266 



THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



I fear you will be disappointed in it : but such 

 as it is, you are heartily welcome. I first gave 

 my own experience, as follows : — " Twenty-five 

 years ago, I purchased a small farm of sixty- 

 one acres, which had been greatly exhausted by 

 the bad treatment of a succession of tenants, 

 (renters,) who took all they could from the land, 

 and put nothing on it, except the scanty and 

 annually diminishing manure made upon it. I 

 commenced immediately to apply lime, accord- 

 ing to the practice then pursued, here, viz : 

 spreading forty or fifty bushels of fresh slaked 

 lime (wetted so as to reduce it to a powder,) on 

 each acre of ground which had been ploughed 

 and harrowed for Indian corn. When the lime 

 was thus spread, as equally as possible, the 

 ground was again harrowed, marked out, and 

 the corn planted. In this way, each field was 

 limed in succession, as it came into cultivation : 

 and as my little farm was divided into six fields, 

 of course it required six years to give the whole 

 a dressing of lime. At the end of twelve years, 

 I had gone twice over the fields, in the manner 

 mentioned ; and had applied about six thousand 

 bushels of lime. By this time, the effect of the 

 lime — combined with what little manure could 

 be made — was such as to double, if not treble, 

 the produce of the land,— especially the grass 

 crops. Still, I was unable to manure, sufficient- 

 ly, the ivhole of even my little fields, as they 

 came under culture ; and I became convinced it 

 was bad policy to be ploughing more ground 

 than could be well manured. I then ploughed 

 only half a field, for each crop ; i. e. first, Indian 

 corn, with lime, — then bailey or oats, the next 

 year, — and in the autumn succeeding these, I 

 manured the ground well, and sowed wheat, 

 with timothy seed at the same time — and adding 

 clover seed in the spring following. This is the 

 usual routine of crops, in Chester county. The 

 year succeeding the wheat, the field becomes a 

 fine meadow of clover and timothy,— which is 

 kept up for mowing, a couple of j^ears, — and 

 then, the green grass, and other natural grasses, 

 having come in, (as we term it,) the field is in 

 the best condition for grazing — i. e. feeding oxen 

 for beef, — or for keeping a dairy, — as circum- 

 stances, or the inclination of the farmer, may 

 prompt. By reducing the quantity of ploughed 

 land, as abovementioned, and manuring it well, 

 when sowed with wheat, timothy and clover, I 

 found that one-half of my little fields produced 

 larger and better crops, than the ivhole had pre- 

 viously done ; while at the same time, this in- 

 crease of crops (as must be obvious,) was at- 

 tended with a diminution of labor. By this me- 

 thod, too, the land is less exhausted by cropping ; 

 the fields have a longer rest, under the shelter of 

 a valuable herbage, and the quality of the soil 

 becomes thereby decidedly improved for future 

 crops. I hold it to be of the greatest importance, 

 in improving land, that not an inch more should 



be ploughed than can be well manured ; and it 

 is an established maxim with our best farmers, 

 that a field which is not left in a better condition 

 at the close of a course of crops, than it was at 

 the commencement, has been injudiciously ma- 

 naged. We have ascertained, here, of late years, 

 that in addition to the dressing of lime on the 

 Indian corn ground, as before stated, it is of 

 great advantage to apply lime as a top dressing, 

 on the pasture fields. I incline to think it is 

 even more beneficial in this way than when put 

 on ploughed land. It is exceedingly favorable 

 to the growth of the valuable grasses ; and 

 when the soil is stiff, it tends greatly also to 

 mellow, and otherwise ameliorate its condition. 

 Of latter years, I have chiefly applied lime as a 

 top dressing on the grassy turf ; and many of 

 our best farmers now give that mode the prefer- 

 ence. But the fact is, it never comes amiss, in 

 any mode. It will well reward the labor, if ju- 

 diciously applied, both on the corn ground, and 

 on the grass land, after the wheat crop. I prefer 

 moderate and repeated dressings, say thirty to fifty 

 bushels per acre. On poor lands, the first dress- 

 ings should be light, gradually increasing the 

 quantity as the quality of the soil is improved. 

 It has been ascertained, that the better the land, 

 the heavier may be the dressing of lime ; and 

 on some of our best soils, as high as eighty and 

 one hundred bushels have been put to the acre, 

 with advantage. I suppose the fact is owing 

 to the greater quantity of vegetable matter in 

 rich soils; for lime always does most good in 

 conjunction with vegetable matter, — and hence, 

 also, the importance of manuring well, when 

 lime is employed. It is chiefly on this ground 

 that I account for the beneficial influence of lime 

 as a top dressing on the sod, where it mingles 

 with the dead vegetable matter on the surface. 

 By its favorable influence on the grasses, lime 

 increases the chief element of manure, which is 

 so valuable an adjunct. ; and thus, like jealousy, 

 it may be said to £ make the meat it feeds on.' 

 By furnishing the material for manure, and that 

 manure, in turn, increasing the salutary action 

 of the lime, the means of the skilful agricul- 

 turist are augmented almost in a geometrical 

 ratio. 



"To lecapitulate briefly, then, the practice of 

 our Chester county farmers, in the use of lime, 

 and apply their experience to exhausted lands, 

 elsewhere, I would say, first, make all the ma- 

 nure possible, and plough only as far as that 

 manure will reach ; secondly, dress the Indian 

 corn fields with about thirty bushels of lime to 

 the acre, increasing the quantity as the land 

 improves ; and, lastly, and firstly, and all the time % 

 apply lime as a top dressing, whenever opportu- 

 nity offers, on all the grass fields of the farm ; 

 taking them in turn, so as to allow each the 

 longest period to lie, before it is broken up with 

 the plough. One great, recommendation of top 



