AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[ J IIIjY, 
according to the treatment to which they are 
subjected, and the time they are suffered to lie 
idle. Thus, a nalced fallow is a field plowed, har¬ 
rowed, or scarified, without any seed. The ob¬ 
ject is to benefit the soil mechanically, aud to 
subject it more completely to atmospheric in¬ 
fluences, and thus to prepare it for future crops. 
A green fallow is that in which the land is made 
of fine tilth and cleared of weeds, by cultivating 
peas, tares, potatoes, or some other root crop, to 
prepare it for grain. In this way, the land does 
not lie idle at all. The fallow is only a part of 
the rotation, in which the land rests from grass 
or grain. Fallows are also named from the 
season in which the work is principally done 
upon them. Thus: a summer fallow indicates 
that the land is plowed several times during this 
season, and a winter fallow , that the plowing is 
done just before the winter sets in, so that the 
soil may receive the benefit of the freezing 
and thawing. 
The objects arrived at in this process are 
three-fold. First, the land has rest from a green 
crop. Every one has noticed the inability of 
land to produce the same crop for a long series 
of years, unless it have annual fertilizing, either 
from natural or artificial sources. Alluvial 
lands, subjected to annual overflow, bear grass 
or corn perpetually without diminished crops. 
Some of the root crops, with large dressings of 
manure, do well upon the same land, year after 
year. But these are exceptions to the general 
rule. Every cultivator expects to see diminished 
crops, unless he change them from one field to 
another. The fallow gives this desirable change, 
whether it be naked , or green. 
Another object, supposed to be gained by the 
fallow, is the enrichment of the land. The 
process of nourishing plants is stopped for one 
season, while the preparation of plant food goes 
cn by the decay of vegetable matter already in 
the soil, and by chemical changes in its mineral 
constituents. The rains and snows also bring 
their aid to the soil. If the fallow be improved 
by turning in a green crop, or if the land be foul, 
and the weeds and grasses are plowed under re¬ 
peatedly, large accessions are made to the riches 
of the soil. The land is improved, both in its 
mechanical texture, and in its stores of food im¬ 
mediately available for future crops. 
A third aim of the fallow is to clear the land 
of foul weeds, and grasses. As often as a crop 
of weeds springs up, say every three weeks, the 
land is either plowed or harrowed, and the 
weeds are destroyed. Every change in the sur¬ 
face soil causes new seeds to vegetate, and thus 
the land is gradually cleansed. 
The best method of fallowing land to prepare 
it for winter rye or wheat, will depend upon the 
condition of tie soil, and the circumstances of 
the cultivator. ITo rule can be given that will 
apply in all cases. Most farmers, when they 
fallow at all for the winter grains, turn over the 
sward early in Summer, and cross-plow and 
harrow when they sow the grain. If this be 
done, the first plowing should be deep, and the 
Fall plowing so shallow that it will not disturb 
he sod. 
A better method for all soils not in good 
neart, is to turn in some green crop, and only 
harrow afterward, to keep the weeds down un¬ 
til the time of sowing the seed. If there is a 
good crop of clover upon the land, this is one 
of the best plants to plow under as a prepara¬ 
tion for wheat. If the soil be not sufficiently 
rich to bear clover, buckwheat may be sown. 
This is then the best fallow crop, because it 
^rows so rapidly, and gives such a large burden 
of stalks and leaves for manure. If the sward 
be turned over early this mouth, and sown with 
buckwheat, it will nearly attain its full growth 
by the last of August, or first of September, 
when it should be plowed in. This plant makes 
the ground very mellow, and is an excellent 
preparation for winter grain. It will also 
cleanse the land of weeds if it need it, and save 
the labor of plowing and harrowing for that 
purpose. 
----a®*--r~.- 
Tim Bunker on Breastworks. 
Mn. Editor. —There never was such a stir in 
Hookertown before, since the days of the Revo¬ 
lution, and I doubt if the fathers were any more 
lively than our folks are. I never shall forget the 
Sunday when the news came that Fort Sumter 
was on fire. I shouldn’t felt worse if Connecticut 
river had sunk,or Hookertown been destroyed by 
an earthquake. And since that Sunday we havn’t 
talked about much else but the war. The next 
Sunday, Mr. Spooner preached a sermon from 
the text “ He that hath no sword, let him sell his 
garment aud buy one,” that made every man’s 
heart go like a trip-hammer. The next day, we 
had a liberty pole raised a hundred feet high, 
and a flag hung out, that went through the last 
war, with several shot holes through it. We 
have raised a company of eighty men, and 
money enough to support them for a year. Al¬ 
most every family that had any grown-up boys, 
has sent one or more to the war. The middle 
aged men and old ones have formed themselves 
into a Home Guard, and if the boys don’t put 
things through in good shape, we are going 
ourselves to straighten them out. 
John came home from meeting after Mr. 
Spooner’s sermon, and says lie: 
“ Mother I am going to enlist.” 
Mrs. Bunker raised her spectacles from Scott’s 
Bible which she happened to be reading just 
then, and said she: 
“I can’t make any objections, John. Your 
grandfather fought at Bunker Hill, and Mr. 
Spooner says this is a continuation of the same 
war, a war for the life of the nation. I hope 
you will show that the Bunker family has not 
degenerated.” 
John being our only boy, brings the thing 
pretty close home to us, but now that the min¬ 
isters and women are raised, there can’t be any 
backing down. There is no trouble about get¬ 
ting troops, and money enough to support them. 
They all 'want to go. You see, a man might as 
well emigrate at once, as to have the women 
agin him. 
But I have been thinking that we are in danger 
of leaving an enemy in the rear, that we have 
not been calculating upon. I have always no¬ 
ticed that excited people are not the best judges 
of expediency. Many a brave general has been 
conquered by an enemy in the rear. In going 
to war, you see, quite as much depends upon 
having the inner man fortified, as upon having 
breastworks between us and the enemy. You 
see, a soldier is a sort of engine, that won’t go 
without fire, any more than a locomotive. And 
you have to supply the fire, wood, and water, 
three times a day pretty regular, or your army 
of soldiers is no better than a flock of sheep. 
Men can’t fight on an empty stomach. You see, 
this fighting is a good deal like mowing, or 
rather like pitching on a load of hay, when a 
thunder shower is coming up, and you have only 
twenty minutes to get the load on, and to get it 
into the barn. There is nothing like a well fed 
stomach to do sharp work on; even a good 
conscience and a good cause don’t amount to 
much without it. 
How you see, the enemy we are like to leave 
in the rear, is short crops. There may be no 
danger of famine in this country, where land is 
so cheap, and where so large a part of the peo¬ 
ple are farmers. But there is danger of short 
crops, and a very high price for all kinds of pro¬ 
visions and breadstuff's, which occasions a great 
deal of suffering among the poor in the cities 
and villages, and throws every thing into con¬ 
fusion. And it seems to me, that this is the 
enemy that farmers are particularly called upon 
to guard against. 
We have got material enough for soldiers in 
our cities and villages, merchants and mechan¬ 
ics who are thrown out of employment, or 
whose profits are very much reduced by the dis¬ 
ordered state of business. While they are rear¬ 
ing the breastworks outside, we must take care 
of the breastworks within, and see that they 
are well fortified with beef, pork, mutton, bread, 
potatoes, etc. There isn’t quite so much glory 
attached to this kind of fortification, as there is 
to gunpowder and musketry, but there is quite 
as much virtue in it. You see, powder and ball 
are not worth much after the pork and beef 
fail. Many more forts have had to surrender 
for want of provisions, than for want of powder. 
How, the women and young folks don’t 
see this so clearly as men who have smelt 
the smoke of battle. They go in for the fuss 
and feathers, and worship the epaulets and mil¬ 
itary caps, and think these are going to save the 
country. The real battle field will be in the 
rear of the armies, away down in the Gulf States, 
and north of the Ohio and the Potomac, and 
the steel that will do most execution is that which 
furrows the bosom of the peaceful ea’tli, rather 
than human bosoms. In modern times the 
plowshare is the most potent of all military 
weapons, for it supplies gold to the military 
chest, powder to cannon, and rears those inward 
fortifications without which, earth works, fosses, 
and granite walls are useless. Every wheat 
field with its plumed heads is a regiment of 
soldiers, and every stalk of corn, with its golden 
ears upon the fields of peace, is a sentinel doing 
duty for the country. 
This is about the pith of public sentiment up 
here among the old folks, and I send it down for 
what it is worth. It struck me that there was 
something in it worth considering, when every 
man is anxious to get off to the war. It will 
never do to have an enemy in the rear. You 
see I go in for breastworks and fortifications, 
especially for the inner man. 
Yours to command, 
Timothy Bunker, Esq. 
Hookertown , June , 1861. 
- - i — <»»»-—- 
Hew Varieties of Wheat in Pennsylvania. 
In a recent letter to the American Agriculturist , 
Dr. J. Henderson, of Mifflin Co., Pa., states that 
the white varieties of wheat have of late years 
been so injured by insects, that a hardy produc¬ 
tive red wheat is a great desideratum. The 
“Mediterranean” varieties have been the chief 
reliance for a few years past, but they have de¬ 
generated so much as to produce only half a 
crop in most places. He has tried wheat from 
England, France, Italy, Turkey, and Algiers, 
but has found them all either too tender for the 
severe winters, or too late to escape the insects 
or rust. Of two Patent Office parcels of beau¬ 
tiful wheat from Sweden, not one kernel germi¬ 
nated. The Soule’s white wheat, obtained from 
