THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
179 
%yater likewise. How is this to be done 7 By 
drawing on what it is deficient in — lime, flint 
or sand. Either ol these will open the soil, and 
answer the purpose. Manure will do the same 
thing, but it will not be so permanent; so will 
the plowing in of either green or dry crops, or 
chips, or stones, or leax'es, or any thing that will 
open the earth and the progress of the roots ol 
the plants. 
A friend in an adjoining town, Claverack. 
tells me that these suggestions some lime since 
occurred to him ; and having the opportunities, 
he has adopted the practice of flooding a clay 
lot by a muddy stream, rendered turbid by sand 
in rainy weather when it is swollen; and by 
letting the water pass over it in this state, he 
has had deposited over it w'ithin a few years, 
hundreds of tons ol sand and gravel, and it has 
since produced him the greatest yield of hay he 
has ever had. 
It I understand him right, he has recovered 
several acres in this way, and has already been 
more than a hundred times compensated for the 
expense of the plan he has adopted. He has 
so managed as to dam or prevent the water from 
passing off at those times, until it had made its 
deposite; and when it had, he opened the sluices 
and let it pass off. The labor and the expense 
were trifling, but he reaps the benefit of the 
thought, and deserves our thanks for adopting 
it. 
Another triend tells me, that he has drawn 
sand trom a neighboring hillock, on a lot ofelay 
land: and in the crops that followed, it produced 
as good an effect as if the land had been highly 
manured. The first crop upon it, alter making 
the experiment, wms a crop of grass; and he 
was so pleased with it, that he earnestly per- 
suaded all he could to visit and satisf. them- 
selves by their own personal observation. A 
third friend tells m'^, that he summer-fallowed 
a poor, worn-out clay lot in 1842, intending to 
manure it and sow it to wheal in the fall. He 
plowed it and drew on a sufficiency of stable 
manure. On another portion he drew sand and 
gravel, and spread it. Another portion, he left 
un manured and unsanded. He sowed the 
whole to wheat. In the summer of 1843, the 
past summer, the part manured was very g'>od, 
the part sanded equally good, and on the part to 
which neither had been applied, the wheat v.'as 
miserably poor. These three experiments all 
tend to the same result, and to confirm the theory 
ol the philosopher and the observation of the 
farmer. 
The clay land in Columbia county was known 
by our oldest inhabitants to yield large crops of 
wheat immediately after clearing. Indeed, it 
was thought that none but clay land would pro- 
duce wheat. The farmers therefore, who own- 
ed other soil, bought these clay lands solely 
with a view to rais" wheat; and I have been 
repeatedly told by an old inhabitant, that farm- 
ers would purchase detached lots of clay, distant 
from their farms, if they had no land of this 
kind, for the express purpose of raising wheat. 
This was soon after or before the limber or 
growth of the forest was removed, where the 
ground for centuries had been annually covered 
with the leaves of the trees, or remains of them 
and the falling timber. From these deposits, 
there were several inches of vegetable mould 
created, and the sun not having had access to 
the ground to dry out its moisture and render it 
compact, it was in a fit slate to yield large re- 
turns to the farmer, and it did yield them. 
We have all heard of the fertility of the west- 
ern part of the State, and that they raise from 
twenty to forty bushels of wheat to the acre. 
This is true: but is ic generally known like- 
wise, that a considerable portion of the land is 
clay upon which they raise these heavy crops. 
The presumption is, that they will continue to 
have good crops of wheat as long as this vege- 
table mould which the forest has been the cause 
of accumulatins, will last, and no longer. Ex- 
haust or remove this vegetable mould, and their 
clay soil will be as hard and as stiff as ours. 
They put on wheat after wheat — our fathers did 
the same— until they have exhausted the fertili- 
ty, and left nothing but the residuum of the vir- 
gin clay behind; and this soil now constitutes 
the clay fields we see around us. We have 
long felt and now feel the evils of this kind of 
farming by our progenitors, and would be hap- 
py to apply the remedy. 
The remedy in part, I have suggested in my 
previous remarks up n the deficiency in the soil 
for the speedy growth of plants ; but it is not al- 
ways easy or practicable to draw' on lime, sand 
or gravel. In suggesting that remedy I will 
state my own experience in reclaiming clay 
land, and the methods I have used to effect, and 
leave you to judge how far it can be advan- 
tageously practised. I have owmed a farm of 
200 acres for say 15 years. My practise has 
been to stock it with a lew cattle, but feed on it 
principally sheep — to plow only enough of it to 
employ two hands during the summer; not to 
sell any hay from the farm, but to make all the 
manure I could upon it. By this course of 
husbandry 1 find myself rewarded, because I 
have received mote in immediate profits than 
the interest on the investment 1 have made 
w’ould come to; and I have been enabled to 
manure the meadow's at least three times, and 
several of the pasture lots. I found that I could, 
in most seasons, raise good crops of oats, but 
for the last three years I have suspended in a 
measure the oat crop, and gone back to 
wheat: and from the experience I have had, 
I feel the assurance that this barren exhausted 
clay farm, by continuing the cultivation ol it on 
the pi tu I now adopt, will ultimately become, 
as it has already been, a source of great profit 
to me. it is well known that a clay soil is not 
congenial to the growth of corn, and that rye 
grown upon it does not makegood flour. When 
it can be manured, it is better adapted to the 
growth of all the grasses, w'heat and oats. 
Knowing this, we must follow out the indica- 
tion of Nature, and act accordingly. The prac- 
tice 1 have adopted has been this: To manure 
an old, worn-out clay lot, summer-fallow it and 
plow it repeatedly; sow it early to w'heat in the 
fall, together with grass seed. For three suc- 
cessive seasons, I have succeeded not only in 
my wheat crop, but the grass has done remark- 
ably w’ell the follow'ing year. Now, what pre- 
vents us from carrying out this practice "I If 
we can reclaim a lot, can we not by perseve- 
rance reclaim a whole farm I And what, let 
me ask, can be more profitable husbandry than 
a good v/heat crop followed either by hay or 
pasture'] if then, carting on lime, sand, gravel 
or dung, one and all — remembering, how'ever, 
that manure must be one of the ingredients to 
make the improvement permanent — w’hat is to 
prevent the industrious and intelligent farmer 
from making our now worn-out clay lands our 
most profitable farms. Again: sow it earl}', 
sow it in August — give the plant plenty of time 
to cover the ground well with its foliage before 
winter sets in. This will afford protection to 
its roots, and wm will not hear so many com- 
plaints about your wheat being frozen out on 
the clay. The leaves will protect it. I w'ill 
add one word more on the subject of sowing 
grass seed. I sow timothy and clover — three 
times the quantity of the fiist, to one of the last. 
My observation thus far has taught me that 
the earliest sown grass-seed does by far the best. 
I have sown in September, in October and No- 
vember. The first did well, the second not so 
well, and that sown in Nov'emberdid very bad- 
ly. I could add more on this subject, but I 
trust that 1 have said enough to be understood. 
The suggestion is sufficient — your own good 
sense will supply all that is w'anting. 
And now, fellow-farmers, before we separate, 
permit me to ask in conclusion, have you for 
the last year done justice to your profession, to 
your families and to your country I 
Have you called to your aid all the agricul- 
tural reading within your reach, and taken ad- 
vice from those of your neighbors who are able 
to give it? Are your farms generally, in a bet- 
ter condition than they were one year ago 1 
Are your fields better laid out and enclosed — 
your waste grounds less — more of it grubbed up 
and improved — your ditches opened — useless 
stones removed, and the general surface of the 
ground better adapted for the raising of crops? 
Has your land been made richer to enable it to 
yield more, and have you collected a lars:e 
amount of materials to inc.'ease your annual 
stock ol manure? Are your houses more com- 
fortable, besides of a neater appearance from 
the labors of the year? Have you added to the 
convenience and safety of your barns, to make 
them better adapted for the purposes for which 
they were built? Has your stock ol cattle and 
horses improved, not only in number, but more 
in quality and appearance, and consequently in 
value? Have you selected, and do you raise 
the best kind ol sheep — I mean those kinds that 
are most profitable to the ow'ner? Have you 
the most profitable breed of hogs, and do you 
carry just so many through the winter as best 
conduce to your interest? In short, have ycu 
so farmed in all things that you have no cause 
of regret, because you have given to all a pro- 
per degree of attention and care? 
If you have done so, you will reap the result; 
and I congratulate you, for you have done full 
justice to your prefession, to your families and 
to your country. If Providence at the end ol 
anoiher year should again bring us together, 
from the strong cot fidence that 1 have in the in- 
telligence and good habits of my countrymen, I 
feel an assurance that we shall see the good old 
county of Columbia marching with still more 
rapid strides toward all that contributes to indi- 
vidual happiness and National greatness. 
CULTIVATION OF LUCERNE. 
A “Subscriber,” at Strawberry Hill, North 
Carolina, asks lor some information on this 
subject. 
A deep, rich, and rather light soil, is best for 
lucerne, and it is hardly worth w'hile lo attempt 
its cultivation on soils of an opposite descrip- 
tion. The preparation of the ground consists 
in deep plowing,'and fine pulverization. Any 
kind of manure suitable iorclover, may be used 
— mixed with soil. It may be sown either 
broad-cast, with some kind of spring grain, or 
alone in drills. We prefer the latter, lor ’the 
follow'ing reasons: When sowm broad-cast, 
with or without grain, its growth is much check- 
ed, either by the grain or w’eeds, or by both— if 
a drouth occurs at the time the grain is taken off, 
a large portion of it dies, and what remains is 
so injured that the succeeding winter probably 
kills it. After repeated trial, w’e have found it 
very difficult to get it through the first summer 
and winter. Unless the weather is very favor- 
able, so much of it dies, that it is left too thin. 
Having failed some half dozen times in the 
broad-cast mode, w'e tried sowing in drills with 
a machine, and succeeded completely. The 
drills w'ere about ten inches apart, and the spa- 
ces were hoed once or twice, by which means 
the w'eeds were kept down, and the lucerne 
grew so rapidly that it was cut three times the 
first season — only about a month being required 
between the cuttings to produce a grow'th of 
more than a foot in height. It produced at the 
rate of five tons to the acre. 
We should prefer sowing as earlv in the 
spring as the ground would admit of, in order 
that the lucern might get a start of the w'eeds. 
In the broad-cast mode, fifteen or sixteen pounds 
ofseed is recommended — in the drill mode, eight 
or ten pounds, if properly so w’ed, w'ill be sufli- 
cient. There is no necessity of permitting a 
crop to go to seed, as our correspondent sug- 
gests, as the roots are considered perennial— at 
any rate, they live many years. In regard to 
the marls mentioned, it Wuld be better to try 
them, as well as lime, plaster, &c., lor the ef- 
fect of these cannot be positively foretold. 
The seed might be had at any of the principal 
seed stores of our cities. Its cost is from twen- 
ty-five to thirty-seven and a half cents per 
pound. By the quantity it could probably be 
had for less. 
Lucerne is greedily eaten by all kinds of 
stock, and it is considered highly nutritive. I: 
may be fed green or made into hay. We know 
