174, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
Among the Farmers.— No. 4. 
BY ONE OP THEM. 
When I began to write out the thoughts that im¬ 
press themselves upon my mind through constant 
contact with farmers, 1 little thought that I should 
be plowing a furrow in February 3,000 miles long, 
especially as I had so recently made a trip across 
the Atlantic and back. But the exigencies of trade 
know neither times nor seasons. “ Seed-time and 
harvest, summer and winter, day and night,” are 
all alike to one who “ means business.”—I hope to 
have my back-furrow well turned before this meets 
the eyes of the readers of the American Agriculturist , 
and mention now that this letter is written on the 
good steamer America, from New York to South¬ 
ampton and Bremen, only because my letters have 
been of such a familiar character, that I think it 
may interest my readers to know the circumstances 
under which I write. They are not the most favor¬ 
able for connected thought. Now the ink-stand 
takes a “ scoot” across the table ; now it is all one 
can do to keep himself in position ; dishes clatter 
and smash in the pantries; spray flies on deck, and 
the ice hangs in festoons from taffrail and nettings. 
However, just now I am very comfortable, and can 
write perhaps as well as if I were ashore, and in my 
own snug study, about 
Shallow Soil Farming. 
Along the Atlantic coast strong soils are the ex¬ 
ception, and thin or shallow soils decidedly pre¬ 
ponderate. They are not bad soils if well tilled, 
but will hold manure like a bank, until it is check¬ 
ed out by the crops. To me, having been bred upon 
the stillest kind of clays, that are hard to work, this 
thin soil farming was both novel and interesting. 
On clay soils the frost heaves down the stone-walls, 
tosses out the fence-posts, and often disarranges 
even fairly well laid foundations. The wheat 
“ winter-kills ” through the repeated freezing and 
thawing of spring; clover is apt to follow in 
the same way; cattle “poach” up the ground 
terribly in soft weather, and do great damage 
to grass, and there are many other little diffi¬ 
culties and circumstances which make harder 
and extra work on heavy soil, which light land 
farmers are free from, while those with which they 
have to contend are altogether of a different class. 
Rapid Disappearance of Fertility. 
In almost all thin soils, manurial substances, 
both of organic and of inorganic character, are 
soon lost. Organic manures, as well as vegetable 
mold, which accumulates under proper culture, if 
subjected to the least neglect, like other unhus¬ 
banded riches, literally “ take to themselves wings 
and fly away.” I know' an excellent farmer in 
southern New Jersey, who is in the habit of get¬ 
ting very remunerative crops of corn from ground 
so light and sandy that it will hardly hold a sod at 
all. One year he put on a heavy dressing of fish 
compost, and planted corn, giving it an extra ma¬ 
nuring in the hill. The heat of the application to 
the hills destroyed a part, and crows and black¬ 
birds made such havoc with the rest, that he de¬ 
cided that it was not worth cultivating, and that, 
as it was too late to rc-plant to advantage, he would 
let it go and sow rye. He expected a fine crop, 
especially of straw, which is nearly as valuable as 
the grain in the vicinity of the Philadelphia market. 
The rye was sown in good season, and although 
everything seemed favorable, he had short straw 
and no heavier grain than if he had taken un¬ 
manured land, or to say the least, had followed a 
corn crop with rye. Almost everything of value 
had been burned out and volatilized. It is seldom 
that this occurs in so marked a manner, but I have 
repeatedly witnessed similar effects ; so that I have 
learned, if land which is manured must lie awhile, 
to sow oats, turnips, or some similar crop, and to 
plow this in when I need to use the land. Allis 
not saved in this way, but much is. The land is 
shaded and the fertility in part absorbed by the 
growing plants. This leads me to say a word about 
“ The Fertility of Shade.” 
Some years ago an agricultural publication, which 
was regarded as given to the advocacy of quaekish 
notions to a considerable extent, had a good deal to 
say about “ the fertility of shade ”—much that was 
said was false in theory, and absurd as a guide to 
practice, but there were facts stated, or rather there 
were statements made that seemed to be the record 
of facts, which the shade doctrine did not satisfac¬ 
torily account for, as it was then presented. Now, 
however, it is clear to my mind not that there is any 
fertilizing influence in shade, but that there is a de¬ 
fertilizing effect in too ardent sunshine on thin 
sandy or gravelly land. So that I am bound to bold 
that the way to retain fertility in light land, is al¬ 
ways, so far as possible, to keep a crop upon it. 
Keep it shaded in summer aud 
Keep it Bound. in Winter. 
The shade of a crop, together with the demands 
made by the same upon the soil, both husband and 
make use of the fertilizing properties during the 
growing season. When this is past, theoretically 
we should plow aud sow winter grain as soon as 
possible. The action desired being to retain the 
fertility present, by converting it into living tissues, 
and also to prevent the active agency of the sun’s 
rays from causing destructive fermentation and 
evaporation. Then too, as winter comes on with 
winds and rain, the former blowing away the finest 
and best particles of the unprotected surface soil, 
and often moving it in considerable quantities ; the 
latter drenching- the land, washing soluble manures 
into the subsoil or substratum of gravel, or after 
the ground freezes, washing away the best part of 
the surface, our rye crop binds the soil in place, 
and covers it as a blanket. It is at once windbreak, 
absorbent, shelter, and a defence against washing. 
I see I am running from an assumption of theory 
into an assertion of practical truth. It is well 
enough, perhaps, for theory and fact ought to go 
hand in hand. H I have not watched in vain 
My Practical Neighbors, 
it is evident, that without a thought of theory they 
practice well, and upon this very principle. I never 
knew them to plow in a green crop in the spring, 
nor to plow in any green crop except weeds, or an 
old sward ; nevertheless they leave their land just 
as little as possible without a crop upon it. While 
I have erred by letting my potato ground go fallow 
the rest of the year after the crop was dug, putting 
in oats in the spring, they have done better by hav¬ 
ing a rye crop on the ground as soon as possible af¬ 
ter the potatoes were off. While I have tried by 
top-dressing to bring up mowing-land that was past 
its prime, with the wisdom of experience they put 
in the plow, and with no more manure than I use, 
fill the soil with vegetable mold, get a good com 
crop, aud start their rotation afresh. The salva¬ 
tion of poor, light land is a 
Plenty of Vegetable Mold. 
How to obtain it is an important problem, yet 
few realize its value. I pass daily across or by a 
field of one of my nearest neighbors. It is on the 
crown of a hill, the soil is sandy and light to that 
extent that after lying idle two years, five acres 
would not pasture a sheep. The rock comes to 
the surface near the top of the hill, and over a con¬ 
siderable space the soil is as shallow as it is light. 
In the spring it is fairly blue with wild onions, in 
spots, and even those do not do well, hut make up 
in numbers what they lack iu thrift, as is their wont. 
Last year he raised corn on that ground, and a very 
good piece it was. This is the way he did it. There 
is quite an extensive fresh-water marsh near by, 
and the grass is cut regularly for bedding. There 
is a little objection to its use as bedding in that we 
occasionally bring weed seeds with it upon other¬ 
wise clean land. On such land as I have described 
that difficulty is of small moment, for upon it snap¬ 
dragon and onions are about the only weeds that 
will grow, and these were there to start with. The 
marsh-hay was carted directly upon the land and 
spread evenly. It was plowed under by pulling in¬ 
to the furrow before the plowds much as the plow, 
run barely 6 inches deep, would cover. The field 
was marked off and the corn planted in good sea¬ 
son. That on the very shallowest soil received a 
little yard manure in the hill. My impression is, 
the corn was plowed but once. It may have been 
“cultivated” ( i. e., cultivatored) once and plowed 
once. The hoeing that it received was, as one may 
say, “a man went through it with a hoe.” It really 
needed little more; there were no weeds, and all 
that was especially necessary was to straighten up 
that which cither the horses, the plow, or the earth, 
had knocked down.—As I said, the crop, both of 
grain and of fodder, was a very fair one. It cer¬ 
tainly was cheaply raised. In the mere carting of 
manure there was a great saving. I certainly would 
have taken the marsh-hay to the barn-yard, and 
carted it out again, and a few years ago would have 
thought that the success of the crop depended 
upon thorough tillage, while I now know that the 
less these sands are stirred, the better. 
Fi-esli-Water Maisli-Hay 
is regarded of little value for fodder, unless indeed 
it be cut very green, and then it is light and worth 
little to feed by itself, though useful to mix with 
richer foods. If it stand until late in the sea¬ 
son, it becomes tough and hard to cut, but full 
of ash constituents. It is slow in decomposing, 
aud even when used as bedding, saturated with 
the liquids of the stable and the barn-yard, it 
acts slowly, and may be depended upon to remain 
in the soil more or less intact well into the second 
summer. 
Salt Hay 
has similar characteristics, except that cattle eat it 
better on account of the salt. If cut early enough, 
young stock will winter upon it with a small quan¬ 
tity of com stalks. Its principal use is as bed¬ 
ding and to spread in the barn-yard, where it adds 
greatly both to the bulk and value of the manure. 
I know of no better form in which vegetable mat¬ 
ter can be added to the soil. There are no weed 
seeds in it, which, if brought upon the land, will do 
any harm. It is peculiarly rich in ash, and on what¬ 
ever soil it comes, it makes its mark. Where farm¬ 
ers can get salt hay, or even fresh-water marsh-hay, 
I notice they generally neglect 
Swamp Muck. 
The peaty soil and partly decomposed vegetable 
substances, which accumulate iu swamps where 
true peat does not form, usually pass under this 
name, the very indefiniteness of which is an ad¬ 
vantage. The difference in the manurial value of 
the various sorts of this material is so great that, 
after paying considerable attention to the subject, 
I am unable to suggest any method by which the 
value may be approximately estimated without ac¬ 
tual trial. Of this, however, I am convinced, that, 
while the deposits of some few swamps applied in 
a natural state, have done harm rather than good 
on some soils, no kind is harmful or other than 
very beneficial upon light land, if it be composted, 
or passed through the barn-yard. I have never 
known other than good results when it has been 
hauled out and spread during the autumn or win¬ 
ter. When thus treated, it may be harrowed and 
brushed or rolled into grass land in the spring, or 
plowed under with the sward. Away from the 
vicinity of salt-marshes it is more used, especially 
as its ameliorating effects upon stiff soils are hardly 
less than upon others. That greater use is not 
made of it is remarkable. 
Tlic Use of Lime on Right Rami. 
This is seldom recommended, yet on our gravelly 
loams, which, in fact, are much more sandy than 
loamy, I find it beneficial, and my neighbors are so 
earnest in advocating it, that I intend to try it more 
extensively than ever. With them it is usually 
spread iu the winter upon grass land that has been 
mowed two or three seasons. On such land there 
is always a good portion of dead root fibers and 
dead grass, particularly in spring, upon which the 
lime may act. 
It seems necessary that lime should have vegeta¬ 
ble matter of some kind to act upon, especially in 
light soils, otherwise it only burns out the soil, and 
though crops may be somewhat benefited the first 
year, it is of no permanent good. Whereas if it has 
an old sward to work upon, it at once invigorates 
it, and greatly increases the strength of the sod, 
which is observable for two or three years. My 
plan is to apply lime in the winter to grass, and 
after seeing its effect, to cut one, and perhaps two 
crops of hay, that is two years’ crops, and then to- 
