AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
147 
mules and oxen, until there was at least one 
horse, mule, ar yoke of oxen to every labor¬ 
er on the farm, would incalculably enlarge 
the means of production as of improve¬ 
ment. I speak not only of the ability 
to follow and seed the crops in good time, 
but their early and effectual cultivation, 
as well as their prompt delivery to market. 
Let it not be objected that this increased 
number of laboring animals will make too 
great a draught upon the provisions of the 
farm. This is not the fact. Theywillmore 
than produce their food, and with the aid 
from meadows and artificial grass, there will 
be ample abundance for their support, as 
well as a great increase of market crops. 
And here I will impress upon my hearers 
the indispensable importance of meadows 
and grasses, such as supply the deficiency 
of those natural to our climate and soil. I 
speak to growers of tobacco, wheat, and corn 
—especially to those whose staples are 
wheat and tobacco. 
Of corn, it has been properply said by the 
enlightened farmer who presides over this 
society, that none but rich alluvial soils 
should in this region be devoted to its culture 
as an article for market. There is nothing 
more true than that the omniverous nature 
of that cereal qualifying it for sustaining it¬ 
self upon almost every element in the earth, 
air and water, thereby enabling lands to pro¬ 
duce it after exhaustion for every other crop, 
is the most efficient cause of the exhausted 
soil and worn out country, which abounds 
wherever corn is relied upon as a bread and 
money crop. And while this very property 
constitutes heaven’s greatest, best vegetable 
gift to man, in those latitudes to which it is 
adapted, the ease of its production has 
caused prodigal and improvident draughts 
upon the resources furnished by nature. 
Every farmer cultivating uplands should be 
careful to prepare well, plant early and work 
quickly and thoroughly, and lay by his crop 
of corn by the last of June; and that crop 
should be planted on good land, not with a 
view to make it as a market crop, but just so 
much surface as promises an abundant sup¬ 
ply. He should leave poor land to recuper¬ 
ate by the kindness of nature, and not plant 
corn, trusting to the rains to make his crop. 
Corn, it must be remembered, makes heavy 
draughts upon the soil, is bulky, and not 
usually of such value as to justify distant 
transportation. The policy of tobacco plant¬ 
er and wheat grower, owing alluvial soils, 
is to consume the corn and its offal upon his 
farm. But upon the growers of wheat and 
tobacco, as well as the corn planter, I urge 
the cultivation of grasses and the formation 
of permanent meadows as the great resource 
for sustaining teams and manuring land. No 
small grain ought to be sown, without at the 
same time a proper preparation for sowing 
grasses to succeed it. Clover and herds 
grass have been indicated by experience as 
those best suited to our climate and soil, and 
these, with the succeedaneum of peas, either 
sown broadcast on fallows for wheat, or on 
corn land at its last plowing, when the crop 
was laid by, are the true Rescue grasses for 
us. 
I would here remark, that the whole family 
of peas are decided improvers, as also all of 
the grasses which from time to time engage 
the public attention. But up to this date ex¬ 
perience seems to have settled that our cli¬ 
mate is too hot and dry for timothy, and that 
the red clover and herds grass, and the red 
and black stock peas stand in front of those 
plants which furnish food to animals and 
green manure to the field. Clover and herds 
grass may be sown with safety either in the 
fall or early spring. There was much diffi¬ 
culty in getting a good stand of either on 
oats, because of the frequent dry spells in 
the spring, when the young grasses were too 
tender to withstand the sun. The introduc¬ 
tion, however, of the winter oats, sown in 
autumn after the wheat seeding is over, and 
producing a grain greatly superior in weight 
and value, will remove that difficulty. All 
experiments with them have been satisfac¬ 
tory, and they promise to be a great acquisi¬ 
tion to the farmer into whose calculations for 
the support of his teams, oats constitute so 
important an element. Ripening earlier, and 
having the strength of root which they ac¬ 
quire during the fall and winter, they are not 
so much dependent upon rains or so liable to 
failure. The importance of the pea crop, 
both as an improver of the land and a re¬ 
source for pork, is but justin its commence¬ 
ment of realization among our farmers. 
There has not been a single article which has 
done so much for agriculture, both in present 
profit and future improvement of the soil. 
Sown broadcast from the middle or last of 
June on fallow land, and over the whole corn 
fields when laid by with the plow, they give 
a return in vegetation and crop which is une¬ 
qualled when we consider that it is made in 
ninety days. The hardy varieties alluded to, 
especially if a dressing of plaster be applied, 
are the best bearers, lie on the ground all the 
winter without decay, and sown with either 
wheat or oats, come up about harvest and 
make a fine cover for the land, as well as a 
good crop of peas. 
One of che greatest drawbacks to agricul¬ 
tural improvement exists in the continued 
cultivation of the same surface without ma¬ 
nure—the interchange or alternation of crops 
being the only relief to the soil which the 
system proposes. Some, it is true, speak 
of a three shift system, which meant that 
the resting shift, as it is called, is condemned 
from the first appearance of a spire of grass 
in the spring to the frosts of autumn, to bear 
the treading and grazing of all the horses, 
mules, sheep, hogs, and cattle, preparatory 
to a fall fallow for that field in corn. This 
process is denominated rest, and some per¬ 
sons express surprise that lands deteriorate 
under such a system. Ultimate ruin under 
either system is sure ; the consummation is 
only a question of time. Either process 
looks to complete exhaustion, and must 
sooner or later reach that end. A most im¬ 
portant work remains to be done for our ag¬ 
riculture is a wise system of shifts—a sys¬ 
tem, securing all the benefit of the recuper¬ 
ative power of nature, and the amelioration 
resulting from good cultivation, which will 
reach the desirable end of increased fertility 
and increased production—which combined 
with the application of manures, will contin¬ 
ually enlarge the area of improved surface, 
and thus annually increase the productive 
capital of the farmer. A neglect of this 
economy has been the chief cause of the dis¬ 
couragements in those attempts which have 
been made for the advancement of the agri¬ 
cultural interests of this portion of our coun¬ 
try. Certain popular errors have prevailed, 
and left their impression upon the practice 
of those employed in cultivation—an impres¬ 
sion which has perpetuated the influence of 
those errors greatly to the detriment of our 
farmers. It has been generally believed 
that mere rest is all that is necessary to con¬ 
tinue the productive power of land—that it 
grows tired, to use a common phrase, and 
that the intermission of cultivation prepares 
it for future productiveness in a much higher 
degree. Now that nothing is more fallacious, 
every one will perceive who walks into his 
own garden, subjected to the closest tillage 
every year, and ifannually manured, becom¬ 
ing more and more certain in the produc¬ 
tion of vegetables requiring the greatest 
amount of fertility. There is no rest here, 
only a rotation of crops and continued appli¬ 
cation of manure—the soil deepening and 
improving under the severest and most con¬ 
stant tillage. So it would be on the farm, 
to the full extent of the arable land, but that 
there are other claims which must be met. 
Pasture for stock, food for working animals, 
and the comforts derived from range and 
surface, imperiously require another system 
there, 
(To be continued.) 
WHAT FOOD WILL PRODUCE THE MOST WOOL 
Peas, beans, vetches, &c., are useful for 
the purpose of enriching the blood, by fur¬ 
nishing it with large supplies of albumen, 
which is its principal constituent. It will 
be remembered that in the analyses of flesh 
and blood the relative proportions of their 
constituents are nearly identical; conse¬ 
quently, whatever food contains nitrogen, and 
the greatest amount of albumen, is best 
adapted to the development of flesh or mus¬ 
cle, and is therefore the most nutritious. 
Wheat, rye, barley, and buckwheat, contain 
large quantities of albumen, especially the 
first two; while oats, it will have been seen, 
contains 1(H per cent, of its organic elements 
of albumen, and peas and beans no less than 
29 per cent. What conclusion, then, is to 
be drawn from this 1 The chemical com¬ 
position of horns, hoofs, hair, wool, and even 
feathers, is substantially the same ; their or¬ 
ganic elements are coagulated albumen and 
gelatin, and their inorganic, silica,carbonate, 
and phosphate of lime, and the oxides of iron 
and maganese. Hence it will readily ap¬ 
pear that that food given to the sheep which 
will supply the greatest proportion of albu¬ 
men, in the same ratio will increase the wool 
secretions, and consequently be productive 
ot the most wool , provided, however, they also 
hold in suitable combination the inorganic sub¬ 
stances of wool, without which they assimi¬ 
late mostly for the formation of flesh or fat. 
This may be exemplified thus—a soil may be 
highly productive of corn, as well as a few 
of the cereal grains; yet for the production 
of wheat it may lack the proper proportion 
of the phosphate and carbonate of lime, and 
consequently the berry will not only be de¬ 
ficient in quantity but quality. 
The following table exhibits the result of 
the experiments of the distinguished agricul¬ 
turist De Raumer, on the effects produced 
by an equal qantity of several substances 
in increasing the flesh, tallow, and wool of 
sheep: 
Increase 
' weight of 
Produced Produced 
1,000 lbs. potatoes, raw, with salt 
living 
animal. 
lbs. 
... 464 
wool. 
lbs. 
6 £- 
tallow. 
lbs. 
12 } 
do. 4 
do. without salt.. 44 
6 } 
11 } 
do. 4 
1 mangel wurzel, raw ... 
... 38} 
5} 
6 } 
do. 4 
‘ wheat. 
14 
59} 
do. 4 
‘ oats. 
.. 146 
10 
42} 
do. 4 
‘ barley. 
11 } 
60 
do. ‘ 
4 peas . 
...134 
14} 
41 
do. 4 
1 rye, with salt. 
...133 
14 
35 
do. < 
‘ rye, without salt. 
‘ meal, wet. 
... 90 
12 } 
43 
do. 4 
...129 
13} 
17} 
do. 4 
1 buckwheat. 
...120 
10 
33 
These results are said to agree with those 
of De Dombale, and with those of a number 
of other agriculturists. 
It will be perceived by the above table, 
that wheat produces the greatest increase in 
the flesh of the sheep, though but little great¬ 
er than oats; that peas, wheat, and rye, pro¬ 
duce the greatest increase of wool; and that 
barley and wheat cause the greatest increase 
of tallow. That, as an average, grain gen¬ 
erally gives about three times the increase 
in the flesh, that roots do when in equal 
weight; that grain produces about twice as 
much wool as is caused by an equal weight 
of roots, and several times the amount of 
tallow. 
The legitimate conclusion from the fore¬ 
going is, that the flock-master, whose object 
is wool only, must rely on good hay and 
some straw, whose constituents are admira¬ 
bly adapted for the growth and perfection of 
