4,22 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
Among the Farmers—No. 22. 
BT ONE Of THEM. 
Green Manure Crops. 
When I first went to farming on these gravel hills, 
the subject of green manuring was considered, and 
has constantly come up; but I have never been 
“ forehanded ” enough, or have never had the mor¬ 
al courage, perhaps, to plow in a good crop of clo¬ 
ver after there was a 6how of a good crop to cut; 
and to tell the truth, my only green manuring has 
been worn-out sod, a crop of rag-weed, or self- 
sowed oats. I have followed my old fogy neigh¬ 
bors in this matter, though a thorough advocate of 
systematic green manuring as the cheapest and 
most rapid way of bringing up worn out or poor soils. 
Earth and air, and sunshine, contribute and com¬ 
bine to furnish fertility—manure—evenly distribut¬ 
ed, at no greater cost than it would be to cart it 
from a compost heap in the same lot and spread it. 
That is, at the cost of plowing and harrowing, and 
possibly rolling flat after the crop is grown. Then 
it is to be plowed under, of course, like any other 
manure. Whatever fertilizer is used to quicken 
the crop, may be regarded as an application by it¬ 
self, for none of it is lost, but it benefits the suc¬ 
ceeding crop just as much as if it were especially 
applied to it, and does the other service into the 
bargain. The crop to be selected depends on the 
land and its condition, as well as the crop to be 
produced. Hereabouts we want to keep the land 
in grass so long as it will grow good crops of hay, 
and this is really the object, end, and aim of all our 
farming operations. We turn under a sod, manur¬ 
ing well, and plant corn, follow it with potatoes, 
and rye or oats, seeding down to grass. Our grass 
crop holds the ground for three to five years, ac¬ 
cording to the seasons, and how it is treated. A 
little summer top-dressing pieces it along a year or 
two, but it must needs be taken up again before 
long, and so the potatoes aud turnips, small grain 
and corn, are uniform incidentals, which indeed we 
could not do without,-but which are nevertheless 
entirely secondary to the hay crop. 
The Soulliern fow Peas. 
This crop is one of which we get our knowledge 
from the Southern States. There it is used as a 
green manure crop, as a green forage crop, and as 
hay ; for either purpose it is said to be admirable. 
Cattle eat it freely, and it produces a tremendous 
yield of fodder. Certain it is that the amount of 
green material produced on an acre is amazing. 
The cow pea is, so far as a layman can judge, no 
pea, but a bean. [See American. Agriculturist for 
April, 1876, for description.— Ed.] 
I was indebted to Mr. J. M. Gleason, the well-in¬ 
formed seedsman at R. H. Allen & Co.’s, for the 
intelligence that several acres of the variety known 
as “ Clay Pea ” had been grown in Monmouth Co., 
N. J., and that they were nearly ready to be 
plowed under. We planned to visit the farm to¬ 
gether, and it certainly was a very interesting and 
instructive excursion. On approaching the farm 
we encountered one field. There may have been 7 
or 8 acres in it, and the peas covered the field, so 
that the ground could not be seen, nor the faintest 
color of it, even where the plants were most erect. 
Where they were lodged, as mo6t of them were, 
they formed a dense mat one or two feet thick. 
No sunlight could penetrate to warm the soil, not 
a weed could start, and as a fallow crop and weed 
killer, I can hardly imagine any thing superior. 
It seemed to us a serious undertaking to get such 
a crop under ground, but our host made light of it, 
and we were glad on his account, at least, that he 
could enjoy the rapid growth and immense bulk of 
green manure, daily and hourly accumulating upon 
his soil, without that bugbear before him. The plan 
was to roll it down as flat as possible, and then 
plow it under with a chain. Of course a very sharp 
coulter is needed, and a revolving coulter, which 
may be made to take a sharp edge, will not do, for 
the vines are so tough that the revolving coulter 
rolls up on them, and brings the plow out of the 
ground. I was unable to go down to see them 
plowed under, but learn it was not 60 easily accora- 
plished as was supposed. Still under it went, and 
with power enough before the plow, and a good 
heavy chain to drag the tops under the furrow 6lice, 
as it is thrown off from the mold-board, an im¬ 
mense mass of vegetation can be buried. 
The ground on which this green crop was raised, 
had been cropped for years with potatoes; then 
seeded down with some grain crop, and for several 
years had lain in grass. The sod had become very 
poor, and in spots utterly gone. No manure had 
been added, the sward simply turned under, and 
the peas put in with the “ Farmer’s Favorite ” drill. 
Cow Peas at tlie Soutli, 
are regarded as a crop little dependent upon mois¬ 
ture. No douht seasons favorable for growth are 
an advantage. This summer the ground has not 
become dry a single time. Every few days power¬ 
ful showers fell, and all vegetation fairly jumped. 
However, our friend, who has used Cow Peas for 
years at the South, says he has repeatedly seen a 
heavier crop. Green or dry, cattle and sheep are 
fond of it and thrive upon it. It affords the South¬ 
ern farmer almost absolute protection against the 
grasses which fill and almost make a sward as soon 
as he has laid by his corn crop—that is, as soon as 
he can no longer use the plow and cultivator. At 
the last going over the peas are sown, aud worked 
in with the plow, cultivator, or hoe, and the com 
“ laid by.” At harvesting time, the corn is topped, 
the fodder gathered, and finally the ears plucked; 
the peas meanwhile being trampled down by men 
aud beasts. Still they thrive, and afford a good ma¬ 
nuring for the following wheat or other crops. 
The only notice I can find of this plant in any 
book, is a brief reference to it in “Allen’s New 
American Farm Book,” a book, by the way, to 
which one need rarely go in vain,—here it is said to 
be particularly adapted to clay soils, but requires 
one dry and mellow. It will not ripen seed eco¬ 
nomically in this latitude, but requires the longer 
season of Virginia. I learn from Mr. Gleason, that 
there are a large number of varieties, aud among 
these many distinguishable from one another by 
the form and peculiar markings of the beans them¬ 
selves. One of the earliest kinds used is the 
“ Whippoorwill,” a favorite variety in South Car¬ 
olina, and named from the beans (or peas) being 
marked very much like the bird of that name. 
On this fine farm one might almost imagine him¬ 
self in the fabled 
Horse Kingdon of Gulliver, 
for certainly the horses were the lords, and men 
were their servants, as much as among the Houy- 
hnhms—everything was subservient to the horse 
interest, and the sleek and graceful thoroughbreds 
certainly gave their generous owner the best re¬ 
ward they could, by thrifty growth and superb de¬ 
velopment, and by the numerous and ever increas¬ 
ing number of cups and purses won at the races. 
Now timothy is essential to horses. The timothy 
sod needs to be frequently renewed to produce hay 
of the best quality. Com is therefore a necessity 
as the best breaking up crop. Cows are needed to 
eat the cornstalks aud convert them into manure. 
Rye follows the corn, and pigs and cows consume 
this with the corn, hence pigs are a necessity, and 
besides, they consume the milk. No oats that this 
farm can produce are good enough for these horses, 
hence those from a moister climate are procured. 
They must weigh not less than 35, preferably 40 lbs. 
to the bushel. Had the owner known what a sea¬ 
son we were going to have, he might have raised 
his own oats—mine are as plump as barley. The 
horses are all kept in loose boxes, on the ground. 
The manure is cleared away daily, and the earth 
floors removed and renewed as often as need be. 
The cows are kept under the hay barn, where there 
is a manure cellar, deep aud lofty, ventilated and 
lighted on all sides. They are foddered in racks, 
and are expected to consume and convert into ma¬ 
nure all the corn-fodder, and work over the horse 
manure, which is spread under them. 
The cows were at pasture, and only brought up 
to be milked, so we did not see how they got along 
in their rather unattractive quarters. Whether the 
unattractiveness is only imaginary, or whether there 
is any positive evil effect upon the cows from stand¬ 
ing in and treading down this mixture of manure 
and litter, I do not know. This much is certain, 
they are vastly better off than the 
Cows in Most Country Barn-Yards, 
lying in their own filth, poaching up the mire and 
muck, into which they sink knee deep, and at 
times almost wallow ; their flanks and sides loaded 
with dung-like scale armor one or two inches thick, 
and even their udders only free from it in case they 
are milked by a person of more than ordinary neat¬ 
ness. That is surely no over-drawn picture; but 
precisely what we may and do see all winter long 
on common farms the country through. The dif¬ 
ferences between these practices and 
Dr. C. It. Agncw’s System, 
is noteworthy, and I am led to speak of it because, 
theoretically, it is so different from that of our 
friend, who despises cows, and pets thoroughbred 
horses, in old Monmouth. Dr. A. lives upon the 
crest of the Palisades in Rockland Co., overlooking 
from the south that beautiful expanse of the Hud¬ 
son ealle^l Tappan Zee. He delights in a choice 
herd of beautiful Jerseys. All of them are pets, 
all are friendly, gentle creatures, fawn-like and 
delicate in look and temper. They are stabled at 
one side of a paddock of several acres, including an 
apple orchard. The time honored barn-yard is 
abolished. During the grazing season they are 
housed only while milked or during storms. In the 
winter they are stabled as usual. The manure is 
removed from behind the cows several times daily, 
and once a day the cart comes along and all the 
manure is thrown into it and taken away to a com¬ 
post heap, out of sight and out of smell of the sta¬ 
bles. The Doctor claims that his cows enjoy per¬ 
fect health, and always have done so, that they are 
free from even the ordinary ailments—colds and 
fevers—as well as from those of dangerous charac¬ 
ter, and that they always have been, ever since he 
adopted the system of removing their droppings, 
and keeping them constantly in a sweet and pure 
atmosphere. He claims tob that the milk is purer, 
and the butter better flavored, and in this he cer¬ 
tainly is right. I do not know that I can attribute 
his exemption from disease altogether to this cause, 
for I have an old-fashioned barn-yard, not always of 
the sweetest, and my cows are never sick, and never 
have been, barring now aud then a touch of garget, 
and once a wrong presentation at calving. In dis¬ 
cussing the subject, Dr. A. uses the argumentum ad 
hominum, saying, “ would there be any doubt in 
your own mind, whether it would be healthy or not 
to live surrounded by excrementitious substances, 
or even within smelling distance of them ? ”—“ The 
cow has as much an artificial nature as has man, 
and ought to be guarded in the same manner from 
causes of disease.” 
I do not think the racing-farm system so objec¬ 
tionable. The manure is solidly packed by the feet 
of the cattle, there is little fermentation, it daily re¬ 
ceives additions of dry material, and the cows are 
kept perfectly clean. On the south side of the pit 
the large windows are always more or less open. 
The amount of litter, rye straw, with the horse ma¬ 
nure, is very large, so that were it not that the cat¬ 
tle pack the mass so thoroughly, it would be neces¬ 
sary to wet it occasionaily, or it would heat. As it 
is, no odor of ammonia has ever been perceived, 
and^the manure which comes out in the spring is of 
excellent quality. Our friend disclaims any origi¬ 
nality in his plan, but says that it is practised in 
Denmark and Austria, and it is, in fact, not unlike 
the covered cattle yards now common in England. 
There was much besides on this Monmouth farm 
that interested me, and with which f might fill half 
a dozen such letters. The marl pits, the broad 
fields of corn, and rye, and carrots. The superb 
horses and breeding mares with their foals, the 
race horses, gaunt and greyhound-like. The level 
race course, and many other things. Besides there 
is a new and well arranged pig-house, some nice 
Berkshires, and some Poland Chinas, looking much 
like Berkshires. There is, however, one thing, 
The Hay Barn, 
on which I must dwell a moment. How large it is 
I can not say, for I made no memoranda, but I 
should say 60x100. The roof rests upon the plates 
