NEW ENGLAND FAllMEH. 



Publishod every Saturttey, by THOMAS W. SHKPARU, Rogers' Building, Congress Street, Hobton ; lit $0,50 p( r ami. in :\dvance, or $;!,00 :it the close of the y, ar. 



Vol. I. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1822. 



No. 2. 



From the Mass. Agricultural Repository lor June. 



AN ESSAY 

 On tke Advantage of Manuring -jL-itk Green Crops. 



CY S. W. POMCaOY, KS(1. 

 k First Vice President of the Society for promoting; Agri- 

 culture in Wasjachusetts. 



That eminent chemist, Sir Humphrey Davj', 



apin'ohensive of the most distressing- conse- 

 quences. 



"Providentially, some 15 or 20 years since, 

 the White Lupin was introduced from Italy, and 

 thouGjh it came by accident, to a people strong-- 

 ly bigotted to old practices of husbandry, the 

 cultivation soon became general. 



" The wheat and corn are harvested in Au- 

 g;ust, the land is soon after ploughed and Lupins 



who has shed so much light on the practice as sown on the surface., or but slightly covered, at 



well as on the philosophy of Agriculture, ob- 

 serves, that " land when not employed in pre- 

 paring food for animals, should be applied to 

 the purposes of the preparation of manure for 

 plants ; and that this is effected by means of 

 green crops, in consequence of the absorption 

 of carbonaceous matter in the carbonic acid of 

 the atmosphere. That, in a {naked) summer 

 ikllow a period is always lost in which vegeta- 

 bles may be raised, either as food for animals 

 or as nourishaient for the nest crop." 



The rewards offered by the board of Trus- 

 tees of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society 

 for more than twenty years succe.ssively, for 

 the best experiments on ploughing in green 

 crops for manure, appear to be still unclaimed ; 

 there is of course good reason to believe that 

 the practice is very limited in the Common- 

 wealth. To shew the advantages that result 

 from such a system, elsewhere, the following is 

 transcribed from a letter that ! addressed to 

 John S. Skinner, Esq. of Baltimore, the able 

 and zealous Editor of the American Farmer, and 

 J which appeared in that paper last November. 



" Among the various plants applied as green 

 g; dressings for the restoration of worn out soils, 

 Ik the White Lupin stands pre-eminent in those 

 .(, climates that will permit their growth between 

 ui the periods of harvest and seed time. That ? 

 jjli trial may be made with them, 1 have forsvarde 

 fij half a bushel of the seed, which I trust 3'ou wil: 

 ^, cheerfully distribute for the benefit of our 

 Southern brethren. They were sent to m • 

 from Fayal ; and the follcr.ving account, which 

 I have collected, of the effects of their culture, 

 will, at least, serve to convince us, that " the 

 , Earth, ever subservient to the xvanis of man.,''" 

 .vlicn exhausted by his insatiable demands, re- 

 quires from him but a little mechanical aid, tf; 

 •-nable her still to ' spread his walks with flow- 

 r^ and his table with plenty.' The island of 

 lyal, though in the same parallel of latitude 

 with iNIaryland, is subject to a temperature sel- 

 dom above 80, or below 50 degrees of Fahren- 

 heit. The soil is thin, and incumbent on scoria 

 and other nmkcomposed volcanic substances ; 

 but naturally exceedingly fertile. For a long 

 period of time, every part accessible to the 

 [dough, has been in tillage ; and, with the ex- 

 eption of selected patches .shifted for flax, un- 

 der alternate crops of wheat and Indian corn, 

 J , (the latter being the chief food of the laboring 

 jl ilclasses.) Such a system of severe cropping; 

 iijjthe resources for manure very limited, and 

 j,( tij without the advantage of improved implement* 

 .jri^t>r modes of culture, caused a visible deterio- 

 ■ E*) ration of the soil; the crops lessened from year 

 I to year ; partial importations were resorted to ; 

 ' and the zacK born of the islani became seriously 



the rate of two bushels per acre. In February 

 they flower, tmd are then turned in with the 

 wheat, corn or flax in their several rotations. 

 By this management a progressive improvement 

 of the soil has become apparent : there are no 

 longer apprehensions of famine ; a very redun- 

 dant population subsists ; and besides supplying 

 10,00<Jon the neighboring island of Pico, vvliere 

 scarce any thing but the vine is cultivated, a 

 surplus is often sent to other islands, and in 

 some instances to Lisbon ! 



" Lupins are ranked by Gardeners among the 

 hardy annuals, but I am not able to say what de- 

 gree of frost they will bear. From a single ex- 

 periment 1 am led to believe that, owing to the 

 droughts to which our climate is subject, not 

 much advantage will be derived by sowing 

 tliem on summer fallows as a dressing for win- 

 ter crops. Their application to spring crops, 

 in those sections of our country where tliey can 

 lie grown in season for that purpose, will prob- 

 ably become the first object of experiment." 



The culture of crops to plough in for manure, 

 is by no means a modern practice. The Ro- 

 mans, eighteen hundred years ago, according to 

 Pliny, cultivated and applied Lupins for manure 

 in the same manner precisely as they now are in 

 Italy, ahd in Fayal.* But this plant is supposed 

 to be unsuitable for our climate : — we should 

 not despair, however, of tinding a substitute. 



It has been asserted by Sir Humphrey Davy. 

 ■• that it is a general principle of chemistry', 

 that in all cases of decomposition, substances 

 combine much more readily at the moment of 

 their disengagement, than after they have been 

 regularly formed. And in fermentation beneath 

 the soil the fluid matter produced, is applied 

 instantly, even while it is warm, to the organs 

 of the plant, and consequently is more likely to 

 be eflicient than in manure that has gone thro' 

 the process. He also remarks, that it may be 

 doubted whether there is as much useful ma- 

 nure at the end of a clean [green crop) fallow, 

 as at the time the vegetables clothing the sur- 

 face were first ploughed in. That the action 

 of the sun upon the surface of the soil, tends to 

 Jisengage the gaseous and volatile fluid matters 

 that it contains ; and heat increases the rapidity 

 of fermentation ; and that in the summer fallow 

 {with green crops) nourishment is rapidly pro- 

 duced, at a time when no vegetables are pres- 

 ent capable of absorbing it." 



Such expositions show the importance of se- 

 lecting plants that will arrive at sufficient stat- 

 i,re and succulence, in season for spring crops; 

 and it may be well to inquire wiiat vegetables 



* See Pliny's Nat. 

 I chap. 14—27. 



His*:. Book 17, cIiaiL 9, book 18, 



there arc within our reach, that can be suc- 

 cessfully applied. 



Clover, is unquestionably one of the greatest 

 improvers ; but a season is lost by its applica- 

 tion. There is another objection — i^ceds and 

 wild grasses that rise with it, the first season, 

 ripen and shed their seeds ; the efl'octs of which 

 are severely felt in the succeeding tillage ro- 

 tations. 



Buck Whf.at has been most used in this coun- 

 try for green dressings ; and doubtless with good 

 effects on summer fallows for winter crops ; but, 

 besides not coming on early enough for spring 

 crops, it often leaves the land foul with its own 

 seeds ; and is allowed, on all hands, to be a great 

 exhauster. 



1 am aware that an opinion generally prevails 

 that if plants are cut in the milk., as it is term- 

 ed, or ploughed in before they ripen their seeds, 

 that the soil is not exhausted ! I presume this 

 theory is founded on the supposition, that whild 

 the stalk and foliage are green, the supplies are 

 drawn from the atmosphere ; but as soon as they 

 become shrivelledi the seeds are perfected with 

 food exclusively from the soil. 



This reasoning is plausible, and possibly cor- 

 rect as to certain classes of vegetables, but the 

 position should in all cases be admitted to a very 

 limited extent. 



The hum of bees in a field of hixk wheat., and 

 the flavor of the hojiey from the hives in the 

 ncinitv, afford strong presumptive proof that 

 the atmosphere does not alone produce such 

 sweet results ! 



There is another consideration that should 

 govern us in the selection of plants for the ob- 

 ject in view. It cannot be doubted, but that 

 the soil contains, not only materials suited to 

 particular vegetables, but that several species 

 require the same principles to furnish their food. 

 Now from an experiment, well defined, twenty 

 year* ago, with oats cut in the milk, and from 

 constant observation of the effects of their cul- 

 ture on my neighbor's land since, I feel a thor- 

 ough conviction that they exhaust the soil of 

 those materials or principles necessary for clo- 

 ver and other grass, to a degree very destruc- 

 tive to those all important crops. 



And such have been my impressions that 

 their deteriorating effects on the soil would be 

 lasting, that a few years since, I restricted a 

 tenant, in a lease which he now holds, from 

 sowing oats, even to cut in the mill;, under a 

 penalty of an increased rent of ten dollars an 

 acre, — I wish to be understood, that these ob- 

 servations are meant to apply solely to dry soils 

 — such as are suitable for Indian com or wheat 

 — and in our dry climate. 



Millet is a plant, the cultivation of which is 

 increasing, and as an important article for fod- 

 der, or for soiling, will probably within a short 

 period he more fully appreciated, that seems 

 well adapted to sow on summer fallows for 

 winter crops, or to turn in late in the fall to 

 enrich the land for the ensuing spring tillage or 

 other spring crops. Of the exhausting proper- 

 ties of millet I am ignorant, but from the bulk 

 of the stalk and foliage, it must make large 

 draughts from the atmosphere, and copious re* 



