Management of English Clay EandS“«Improvement of Sandy Soils. 
160 
tonished to see the difference in grass pro- 
duce from those that had been recently laid 
down, and such as had stood even forty 
years, compared with the oldest of one hun¬ 
dred years. The grass was so thick on this 
last, that it reminded us more of the fine 
close fur upon a beaver skin than anything 
in the way of herbage, to which we can com¬ 
pare it, and perfectly satisfied us of the con¬ 
clusion, to which we had arrived from ex¬ 
periments at home, that a stiff clay soil should 
never be disturbed by a plow , but left perma¬ 
nently in grass forever. Mr. Bates has 612 
acres of his farm under plow cultivation, 
which is divided into 12 fields of 51 acres 
each ; these undergo a 12 years’ rotation. 
Unless the season is particularly favorable 
and wet even for England, his soil is so 
heavy he cannot even succeed in raising 
turnips, and of course this crop often fails. 
Nevertheless, as this root is so important an 
aid in the support of stock, he annually 
makes a trial to grow it. We recommend 
his abandoning turnips and sowing sugar 
beet in their place, as infinitely better cattle 
feed, a more productive, and a perfectly cer¬ 
tain crop on clay lands.* It is not material 
to the American farmer that we detail this 
system minutely, as it could not be exactly 
followed in our climate. The 12 years’ 
course is subdivided in two sixes, and con¬ 
sists in a fallow of turnips, followed by wheat, 
then sowed to clover and grass for a sheep 
pasture, usually followed by a turnip fallow 
again, with wheat or oats, and lastly beans. 
He, in common with all English farmers, 
seeds much more heavily than Americans 
generally $ we wish we could arouse our 
countrymen to the importance of following 
so commendable an example. For instance, 
Mr. Bates will sow on a single acre 5 lbs. of 
cow grass, (a kind of perennial clover), 5 lbs. 
white clover, 2 lbs. hop clover, \ bu. Italian 
rye grass, and \ do. Cocksfoot, (orchard 
grass), calculating at the same time, that 
the natural grasses^ such as the poa trivialis 
and others, will come in plentifully of them¬ 
* As to the good qualities of Sugar Beet in feeding, 
we refer to Earl Spencer’s experiment of it, copied into 
May Nc. of this paper, page 53. Its superior value 
over Ruta-Baga and Mangel-Wurzel, we have ourselves 
often tested, and we have been unsuccessful in getting 
a crop of turnips, on heavy soils oftener than once in 
four years, though cultivated with great cure, and that 
was during a very cold rainy season ; whereas our Su¬ 
gar Beet has uniformly been good, never less than 400 
bushels per acre, and sometimes over eleven hun¬ 
dred ; and we have a small crop now growing (Aug. 
1842), that We think will turn out at least 1000 bushels 
to the acre. Indeed we shall be disappointed if it does 
»ot exceed this amount. 
selves. Of course the land is all under¬ 
drained, either with tiles or the drain plow, 
this on all retentive soils is the very first and 
most important step to be taken in England, 
and on Mr. Bates’ farm, was very soon fol¬ 
lowed, not only by a double product of grass, 
but by that of a greatly improved quality ; 
and without underdraining, or open ditch¬ 
ing, it would be almost impossible to obtain 
a good crop of grain, beans, or even roots. 
We passed a whole week at the hospita¬ 
ble mansion of our kind and benevolent host, 
and a happy and we trust a profitable time 
we made of it. We should have entered 
into more details respecting the stock which 
we saw there, had not a slight allusion to it, 
in a hurried letter of ours published in last 
Nov. Cultivator, been totally misunderstood, 
and our motives for writing it most grossly 
and wantonly assailed. To any of these we 
have never thought it worth while to reply. 
Those who knew us understood our object 
in making the allusion, and to those who did 
not we conceived an explanation would be 
entirely useless. We can only hope here¬ 
after that a better understanding will exist 
upon this subject, as well as some others to 
which very useless exceptions have been 
taken. 
Improvement of Sandy Soil3. 
In a short jaunt we have recently taken 
through that paradise of New England, 
the Connecticut valley, we have witnessed a 
success in the reclaiming of worn out sandy 
lands, which we hardly dared to expect with 
the ease, economy and facility with which it 
has been accomplished. The Hon. W. Clark of 
Northampton, has been the great pioneer in 
this course, and from the successful results he 
has achieved we may fairly class him among 
the great agricultural reformers of the present 
day. He has already given to the public the 
theory of his operations, which we hope to 
find room to lay before our readers at some 
future time. Our object now is simply to 
give his practise , and after our farmers have 
begun the good work of reclaiming their al¬ 
most barren wastes, it will be a pleasure for 
them to look into the modus operandi, and 
see the reason of their success. There are 
three essential features in this practise, and 
the simultaneous adoption of each is essen¬ 
tial to effect the desired object. The first is 
the frequent and thorough use of the roller j 
the second a constant covering of crops on 
the ground ; the third is the introduction of 
clover and grass as a fertilizer. To illustrate 
this, we give the history of a single field of 
