1869 .] 
91 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
looked the fact that we generally sow clover 
with the wheat. Not at all; I distinctly stated 
that we should have to give up sowing clover 
with winter wheat. The plan is open to that 
objection. “You say,” he writes, “that we 
must have a rotation of crops.to keep up the 
fertility of our farms, and generally speak of 
the course pursued in this State and others, of 
grass after wheat as being the best. Now, by 
hoeing the wliea't, what becomes of the timothy 
seed we are so careful to sow in the fall, and the 
clover seed we are advised to sow so early in 
the spring? I don’t see that hoeing wheat can 
ever become general, for even at the West they 
will yet have to come to rotation in order to 
keep up the land.” 
I do not think I ever said that a rotation of 
crops is necessary to keepvp the fertility of the 
land. If I did, I said what is not true; give 
me plenty of manure and I can raise potatoes, 
onions, corn, grass, barley, and wheat, without 
rotation. There is a great advantage in a judi¬ 
cious rotation of crops, but there is no absolute 
necessity for it so far as the fertility of the soil 
is concerned. In fact, I could impoverish a farm 
sooner with a rotation of crops than without it. 
A few years ago, chemists had a good deal to 
say about the requirements of different plants, 
and could tell us what crops ought to follow 
each other. Since then, they have studied the 
matter more thoroughly, and I hazard little in 
saying that if you should go to the best agricul¬ 
tural chemist in this country and tell him that 
a certain rotation was not convenient, he would 
say, “ Change it for one that is convenient.” A 
chemist can give excellent reasons why barley 
does well after a crop of turnips that have been 
eaten by sheep on the land, but this is not the 
reason why the English farmer adopts the sys¬ 
tem. He sow's barley after turnips for the same 
reason that we sow barley after corn, because 
it is more convenient than it is to sow winter 
wheat. That rotation of crops which will ena¬ 
ble us to clean the land at the least expense, 
which gives us the most work to do during the 
leisure season, and the least during a busy one- 
in other words, the system which is most con¬ 
venient,—will, as a general rule, be the best. So 
then, if it is desirable to hoc wheat we need not 
hesitate to change our rotation. Fifty years ago 
it was the common practice in England to sow 
grass and clover seed with wheat; nowit is 
very uncommon to do so. The wheat is hoed 
once or twice in the spring, and. as soon as it is 
harvested, the land is scarified and worked thor¬ 
oughly in the fall, and prepared for the turnip 
crop the following spring. And this system has 
helped to make English agriculture the admira¬ 
tion of the world. Clover is sown with the 
barley crop, and wheat follows the clover. 
Farmers must think for themselves, and adopt 
a rotation of crops suited to their soil, location, 
and circumstances. One thing is certain: we 
shall be compelled to make a more determined 
effort to clean our land. The weeds cheat us 
out of half our profits. The system best adapt¬ 
ed to get rid of them is what we are in search 
of. Our climate is much more favorable for 
their destruction than that of England, and it 
may -well be that we shall discover some better 
and cheaper method than hoeing the wheat. 
I am not sure that the plan I am now trying of 
fallowing for barley will prove to be what we 
■want. It will certainly destroy that pest of the 
wheat-grower—red-root. 
A gentleman in Massachusetts wants to know 
why I prefer Peruvian guano to other manures 
for potatoes. I do not think it is any better 
than thoroughly rotted manure from well-fed 
animals. But for immediate effect it is much 
cheaper. The better plan is to use both. Ap¬ 
ply the manure to the previous crop, (say of 
corn,) and then sow 300 lbs. of guano broadcast 
on the land after it is plowed in the spring for 
potatoes, and harrow it in. If the land is suit¬ 
able and the crop is kept clean, I should expect 
a large yield. But if I had no manured land I 
should not hesitate to sow guano alone. I have 
seen good crops raised on very poor land, with 
guano onty. And, in fact, I have never known 
Peruvian guano to fail to produce a good crop 
when properly applied, and the land well plow¬ 
ed and cultivated. If the crop is planted in 
hills, the guano will have a better effect if ap¬ 
plied in the hill. But care is necessary to pre¬ 
vent the guano from coming in contact with the 
seed, or it will burn it up. If the hills are 3 
feet apart, 1 oz. of guano, or about a tablespoon¬ 
ful, will give 300 lbs. per acre. I would mark 
out the rows both ways with a broad-toothed 
marker, and then drop a tablespoonful of guano 
on the spot where the seed is to be planted. 
Then with a hoe thoroughly incorporate it with 
the soil, and at the same time make the hole for 
the set two or three inches deep. I think we 
are apt to plant too shallow. Drop the set and 
cover with loose earth. In this way the guano 
will not hurt the seed, and will act more rap¬ 
idly than when sown broadcast. 
A young farmer in Ohio asks my advice in 
regard to the improvement of a stiff clay farm 
that formerly produced good wheat, but now 
fails to yield remunerative crops. He says it 
undoubtedly needs underdraining; that he has 
cut one drain through his garden, and “the 
effect is wonderful.” But he is considerably in 
debt, and to spend $50 an acre in draining is out 
of the question. He does not wish to seil the 
farm, and cannot sell a part, as there is much 
land in the neighborhood that can be bought for 
$10 per acre. The soil, he says, seems best 
adapted to grass and clover, and he has thought 
of going into the dairy business, but lacks money 
to buy cows. “ Now,” he writes in conclusion, 
“ the problem I wish you to solveis, how to make 
the farm get itself out of debt, stock itself, and 
pay for underdraining.” Better sell and buy a 
cheaper farm; or work for some other farmer 
until money enough is saved to farm properly. 
It is now almost impossible to obtain an intelli¬ 
gent, experienced man to take charge of a farm. 
Such a man can command a good salary. But 
if, in such a case as this, the owner is an “ inde¬ 
pendent American,” who would rather suffer 
the greatest privations on his own land than 
work for others, and if he cannot sell, he must 
stay where he is and do the best he can. Pluck 
is to a certain extent equivalent to capital. If 
good land in the neighborhood sells for $10 an 
acre, it will not pay to spend $50 an acre in 
draining. But, in point of fact, on the majority 
of our farms, no such sum is required. I be¬ 
lieve $20 an acre would drain my farm perfect¬ 
ly. Some fields require more, some less. Drain 
those fields first that are going to be plowed. 
Let the others lie in grass. Take pains to get 
off all the surface water. Never let a drop lie 
on the land a day, if possible. Much can be 
done in this respect with the plow. The fur¬ 
rows should be opened at the bottom with a 
spade, and then a few minutes’ work with a hoe 
will often let off more water in an hour than the 
sun can evaporate in a week. Wlies(p sufficient 
capital is at command, it is undoubtedly better 
to underdraiu systematically and thoroughly at 
once, but it is nevertheless true, that a few 
drains judiciously laid through the springy por¬ 
tions of the farm, in conjunction with surface 
drains, will prove very useful. In this countiy, 
as compared with England, although we have a 
greater rain-fall, we have fewer rainy days. 
When it rains here, it rains. For several 
months in the year, too, the rain is held as snow, 
and when the thaw comes, the ground being 
frozen, the water runs over the surface to the 
lowest level. I believe we can get rid of more 
than half the water which falls on the land by 
means of surface drains. The trouble generally 
is that we do not provide ditches deep enough 
into which the surface drains can be conducted. 
Comparatively few people in the world do 
more than get a living. And it is asking a good 
deal of a farm to “get itself out of debt,” stock 
itself, and furnish the money for improvements 
that would double or treble its value, and sup¬ 
port a family in the meantime. It is true that 
thousands of farmers have accomplished such 
a result in this country, and what has been done 
can be done, but it is usually the labor of a life. 
To a mind rightly constituted, the improvement 
of land is the most pleasurable of all occupa¬ 
tions, and we can afford to live economically for 
the time being, and wait patiently for the profits. 
Mr. Boardman, of Ontario County, N. Y., 
wants to know the value for manure of a ton 
of clover seed straw as compared with a ton of 
clover hay. He says he has been reading Prof. 
Johnson’s new book, “How Crops Grow,” but 
cannot find the information. This is true, but 
as he has given us the most valuable work of 
the kind in the English language, we must ex¬ 
cuse him. He gives the composition of the ash 
of clover seed,-but not the percentage of nitro¬ 
gen. We are pretty sure in concluding, how¬ 
ever, that clover seed is very similar in compo¬ 
sition to peas and beans. Furthermore it is 
probable that there is but little loss of nitro¬ 
gen during the ripening of the seed, and conse¬ 
quently if a ton of clover seed hay yields 300 
lbs. of seed, we may conclude that 1,700 lbs. of 
straw and 300 lbs. of peas, beans, or oil-cake, 
would make manure as valuable as a ton of 
ordinary clover hay. Clover seed, or peas and 
beans, is worth for manure about as much again 
per lb. as ordinary clover hay. It may be safely 
asserted that the straw of peas, beans, or clover, 
is worth three times as much for manure as 
■wheat straw. 
Mr. B. has a good wheat farm of 120 acres, 
and his wheat crop last year brought him 
$2,400; besides this he had 800 bushels of 
potatoes and expects 50 bushels of clover seed. 
He does not raise any oats, barley, or buck¬ 
wheat, and feeds out the corn from 10 acres on 
his farm. He has 12 acres of orchard, keeps 
180 sheep, 6 head of cattle, and 4 horses. His 
practice is to spread manure on clover sod in 
winter or spring, pasture the field with sheep 
until the 1st of July, then plow it about 10 
inches deep, cultivate thoroughly, and sow wheat 
Sept. 1st. As soon as the wheat is harvested, 
the field is plowed with a double plow a little 
deeper than before. Then it is rolled with a four- 
horse iron roller, cultivated thoroughly, and 
sown with wheat again, seeding with clover in 
the spring. That this plan gives good wheat 
on his farm, the crop of last season abundantly 
proves. But I fear that the system would not 
keep the land clean, unless the first crop was 
hoed. A once-plowed summer fallow, with only 
two months of cultivation, is not sufficient to 
germinate seeds of weeds. I see no other objec¬ 
tion to the plan. It will not exhaust the soil any 
sooner than raising wheat after bailey or oats* 
