“to improve the soil and the mind.” 
New Series. 
ALBANY, JULY, 1849. 
Vol. VI.—No. 7. 
improvement of % Soil, 
Improvement of Old Lands by Green Manuring. 
Editors of Tbs Cultivator —Eight years ago, I 
tried the experiment of renovating a worn-out pasture- 
field by Green-Manuring, or, the plowing in of Green 
Crops. The highly satisfactory results of this experi¬ 
ment, and the general subject of improvements by this 
system of manuring, were so freshly brought to mind 
yesterday, in strolling over my field, that I now give 
you experience, together with a brief collection of 
facts and principles touching the matter, from other 
sources. 
The field which I experimented upon contains four 
acres; it is a light, thin, sandy loam, and is situated 
upon a high swell, over a mile from the barn, and dif¬ 
ficult of access with a manure cart. It had been ex¬ 
hausted of all fertility by successive and injudicious 
croppings with rye, before it came under my manage¬ 
ment. A thin herbage, of little or no value, would 
show itself in the spring, only to be followed by a 
brown and most arid appearance at mid-summer. For 
two or three years, I occasionally passed over this land , 
thinking that the next season should witness some ex¬ 
ploit for its renovation; but the great difficulty that con¬ 
tinually presented itself to my mind, was, how to com¬ 
mence an improvement where there was no possibility 
of carting on any fertilizing substance, at a reasonable 
expense. I finally decided upon the following course: 
In the latter part of June, when the little vegetation 
which the land produced was at its greatest height, it 
was nicely turned under, and the field rolled. I was 
quite sure, to start with, that the usual depth of plow¬ 
ing, namely, three to four inches, by which the skinning 
process is made finally complete, or receives its full 
finish, had been the practice here; and I therefore put 
the plow in to the depth of six inches, in order to ex¬ 
pose a surface that had never before seen the day, 
which was thought to be of better quality than the first 
four inches. At any rate, it could not be poorer. 
Three pecks of buckwheat to the acre, were sown up¬ 
on the rolled surface, and harrowed in. The crop was 
permitted to riper - au? J -ir average yield of eight 
bushels pe: acre. As I had laid a plan of operations 
which were to extend through more than one season, 
and as I wished to test the merits of green manuring, I 
concluded to take off whatever of a scanty crop the 
land would naturally produce, in order to compare it. 
with anolher crop, to be harvested at the end of the 
course. Otherwise, I should not have taxed this poor 
old pasture with a grain-crop, at all. 
la May following, one bushel of buckwheat was 
sown on cacn acre, and when the crop had attained its 
blossom, it was turned under. A heavy chain, with 
one end attached to the plow-beam, immediately for¬ 
ward of the mould-board, and the other to the off-end 
of the evener, lopped down the tender buckwheat 
stalks, so that the plow covered them up pretty well. 
The field was then rolled; the same quantity of buck¬ 
wheat again sown, and the crop managed precisely like 
the preceding one. Late in September, one and a-lialf 
bushel of winter rye was sown to the acre. The fol¬ 
lowing spring, the rye presented a remarkable appear¬ 
ance. It stood so thick and heavy upon the ground 
that it required some resolution to plow it under, espe¬ 
cially when all outsiders were pronouncing it animpro 
vident and injudicious procedure. The lye was turned 
under. On the 20th of June, one bushel of buckwheat 
was again sown on each acre, together with grass 
seeds. It is risky sowing grass-seed at such a season 
of the year; but it was wet weather at the time, and 
we had a sufficient succession of showers through 
the summer to insure a good ‘ catch 1 of grass. This 
crop ripened,, and gave an average yield of 18 bushels 
per acre,—being an increase of over 100 per cent, ovei 
the first crop. It is entirely safe to say, that one-half 
an acre has produced more value in feed since, than 
the four acres did previous to plowing in the green 
crops. I shall never be at a loss to know what to do 
with similar fields hereafter. 
A number of interesting communications upon the 
subject of green crops for manure, have been published 
in our Agricultural Journals. With your permission, I 
will cite the following interesting facts from two of them; 
In the 9th vol., N. E. Farmer , W. Buckminster, 
Esq., of Framingham, Mass., states that in May, 1828, 
he plowed up three and a-half acres of poor pasture. 
It had been so reduced by a former owner, that 10 acres 
did not afford sufficient pasturage for one cow through 
the season. ]*mmediately after plowing, a bushel of 
buckwheat to the acre was sown, and in six weeks, the 
crop was rolled down in the direction he intended to 
plow, and then turned under, and the field sowed as 
before. In the latter part of August, the second crop 
was served like the first, and the land then seeded to 
clover, herds-grass and red-top. The next season, the 
field was mowed, and although the grass was conside¬ 
rably winter-killed, it yielded a ton of hay to the acre. 
The field was afterwards pastured; and he never had 
any pasture-ground yield so well befox-e. He thought 
the green crops improved the land as much as a good 
dressing of manure. 
In the 12th voi., N. E. Farmer. John Keely, of 
Haverill, Mass., gives an account of remarkable crops 
of rye, which he had raised by the use of green crops 
for fertilising the soil. The land on which the experi¬ 
ments were made, is situated on the Merrimack river; 
the soil a sand,approaching to loam as it recedes from the 
river. It is altogether too light for grass. The eropsfound 
most profitable to raise on it, were winter rye, and In¬ 
dian corn;—the crops of rye ordinarily yielding 8 to 12 
bushels, and of corn, 13 to 30 bushels, to the acre. 
The land on which he raised a premium crop of rye, 
in the season ol 1^-32, had. for three or four years pre¬ 
vious, been planted to corn; and owing to the extent of 
