>ut 

 burned., and the ashes plowed under. To do this a strip of 

 eight feet should be plowed about the whole field ; and fire 

 put to it, on every side at once, so that it may bum to- 

 wards the centre ; for fire, driven across a field, would leap 

 many feet of open space at a fence. The more stubble the 

 better, and the more weeds the better. The ashes will give 

 to the soil just what it lacks, cohesion or firmness, and 

 moisture. For, to make a dry soil moist, requii-es some 

 substance to be added, which, having an affinity for mois- 

 ture, shall attract and retain it. This is the nature of wood 

 or straw ashes. A gentleman who will recognize in the 

 above much of his own practical experience, mentioned to 

 us a singular fact in corroboration of this reasoninir. Hav- 



