36 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



FACTS AND OBSFIRVATIO.NS RIXAII.'.G 10 



T^GRICULTUIIE & DOM r.STlC. ECONOMY. 



MANLRC. 



It is a generally received opinion that in 

 some soils of a loose texture, the fcrtilizinsr 

 parts of manure escape by sinking; Lioyonit the 

 reach of plant-. The Hon. Timothy I'lrlcering, 

 in an Address to the Essex Agricultural Society, 

 delivered May 5, 1818, made thf; followin:,'- ob- 

 servations on this subject. Speaking' of wiiat is 

 .sometimes called riih/tc lami, Mr. 1'. remarks: 



" But is it true, that on such land, or on any 

 land, the fertilizingf parts of manure escape by 

 .sinking beyond the reach of plants? If they do, 

 hovv hajjpons it, that in lands which have been 

 cultivated and manured for ag;es, every layer of 

 earth below the cultivated soil is, nevertheless, 

 found dead and barren ? Is it not for this reason, 

 that farmers in jfeneral cautiously avoid j)louu;h- 

 ing deeper than the soil, lest by stirring that 

 dead earth, and ni'xing it with the soil, they 

 should lessen its fertility? The result of a lit- 

 tle experiment which 1 had made prior to our 

 revolution then occurred to me. Its recital may 

 in some other resj)ects be useful. 



" Within a stone's throw of my lather's house, 

 was apiece of sandy loam, winch from its conti- 

 guity to the dwelliii;,'--place ofhimself and ances- 

 tors, for upwards of a hundred and thirty years, 

 must have been kcfif, a large portion of that 

 time, ill tillage, and consequently have been of- 

 ten manured. Vet the colored soil was no more 

 th.en five or six inches in dcj)lh. This soil I re- 

 moved from one spot, with three or four inches 

 of the earth ne.xt beiiealii it. Of the next, red 

 earih, 1 then took up as much as measured a pock 

 and u half Dividing a long box into two e(|ual 

 portions by a board, into one I put a peck of the 

 earth ; and into the other a half peck, intimately 

 mmglcd and incorporated with half a peck of 

 clay — perfect clay to the touch; but it was ta- 

 ken from the edge of a clay-pit holding water, 

 where cattle often drank, and a flock of geese 

 bathed, during the summer. Hence the appar- 

 ent cl.ay was doubtless impregnated, in some de- 

 gree, with the droppings from these animals. 

 This box I. placed, on the sud'ace, in a garden. 

 Adjacent to it, I sunk, to a level with the surliico, 

 a small earthen pot tilled with the same sort of, 

 clav'. In these three places 1 sowed turnip seed, 

 as late as the 2Uth of August. In a few >lays I 

 reduced the number of turnip plants in each to 

 thyee. The pot of clay, even with the surface, 

 received suiTicicnf water from rams: but I reg- 

 ularly watered the parcels of earth in the box ; 

 bestowing equal quantities, and at the same 

 times, on each division. Near the close of Oc- 

 tober, I carefully took up the turniin, and wash- 

 ed them, leaving u|)on them the tibroiis roots 

 and leaves. The three which had grown in the 

 pot of clay weighed ten ounces — the bulbs hot 

 lo the taste, stringy and tough. The three i'rom 

 the de;id red earth weighed only three ounces, 

 and the bulbs were sol't, spungy and insipid. 

 But the three which had groun in the mingled 

 red e;irth and clay weighed twenty-four ounces, 

 :ind the bulbs were of good texture, and well fla- 

 vored. 



" P'rom the facts above stated, I fell authoriz- 

 ed to infer, that all the lost manure, (that is, all 

 til ^ parts not imbibed by the roots of plants, nor 

 Temalning in the soil) instead of sinking befcw 

 ♦h • sphere of vegetation, rosr into the atmos- 

 jiherc : and that " riddle laud,'" (land on which 



the elTects of manure were not lasting) however 

 highly manured, so soon lo«t its fert'lit\, not by 

 letting the essence of the manure sink speedily 

 through it, but by its incapacity to retain it 

 aguiiisl the pov:er of evaporation.'^ 



From these, ^iid other considerations, Mr. 

 Pickering infers, " that manure arising from 

 dung, and from all animal and veget djie sub- 

 stances, should be exposed as little as possible 

 lo the sun, the air and washing rains, and when 

 applied to the soil, be immediately ploughed in. 

 .\nd further that the aim of the husbandman, 

 possessing a soil from which the essence of his 

 manure soon escapes, should be to add some- 

 thing ivhich will render it more tenacious ; 

 like the soil which, in current language, is said 

 ' to hold manure well.' Tor this purpose, noth- 

 ing, probably, is equal to clay." 



LIVE STOCK. 



In observing on premiums given by Agricul- 

 tural Societies for the best animals, Mr. Pick- 

 ering observes : 



" With great deference I would inquire, whe- 

 ther giving rewards for the biggest and ihe fat- 

 test, is the best mode of obtaining the most x(du- 

 rti/e breeds ? Bakewell, the English celebrated 

 breeder of cattle, sheep and swine, exercised 

 his genius to produce such as were excellent in 

 form, of sudicicnt size, which yielded the great- 

 est quantity of meat on the most valuable joints, 

 and would grow and fatten on the smallest quan- 

 tities of food. In the fattening of cattle and 

 sheep, there is a point to be attained, at which 

 their tlesh will be of the best qiialit3-, and most 

 valuable to the consumer. Is not all beyond 

 this a waste of time and expense in their keep- 

 ins ?■' 



INDIAN CORN. 



Under this head Mr. Pickering remarks : — 

 •' The inijjroving of our hu-!)andrv, in New 

 England, is to be expected, not from a rejection 

 of Indian corn as the ruin of our lands, but by a 

 bolter management of that crop, in order to 

 render it, as it ai>pears it may be rendered, the 

 best prejuiration for a crop of wheal, and other 

 small grain. 



'•' Every farmer knows how eagerly cattle 

 devour the entire plant of Iiidi.an corn in its 

 green stale ; and land in good condition will 

 produce heavy crops of it. Some years ago, 

 just when the ears were in the milk, I cut 

 close to the ground the plants growing on a 

 measured space, equ:il, as I judged, to the ave- 

 rage product of the whole piece ; and found 

 that, at the same rate, an acre would yield 

 twelve tons of green fodder; probably a richer 

 and more nourishing food than any other known 

 to the husbandman. And this quantity w-as the 

 growth of less than four months. The ground 

 was rich, and yielded, at harvest, upwards of 

 fifty bushels of corn to the acre. The green 

 stalks of our northern corn are incomparably 

 sweeter than those of the southern states ; at 

 least v/hen both sorts arc groivn in the north. 

 Perhaps the greater and longer continued heats 

 of the south may give a richness to the same 

 large plants, which these cannot attain in the 

 north. The stalks I have grown, rose to the 

 height of 13 or 11 feet, and many of them 

 weighed above live pounds. To support this 

 height they arc necessarily thick and woody in 

 their fibres. My cows ate a small part of them 



— reluctantly — while they would devour the 

 stalks ol' our northern corn. It has appeared 

 to me that the sort c:illed sii'cri coivi, (bavin? a 

 white shrivelled grain when ripe) yields stalks 

 of richer juice than the common yellow corn. 



It is also more disposed to multiply suckers 



an additional recommendation of it, when plant- 

 ed to be cut iu its green stale, for horses and 

 cattle, and especially for milrh cows ; and its 

 time of planting ni:iy be so regulated as to fur- 

 nish a sup|dy of food, just when the common 

 pa'^iure* usually fiil. 1 am inclined ^u dcubt 

 whether any other green food will ali'ord butter 

 of equal excellence." 



F.tLI.OW CROPS. 



"Mr. Pickering further observes, that, " The 

 substituting of fallow-crops for naked fallows is 

 one of the capital improvements in English 

 husbandly. The naked fallows, formerly in 

 universal practice, consisted in repeatedly plow- 

 ing the land from spring to autumn — with tivo 

 objects in view : one, the destruction of weeds, 

 with which their lands became foul by repeat- 

 edly cropping them with small grain, as wheat, 

 barley, oats, rye, in immediate succession ; for 

 the weeds springing up with these crops, and 

 ripening their seeds, the soil, in three or four 

 years, was so amply stocked, that some mode of 

 extirpating the weeds became indispensable. But 

 for many ages no other than naked fallows seein 

 to have occurred. The English farmers now 

 grow tallow crops, selected according to the 

 nature of their soils; as beans, carrots, turnips, 

 potatoes, mangel wurtzel, cabbages. While 

 these are growing, they/fl//oKi the ground; that 

 is, they stir it repeatedly with the plough or 

 hoe, or both; by which they as effectualy de- 

 troy the weeds as by the naked fallow ; a»d at 

 the same time benefit their crops, whose pro- 

 ducts reward them for their labor. 



'■ Naked fallows seem also formerly to have 

 been considered as the means of enriching as 

 well as of cleaning the land. The error of their 

 practice, in this view, cannot be better illustra- 

 ted than by the following fact, communicated 

 above 30 years ago to the Phil.idelphia .Society 

 of .\griculture, when I was a reiidenl member, 

 and which 1 well recollect. But to prevent cii- 

 ciim-tantial errors in the recital, I have turned 

 lo the Notes on Husbandry, by Mr. Bordley, 

 (who was the vice-jiresident of the society.) 

 where the case is staled. 



'• Pi. gentleman of Jlaryland (Mr. Singleton oj 

 Talbot) ploughed up part (and this was the rich- 

 est jiart) of a clover field, in March, intending 

 to plant it with tobacco. It haiipenoil, that the 

 toiiacco crop was omitted. So. this part was 

 t'allo-j:ed, that is, it was repeatedly ploughed in 

 the summer, and on the first of September, sown 

 with wheat. The residue of the clover field 

 was twice mown. In August it was once plough- 

 ed, and on the same first of September sown 

 with wdieat. At harvest, the fallowed part o 

 the field yielded only 1 1 and a half bushels to the 

 acre. The other part, besides two crops ofclover 

 hav the preceding year, now gave 2t and a half 

 bushels to the acre. This striking fact admits 

 of an easy explanation, and in conformity with 

 the principles already advanced. The repeated 

 ploughing of the fallowed part of the field ex- 

 posed the clover plants, roots and tops to the sun 

 and air, by which they were dried up, and nearly 

 annihilated ; while other vegetable food in the 



