PROCEEDINGS OP THE FARMERS' CLUB. 233 



wheat growing has become so precarious that it has generally been given up. 

 That system, so thoroughly tested through many years by the Rev. Mr. 

 Smith, is this: He lays off the ground in strips, two and a half or three feet 

 wide, and plants alternate strips, and cultivates the others just as we cul- 

 tivate between rows of Indian corn. He finds that a field may be thus 

 continued in wheat sixteen years without manure, and not deteriorate. 

 Indeed, the yield is now much larger than it was at the commencement of 

 the experiment. Then the yield was twenty-three bushels per acre; now 

 it is tliirty-eight bushels. The wheat roots spread into the blank spaces, and 

 receive the advantage of the loosening and aerification of the soil. The 

 rest thus obtained is equivalent to a rotation of crops. I have found great 

 advantage in sowing corn laud late in autumn with red-strap turnips, 

 although they may not grow large enough to make them of any value for 

 cattle feed. In a mild winter like this, they continue growing, and although 

 there may not be much of a burden upon the soil to turn under, the laud is 

 certainly benefited much more than the cost of seed and sowing. 



Mr. Carpenter said that farmers had generally found by experience that 

 it will not answer to sow wheat after wheat, and it should be observed 

 that scarcely any other crop will do as well. I planted cauliflowers last 

 season upon the same soil that grew cauliflowers the year before, and the 

 consequence was that the plants grew club-footed, and with poor heads. 

 Even Indian corn is best when rotated with other crops; but one thing may 

 be observed, that any land that will produce a good crop of cultivated 

 grass will produce good corn. 



Prof. Mapes. — It is useless for us to try to grow wheat after wheat by 

 our system, while by that of Mr. Smith there is no difiiculty; and if we can 

 get more wheat from half the surface, why should we plant the whole, or 

 why change from field to field ? It is the practice of the fallowing system 

 in such a way that the growing crop gets the advantage of every summer 

 plowing of the fallow. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The same system has long been practiced by the 

 growers of Sea Island cotton, and to some extent in growing corn in Vir- 

 ginia and North Carolina. 



Lecture upon Insects. 



By invitation of the Club, Dr. Trimble, of Newark, will give a brief lec- 

 ture upon insects, and exhibit a set of beautiful illustrations, which he has 

 had prepared at considerable expense, at the meeting of the Club Jan. 2*7. 



Chic CORY — How is it Grown ? 



Mr. John G. Bergen. — I want some information abo^^t growing chiccory 

 and preparing it for use; and I have no doubt that a great many others 

 would be glad to know how to grow an article that is so extensively used 

 both in this country and Europe as a substitute for coffee. In my family 

 I must say that coffee and chiccory mixed is preferred to pure coffee, and I 

 want to know whether I can grow it easily. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — Just as easily as you can grow parsneps or salsify, 

 which chiccory very much resembles. I have quite a plot of it now upon 



