6 
THE CULTIYA1 OR. 
3. Good Tillage. 
4. Alternating Crops. 
5. Root culture. And, 
6. In substituting fallow crops for naked fallows. 
Most of all these are necessary to good farming, 
according to soil, climate and location. They are the 
distinguishing traits of the new husbandry; and as 
they are practised with more or less fidelity and judg¬ 
ment, in that proportion are they likely to advance the 
condition of our agriculture, and to benefit the com¬ 
monwealth. 
These objects have become so hackneyed, from our 
repeated attempts to illustrate their bearing upon the 
prosperity of our country, that we almost despair of 
interesting our readers by what we have to offer; but 
as we labor in our vocation, and deem the matters in 
question of deep interest to the farmer, we shall again 
throw our seed abroad, trusting to the indulgence of 
our patrons, and in the hope, that, at least a portion 
of it may fall upon good ground, and yield a reasona¬ 
ble increase. 
We intend to discuss the several subjects we have 
named, and shall endeavor to show the why , and the 
how, each of them tends to benefit the farmer, and to 
advance improvement in our husbandry. In the re¬ 
marks we shall offer, it will be our endeavor rather to 
explain the principles upon which the new system is 
founded, and which have a common application, and to 
demonstrate their beneficial influence in husbandry 
generally, than to detail the minutse of practice, which 
must, in some degree, ever be influenced and controll¬ 
ed by local causes. 
I. MANURING. 
The first requisite to improving the fertility of the 
soil, is plenty of food for the crop, which it is destined 
to nourish. The meal chest must be occasionally re¬ 
plenished, or it will not long serve to supply the wants 
of the family. The kine must have daily her forage, 
or her grain, or she will withhold her accustomed tri¬ 
bute of milk. The field which yields an annual con¬ 
tribution to the husbandman, will become sterile, if 
nothing is returned to replace the crops annually car¬ 
ried off. Philosophers have speculated for ages, as to 
What constitutes the food of plants? Without recapi¬ 
tulating the various theories which have had their day, 
upon this point, every farmer can readily respond to 
the question, from personal knowledge—that it is ma¬ 
nure —vegetable and animal matters,—which consti¬ 
tute the true food of farm crops. Mineral, fossil and 
earthy substances, may meliorate the soil, and increase 
its capacities for the healthy development and matu¬ 
rity of plants—or may impart wholesome stimuli to 
the organs of plants themselves,—but vegetable and 
animal substances, after all, constitute mainly the ele¬ 
mentary food of plants: Crops are always good, on 
well prepared grounds, when these, in a soluble state, 
are known to abound; and they are always defective, 
or prove a failure, when these are wanting. Farmers 
should hence regard manure as a part of their capital— 
as money—which requires but to be properly employ¬ 
ed, to return them usurious interest. They should 
husband it as they would their cents, or shillings, 
which they mean to increase to dollars. They should 
economise every animal and vegetable substance oil 
the farm, and when it has subserved other useful 
purposes, apply it, by mixing it properly with the soil, 
to the increase of the coming harvest—put it to inte¬ 
rest, that it may return the owner its per centage of 
profit, in grain, roots and forage, and ultimately in the 
increase of meat, and in the products of the fleece 
and dairy. Every load of manure, well applied to the 
farm, will increase its products to the value of one dol¬ 
lar. The farmer, therefore, who wastes a load of ma¬ 
nure, is as reckless and improvident, as he who throws 
away a bushel of corn, in these dear times. Not only 
what is denominated manure, as the contents of the 
cattle and hog yards, and the cleanings of the stable— 
the amount of which may be greatly increased, by 
stalks, weeds, vines, and other vegetable matters— 
may be transformed into farm produce—but the rich 
earth of swamps, ditches and waters, the leaves of 
the forest, urme, soap suds, &c., are all convertible to 
a like use. He that will not feed his crops with ma¬ 
nure, should not complain if his crops fail to feed him 
with bread. 
As the grain, roots and forage destined to feed the 
family, and the farm stock, require the best care of 
the husbandman, to prevent waste and injury, so does 
the manure which is destined to feed his crops. Fer¬ 
mentation, if suffered to exhaust its powers upon it, 
materially lessens its value; the wind and the sun 
dissipate its virtues, and rains leach it, and waste its 
fertilizing powers. The same care given to the food 
of vegetables which should be given to /the food of 
animals, will be richly recompensed in the increased 
product of the harvest. 
Lime, marl, gypsum and ashes, are all beneficially 
applied to increase fertility, under certain circumstan¬ 
ces, which it is unnecessary for us here to particular¬ 
ize. Stiff clays are also benefited, by the application 
of sand; light sands are improved by the admixture 
of clay; while both clay and sand are improved by 
the addition of marl, or other calcareous substances. 
If we contrast the common with the improved prac¬ 
tice, in regard to the management of dung, we shall 
readily see, that the difference, in preserving the fer¬ 
tility of the soil, is incalculably great—enough to in¬ 
duce poverty in one case, and to enrich the proprietor 
in the other. Even the best class of our farmers, 
who are deemed judicious managers, seldom avail 
themselves of half the resources of fertility which 
their farms or neighborhoods afford—not half that are 
put in successful requisition by the farmers of Great 
Britain and Flanders. Besides, what manure they 
do make is in general badly husbanded. They suffer 
the gaseous portions to waste in the air, instead of 
being absorbed by, and enriching the soil; and the li¬ 
quid to course down hill to the highway or the brook. 
But what shall we say of the mass of our farmers 1 — 
We have travelled hundreds of miles to the west, and 
seen great, quantities of manure, in the yards and 
about the barns, often the accumulation of years, 
seemingly considered by the owners rather as an in¬ 
cumbrance, or a nuisance, than as a source of fertility 
and of wealth. In the new system of husbandry, the 
farmer’s profits are in a measure graduated by the 
quantity of manure he is enabled to produce from his 
farm. In the first number of our fourth volume, we 
gave estimates, from high authorities, of the amount 
produced upon farms in Great Britain. Dr. Coventry, 
Agricultural Professor in the Edinburgh University, 
gives four tons of manure to each acre of straw ma¬ 
nufactured by farm stock. A Berwickshire farmer, 
quoted by Sir John Sinclair, obtained four cart loads, 
of 30 to 35 cubic feet each, from every ox wintered 
upon straw and turnips. Meadow land is stated to 
produce from four to six tons of manure to the acre, 
and the available sources of fertility upon a farm are 
estimated to be sufficient to give a full supply of ma¬ 
nure once in every course of the four year system of 
husbandry. Arthur Young, with six horses, four cows, 
nine hogs, and suitable litter, made 118 loads of dung, 
36 bushels each, in a winter. Cattle fed with turnips 
are computed to make double the manure that those 
do which are fed on dry fodder alone ; and an acre of 
turnips, with an adequate quantity of straw, has pro¬ 
duced sixteen cart loads of dung. It will be readily 
perceived, that by this mode of management, ample 
means are provided for keeping up the fertility of the 
soil, when put under a four shift system of husbandry. 
What now is the common quantity of manure under 
the old system I Taking our state, or our country at 
large, we are confident the average quantity which is 
judiciously applied, will not amount to one load an 
acre, and we are doubtful if it will amount to half a 
load. Can it be wondered, then, that under such 
reckless management, of returning to,the soil only a 
quarter, or an eighth, of what we take from it, of the 
food of plants, that our lands-should continue to grow 
poor, till they no longer yield a reward to culture ?— 
The cultivated lands,in this state are estimated at 
eight millions of acres. On the supposition that one 
half of them is appropriated to tillage and meadow— 
and this is a low estimate—we might produce and 
apply annually, under the new system of husbandry— 
and we ought to do so—sixteen millions tons of manure, 
worth to the country, at a low computation, sixteen 
millions of dollars;—whereas, we now produce, under 
the old system, certainly not more than four millions 
of tons—thereby suffering an annual loss, independent 
of the certain and constant diminution in the product 
and value of our lands, of twelve millions of dollars 
in the single item of manures ! This is not a vision¬ 
ary speculation—it is sober truth—and we ask any 
intelligent man, to show, from facts, a less unfavora¬ 
ble conclusion. 
We will merely remark here, in regard to the ap¬ 
plication of manures, that if used in an unfermented 
state, they should be buried with the plough, and ap¬ 
plied to a hoed or autumn-ripening crop ; if used in a 
rotted state, they may be blended with the surface, 
and applied to a summer-ripening crop. We will 
give our reasons for this practice. Manure fertilizes 
in two ways—by the gaseous matters which are evolv¬ 
ed in fermentation, and which rise; and by liquid mat¬ 
ters, which sink. If used before it has parted with 
its gases, manure should be buried, that the incum¬ 
bent soil may imbibe these fertilizing elements. If 
the manure has been rotted, it has parted with its ga¬ 
seous matters, and all its remaining fertilizing proper¬ 
ties are liable to be carried down by the rains—hence 
this may be deposited near the surface. Again, fresh 
manures, even in a liquid form,* induce a rank growth 
of herbage; but they do not produce good plump seed. 
Hence if applied to common small grains, they cause 
*Col. Le Courteur—(see Farmers' Magazine)—tried stable 
manure, and liquid manure, the latter diluted, upon his wheat. 
The grain tillered much, or gave a great growth of straw and 
grass; but the product in grain was diminished. When the 
liquid manure was applied a second time, by being poured 
upon the growing wheat, the straw was very rank; the plants 
produced only a few' ears of wheat* and those were very de¬ 
fective in grain. 
a great growth of straw at the expense of the grain: 
Fermentation being most rapid at midsummer, when 
the seed, and not the straw, requires the food. But 
the autumn-ripening crops, as corn, &c., are in that 
state, at midsummer, which requires strong food to 
perfect their stalks and leaves; and the fermentation 
of the manure has subsided before the grain matures 
in autumn. Fossil manures, as lime, marl, gypsum, 
are applied upon the surface, or buried superficially, 
because their disposition is to settle down, and they 
give off no gaseous food. 
Individuals, it is true, are but units—yet the aggre¬ 
gation of units make millions, and the aggregation 
of individuals constitutes nations. We should all act 
as though individual example had an imposing influ¬ 
ence upon the whole. In the matter which we have 
just discussed, every farmer may be assured, that by 
adopting our suggestions, he will unquestionably pro¬ 
mote his own interest, and by his example, benefit 
society. 
Analysis of Wheat. 
Wheat is composed almost wholly of starch and 
gluten. It is the latter which gives grain a pre-emi¬ 
nent value, it approximating most to animal matter. 
Yet starch imparts to flour its greatest excellence in 
market. Summer wheat contains more gluten, ordi¬ 
narily, than winter wheat. The wheat of cold lati¬ 
tudes contains more starch, and that of southern lati¬ 
tudes more gluten. The summer wheat of Italy is 
chiefly employed, at Naples, for macaroni, on ac¬ 
count of the gluten with which it abounds, and which 
renders its paste peculiarly adhesive. Wheat ordi¬ 
narily contains from eighteen to twenty per cent of glu¬ 
ten, according to Davy; while, according to Chaptal, 
rye affords but one per cent, barley from five to eight, 
and oats one to two. The more gluten there is in 
flour, the more readily it ferments, or rises in the dough 
trough ; and if the gluten is destroyed, the dough turns 
sour by fermentation. Hence the nutrient quality of 
wheat is in some measure determined by the gluten 
it contains. . 
A friend having submitted several kinds of wheat to 
rather an imperfect analysis, with a view to determine 
the quantity of gluten in each, has given us the fol¬ 
lowing as the result. All the specimens were sub¬ 
mitted to a Ike process ; and although the result may 
not indicate the whole of the gluten in either, the rela¬ 
tive proportions are presumed to be accurate. Twelve 
grains of each were submitted to experiment. 
Kinds of wheat. 
Weight. 
Gluten. 
Italian, from Utica, . 
4 gram 
Siberian,. 
... 9 
u 
H “ 
Tea, from Vermont,. 
... 8^ 
it 
l 
Common Spring Wheat, . 
... 8* 
it 
1 “ 
Early May, from Virginia, 
... 7 
u 
1 “ 
Red River, from Galena, . 
... 8 
a 
1 “ 
Egyptian, from Vermont, . 
. . . 10| 
it 
k “ 
Giant, from England, .... 
...10 
it 
none. 
The only inference we would venture to draw from 
this analysis, is, that the Italian and Siberian wheat 
seem to be identical—and that even the tea wheat 
may be the same, differing in the quantity of its glu¬ 
ten only from the circumstance of its being grown in 
a higher latitude, so far as this test can be relied on. 
Tilings which we Want. 
We want, imprimis, stronger inducements to agri¬ 
cultural labor, through our public authorities, by means 
of a liberal policy of patronage, in bounties and re¬ 
wards ; and we want a stronger guarantee for recom¬ 
pense, in the establishment of a better system of prac¬ 
tice. 
We want more public, and less party spirit—more 
devotedness to the state, and the interests of the peo¬ 
ple at large, and less to local interests, individual cu¬ 
pidity, and personal aggrandizement. 
We want more stimulus to individual effort, and less 
to joint stock companies. Men will be guilty of acts 
of injustice and oppression, in a corporate capacity, 
which they will be ashamed to commit on their in¬ 
dividual responsibility. In the one case they do but 
share, and they generally contrive to shift on toothers, 
the odium of a bad act. ‘ But alone, they have no sub¬ 
terfuge, no excuse. 
We want, for our boys, who are destined to till the 
earth, scientific and industrial schools, that they may 
acquire, simultaneously, and in the scholastic period 
of life, a knowledge of the best practices in farming, 
and of the principles upon which it can now alone be 
judiciously and successfully conducted. 
We want, in due time, an agricultural survey of the 
state, which shall collect and make known to all, the 
best practices in farming which prevail in each dis¬ 
trict—as also the labor-saving implements employed 
in each, and their relative usefulness, the breeds of 
domestic animals, products and profits of crops, new 
subjects of culture, &c. 
We icant more practical business men in our legisla- 
five halls as well as upon our farms—men of sound 
judgment and independent bearing—and who, though 
