No. 151.] 399 



ing in the spring from 10 to 12 bushels of wood ashes per acre, 

 there is but little risk of a failure. Clover is the only grass grown 

 to any profit on fine soils here. 



Muck and coarse manure lasts longer than fine in any soil. I find 

 great advantage from spreading my straw upon dry lands; the grass 

 and small grain is much improved by it. Muck is of little value on 

 "Wet land, straw and hot manures do the best. Muck is as well fitted 

 for use by exposure to the sun and frost as by apy other process; 

 unslacked lime will warm and make it sooner fit for use, but no bet- 

 ter when oh than if put on separate. Some soils contain already 

 too much lime. Traveling a few years since in Michigan, I noticed 

 that their best wheat lands where there was lime in the soil, the base 

 being sand and clay, cracked badly, and became so hard that it was 

 difficult to plow at all, and in many instances to destroy the grass 

 roots. This does not exactly accord with Mr. Watson's theory, that 

 300 bushels of lime per acre should be added to land that cracks 

 under heat. 



" I find that all made or alluvial soils, after becoming somewhat 

 exhausted on the surface, are much improved by being turned up 

 much deeper, not by Lsing a subsoil plow, but with a large heavy 

 one, that will bring the bottom up and turn the top under. The 

 cheapest method of raising our interval lands, we find, is to plow in 

 a crop or tw'o of clover. Always allow a good part of the seed to 

 ripen before plowing; nothing better for land that is intended for 

 seeding down to giass, than to have it well filled with clover seed. 



"Clover, on rich lands, should be sowm very thick; the stalks will 

 be small, and the quality greatly improved. On poor lands we can 

 hardly expect a crop without first furnishing an abundance of seed. 



" The roots of clover when the stalk is dead, furnish a manure for 

 other grasses, and help to keep the land light and porous. In 1838, 

 '39, and '40, some of our best farmers thought to improve the qua- 

 lity of their hay by growing the finer grasses, and by so doing very 

 much lessened the value of their farms; attributing it to the want of 

 nutriment derived from the decay of the large roots of clover that run 

 down into the earth, and w^hen green throwing oflf, as is generally 

 allowed, nutriment imbibed from the atmosphere, while the finer 

 grasses only spread their roots near the surface, and of course the 

 soil below becomes stiff and hard. 



