1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
335 
ter Whites, Yorkshire, Berkshire, or Essex. 1 
have never said that I thought the Essex were 
the best breed. All I have ever claimed for them 
is that, when pure-bred, they will at once great¬ 
ly improve our common stock. What the re¬ 
sult will be of continuing to breed from these 
crosses does not particularly trouble me. 0ne 
thing is certain, however, it will not do to 
breed cross-bred animals together. We must 
always use thorough-bred males. I think Mr. 
Bowles and all other experienced breeders will 
agree on this point. 
Mr. Bowles says the wheat crop in his 
section is poor, and will average only 8 bush¬ 
els per acre. “ Fall barley pretty good; 
spring barley, none at all. Oats, a little. Hay 
very poor on poor land, but pretty good on good 
land. I think I raised,” he says, “ two tons per 
acre all round. One little patch of clover of 
an acre and a half had six good two-horse loads 
on it; I presume equal to 3y 2 tons per acre. 
You seem to think,” he adds, “ that clover 
cannot add to the fertility of a soil by being- 
mown and hauled away. I say it does add to 
the fertility. I account for it in this manner: 
The atmosphere always contains a vast amount 
of fertilizing matter. Clover is a plant that 
draws a great deal of its support from the at¬ 
mosphere.” This is precisely the point that is 
not proved. “Clover,” he continues, “is a ve¬ 
hicle for conveying fertilizing elements from the 
atmosphere to the soil. The greater the growth 
of clover the greater the size of the vehicle, and 
the greater its work. So convinced am I of the 
truth of this theory that I apply all my manure 
as a top-dressing to grain on-which clover is 
sown. The manure makes a large growth of 
clover, and the clover roots make still more 
manure. What clover hay I feed (which is all 
I grow) goes on the land again, or if I pasture 
it with hogs it then returns to the land. The 
point that I wish to impress upon you, however, 
is that after a crop of clover hay is hauled away, 
even then the ground is richer than before the 
clover was sown.” • 
I should be glad to be impressed with the 
truth of such a pleasant doctrine, but, unfortu¬ 
nately, it has no sound basis of facts to rest on. 
Mr. Bowles’ practice is much better than his 
theory, for he seems to be careful not to sell any 
of his clover, but to consume the whole on the 
farm, and also applies manure in order to make 
the clover grow more luxuriantly. This treat¬ 
ment will make his land richer year after year ; 
but if he should sell the clover, the probabilities 
are that the land would sooner or later become 
too poor to grow profitable crops of clover at 
all. But even then it might still be rich 
enough, with the aid of a summer fallow, to 
produce a fair crop of wheat. The truth is that 
clover, turnips, and other renovating crops re¬ 
quire a richer soil than wheat. If a soil is rich 
enough to produce a heavy crop of cloven 1 , it is 
rich enough, even after the clover is grown and 
removed from the land, to produce a fair crop 
of wheat. But continue the practice of raising 
and selling clover, and the yield of clover will 
gradually and perhaps rapidly diminish, fol¬ 
lowed by a decreased yield of wheat. 
We can not raise too much clover, but it must 
either be plowed under or fed out on the farm, 
and the manure carefully saved and returned to 
the land. Any other doctrine is unsound in 
theory and detrimental in practice. 
American farmers can not be too often re¬ 
minded that what we should aim at is, fewer 
crops, cleaner culture, and a larger yield per 
acre. We are a great beef-eating people, and 
are taking kindly to good mutton when it can 
be found. Already a large proportion of the 
beef consumed in the Atlantic cities is raised 
west of the Mississippi. The price for the mo¬ 
ment happens to be low, but it will not remain 
so long. The farmer who raises good beef or 
mutton in New England, New York, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, or any of 
the older settled States, need not fear that the 
half-wild cattle of Texas or elsewhere are going 
to drive him to the wall. There is no sort of 
danger. Unaided, nature can not compete with 
agriculture any better than the Indian can com¬ 
pete with the Anglo-Saxon. Our population is 
rapidly increasing, and the demand for meat 
will continue to increase from year to year. 
The causes which lead to an over-supply for a 
few months are only temporary. The demand 
is unceasing, and he is a wise farmer who looks 
ahead and quietly and perseveringly improves 
his farm and his stock. He is certain of his re¬ 
ward. Wool, mutton, l>eef, pork, cheese, butter, 
milk, poultry, and all other animal products 
will be wanted more and more as the condition 
of the world improves. There are millions of 
people, even in Europe, who seldom taste fresh 
meat. An Irishman eats double the meat and 
does double the work here that he did at home. 
Even the Chinese in this country eat meat as 
soon as they can earn money enough to buy it. 
The point I want to get at is this: We have 
a large country. Land is comparatively cheap, 
and labor comparatively high. Crops are great 
in extent but small in yield, and many of our 
farms are getting more weedy and less pro¬ 
ductive. Now, what we must aim at is to make 
them cleaner and richer. We must devote less 
land to the production of wheat and other grain 
that is sold, and more to the production of such 
crops as are fed out to animals on the farm. We 
all know that it is far better to raise 300 bushels 
of wheat from ten acres than to plow, seed, and 
reap twenty or thirty acres to get the same 
amount. We obtain no more money for the 
crop in the one case than the other, but the 
profits are quadrupled. The market is not glut¬ 
ted with grain, and there will be more meat and 
wool to sell, and more manure to use. To bring 
this about, we must summer-fallow when neces¬ 
sary; sow clover more frequently, and not sell a 
pound; let our land lie longer in grass; and 
when it is broken up and planted to corn, culti¬ 
vate it very thoroughly, and not overcrop it before 
it is seeded down again. In some cases it will 
pa}' to summer-fallow, and then seed the land 
down to grass without a grain crop. We must 
aim to save labor, enrich our land, reduce the 
area under tillage, and, when it is plowed, cul¬ 
tivate thoroughly to kill weeds and develop the 
latent plant-food in the soil. 
Plant-food is the farmer’s capital. It is pres¬ 
ent in large quantities in most of our soils, but 
a great proportion of it lies idle. Our profits 
will be in proportion to the amount of this 
plant-food that we can render available and keep 
in active circulation without allowing it to 
diminish faster than fresh quantities are devel¬ 
oped from the soil by the decomposing and dis¬ 
integrating action of the atmosphere. 
How Much Seed, and How should it be 
Sown ?—A bushel of wheat contains 660,000 
grains. If this quantity should be spread 
equally over an acre of ground, it would give 
nearly 10 square inches of space for each plant; 
each plant would be a little more than 3 inches 
from the next, and there would be 15 plants to 
each square foot. If the seed were sown in 
drills 9 inches apart, there would be a plant to 
each inch in the drill. It is well known that 
in broadcast sowing much of the seed is covered 
too deep]}', and some not sufficiently, and thus 
possibly a half of the seed sown is wasted. In 
drill-sowing a much greater proportion of the 
seed produces returns, because of its even cover¬ 
ing and more regular germination. If each 
seed should produce but one perfect ear, 
the yield would be over 30 fold, but it is safe 
to say that every healthy wheat-plant will 
produce at least three stalks, so that, should 
the whole of the seed sown mature, a crop of 
90 bushels would be the result. There is no 
doubt but drill-sowing will produce a better 
yield than broadcast sowing, as much more of 
the seed will successfully germinate, and the 
expense of drill-sowing being less than hand¬ 
sowing and harrowing afterwards, we would 
advise all those who can buy or hire a drill, to 
abandon broadcast sowing. 
Lime and Lime-Kilns. 
The use of lime in agriculture dates back 
many centuries in the Eastern world. From 
the commencement of the Christian era the 
farmers of the most civilized parts of Europe 
were in the habit of spreading it upon their 
fields, and at the present day the custom is so 
thoroughly established that no rotation, what¬ 
ever course it may consist of, is complete with¬ 
out a liming. In Europe, farmers have been 
for hundreds of years working to increase 
the fertility of their farms, while during the short 
time our lands have been under cultivation, they 
have been subjected to a process of exhaustion. 
This operation is now rst an end, the process can 
go no further, and it is absolutely necessary 
that every possible effort be exerted to restore 
our land without delay, or impoverishment must 
be the result. Large tracts of land, more especial¬ 
ly in the Southern Slates, are abandoned so far 
as agriculture is concerned, and it needs no pro¬ 
phetic eye to see in advance many Western 
lands in the same predicament. No fertilizer 
exists in such abundance, or can be produced in 
condition fit for use so inexpensively, as lime. 
Protruding almost everywhere above the earth’s 
surface, it can be procured in almost every lo¬ 
cality without great expense of carriage; in 
fact, we doubt whether there arc so many as 
one fourth of the farmers of the United States 
or Canada that can not procure limestone 
within half a dozen miles of them. 
The mode of preparing lime is so simple, that 
farmers who live in those districts where it 
is regular employed, commonly prepare it for 
themselves. The eastern part of Pennsylvania, 
and the adjoining parts of New Jersey and 
New York, comprise within their limits a large 
majority of the kilns in which lime is burnt 
for agricultural purposes. Almost every farm 
has a lime-kiln as part of its establishment, and 
lime-burning takes place regularly each year. 
The kilns are structures of stone, for conveni¬ 
ence erected in a bank, so that limestone and 
fuel can readily be brought to the top. They 
are built about 16 to 20 feet square and 12 feet 
high (fig. 1). The inside is built up round, 
gradually widening until half up; then it is 
drawn in again, so as to make it something of 
the shape of an egg. Smooth stone, that will 
stand fire, needs to be used for the inside. An 
arch is made in the front, from which the lime 
is drawn when ready. The kiln is charged by 
alternate layers of limestone and fuel until f 'led; 
