No. 216.] 801 



fallowing, for the purpose of invigorating and fertilizing them, pul- 

 verization is alone necessary, and can only be maintained by com- 

 v\ete drainasre. 



I have seen farmers plow a clay soil when the water has followed 

 the plow, and have observed that those fields so plowed have never 

 yielded a one-third crop since. The farmer who cultivates such 

 lands, has difficulties to contend with, I will admit, that are almost 

 disheartening, such as roots, trees, rocks, stones, &c. When the far- 

 mer meets with these impediments, he must philosophise thus: these 

 roots have for ages cast off their excrementitious matters, and thus 

 rendered this soil fit for another family to inhabit; the trees have 

 •shed their leaves for centuries, and formed a fine black mould admi- 

 rably adapted to corn, the rocks have by their debri formed a fine 

 silicious sand, indispensable to the growth of cereal vegetation; and 

 the stones will form drains by which I shall accomplish all the ben- 

 eficial results necessary to increase fertility, and this soil, which now 

 presents such a sickening appearance, will be clothed with verdure 

 characteristic of a well cultivated district. 



In many instances in our state, it will be necessary after the soil 

 is drained, to pare off the surface before it will be fit to plow; I 

 have performed this operation thus: In the month of August, in the 

 midst of drought, a skilful plowman, with a pair of oxen, was or- 

 dered to plow the field shallow, north and south: then east and west, 

 by which means the sods were cut into squares ; they were then 

 drawn off, and placed in a heap to decompose by the addition of 

 caustic lime. This operation is soon accomplished. Charcoal was 

 used to prevent the escape of gases. Thus you percieve all the valu- 

 able properties contained in the sods were preserved. The usual 

 mode adopted by farmers is to burn the parings, by which means all 

 the permanent sources of fertility are destroyed^ and if there is iron 

 or silica in the parings thus burnt, the alumina becomes chemically 

 united to them, and forms insoluble substances, requiring perhaps 

 years to decompose; besides dissipating many of the soluble matters 

 that the land contained, and thus exhausting its permanent fertility. 



I have observed farmers paring and burning dry land, yielding 

 grass and grain, with a view of increasing its fertility. It is a ruin- 

 ous system, and injures the productiveness of the lands for years, the 

 ashes obtained by this process is very small in proportion to the 

 ^and consumed, and nothing is added to the soil. In peat soils which 



£Am. Inst,] AAA 



