162 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
cessful method. Whatever method is adopt¬ 
ed, the kernels should be pretty close to¬ 
gether in the rows. The corn when sown 
in drills should be cleared of weeds once or 
twice by the usual means of the hoe, and the 
cultivator or plow between the rows. 
The whole ground should not be seeded 
at once, but be divided into portions to be 
sown at successive intervals of 10 or 12 
days. The first plot should be sown as 
early as the first of June, or before, to be 
ready for commencing upon before the close 
of July. 
Other Crops than Corn for Soiling.— 
We have thus far spoken only of Indian 
corn, because the cultivation of this crop is 
more generally understood. There are sev¬ 
eral other crops that may be substituted for 
corn. Late-sown oats, to be cut before ma¬ 
turity, furnish excellent food for feeding in 
a green state, and also for curing for winter’s 
use. For this purpose they should be sown 
much thicker than usual, 4 bushels or more 
of seed being put upon the acre. They may 
be sown at any time between this and the 
first of July. 
Millet furnishes an excellent soiling crop. 
Seed can not, at the present time, be easily 
procured, and many farmers are afraid to 
try this crop where they have not seen it 
grown. It is, however, easily cultivated as 
a green crop in almost all sections of the 
country. Prepare the ground as for oats, 
making it as deep, mellow and rich as prac¬ 
ticable. Dry, rich, clean, well-pulverized 
soil is the best. Sow broadcast, or in drills 
six or seven inches apart. It should be cut 
for green feeding before or at the time the 
stalks are well in flower. It may be cut a 
little later than this when it is to be cured 
for winter forage. Sown broadcast, about 
40 quarts of seed should be used; in drills, 
about 10 quarts of seed will be required. 
Oats and millet should, like corn, be sown 
in separate successive portions. 
The above crops—corn, oats, and millet— 
may be cut for green feeding as they are re¬ 
quired, and whatever remains be cut before 
full maturity and cured for winter use. 
Oats and millet can be cured similar to 
hay.. 
Corn should be cut when the grain is just 
going into the milk, and tied up in small 
bundles, and left to thoroughly cure in stooks 
in the field. On this account it is better to 
grow it upon land not designed for fall crops. 
There is, in addition to getting a double or 
quadruple amount of corn-fodder over grass, 
another advantage—that corn can be cut and 
cured at a season when there is less hurry 
and cheaper labor than in the haying season. 
Let us once more urge every farmer to 
try, this season, at least one acre of corn, 
oats or millet for green fodder. We are 
quite sure if they do, they will thank us for 
this suggestion, and for urging it upon their 
attention. 
Auctions in Holland. —It is an invariable 
practice throughout Holland to bid down in¬ 
stead of up at an auction. An article is set 
up by the auctioneer, at any price he choos¬ 
es ; if no one bids, he lowers till some per¬ 
son calls “ mine,” and that person who so 
claims it, is then entitled to it. 
A GOOD AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 
[Concluded from page 147.] 
In countries overburdened with population, 
the system of garden cultivation obtains to 
the exclusion of horses and oxen. The la¬ 
bor of tillage is performed by human hands; 
the spade takes the place of the plow, and 
every portion of arable surface is occupied 
in furnishing a supply to pressing human 
wants. Such a calamity is far from us, and 
the horrors of a dense population do not 
threaten our happy country for ages to 
come. Besides, it is an error to suppose 
that the soil ever loses the capacity for pro¬ 
duction. It may be removed by rains, and 
waste away under injudicious cultivation. 
Barren clay and abraded surfaces, which 
never had the power of production, may and 
will continue to possess their nature; but 
soil never loses its capacity to produce. It 
may lose its power of producing cereal grains 
or other crops requiring fertility, for a time, 
the recuperating power of nature will ulti¬ 
mately restore it. Look abroad upon the 
old fields covered with pines, and those in 
progress to that condition, covered with 
broomstraw and sedge. Those lands were 
abandoned as resources for the production of 
cereal grains ; but although exhaustedofthe 
elements necessary for that purpose, they 
produce other vegetation in immense quan¬ 
tities, and present in the crop of pines a bur¬ 
den of timber greatly exceeding that of the 
original forest. Mark the progress of nature 
towards the benevolent end of recuperation. 
The tap root as the pine pumps up the min¬ 
eral manures from beneath, and returns its 
leaves to the soil. The growth gradually 
changes on the surface ; sweet grasses, oaks, 
dogwood and hickories appear by degrees, 
and the evidences of amelioration are mani¬ 
fest to every observer. Cut down those 
pines and allow them to decay, and the land 
for several crops is found to be as productive 
as ever. Press the cultivation for a few 
years, and it at once relapses into barren¬ 
ness. The supply of manures necessary to 
cereals has been exhausted; and the soil, 
filled to repletion with acids and other ele¬ 
ments favorable to the production of broom- 
straw and pines, commences anew the work 
of recuperation under the wise and genial in¬ 
fluence of nature. It is usual to speak dis¬ 
paragingly of this aforesaid broomstraw. Sir, 
this is most ungrateful and unjust. Should 
a statue to Ceres be erected within our bor¬ 
ders, this despised and disparaged grass 
should constitute a portion of her crown. It 
has stepped in between exhausted soil and 
utter sterility—commenced the work of re¬ 
clamation, stopped gullies and covered galls, 
protected pine seed, and nourished young 
pines—while it has contributed no little to 
the rescue of famished cattle, coming out 
from the ordeal of a winter’s feeding on a 
southern farm. 
Let us learn from the operations of nature 
the value of rotation of crops as well as the 
necessity of a constant supply of food for 
plants. This we may in a great measure 
obtain by a wise system of shifts. Of these 
there should be no less than five. In our 
section there should be no more, otherwise 
the growth of shrubs and briars would over¬ 
run the fields, and render their preparation 
too laborious. Let some portion, a few 
acres, according to the size and stock of the 
farm, be appropriated to meadow' in each 
shift—the land of course most suitable to the 
purpose ; this to be a permanent arrange¬ 
ment. Then let the rotation be one shift 
followed for wheat and oats, leaving out the 
meadow ; one in corn and tobacco, with the 
meadow' to produce grass; and ! one in 
wheat, following corn the year before with 
its share of meadow in grass; the two re¬ 
maining shifts in clover, herds grass, one of 
the second crop, and the other following the 
last crop of wheat. That which lies for the 
second year should be pastured by the entire 
stock of the farm, as it is to be fallowed for 
small grain in the fall, and to be devoted to 
corn the following year. The young stock 
may graze the second field in early summer, 
and all the stock be put on it with advan¬ 
tage after the middle of August. The 
meadow land in the pastures only adds to 
their value as pastures. Thus each shift has 
three cultivations in successive fallow for 
small grain, corn and tobacco—with peas 
sown on the corn, with grasses sown on the 
wheat. Three shifts are in cultivation and 
two lying in grass. 
The advantages of this arrangement are 
numerous. The fallow for small grain pre¬ 
ceding corn and tobacco, in a great measure 
destroys the worms and insects that infest 
lands which have lain out for some years, 
and render a stand of corn and tobacco so 
difficult to obtain. Tobacco and corn fol¬ 
low wheat or oats remarkably well; and the 
two cultivations, together with the manures 
employed upon them, and the guano and other 
fertilizers prepare the land for wheat and 
clover ; for it is a well ascertained fact that 
clover does not succeed well unless follow¬ 
ing a hoe crop. Upon the field lying the 
second year in grass, a tobacco lot should be 
selected of the land most in need of improve¬ 
ment, upon which the summer cow-pens and 
the manure intended for the tobacco crop 
ought to be put, leaving the best portions of 
the shift for corn. This insures a progres¬ 
sive amelioration of the surface, for tobacco 
will not grow upon any but highly improved 
land. In the system proposed, there are 
meadows in three of the shifts which can be 
mowed, and thus furnish an ample supply of 
hay for the farm or for market. If the pre¬ 
caution is adopted of keeping the stock off 
the field to be grazed principally in the spring 
until the last of April, the grass will be suffi¬ 
cient, and the lands suffer no injury from 
grazing. Indeed most of our lands are im¬ 
proved by summer and fall treading of stock, 
if they have been two years in grass. 
In adopting this rotation of shifts, it may 
be necessary at first to make a considerable 
outlay in foreign fertilizers, in order to in¬ 
sure success. But the operation will pay 
and that promptly. One of the popular 
errors which has cast its blight upon the in¬ 
terests of agriculture is, that but little or no 
capital is necessary in the business of culti¬ 
vation. The unwillingness to make outlays 
for the improvement of the farm, and the 
continual draughts upon it for income and 
support, afford conclusive proof that as an 
occupation farming is the most remunerative 
that is known among us. In all other em¬ 
ployments, accurate profit and loss accounts 
are kept, and the capital watched, lest it 
should be impaired; credits given to show 
the profits, and debts entered to show the 
expenses. In farming, and inventory of in¬ 
creased stocks is rarely taken, and the sup¬ 
port of the family regarded usually as a 
charge rather than a credit upon the amount 
of its production. The market crop and its 
net proceeds are all that is counted, and not 
one dime expended to keep up or restore the 
capacity for production. Such a business in 
any other department of human occupation, 
would be considered as the discovery of the 
philosopher’s stone, the undoubted road to 
success and wealth. But farming, like all 
other employments, needs sufficient capital 
in order to complete success—the advance 
of money in order to the receipt of profit. 
I have already remarked that some ad¬ 
vance of money may, and most probably will 
be, necessary in order to the adoption of the 
five shift system successfully and at once. 
It is peculiarly fortunate for us, sir, that the 
introduction of guano and other fertilizers 
