Vol. 6.— No. 28^ 



Muskioelone, 

 Gooseberries, 



NEW ENGLAND FAIIMER. 



221 



do. dozen, 

 do. dozen. 



seedling grasses before tliey had produced flow- 

 ers, had the effect of retarding and weakening the 



..... . ■ c-^aA Iw the In- ' after-ijrowth of the plants lor that season very 



ThP dav for exhibition, to be fixed oy tue in , ,° „ . „ ., "^ ■ , i- a 



1 ne uay lui >=.». ' , ,. , , much. But after the oeriod of iloworinB-. crnn- 



ner, proffered throiisrh his friend Doct. Pascalis, to 



ner, pronereo uiru..-.. ..,. "■- ' v/evrht of produce in the whole season than those 



t Tetr,;' ,^:nt"r;egetable ducTion, Ihat i pla.us of the same species which were left uncut 

 Lay S„ : Ihe Society', and produced ' till tne flowering culms be.an to appear. As the 

 may uo ucoigiio-. j^ iv„,;„„ ...in ho rriwor tn : advantages of the manure of the sheep may be 



supplied by top-dressing, and the disadvantaiies 



at the next anniversary. Notice will be given to 

 the members of what the same shall consist. 



By order of the Society, 

 \VM. BURI'SELL, Recording Secretary. 



w-York. December 25th, 1827. 



resulting to the tender seedling plants from early 

 and close cropping cannot so speedily be remov- 

 ed, the practice of suffering the grasses to pro- 

 duce flowers before they are c. t, with the appli- 

 cation of top-dressings, and the use of the roller, 

 till the spring of the second year, appears to be 



REMARKS ON GRASSES 



[Concluded from page 212.] 



When land is to be sown for permanent pasture, j far more profitable than the former practice of do 



no admixture of any annual or grain crop, or broad ^ pasturing thf seedling grassesat an earlier period 



ieaved clover, should be admitted with the grass than the spring of the second year. But in this, 



seeds. Experience proves that they are highly in- no doubt, as well as in other particular nmdes of 



jurious to the intention of speedily forming a solid management recommended for general practice in 



productive sward ; and the profit that may accrue the culture of plants, local circumstances may in- 



from a grain crop thus obtained, will be much oi'er- terfere so much as often to render some modifica- 



balanced by the loss of grass in the two following tion of them necessary. 



seasons. Every plant of these annual crops occu- The superior value of sainfoin for soils on a po- 

 nies a place, to the detriment of the expected reus or dry sub-soil is therefore manifest, 

 sward ; besides rendering the surface porous by : Sainfoia grows wild in all the chalky districts 

 the decay of their roots, in the end of autumn — in England ; but it was first introduced to Eng 

 much mischief, likewise, is done to the swad by lish farmers as a plant for cultivation from Flan- 

 portions of the crops being beat down with heavy , ders and France, where it has been long cultivat 

 rains The above mixture should be sown in the ed. Parkinson, in the year 1(540, says, that "it is 

 autumn or spring, at the rate of four bushels and | generally known to be a singular food for cattle 

 a half to the acre ; much less will form a good causing them to give store of milk." Worlidge 

 pasture, but when the seeds can be had from the in his Mystery of Husbandry, &c. (1681), treats of 



fgirra at a moderate expen.«e, the maximum quanti 

 ty should be adopted. If sown in spring, it will 

 be found highly useful, in the following autumn, 

 to give the surface a slight top-dressing with rot- 

 ten dung or compost, in which the seeds- or roots 

 of weeds are not suspected, and to sow immedi- 

 ately after a half a bushel, more or less, of the 

 Mixture of seeds, according as the sward appears 

 to be deficient of plants ; after which, (the top- 

 dressing being previously well reduced by a slight 

 bush-harrow,) the roller should be liberally used ; 

 and rolling, for the first two years, should never 

 lie neglected at any favorable opportunity. If the 

 seeds are sown in autumn, the top-dressing, re- 

 sowing, and rolling, will be found equally requis- 

 ite and beneficial in the following month of May ; 

 and even if repeated in the following autumn, they 

 will greatly forward the intention. This is imitat- 

 ing the process of nature in forming pastures — 

 with this advantage, that for one seed of a valua- 

 ble species of grass supplied to the soil by the 

 slow and gradual process of nature, in one season, 

 a thousand are supplied in the same space of time; 

 and thus take possession of their natural soil, — 

 without the danger and inconvenience of expelling 

 its usurpers. 



There has been some difference of opinion re- 

 specting the manner of reaping the produce of 

 seedling grasses ; whether by depasturing with 

 sheep, or by mowing after the plants have perfect- 

 -3d their seed. The manure supplied by sheep to 

 the young grasses is of great adva«tage ; but the 



animals are apt to bite too close to the root, and then sixteen parfes of the down should be sainfoin 



sometimes tear up the young plants altogether. 

 1 have found, on repeated ttialsj that cropping 



sainfoin at large; 'nn Wiltshire, in several places," 

 says he, "there are precedents of sainfoin that has 

 been there twenty years growing on poor land, 

 and has so far improved the same, that from a no- 

 ble per acre, twenty acres together have been cer- 

 tainly worth thirty shilling per acre, and yet con- 

 tinues in good proof." These extracts show the 

 high opinion which was entertained of this plant 

 above one hundred years ago ; but this was, no 

 doubt, in a great measure owing to the small 

 number of plants then known for sowing in the 

 farm. 



The experiments that have here been made on 

 this plant were confined to a clayey loam and a 

 light siliceous soil. Upon these it was evidently 

 inferior to the broad-leaved and perennial red clo- 

 ver ; but on chalky and gravelly soils there have 

 been abundant proofs of the superior value of 

 sainfoin. After the ample det.iiils of tlie uses and 

 cultivation of sainfoin, given in Mr. Young's An- 

 nals, it will be difficultto add any thing new. It is 

 a perennial plant, and produces but little herbage 

 the first year, and on that account should not be 

 sown on land that is intended to remain only two 

 years under grass. In Mr. Young's Annals, we 

 are informed, that sainfoin is allowed on all hands 

 to be an admirable improvement on lime-stone 

 rocks and chalk downs, which in order to be cul- 

 tivated to the greatest advantage, should be in 

 this course, with no more arable than is necessa- 

 ry for the change. Thus, if sainfoin last sixteen 

 years, as it certainly will if properly managed, 



and as many more parts as there are years neces- 

 sary for tillage, before the g.reund should be sow_ ^ 



ed with it again ; suppose this period to ue five 

 years, the portions would be 16 sainfoin — 1 sain- 

 foin pared and buint, and under turnipe — 1 barley 

 or outs — 1 clover — 1 wheat — 1 turnips — 1 barley 

 or odts, and with this crop sainfoin sown again = 

 22. In another part we are informed that sain- 

 foin is also a great improvement in thin, loose, 

 dry, snndy loams, upon marl or chalk bottoms. 



Thin soils that wear oui, or tire of clover, are 

 laid down to great advantage with it, will last 

 twenty years, and pay the farmer as well as his 

 best corn crops. If a flock of sheep be an object 

 of primary importance, this plant will afibrd them 

 plenty of dry food for winter, in hard weather. — 

 An acre of indifferent land will yield two tons of 

 sainfoin, dry, and therefore twenty acres will 

 serve 1000 sheep for a month, supposing a sheep, 

 eats three pounds of hay in a day, which is a large 

 allowance. 



It flowers about the middle and towards the end 

 of June.' The seeds are large, and when sown in 

 v\et soils generally burst and rot without vegetat- 

 ing. There is some difference of op'inion with re- 

 spect to the best season for sowing ; according to 

 several trials that I have made, the middle or end 

 of April is the most certain ; but when sown in 

 the autumn, unless the soil be favorable, many of 

 the plants are lost dining the winter : should cir- 

 cumstances prove otherwise, the autumn sowing 

 will be found the most advantageous, as it affords 

 nearly a full crop in the ensuing season. 



The grasses, and other plants, best fitted for 

 alternation, as green crops with grain, are such a-s 

 arrive at perfection in the shortest space of time, 

 o^within the compass of two years ; such as have 

 their leaves broad and succulent, and that do not 

 quickly run to seed. Plants of this description 

 are supposed to produce the greatest weight of 

 herbage at the least expense to the soil. 



It is a carious and well known fact, that any 

 species of plant that has continued till its natural 

 decay on a particular soil, cannot be again imme- 

 diately reared with equal success on the same 

 spot, till some other crop intervene ; but that a 

 different species of vegetable will there succeed 

 belter, for its peculiar period of life, than it virould 

 on a soil naturally better adapted to its growth, 

 whore it had just attained to perfect maturity. — 

 This holds good with respect to annual plants as 

 well as to those that continue to live many years. 

 But it is better seen in the former, as their habits 

 I and duration in the soil are oftcner and more di- 

 I reclly within the reach of common bbservation. 

 I On this antipathy of plants seems to depend the 

 ' theory of alternate cropping with green crops and 

 grain — varying in sou^.e measure according to the 

 j circumstances of soil and climate ; but the princi- 

 i pie appears to remain the same. 

 j On analysing a soil immediately before and after 

 producing an impoverishing crop, the results of 

 such analysis do not point out any diminution in 

 the weight or proportions of its constituents suffi- 

 cient to account for the weight of vegetable mat- 

 ter produced. The decomposing animal and veg- 

 etable matters of the soil are the only constituents 

 wherein a sensible loss is perceived. 



M, Braconnot grew plants in substances free 

 from any kind of soil, as in flowers of sulphur, 

 and in metal. He supplied the plants with dis- 

 tilled water only. They arrived, by these means, 

 to a perfect state of maturity. The produce was 

 submitted to careful analysis ; and tlie results 

 shewed that the different vegetables so jrcdncetJ, 



