710 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



Natural manuring, with green or dry vegetable 

 materials. 



The manuring labors which I have recom- 

 mended, and with the omission of much that 

 is done by other practical farmers — and omit- 

 ting very much more that is directed by closet 

 farmers, or writers who are not farmers — will 

 (according to the productiveness of the farm in 

 supplying materials) serve to cover as thickly 

 as is proper and safe to the then growing vege- 

 tation, from one-half to more than the whole of 

 one field of a five or six field rotation. But all 

 this amount of manuring, though much ex- 

 ceeding what is usually done on most farms, is 

 much less than another kind of manuring, and 

 which I have as yet touched only incidentally, 

 and as necessarily connected with the collec- 

 tion or avoidance of materials for prepared 

 manures. I speak of what may be correctly 

 designated as natural manuring — which is ma- 

 nuring land by its own growth of plants, left 

 on it for this purpose — and either turned under 

 by the plough, green or dry, or left as top- 

 dressing to decay on the surface of the ground, 

 until the next covering of tillage. But vast as 

 is this resource and supply of manure, and 

 great as its value — and important and interest- 

 ing as would be the proper treatment of the 

 subject — I must pass it by with but a few 

 slight and hasty remarks. For though this is 

 truly a branch, and, in our usual circum- 

 stances, the most important branch of putres- 

 cent manuring, it is not so understood in com- 

 mon parlance — in which the term " putrescent 

 manures" is restricted to matters collected and 

 prepared for use, or otherwise obtained by pur- 

 chase, already prepared, from without the limits 

 of the farm. While deferring to, and being 

 much restrained in the range of my remarks 

 by this popular understanding, still I have in- 

 cluded as a manure unmixed and dry straw, 

 and would as much include not only the richer 

 clover and pea-vines, sown for manuring crops, 

 but also all grass and weeds grown and left un- 

 graded, and either ploughed under, or left to 

 decompose on the surface among other growing 

 plants. 



The leguminous or pod-bearing family of 

 plants are the most valuable for manuring crops. 

 Of these, red clover is the best, wherever soil, 

 climate, and other circumstances, concur to 



and 250 acres of wheat, yielding nearly 20 

 bushels, average. One field (125 acres) of broad- 

 cast peas, turned under, and one field of clover 

 (or weeds, where clover fails to grow,) for wheat 

 — and one field of weeds (partially grazed) for 

 corn. 



From midsummer, 1854, to October 3d, the 

 cattle had not been penned, at all, when grazing 

 on a separately enclosed pasture. I now deem 

 their remaining at large, in summer, in benefit 

 to their health and condition, of more value than 

 that of collecting their manure in pens, whether 

 naked or littered, for the same time. 



render its growth certain and abundant in pro- 

 portion to the fertility of the land. But so 

 precarious is the growth of this plant in the 

 tide-water region of Virginia, even on good or 

 calcareous soils, (and it is almost hopeless on 

 any other lands,) that its value is equalled by 

 the Southern pea, and more and more exceeded 

 by it, as proceeding southward. But whatever 

 may be the respective values of these two most 

 valuable of manuring crops, neither of them 

 can be a substitute for the other. Clover re- 

 quires to be sown on wheat, or oats, and on 

 land cleansed of other grasses and weeds by 

 preceding tillage; and at least eighteen months 

 will be required to obtain the first useful pro- 

 ducts. Peas, sown broad-cast for a manure- 

 crop, demand a distinct ploughing of the land 

 preparatory to the seeding; and the crop 

 reaches full maturity and commences decay in 

 four months. Therefore, the choice between 

 these two manuring crops, in each particular 

 case, on soil and in climate suitable for both, 

 must be directed by the conditions of the 

 place in the rotation of crops, and the order of 

 their succession. Whenever a heavy cover of 

 either of these leguminous crops can be grown, 

 (red clover, or any of the numerous varieties 

 of the Southern field pea,) and ploughed under, 

 the vegetable cover makes a good manuring to 

 the field. 



But it is not or\]y in these or any other sown 

 or tilled crops, that we may find green or dry 

 vegetable manuring. Every plant, whether 

 grass or weed, shrub or tree, which grows, 

 dies and rots in or upon the soil, according to 

 its texture and constitution, gives more or less 

 of fertilizing manure to the soil, and to its sub- 

 sequent growth. However poor and scant may 

 be the natural growth of weeds on arable land, 

 when left unfilled for a time, it is so far a ma- 

 nure, and the most abundant and cheapest 

 putrescent manure that could be furnished on 

 any farm, to a broad extent, of poor land. And 

 if, by preventing the grazing of live-stock, this 

 natural growth is allowed all to act as manure, 

 and for sufficient intervals of rest to the fields 

 between exhausting crops, the land, if before 

 impoverished, will gradually rise in fertility to 

 such higher grade as its earthy and chemical 

 constitution will admit. This poor but cheap 

 manuring is best suited for the commencement 

 and earlier progress of improvement of much 

 impoverished lands. After some length of 

 time, the entire omission of the grazing and 

 trampling of the fields by animals would be- 

 come a disadvantage to the subsequent tilled 

 crops. Besides, on lands become productive, 

 it will be more profitable to substitute for the 

 manuring with weeds, other manuring by peas, 

 clover, and stock-yard and stable manures. 



The rude system of manuring with putres- 

 cent matters, here described and recommended, 

 I readily admit would be unsuitable to a highly 

 advanced condition of agriculture, and of high- 

 priced lands and low-priced labor — as in Eng- 



