374 
Iiucern for Soiling—Tour from "New York to Mount Vernon, 
the best 1 If he will, and give us the result 
of the experiment, we hereby promise to do 
him an especial favor in return for his trouble; 
and we think this would be the only true way 
of deciding the question of lucern versus 
corn, rye, wheat, clover, &,c. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
LUCERN FOR SOILING.—SUGAR BEET. 
Flushing , Queen’s Co., Feb. 10, 1843. 
Messrs. A. B. & R. L. Allen :— 
I noticed in the last number of your paper, an ar¬ 
ticle on the cultivation of rye, vetches, peas, and corn, 
sown broadcast and cutting them for soiling stock. 
Now I should much prefer lucern to any of these, for 
an acre of it will keep five cows from the middle of 
May to the middle of October, if cut and given them 
when green, and it may be cut five times for soiling, 
and three times for hay during the summer. It will 
produce three tons of hay to the acre the first cutting, 
and one and a half tons each succeeding cutting. 
It flourishes most luxuriantly in deep, rich, friable 
loams, though it will also thrive in any good, dry soil ; 
but the land must be kept as free as possible from 
weeds, otherwise its growth will be greatly impeded. 
No land is too rich for it, and the soil must be deep 
and dry, otherwise it is useless to attempt to grow lu¬ 
cern. The potatoe crop heavily dressed with long 
manure is a good preparation for it, and the ground 
should be plowed as deeply as possible, as it is a tap- 
rooted plant, and in a loose sandy soil the roots have 
been known to run to the depth of 4 feet; the seed 
should be sown from the 1st to the 15th of May. It 
may be sown on a crop of wheat, rye, or barley ; twen¬ 
ty pounds of seed should be allowed to the acre, be put 
in with a light harrow, and the operation finished with 
the roller. The ground should be harrowed every 
spring to destroy grass and weeds, and occasionally top- 
dressed with bone dust, ashes, or rotted manure, as 
best suits the convenience of the farmer. It is an ex¬ 
cellent food for horses and cows whether in a dry or 
green state; and when well laid down and properly 
attended to, it will last ten years. It is quite as hardy 
as red clover, and much more valuable. 
I have raised the sugar beet for several years and 
think them very valuable food for stock, milch cows 
particularly, making them give an abundance of the 
richest milk, quite equal to that produced from grass ; 
they are also very good for hogs. I have fed them to 
my breeding sows and store hogs, together with the 
wash of the kitchen, and they are now in as good order 
as any farmer need desire; but a Berkshire will get 
fat where a razor-back would starve. 
Respectfully, W. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
TCI,It FROM NEW YORK TO MOUNT VERNON. 
In going south from New York, one is sensibly struck 
with the apparent sterility of the soil of New Jersey, 
but by the recent discovery of extensive marl beds 
and shell lime, and their application in frequent instan¬ 
ces upon its surface, it has been rendered quite pro¬ 
ductive. Its locality between the two great cities of 
New York and Philadelphia, gives it extraordinary ad¬ 
vantages of market, and should stimulate its husband¬ 
men to the highest cultivation of which the soil is ca¬ 
pable. Fruits grow in great luxuriance, and are an 
important item of revenue; and probably the best 
peaches in America are produced in the extensive 
orchards of New Jersey. Twenty thousand dollars 
have been received in one year from the orchard 
of a single proprietor. The Sweet or Carolina potatoe 
is also grown in considerable quantities for market, in 
addition to the ordinary farm productions of the north¬ 
ern states. 
Reaching the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware, the 
soil is evidently of a much better quality, possessing 
more of a clayey sub-soil, and with good cultivation, 
it sustains a stronger and more durable vegetation on 
the surface, than do the sandy and thinner soils of the 
opposite state. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the 
highly cultivated farms for miles above and below, and 
west of Philadelphia. The buildings, composed of 
farm-houses, barns, and out-houses, constructed in 
many, and perhaps most cases, of durable stone, neatly 
whitewashed, and in systematic order, present a substan¬ 
tial, cheerful, and opulent features of this fine agri¬ 
cultural region. These farms are worth from one to 
two hundred dollars per acre, even to the extent of fifty 
miles into the interior of the counties of Berks and 
Lancaster. 
Lime is the great basis of their manures in this re¬ 
gion, and it is applied in no stinted quantity, as the 
exigencies of the land may require, from 50 to 150 
bushels to the acre, once in eight, ten, or twelve years. 
This article costs from 10 to 30 cents per bushel upon 
the farm, as it may be more or less contiguous to the 
kilns and quarries. The cultivation between Philadel¬ 
phia and Wilmington in Delaware is of a high order, 
and the country about the latter city is eminently beau¬ 
tiful. From thence, south to Baltimore, it gradually 
deteriorates, with a less capable soil; yet beautifully 
undulating in its surface, and abundantly susceptible 
of high cultivation, with a proper application to the 
soil of the muck beds that abound in the swamps and the 
almost inexhaustible lime quarries, and marl beds ; to 
say nothin? of the immense quantities of fish and shells 
that exist in the neighboring waters; no part of our 
country can be brought into a more productive condi¬ 
tion than this. The climate for a great part of the 
year is delightful, and nowhere do fruits flourish more 
luxuriantly than in the region of the Delaware and 
Chesapeake bays; and agricultural capital judiciously 
expended, could in no place be more profitably em¬ 
ployed. 
Neighborhood of Washington. —Between Balti¬ 
more and Washington the same pleasing surface of 
country continues, possessing great agricultural capa¬ 
bilities, but under a long course of severe cropping in 
corn, wheat, and tobacco, years ago it became exhaust¬ 
ed, and is now abandoned to utter desolation; and 
thousands of acres, as the traveler passes over the an¬ 
cient corn and tobacco hills are visible, as yet hardly 
covered by a growth of feeble and sickly green herb¬ 
age. There is certainly something wrong in all this, 
and with the ready and abundant markets afforded by 
the numerous seaports of the vicinity, it is a standing 
wonder, particularly to the passers by from the New 
England states, whose soil is naturally far inferior to 
this, why so much capable land is abandoned to utter 
waste and sterility. To the disgrace of our American 
enterprise the neighborhood of Washington has hardly 
any perceptible cultivation. Surrounded by an am¬ 
phitheatre of hills nowhere surpassed in beauty and 
position, with an occasional exception it bears the 
same cheerless and dull monotony of negligence as the 
poorest soil in the land. 
Can it be that the exciting, restless, political atmo¬ 
sphere of the seat of government withers all attempts at 
improving this otherwise charming country ? I leav& 
this for political economists to solve. But certain it is, 
that a more wretched agricultural neighborhood than 
