THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



179 



have been recommended to be put in the 

 milk, such as saltpetre, cloride of lime, 

 &c. Mr. J. McD. Mclntyre, of this city, 

 who is in the habit of feeding his cows 

 during winter with both turnips and brew- 

 ers' grains, informs us that while both 

 these articles are used, no unpleasant taste 

 is given to the milk; but that if the 

 grains are omitted, the flavor of the milk 

 is affected by the turnips. His rule has 

 been to feed each cow with about half a 

 bushel of Swedish turnips, and half a 

 bushel of grains per day, and it has re- 

 peatedly noticed that when the turnips 

 are stopped the milk is considerably de- 

 creased in quantity, and the cows appear 

 to be less healthy. — Albany Cultivator. 



From the Massachusetts Ploughman. 



CAN YOU ENRICH SOIL BY BURYING 

 THE CROPS THAT GROW OUT OF 



Mr. Editor , — I have noticed in various 

 agricultural papers, and I think frequently 

 in yours, articles recommending the turn- 

 ing in of various crops for the purpose of 

 enriching the land upon which they grow, 

 but have never seen the why and the where- 

 fore of these recommendations philosophi- 

 cally explained. It seems to me, how- 

 ever, that this course is useless, for three 

 reasons, the first of which is, that if the 

 richness which produced the first crop 

 was originally contained in the soil, the 

 turning in but returns to the earth what' 

 it had previously imparted, and conse- 

 quently the labor is worse than lost, as it 

 does not advantage the land itself, and 

 destroys one season's productiveness. 



2. If the qualities which rendered the 

 crop to be turned in, thriving, was derived 

 from the gases in the atmosphere, and 

 not from the ground, then the gases alone 

 are sufficient to mature the crop, however 

 sterile and barren the land, and conse- 

 quently the burying of a crop is but the 

 loss of it, and the labor useless. 



3. If the crop depend on the richness 

 of the soil and gases, combined, then, it 

 seems to me, that as the first crop contains 



all that by turning in is to be hoped for 

 the second crop, that the labor is not only 

 useless but worse than useless, and en- 

 tirely thrown away. 



These thoughts have been suggested 

 to my mind, and 1 have penned them 

 down, that, if they are wrong, you may 

 enlighten me on the subject, and not only 

 me but a large proportion of the public ? 

 who, in adopting any new system are 

 desirous of knowing the reasons which 

 may be presented in its support. 



A Young Farmer. 



Barre, May 25, 1847. 



We assume it as a fact that land be- 

 comes enriched by the decay of the ve- 

 getation that sprang from it, because we 

 see it with our natural eyes in various 

 instances. We find that worn out land 

 is recruited by suffering it to run to bushe3 

 and wood and timber, even though we 

 take no pains to bury the leaves and the 

 fallen limbs. After a few years we can 

 cut off twenty cords of wood per acre, 

 burn the brush, and obtain one or two crops 

 of stout grain without applying any ma- 

 nure but what is obtained from the ashes. 



We find also that by ploughing in one 

 crop of grass, we enrich the land and ob- 

 tain a better harvest than we do when no 

 grass is on the ground — we can sow 

 buckwheat in May, bury it in July, and 

 then have a second crop for grain and 

 stover to be carried to the barn ; and this 

 crop will be much heavier in consequence 

 of burying the first. 



As to the "why and wherefore," every 

 one is at liberty to assign such reasons as 

 suit him, though he may not deny the 

 facts. If vegetation were sustained by 

 soil alone, and if the roots were the only 

 means by which plants obtain their food, 

 it might be difficult to assign a reason 

 why land is enriched by burying the 

 plants that took all their living out of the 

 land. But it is well known that plants 

 obtain a very large proportion of their 

 substance from the atmosphere ; and by 

 burying these plants, the land on which 

 they grew is a gainer ; though it may be 

 at the expense of adjoining lands over 

 which the atmosphere has moved. 



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