334- 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
in every cow pasture. There is a loss of food 
for at least two years by this neglect. If the 
manure were spread every fall or spring, as it 
is in meadows, it would cover a very large 
gpace and become immediately available. At 
least ten times as much surface would feel 
the effects of the manure, and the grass would 
all be cropped, and returned again to the 
soil, and be made immediately available. We 
know of an old firmer who preaches and prac- 
tises the beating of dung in pastures. His 
neighbors laugh at him for his hobby; but we 
notice that his pastures laugh with clover blos- 
soms, that liis cattle are fat, and that his bank 
account laughs with greenbacks — so the laugh- 
ing is not all on one side. "We have thought 
there was some connection, possibly, between 
the half-dozen dung mauls under his shed, and 
the roll of greenbacks in his wallet. Until we 
get ready to adopt the policy of Ogdeu Farm, 
and abolish pastures by soiling and steaming, it 
will be safe to spread the manure In our pastures. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 81. 
This spring I seeded down twenty-five acres 
of winter wheat with clover, and as much more 
spring barley and oats, and for the first time in 
my experience it is apparently an abselute fail- 
ure. The wheat ought to have been seeded a 
month earlier; but I wanted to barrow it with 
Thomas' smoothing harrow, and waited until 
the land was dry enough, The field is pretty 
well underdrained, but there is a great variety 
of soils ; and by the time the whole field was 
dry enough to harrow, the clayey portions had 
become so hard that the harrow made no im- 
pression on them. This was the first week in 
May. The weather was very hot and dry and 
continued so for over six woeks. Wo had no 
rain of any consequence, and there was not 
moisture enough on the surface of the land to 
germinate the clover seed. Had I sown the 
seed a month earlier it would probably have 
caught; or, at the time of sowing, if we had 
gone over the field first with a heavy pair of 
common harrows, and thoroughly broken the 
crust, and then sowed the clover seed and fol- 
lowed with the smoothing harrow, the clover 
would have had a much better chance. No 
matter how severe these early spring drouths 
may be, the soil an inch or two beneath the sur- 
face is quite moist. If we could break up this 
crust, thefine-toDthed smoothing harrow would 
reduoe it to a proper tilth, and it would then 
retain the moisture much better. This loose 
soil on the surface would act as a mulch. 
" What will I do with the land where the 
clover has missed ?" The barley land I will 
plow up and sow to winter wheat and seed 
down in the spring. The prospects are now 
that wheat will bring a good price for a year 
or two to come. The wheat laud I would 
serve in the same way if it was rich enough. 
I have not yet given up all hope that the 
clover has not entirely missed. I once had my 
wheat stubble at harvest look almost destitute 
of clover, but we had a good rain soon after- 
wards and the clover came up and proved to 
be quite thick enough. What I propose to do 
is this : I have a good pile of well-rotted ma- 
nure in the yard, and I will put fifteen loads per 
acre on the wheat stubble and harrow it two 
or three times with the smoothing harrow. If 
the clover is there, this will help it to grow. I 
will let it lie until next spring, and if there is 
clover enough I shall either pasture it or mow 
it for hay and afterwards for seed. But if not, 
I will plow it up and plant corn. " Why not 
sow it to barley and seed it down ?" For this 
reason : After much labor I have succeeded in 
making this field clean. But on a dirty farm 
like mine the manure still contains quantities 
of weed seeds, and if I should spread it on the 
land for wheat or barley the weeds would grow 
and I should have no opportunity of destroying 
them before they went to seed. The land would 
become as foul as before, and I should never 
succeed in getting the farm clean. This spring 
I sowed two acres of Anautka spring wheat, 
and wishing to give it a good chance I put on 
a liberal dressing of manure and plowed it in. 
The land was quite clean, but the weeds came 
up by the million and almost choked out the 
wheat. What wheat there is, however, is 
splendid. 
It is no use spending time and labor in clean- 
ing land if we sow weed seeds on it in the ma- 
nure, and then let the weeds grow and go to 
seed. As long as our manure is full of foul 
seeds wo must apply it as a top-dressing on 
grass land. I am inclined to think the best way 
is, to put it on a oue or two-year-old clover sod 
early in the fall, and pasture the field the next 
summer. The seeds will germinate and the 
young plants will be eaten and kept from going 
to seed. Then the next spring plow up if de- 
sired, and plant to corn. Cultivate thoroughly 
and the weeds will be destroyed on nearly all 
the light soils. 
In England, where one-fourth of the arable 
land is devoted to turnips, the manure is princi- 
pally applied to this crop. Paradoxical as it 
may soem, while the turnip is the great reno- 
vating crop of British agriculture it requires and 
receives more manure- and more thorough cul- 
tivation than an)' other crop in the rotation. 
The turnips are all consumed on the farm, and 
the fattening sheep are allowed all the turnips 
they will eat and a pound of oil-cake per day, 
and clover hay in addition. So the more tur- 
nips there are grown the more oil-cake is there 
fed out, and the more and richer manure is 
there made. 
In this country, as yet, clover and grass are 
almest our only renovating crops. Should we 
not make it a point to increase their growth as 
much as possible? If by the application of 
manure to wheat we double the crop, we sell 
the wheat and that, with the exception of the 
extra straw, is the end of the benefit. But if 
we apply the manure to grass or clover and 
double the crop, we have double the hay to 
feed out, and double the pasture ; a manure 
heap at least twice as large, and iu the end 
double wheat and other grain crops also. To 
get the full benefit, however, of the system of 
manuring our grass and clover, we must learn 
to make a profit out of the animals consuming 
it. And to do this we must pay more attention 
to breeding cattle and sheep that will grow 
rapidly on nutritious food. We must raise cat- 
tle and sheep to which we can afford to feed 
our oil-cake at home instead of sending it to 
England. When root culture is extensively 
adopted, as it probably will be when the Chinese 
are here to do the work, we shall apply our 
manure to this crop ; but iu the meantime there 
is no reason why we should not make an effort 
to grow more and richer grass. With us rich 
grass must be the basis of good farming. 
A farmer in Hamilton Co., Ohio, asks me if 
I know of any crop that he can grow for feed- 
ing pigs, that with the same labor will be as 
profitable as Indian corn. " We are here," he 
writes, "iu the center of the corn-growing belt 
of the U. S. No crop begins to pay like corn 
on good laud. 60 bushels of shelled corn 
per acre is a frequent crop. I have grown 75, 
and I have seen 90 grown on this farm on a 
sixteen-acre field, when it belonged to my father. 
I have never grown it myself. But we cannot 
raise corn on the same ground forever. Many 
have tried it, and now only raise 30 bushels per 
acre in a good year, and from to 15 in a bad 
one. If we raise oats we get 35 or 30 bushels ; 
barley and wheat, 20 bushels; potatoes, 100 bush- 
els; hay, l'| a tons; clover, perhaps 2 tons, or 
will pasture six hogs five months, all on ground 
that will raise 60 bushels of corn per acre. Jt 
the land will not produce that, the other crops 
will be in proportion. You will readily see that 
corn is the most profitable ; next, clover pastured 
to hogs; next, clover hay; next, other hay. 
Now, as I only wish to raise a little wheat or 
barley for the sake of tho straw, a little oats for 
the same reason, and to feed my horses, and I 
cannot well put all the rest of my land in corn 
and clover, can you tell me of any crop that 
will approximate to corn for hog feed, and not 
cost more than $10 per acre to raise it ? I wish 
to feed out everything I grow on my own land. 
For this reason I keep sheep to eat up the 
clover hay. Now, as a- hog pays so much more 
for all he eats than any other animal and I can 
not put my whole farm in corn, I wish to grow 
something to take the place of corn to feed to 
pigs." — I know of no such crop. Instead of 
looking for some other plant we should direct 
our efforts to bring up the fertility of the soil to 
the capacity of the climate. If the climate is 
capable of producing 90 bushels of shelled corn 
per acre, our aim should be to bring up the ca- 
pacity of the soil to that point. To "feed out 
everything that is grown on the farm," is the 
true course. But it is well to inquire what 
crops when grown and fed out, will most enrich 
the laud. It does not follow that because an 
acre of corn will produce more pork than an 
acre of clover, that the corn is ultimately the 
most profitable. If the clover will add 20 or 
30 bushels to the following crop of com, it may 
well be that the clover is the more profitable 
crop. "My present rotation," our correspond- 
ent continues, " is 1st year, corn ; 2d year, 
corn ; 3d year, corn ; 4th year, oats or spring 
barley; 5th year, wheat or fall barley ; 6th 3-ear, 
timothy or clover mown, or the latter pastured 
with hogs ; 7th year, timothy mown or pastured, 
clover pastured ; 8th year, corn, &c. I apply 
my manure (alwa}'s composted) to the clover or 
meadow its first winter, so as to increase the 
second year's crop. By the above rotation, out 
of 140 acres of arable laud, I can have 60 in 
corn every year. I grind and cook all my corn 
before feeding it to the pigs." — I have an idea, 
that this man is a capital farmer, and I do not 
feel like suggesting any change in his manage- 
ment. An intelligent man on the grouud can 
always judge better than one unacquainted 
with all the details and circumstances of the 
case. Theoretically, however, be certainly does 
not grow clover enough. 
A crop of corn of 60 bushels per acre, 56 lbs. 
to the bushel, contains in the grain, 60 lbs. of a 
nitrogen, and in the stalks, cobs, &c, say 30 lbs. 
more, or 90 lbs. in all. A crop of clover, equal 
to two tons of hay per acre, contains 100 lbs. 
of nitrogen ; and we may assume that the second 
growth of clover (the same year) would on good 
land be equal to another ton of hay, containing 
say 50 lbs. more, and if we assume that the 
roots of the clover contain only 30 lbs., we have 
180 lbs. of nitrogen as the result of a year's 
i 
