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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



jAivtrARY 18, i-ar- 



GRKKN CR.'PS FOR MASIURE. 



Green inaiuires consist in full crops of succu- 

 lent plants — sucli iis bnck- wheat, rape, tares and 

 many others — which are plouglied into the land, 

 and have been applied in many instances with 

 very singular advantage, more especially on cal- 

 careous, gravelly, and sandy soils, tlie ferlility of 

 wh ch has been thns greatly improved. The 

 practice dates as far bade as the time of the an- 

 cient Romans, and is still continued throiiithout 

 Italy, even in places wljere the dnng of animals 

 can be procured in abnndance. The clinjate of 

 ihat country is, however, more favorable than 

 ours to the system, for the corn harvests are so 

 much earlier, that they are off the ground in time 

 for succeeding green crops to arrive at fnl! maturi- 

 ty ; and it is there thought that nothing tends 

 more to the imiirovenient of the land than plough- 

 ing them down. It has indeed been held by 

 many inlelligent men who support an opposite 

 opinion, that the land which produces these crops 

 will be deprived of their vegetative properties in 

 proportion to their luxnriancy ; and, theriifore, 

 will, by returning the crop into the same land, its 

 fertility only be increased in the same degre" as it 

 was reduced by their reduction. This theory, how- 

 ever, can only be supported upon the |)rini!ipliMhat 

 plants are fed more by the soil than by the atmos- 

 phere ; whereas it has been shown, by many cu- 

 rious ex|)eriments, that the air and water are the 

 chief sources of vegetation ; and it is a fact, that 

 poor land, without manure, which by the fortui- 

 tous chances of the weather, has produced tolera- 

 ble green crops, has been found more fsrtile after 

 their |)roductiori than bef(;re. 



When ploughed into the land, they, however, 

 often remain for several months, before t ey de- 

 cay, for their decomyiosition goes on slowly be- 

 neath the soil, and they are therefore frequently 

 more beneficial tothe second than to the first crop. 

 To turn them in effectually, they shnuld be first 

 heavily rolled, and then followed by a trench 

 plough, for the operation cannot he completely 

 performed with a common plough ; and, if not 

 entirely buried, their points stick out between the 

 furrows, by which they are parlly prevented from 

 fermenting, and a portion of their value as manure 

 is thereby lost. 



The time of the year, when they should be 

 ploughed in, must of course, depend upon the na- 

 ture of the crop, which shouM always be buried 

 before it arrives at perfect maturity, or otherwise 

 it will rob the land of that nutriment witli which 

 it is intended to supply it. Most f-irmers taketl.!e 

 first growth of tares and clover, wliicli, if fed off 

 early, is an cconotnical plan ; but if n)owed, it is 

 only doing the business by halves, for the land is 

 thereijy not only deprived of the dung of the cat- 

 tle, but the operation is then too long delayed, for 

 the work should be done in the heat of the sum- 

 mer, or, at the latest, early in the autumn, while 

 the sun has the power to forward the fermentation. 

 The effect, indeed, will greatly depend upon the 

 season, for the process of fermentation is only 

 slight, wdien checked by the want of free commu- 

 nication with the air ; and if the weather be cold, 

 the power of the manure will be in a great mea- 

 sure lost ; but if the season be moderately moist, 

 and very warm, the fermentation will be much 

 promoted, and the crop will be converted, by pu- 

 trefaction, into a mass of nutritive mucilage. No- 

 thing short, however, of an abundant crop will 

 have that itnmediate effect, as a large mass de- 



composes much more speedily than a small one ; 

 and, if very scanty, the latter perhaps may not 

 |)Ut!'afy at all, or its decomposition will be so very 

 gradual that tiie land wi;l be very little percepti- 

 bly the better; but if such a quantity be turned 

 under the earth as will excite the force of fermen- 

 tation, there can be no doubt but that it will then 

 be greatly as well as promptly benefited. Sir 

 Ilumjibrej' Davy, indeed, says, " that this gradual 

 decomposition affords a supply of vegetable mould 

 for several years ;" but, although, as a chemist, 

 he !;iay be right, yet every practical farmer must 

 know that, with such materials to work upon as 

 cannot materially enrich the staple of the soil, bis 

 object should be to obtain such in)mediate effect 

 as will enable him to put the land into a state for 

 growing one good crop, which by its means of 

 producing manure, will probably lead to others. 

 If the question whether it be most profitable to 

 appropriate green crops as the food of cattle, oras 

 manure, be put asiile, and that the sole object is 

 the improvement of the land by the latter proce.ss, 

 then there can be little doubt that the crop should 

 be ploughed down as soon as it is in bloom, for 

 the land will thus have its full benefit, besides the 

 partial advantage of ti.e bastard fallow ; to which, 

 however, there is this difficulty op|)Osed — that the 

 ground cannot be again ploughed until it rtceives 

 the seed furrow, and therefore cannot be cleajied 

 except by the operation of horse-hoeing, or scari 

 fying, which, if the soil be foul, we need not say 

 will prove ineffectual. 



'I he crops which are most generally applied tn 

 this purpose are — buckwheat, winter tares, the 

 second year of clover and rape; which last, from 

 its oily nature, has boon found very effective. — 

 There is, however, a plant, which, although but 

 seldom sown in this country, is very commonly 

 grown throughout Flanders, for the pasturage of 

 cows, and is there sown, like brush- tiuMiips, im- 

 mediately after a crop of wheat, yet in a couple 

 of months afterwards affords a large quantity of 

 succulent food. Several trials of it have also 

 been made with the happiest results in many parts 

 of Germany, of its effects as a green manure ; for 

 it not only possesses the advantage of putrefying 

 with great rapidity when ploughed in, but also 

 that of producing a crop by being merely har- 

 rowed across the stubble, and the seed costs a 

 mere trifle ; it is called spurry. Out of a num- 

 ber of trials which have been recorded in this 

 country, we select the following from the Essays 

 of Mr J5urroughs on green crops and on ma- 

 nures: — 



1. A field of strong clay, containing three acres 

 on Mr 15.'s own farm, was laid out in the follow- 

 ing manner. One acre was fallowed during the 

 summer, and prepared for vvhe.nt with sixty bar- 

 rels of lime, harrowed in ; the adjoining acre was 

 sown with winter tares, which were once cut, and 

 the second growth turned into the land when the 

 blossom appcaVed ; the third -acre was planted 

 with potatoes, and manured with farm-yard dung. 

 The entire of the field was sown with wheat the 

 first week in November, at which time the acre 

 sown with tares was much cleaner and in belter 

 health than those planted with potato or fallowed, 

 and the following year produced more wheat, and 

 of better quality, than either of the former. .After 

 the wheat crop was carried off, the field was im- 

 nicdiately ploughed, and in the following May, 

 sown with barley and grass-seed. The average 

 of the corn off the three acres was nearly the 



same ; but the meadow, the following year, pro- 

 duced more abundantly off that part of the field 

 where the tares had grown, and the laid was much 

 freer from weeds. 



2. After many ineffectual trials made by a very 

 experienced farmer in Herefordshire, to produce 

 a crop of wheat off a field which bad been seve- 

 ral years in cultivation, he sowed w inter tares as 

 a fal ow crop prejiaratory for wheat. The first 

 growth of tares was mown for soiling, and the se- 

 cond ploughed in for manure : yet, eyen under 

 this management — of soiling, instead of feeding 

 on the land, and of ploughing the second, instead 

 of the first, crop of tares — the wheat afterwards 

 produced was su])erior to any corn-crop he had 

 ever obtained off the same field. 



3. On [)art of a ley-field, in the country of Kil- 

 kenny, the tops of a crop of turni))s on an adjoin- 

 ing close were cut off and spread upon the sward 

 before it was ploughed U]t, after which the entire 

 field was sown with .oats ; but the crop on that 

 part of the field where the turnip-tops had been 

 ploughed in, was so materially better, that it pro- 

 duced one-third more in proportion than the re^t 

 of the ground. 



Mr Burroughs also says, in a communication to 

 to Sir John Sinclair, "that he has often laid down 

 laud with vetches anil grass-seeds, and has not 

 only observed that they retain their fertility much 

 longer than when sown with oats or barley for that 

 purpose, but that he hasknown grass-seeds which 

 have failed vyhen sown with oats, to have succeed 

 ed when sown with vetches :" from which, and 

 other experiments, he expresses himself satisfied 

 that "the ploughiiig-in of ajipropriate green crops 

 is a chief, effectual, and profitable mode of im- 

 proving exhausted or light soils." 



On this we so far agree with him, th&t upon 

 arable land which, from any circumstance, is de- 

 prived of the benefit of a due application of farm- 

 yard dung, or other |Mitrescent manure, there can 

 be little doubt that green crops of quick growth, 

 abundant foliage, and easy decomposition, may be 

 turiied into the land with considerable advantage ; 

 but we cannot accord in his opinion that they will 

 be found an effectual mode of improving exhaust- 

 ed soils, for on such land they grow too feebly to 

 produce much effect. The ground, to be bene- 

 fited by their api>lication, should be capable of 

 bringing them forth, if not luxuriantly, at least with 

 such abundance as to furnish complete .shade dur- 

 ing their growth, and sufficient vegetative matter 

 to occast0ii a rapid fermentation when buried : we 

 therefore conceive that this species of mimure is 

 more appropriate for the preservation of good soils 

 in a state of fertility, than to the improvement of 

 those which are impoverished. This probably 

 will in a great measure account for the comi)aru- 

 tive rarity of the jiractice on extensive farms con- 

 taining tracts of poor land, the cultivation of which 

 is chiefly dependent upon the fold ; while on those 

 of a richer description, it may be fairly questioned 

 whether the dimg made from a large green crop, 

 when fed off, or soiled, may not be equally bene- 

 ficial in its eftijcts upon the soil as if ploughed 

 down, besides the superior profits thus gained by 

 its support of the stock. — Library of Usfid Know- 

 ledge. 



Important Invention. — A London mechanic 

 has succeeded in manufacturing a most beautiful 

 cabinet furniture upon slate. The embossing is 

 said to be elegant. 



