1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



227 



ERADICATION" OF BUSHES AND SHRUBS. 



When pasture grounds become overrun with 

 bushes and shrubs, one method sometimes adopt- 

 ed for cleansing the surface is to plow them in. 

 To do this well, will require a very strong plow 

 and a stout team. It should be a plow made for 

 the purpose, and sufficiently strong for three pair 

 of oxen, so that it will turn out partially decayed 

 small stumps, and the green roots of young al- 

 ders, berry bushes, &c. As many of these as 

 possible should be covered by the furrows, where 

 they will gradually decay and feed the living 

 plants upon the surface above them. 



Everything that has been produced by the soil, 

 and vitalized by the principle of life, possesses the 

 power of assisting the development and growth 

 of plants, and when resolved into its original ele- 

 ments, by the action of chemical affinities, which 

 occurs on the cessation of the vital principle, of 

 adding also to the improvement of the soil. 



There are certain constituents involved in the 

 structure of all vegetable substances, which are, 

 strictly speaking, of a nature at once permanent 

 and indestructible. Thus the lime contained in 

 certain vegetables, when those vegetables cease 

 to live, is returned immediately to the soil. The 

 ash, or residuum, which remains after burning, 

 possesses, likewise, the same imperishable char- 

 acter, and becomes, as before, a portion or con- 

 stituent of the soil, and a powerful and indispen- 

 sable adjunct in the reproduction of future crops 

 of hay and grain. Thus the bushes, whether 

 burned or left to decay by a slower process, are 

 by no means lost to the soil, but impart to it val- 

 uable fertilizing agents. 



There are some lands, however, which cannot 

 be subjected to the plow, and which must be re- 

 claimed by some other process, which will clear 

 them of the spurious vegetation which prevents a 

 growth of grass. When such is the case, it has 

 been found a judicious plan to cut, and either burn 

 the crop on the soil, or remove it to some conve- 

 nient situation where it can be changed, by the as- 

 sistance of chemical agents, or by the natural pro- 

 cess of putrefaction — which, in all green and suc- 

 culent vegetables is soon induced — to the condi- 

 tion of manure. In this way the expense neces- 

 sarily involved in the operation of cutting and 

 clearing, will be partly reimbursed by the food 

 obtained, while the actual improvement of the 

 soil, resulting from the application of that food — 

 and which is by no means an insignificant item in 

 such efforts, will be obvious and enduring. 



Most sheep ranges are more or less covered 

 with rocks, rising, occasionally, into steep and 

 abrupt acclivities, and filled with small cobble 

 stones, or large embedded boulders. When such 

 is the geological character of the soil, the surface 



must be cleansed with the scythe, as no effort to 

 invert the sward and cover the vegetable matter 

 beneath the furrow slice can prove otherwise than 

 abortive. Where the bushes are cut clean, nu- 

 merous new shoots will be thrown out, and if the 

 pasture be slightly overstocked, the sheep and 

 cattle will continually browse them and greatly 

 retard their growth, and in many instances entire- 

 ly suspend their growth. We have known lands 

 completely reclaimed, and filled with the sweetest 

 and most nutritious herbage, where the bushes 

 were cut as Suggested, and then the land stocked 

 with sheep. This is probably the easiest and 

 cheapest method of restoring rocky lands, as on 

 such there will remain many places where the 

 plow cannot operate successfully. In such a case, 

 nothing but a useless and unprofitable expendi- 

 ture of time and effort can possibly ensue. 



By thoroughly cleansing the surface of such 

 land, and sowing gypsum, lime, wood ashes, and 

 other energetic mineral manures over the surface, 

 a very decided increase of vegetable matter may 

 be produced, and at comparatively small expense. 

 Argillaceous, or clayey soils, it is supposed, are 

 better able to bear repeated applications of lime, 

 than that of a sandy texture, as, in the first place 

 the action of the mineral tends, by its physical 

 action, to disintegrate and loosen the tendency 

 which all clays have to retain the humus, or de- 

 composable matter, left after the decay of all or- 

 ganized substances, whether of animal or vegeta- 

 ble origin. 



On low lands, such as bogs and marshes which 

 have been thoroughly drained, the operation of 

 lime may be highly beneficial, because they are 

 filled with substances which are susceptible of de- 

 composition which the decomposing power of the 

 lime tends powerfully to accelerate and perfect. 

 The effect produced by the solvent influence of 

 the mineral on soils of this description, is far 

 more potent, immediate and beneficial than that 

 of any other manure. But on thin, light soils, if 

 applied too frequently, or in excessive quantities, 

 it will tend to impoverish them, and reduce them, 

 after a time, to actual sterility, even though each 

 application may, when separately contemplated 

 in its results, appear to have a favorable effect. 



A good pasture is a valuable appendage of the 

 farm, and without which no farmer can comforta- 

 bly succeed. As yet, far too little attention has 

 been given to this important department of the 

 farm. 



Harvesting Turnips. — "Old Hurricane," a 

 correspondent of the Country Gentleman, who 

 often starts up a breeze in its columns, states that 

 one year being hurried up by frost, he "hired six 

 day-laborers, and an extra team, to work with two 

 of his own men and horse and cart. That day 



