226 



NEW ENGLAND I AllJVlER: 



JANUARY 2S, 1835. 



low, swampy soils, wliich naturally produce the | 

 sour aud fresh grasses, and the fresh meadows, 

 which, hv draining and cultivation are made to 

 produce "large crops of the cultivated grasses. 

 These shoul.l always he kept in grass;— and dress- 

 ed often with compost manure suited to the soil, 

 and when they cease to produce a good crop of 

 grass, tlie sward slioidd be turned over by the 

 plough, in the month of August, rolled with a 

 heavy roller, liherallv covered with compost ma- 

 nure, harrowed lengthwise of the furrow, seeded 

 witli grass seed and rolled again. In this way 

 these soils may he kept in a profitable course ol 

 cultivation without tillage crops. These sods may 

 pro<luce, in a dry and favorable season, large crops 

 of corn and potatoes, hut in a wet season the labor 

 would not only he lost, but the crop also. 



•2d.' Under the second division may he ranked 

 the dark rich loams, which being equally favorable 

 for grain as for grass, have in many instances been 

 exhausted by continued grain crops. Taking into 

 consideration the price of labor, and the expense 

 of raising grain crops in this county, and the price 

 En"lish hay usually commands, these soils are 

 more profitably kept in grass. But as it may be 

 necessary to seed the land anew as the cultivated 

 grasses run out, and to enrich it by turning m and 

 inixin- with the soil the vegetable substances col- 

 lected'and growing on the surface, the lU'actice of 

 recruitiiig lands adopted by Mr. Elias Phmney, oi 

 Lexington, aud Mr. William Clark, Jr. of North- 

 ampton, is recommended to the farmers ot this 

 comity, as combining economy in labor with pro- 

 fitable results. Their methods and the result of 

 their experiments, will be concisely related:— 

 " Mr. Phinney's experiment was made on a field 

 of two acres, which had lain three years to grass, 

 and the cro,. of hay so light as to be worth not 

 more than l^c expense of making. Having ascer- 

 tained, by weighing the grass and roots, from a 

 siugle square foot, that an acre would give over 

 twelve tons and a quarter of vegetable substances 

 to the acre, his object was to turn this to good ac- 

 count, convinced that a great part of it was expos- 

 ed to useless waste by the usual manner of plough- 

 in", cross ploughing, and harrowing.— The sward 

 was turned over by the plough as smoothly as pos- 

 sible, the outside furrow slices cut into suitable 

 pieces, and carted and placed in the centre of the 

 ploughland ;— the land is then rolled hard with a 

 loaded roller, an.l harrowed lengthwise, the fur- 

 rows so lightly as not to disturb the sod. After 

 carting and spreading on twenty loads of compost 

 manure to the acre, it was harrowed agani, and 

 corn planted in drills upon the furrow, at the usual 

 distauce and iiaiallel with the furrows. At hoe- 

 ing time the surface was stirred by running a light 

 plough between the rows, but not so deep at any 

 time as to disturb the sod ; and the practice of hill- 

 ing up the corn is to be carefully avoided. As 

 soon as the corn was harvested, the stubble was 

 loosened up by running a light horse plough 

 lengthwise through the rows, the surface smoothed 

 with a bush harrow, and one bushel of rye to the 

 acre, with a suflicient quantity of herdsgrass seed 

 and 'red top, was then sowed, and the ground 

 a-'aiu harrowed and rolled. The corn crop yield- 

 ed by estimation 70 bushels to the acre, the rye on 

 the two acres measured 69 1-2 bushels, and over 

 five tons of straw, and the bay mowed the next 

 year was judged to be two and a half tons to the 

 acre. Thus with one ploughing, aud the aid of 

 twenty cartloads of compost manure to the acre, 



he obtained two crops of grain, and stocked the 

 land down to grass." 



Mr. Clark's method is similar.—" On one acre 

 ho planted potatoes instead of corn, and after har- 

 vesting the potatoes and removing the lops and 

 weeds, lie lightly ploughed the land, and sowed 

 herdsgrass and clover, and harrowed and rolled, 

 without sowing any grain. The grass seed came 

 up well aud grew finely ; but the clover was much 

 winter-killed by the ensuing wiuter ; the herds- 

 grass and remaining clover gave two crops of one 

 ton each, and large crops the following year. So 

 lliat with one ploughing and a light dressing of 

 manure, be had a fair crop of potatoes, and grass, 

 making by estimation eight tons of hay from one 

 acre of ground in four years. His next experi- 

 ment was commenced in 1832, on a piece of about 

 8 acres, in the same field with the other. The 

 soil was lighter and more sandy, and had formerly 

 been reduced by excessive workings, but latterly 

 it had recruited by neglect giving only about half 

 a ton of hay per acre.— This piece was turned over 

 and managed in the method before stated ; the 

 corn planted in rows three feet apart each way, 

 and stirred between the rows by the harrow and 

 hoe.* In order to get in tlie clover early enough 

 to have it stand the winter, before it was harrowed 

 for the third time, four quarts each of herdsgrass 

 and southern, or June clover, with eight quarts of 

 red-top seed were mingled and sown on an acre. 

 The grass seed came up and grew well, and by 

 the time the corn was harvested, had covered the 

 ground almost entirely. In the spring of 1833, 

 after the ground had become dry, it was rolled for 

 the purpose of crushing the corn stubs, and level- 

 ling for the scythe. The clover came out finely, 

 and with the herdsgrass and red-top, made a large 

 growth of each nearly equal quantities.-— The first 

 crop gave a product by estimation of two tons to 

 the acre, of the best quality of hay, and the second 

 cutting, or rowen, gave an average as estimated, 

 of one ton to the acre. A few tons of the first 

 crop were sold for thirteen dollars, and the second 

 at ten dollars per ton, giving, if the estimate be 

 correct, thirty-six dollars per acre, as the proceeds 

 of one year's crop. The highest price the land 

 has ever been sold fiir, was thirty dollars per acre, 

 and before these experiments were commenced, it 

 was reputed so poor, that no one could be found 

 willing to cultivate it on shares, with the privilege 

 of managing it in his own way." We have been 

 thus particular in describing their methods and 

 the results, because if only one half such cro|.s 

 can be raised in this county by similar manage- 

 ment, it woul.l be worth the Ultenlion of every 

 farmer. By this method the land woidd be seed- 

 ed anew with little expense of labor, before it was 

 exhausted by continual cropping, and kept con- 

 stantly covered with herbage, and thereby protect- 

 ed from the wasting influences of the sun, wind, 

 and rain. 



Another course recommended and practised by 

 the celebrated Earl Slimson, of Galway, N. Y. 

 has been often quoted as sbowing the wonderful 

 effects of good hu.sbandry. This practice, by 

 which his crops have been more than quadrupled, 

 is to turn over the sod in the fidl or spring, spread 



eight or ten tons of barn yard manure on an acre, 

 and then to plant with corn ; and to follow the 

 corn with barley and grass seeds, putting three 

 pounds of clover and four of timothy seed on an 

 acre ; then let it lay two years to grass : then to go 

 over the same rotation of crops, and his third ro- 

 tation was first wheat, second corn, thud barley 

 to seed down with, applying about the same quan- 

 tity of manure every time he turned over the sod. 



In this way, in the course of twenty years, he 



got some of his fields to yield from 80 to 100 

 liushels of corn, 35 to 40 bushels of wheat, 50 to 

 60 of barley, and from two and a half to three and 

 a half tons of hay per acre, and with less labor 

 except in harvesting, than when he raised only 

 about one third or one quarter as much. 



[Remainder necessarily deferred to next No.] 



• .Siirrnw Ihc eround belweou llie rovvs of corn, by the plough 

 and harrow' for ih,^ purpose of h.vel cullivalion, as recommend- 

 ed by Messrs. Phinnej' and Cla,k, is much more eftecually done 

 hv liic Vukirntor, which has lalely been mlroduccd mlo some 

 nans of this c.unly, which is so conslruded as to raise and pul- 

 verize Ihe K'ound, leave ii level, and in fine lillh, aud al liie 

 same time destroy the weeds. 



From the Southern Agrirullurist. 

 ON FATTENING CAI.VES AND LAMBS. 



The manner of procuring Lamb and Veal of a 

 very fat and superior quality, as practised in Eng- 

 land, and partially by graziers for tire Philadelphia 

 market, does not seem to be noticed in works on 

 agriculture, in a manner worthy of the subject. 

 With a view of impressing the importance of it 

 upon the minds of our planters and farmers, both 

 in reference to the profit to be derived to liiem- 

 selves from it, as well as the improvement of our 

 market, which ought to be a consideration with 

 every public spirited farmer, we shall give such de- 

 tails furnished to us in a conversation with a gen- 

 tleman of some experience, and apiiaremly well 

 acquainted with the whole rationale, as will place 

 the subject within the reach of every one. 



All animals, in health, being high fed, and de- 

 barred from exercise, become fat — to this, in thf 

 human species, there are many exceptions ; bu 

 these excejitions arise from the fact, that man ai 

 an intellectual being, is operated upon by the in 

 flueiice of his mind, and when that becomes dis 

 turbed by the cares of life, his physical lacnlties 

 particularlv those of his digestion, become uupair 

 ed, and however high he may feed, and lazy hi 

 haiaits may be, food will appear to oo nothin, 

 more than to sustain life, without increasing hi 

 bulk. With other animals such is not the case 

 their wants, limited to few, nature has bestowe 

 upon them, in a few gifts, the ample means c 

 supplying, and hence, there are no circumstar 

 ces but injury, ill health, or mismanagemen 

 that can prevent them from becoming fat whe 

 properly and highly fed, and suffered to remain • 

 indolence. 



From the mildness of our winters, and spare 1 

 bof upon our iilantatious, there is no ponion 

 tbis country that affords greater facilities Jor tl 

 fattening cf calves and lambs for our market th» 

 Carolina, and yet that market bears ample test 

 mony of the gross and palpable negligence ol tlio." 

 whose interests ought to excite them to exertio 

 Any one in the habit of buying his pioviMoi 

 must remark the general inferiority of the v« 

 and lamb brought to the Charleston marlut ; i 

 seldom see a piece of either above mediocrity, a 

 that considered so rare, that an enormous price 

 demanded, and frequently obtained for it. Tl 

 would not be the case, were our planters and far 

 ersto turn their attention to this subject, v\l:ich 

 improving tire quality, would increase llie c. 

 sumption, and consequently their profit, by a re! 

 market for this portion of their stock. 



The method pursued ia other countries, i 



