PLANTING A VARIETY OF CROPS.—ANALYSIS OF CLOVER AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 147 
miles from the city, and contain about forty acres 
of land; part of which is devoted to the raising of 
garden seeds. 
Extensive gardens and nurseries may now be 
found at Baltimore. 
Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, was the seat of 
Gen. Washington, “ first in peace, first in war, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen.” The extent 
of this place is about ten thousand acres, much of 
which is yet covered with forest. 
Monticello was the residence of President Jeffer¬ 
son. It is situated on the summit of an eminence, 
commanding extensive prospects on all sides. 
“ At Charleston, the houses of the suburbs are, 
for the most part, surrounded by gardens, in which 
orange trees with most splendid ripe fruit, monthly 
roses in full bloom, and a variety of other very 
flourishing plants, display themselves.” 
“ At Cincinnati, there is a public garden, where 
the people go to eat ices and look at roses. For 
the preservation of the flowers, there is placed at 
the end of one of the walks, a sign-post, represent¬ 
ing a Swiss peasant girl holding in her hand a. scroll, 
requesting that the flowers might not be gathered.” 
At New Orleans are beautiful gardens, both 
public and private, filled with tropical and other 
choice flowers and plants. 
A conventual garden at Mexico is described by 
Humboldt, as one of the finest he had ever seen. In 
the garden, were immense groves of orange trees, 
peaches, apples, cherries, and other fruit trees of 
Europe. The botanic garden of Rio is situated 
about 8 miles from the town. The tea shrub of 
China, first introduced into this garden, has begun 
to be cultivated in the interior of the country. 
“ The botanic garden of Jamaica, West Indies, 
was originally begun by Hinton East, Esq., and 
afterwards bought by government and enlarged, so 
as to contain about 70 acres. One of the objects of 
its establishment was to preserve, without artificial 
means, the productions of various climates. Such 
a project could only be executed in a tropical lati¬ 
tude, where the various elevations of the ground 
would regulate the required temperature.” 
L. T. Talbot. 
PLANTING A VARIETY OF CROPS. 
Sometimes, farmers devote most of their tillable 
soil for, and expend most of their time upon, one or 
two main crops. Thus, some men depend mainly 
upon the wheat crop—others upon grass, and the 
southern planter upon cotton. Now, it often hap¬ 
pens that an unfavorable season destroys particular 
crops, and thus often a whole year is lost, where 
one crop (or two) receives the farmer’s sole atten¬ 
tion Last year, for example, in this section, 
wheat was very nearly destroyed, hay entirely, and 
fruit and some other crops were very light. On 
the other hand corn was never better. Buckwheat, 
millet, flax, and vines, generally produced well. 
Potatoes yielded well, but were injured by the dis¬ 
ease after gathering. 
Now the object of this note is to recommend to 
farmers to plant a greater variety of seeds, so that 
when one fails, others will supply their places. 
Those who had only grass land last year had to 
nearly give away their cattle, or drive them at a 
great expense to another part of the stale to be win¬ 
tered ; w’hile those who sowed corn and millet for 
fodder, have wintered their stock as easily as usual. 
This is only an illustration. The principle extends 
to the whole circle of tillable crops. If one or two 
alone are cultivated, there may be an entire failure, 
causing much suffering and much loss. If a variety, 
some will always succeed, and these may be substi¬ 
tuted for the rest. 
Besides, the times for planting and harvesting 
the different kinds occur, the one after the other, so 
as to divide the labor through the season. Thus, 
spring wheat and oats should be sown early ; corn 
planted after the danger of frosts is over; corn for 
fodder and millet later still. And these (and 
others) all have their different seasons for harvest, 
each in its time. Whereas, when one crop is the 
main one, there is one season of great hurry in 
seeding, and another in harvest; teams and men 
have to be driven to excess then, and be compara¬ 
tively idle the rest of the time. This surely is not 
wise. I recommend, then, that farmers add 
greatly to the variety of the crops they annually 
cultivate, and “ give each its portion in due season.” 
Ohio, March, 1846. T. 
ANALYSIS OF CLOVER AND ITS MANAGE¬ 
MENT. 
The following article was addressed by Mr. 
Horsford, of Albany, now with Prof. Liebig, at 
Qiessen, in Germany, to Mr. T. W. Olcott, of 
Albany, and read at one of the agricultural meet¬ 
ings at the capitol in that city during last month. 
Giessen, January , 1846. 
In the progress of the last term, while other 
chemical labor was going forward, I made an ash- 
analysis of red clover, and accompanied it with an 
investigation, which I record below. 
To the latter I attach in its isolation no special 
value ; inasmuch as the circumstances in which it 
was conducted deprive it of perfect scientific exact¬ 
ness. I make it the basis, as you will observe, of 
explaining one or two chemical processes. 
It is well known that the juice of clover-heads 
contains more or less sugar. The nectaries of the 
fully developed head are especially rich in a honey¬ 
like liquid, which bees gather. In cutting the clo¬ 
ver when the heads are fully formed, but not ripe, 
the sugar of this honey will be secured. The 
water will evaporate, leaving the sweetness with 
the vegetable fibre and other organic matters, to 
be fed to stock. If the clover be cut before the 
heads begin to develope, the sugar, if formed, 
must be in the stems and leaves ; if not cut until 
the seeds are ripened, the sugar may have accom¬ 
plished one of its supposed ends—that of keeping 
up a higher temperature within the seed for the 
elaboration of its various parts, and thereby have 
been destroyed. 
It was my purpose to ascertain how much su¬ 
gar, or rather the relative amounts of sugar, there 
might be at the above named three stages of the 
development of clover. Experiments with the first 
two kinds were made. The clover crop being no¬ 
where permitted to ripen, I was unable to submit 
the inquiry concerning the third to the test of expe¬ 
riment I cut clover exactly at the surface of the 
ground, on the 16th day of June, just as the tufts 
of leaflets enclosing the heads were discernible. 
These I chopped to fineness, and placed a weighed 
