298 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



N. 



..ctivitv an.l vi-or to vegetatiou. Now this am- 

 imnuLi" niav be wholly retained williiii the soil. 

 By ploiii^liiiii; in the niamiro before the iVrmeii- 

 lation takes place, there will be coiii|)aratively, hut 

 a trifling evaporation. The fermentation and pu- 

 trefaction will ensue, hut the small and subtile par- 

 ticles which would et^cape from the dung heap, 

 are now retained in the soil and become incorpo- 

 rated with it. Economy requires that the plough 

 should be put in motion, as soon as is practicable, 

 after the manure is carried into the field. Even 

 the moisture in the manure when it is carried out, 

 is in itself some of the richest part of the load, 

 and the longer it is suflered to lie in the sun, be- 

 fore it is ploughed in, the greater the diminution of 

 its strength and value. 



But few farmers have a sufficient supjily of barn 

 manure to enable them to cultivate wheat exten- 

 iiively, or on so large a scale as they might desire. 

 Our "lands must be enriched in some other mode. 

 Vegetable crops turned into the sod, furnish a sub- 

 stitute of ready application and accessible to every 

 farmer. All vegetable substances have a tenden- 

 cy to ameliorate the condition of the soil, and to 

 increase its power of production. But there may 

 be, and probably is, a material difl^rence in their 

 adaptation as food, for diff'erent kinds of plants. 

 It may lie <iuestioned, whether the same amount 

 of one kinii of vegetables, will afford an equal 

 • piantity of food for wheat, as the like amount of 

 some others. On this subje(!t, the agricultm-al in- 

 terest is creatly deficient in information. It has, 

 liowever,"been' demonstrated by oft-repeated ex- 

 periment, that clover is peculiarly favorable to the 

 production of a crop of wheat. One of the best 

 crops of wheat, which was ever produced in this 

 town, was upon laud, not in a high state of culti- 

 vation, but upon which a good growth of clover 

 had been turned in, immediately yirecediiig the 

 sowing of the grain. According to my reeollec-. 

 lion, the clover was mowed but once after seed- 



iiis; the aftermath was turned under the furrow 



ihe. latter part of August, and the grain put in by 

 ihe use of the horse plough and harrow, early in 

 September. The produce was about forty bush- 

 els per acre. 



Wheat requires a mellow soil, of fine tilth. 

 The deej) tap root of the clover serves to render 

 the soil loose, lively and easy of pulverization. 

 Perhaps the superiority of the clover, as a prepara- 

 tive for wheat, over the other grasses may be at- 

 tributed as much to the enlivening quality of the 

 foots, as to the enriching properties of the stalk 

 and blade. But we seldom give it an opportunity 

 to demonstrate its value as a manure. Its inferi- 

 ority as hay, induces the mixture of other grass 

 seeds on our mowing lands so far as to give them 

 the preponderance. And when they have well 

 taken, we keej) our lands in grass until the clover 

 has become extinct, which is generally the case, 

 to a great extent, after the first year, and almost 

 r4itirely so, after the second. We ar(! also dispos- 

 ed to look at present profit, rather than at one 

 more remote, and therefore seldom put a crop un- 

 iler the {urrow, which is worth gathering for hay, 

 or cropping by our cattle. In order to give 

 cjover an opportunity to shew its worth as an en- 

 riching, enlivening, crop-producing substance, we 

 must not retain it in cultivation until it has become 

 extinct and nothing of it remains but the decayed 

 roots, nor must we gather the entire crop, either 

 >»ith the ecytlie or our cattle, so that there shall 

 ^wB nothing to turn in. To give it a fair experi- 



ment, it should be ploughed in the next year after 

 it is sown, when it is fresh and vigorous and covers 

 the earth with its verdure. It seems to be gener- 

 ally a.'i-eed, that with clover, one ploughing is bet- 

 ter than more. In that case a crop of hay may 

 be taken off at the usual time of mowing, and 

 the after growth will have attained a sufticient de- 

 <rree of forwardness, by the ndddle or latter part 

 of August, to afford a good crop for the plough. 

 This would be as late as it ought to be permitted 

 to stand. Green crops should be applied when 

 they are green, when fresh and full of juices, be- 

 fore they begin to decay with age. And as far as 

 is practicable, the crop should be turned wider the 

 soil, entirely covered, not leaving the furrows, 

 some one sicLe up, and some the other and some 

 standing perpendicular. In this manner of 

 ploughing, we lose a considerable part of the con- 

 templated benefit. ' When green crops are turned 

 under the furrow, they soon commence the pro- 

 cess of fermentation. There is then a constant 

 tendency to evaporation, consisting of the most 

 subtile and nutritive particles. If this operation 

 takes place beneath the ground, these particles 

 can escajie only through the earth with which 

 they are covered, and therefore will be retained in 

 the soil. But in the careless and slovenly manner 

 in which our sward lands are frequently ploughed, 

 the -^reen crop would afford little more nutriment, 

 thaifit would have done, if suffered to decompose 

 in the open air and should then be mingled with 

 the soil. The full benefit of such crops can he 

 obtained, only by covering them entirely and as 

 closely as possible. This observation wdl apply 

 with equal truth to barn manure. Ajid if the 

 roller were to follow a well turned furrow, the ex- 

 periment would be more complete and more per- 

 fect, and would produce a correspondent benefit. 

 In this mode of cultivation, lands that are in good 

 condition will produce a crop of wheat every sec- 

 ond year, without any other manure than the green 

 crop aided by the stimulating properties of a little 

 lime or gypsum : and the farmer would not lose the 

 use of his land at all, as must necessarily be the 

 case with fallows. Clover seed takes with wheat, 

 according to my experience, better than with any 

 other grain. If sown upon the wheat in the 

 spring of the year, as soon as the season of hard 

 Irosts has passed, and followed with a light harrow, 

 the clover will rarely fail. In the following year 

 it may be mowed again and then turned up for 

 wheat as before. In this course of husbandry, I 

 think with confidence that the land would not be- 

 come exhausted, or at all reduced in its power 

 of iiroduction ; but that the supply of food afford- 

 ed by the clover would be ftilly equal to the de- 

 mand of the wheat. * 



If this position be correct, still it would not 

 follow, that there might be an endless pursuit of 

 tdis cnurse, without intermission. There must 

 occaBioiinllv, be a change of crop, and a change of 

 fiiod and nourishment. The soil in process of 

 time will become tired of clover, that is, the pe- 

 culiar food adapted to the nourishment of this 



• Since the foregoing paragraph was written, I have 

 seen ai. editorial article in " Tlie Cultivator," a paper 

 of high authority, in which the correctness of my opin- 

 ion seems to be doubted. I may have spoken with too 

 much confidence, but my conclusion is not merely the 

 result of speculation, it has been partially corroborated 

 by experiment, though not so fully as to enable rae to 

 advance it with unhesitating assurance. 



APRIL 1,1835. 



specific plant, has been taken ii|) to such a degree, 

 that there is not a snfiicieftt quantity remaining in 

 the soil to aflbrd nourishment to a full crop of 

 this particular plant. The ground may be as rich 

 as ever, and even more so. It may be capable of 

 sustaining a heavier product of some other ex- 

 i.austing crop, but still the clover will not take 

 and flourish, for want of its apiiropriate nourish- 

 ment, until the ingredients composing the soil, 

 have undergone some change through the substi- 

 tution of some other crop. So also the land will 

 become tired of wheat ; and though the clover 

 would afford an abundant supiily of this particu- 

 lar nutriment, yet this is not the only food which 

 the wheat plant requires, and the other ingre- 

 dients which are required for its sustenance, have 

 become exhausted by this alternation of crops. It 

 may be necessary, therefore, occasionally to put 

 the land under a different rotation, or to manure 

 from the barn, in order to recruit it for the repro- 

 duction of wheat and clover, by the introduction 

 of their specific food, or by causing the soil to be 

 exhausted of some other ingredient which is de- 

 leterious to the growth of these plants. 



The specific food of the different kinds of plaiits 

 which we cultivate, opens an extensive field for 

 the observation of the chemical Agriculturist. It 

 has been but very partially explored, and much 

 information remains to be gathered for the benefit 

 of succeeding generations. We all know, how- 

 ever, by our own experience and observation, that 

 in reference to most of the crops of grain and 

 vegetables which we cultivate, the same piece of 

 ground will not sustain a long and uninterrupted 

 succession of the same kind of crop. Each succes- 

 sive crop is diminished, and the application of 

 the best and most enriching manures will not 

 keep up the tone of the lauil for its continued 

 repetition ; not because the land is exhausted of 

 its strength, or is less capable of bringing to ma- 

 turity some other crop, but because the specific 

 nutriment of that particular crop has been so far 

 taken up, that there is not enough remaining in 

 tlie soil to sustain another. There must be some 

 intervenhig crop — some change in the course of 

 cultivation. If we knew all the ingredients of 

 the soil which are requisite to afford the specific 

 food adapted to the nourishment of any particu- 

 lar plant, as wheat for instance, we probably 

 might, after one crop is oft", supply the ingredients 

 which have been taken up, prepare the land for a 

 repetition of the same crop, and thus continue 

 without intermission. Though information oD 

 this subject is desirable, and might often be useful 

 ly applied to practical purposes, yet it is of less im- 

 portance to us in this cold climate, where it is indis- 

 pensable that we should keep so large a proportior. 

 of land in grass to procure food for our stocl 

 through the winter, than it would be in a wnrmei 

 climate, where this preparation for winter is no 

 required. Our upland grass land will generall; 

 yield a more abundant crop, by being occasionall; 

 subjected to the i)lough. A great proportion o 

 our land which is in a state of fertility sufficiei 

 forthe production of a good crop of grass, an 

 .which is suitable for ploughing, will produf 

 wheat, and this may enter into the rotation ( 

 1 crops more jnofitably than any other kind of grai) 

 j It isacommon iiractice, in this vicinity, wbe 

 ploughing up a piece of grass land, to jilant 

 with corn and i)Otatoes, and then to folio 

 with a crop of wheat. This practice cannot 1 

 justified upon the principles of good husbandt 



