1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
399 
Renovation of Worn out Lands. 
H. K. Burguyn Esq., of Jackson, North Carolina, 
has been very successful in reclaiming the worn out 
lands of the section where he resides. He has 
furnished for the agricultural part of the Patent 
Office report, an account of his mode of improve¬ 
ment, by which he has doubled the product of Indian 
corn, and increased the yield of wheat in a still 
greater proportion. The following are the principal 
points in his system of culture:— 
If the “ broom straw,” in which these waste 
lands always grow up, retains any sap, by which, 
when turned under, fermentation will ensue, and 
cause the straw to rot, let the land as it is, be 
plowed with the largest size plow, drawn by three 
or four horses, running as deeply as possible—say 
not less than ten inches—and turning everything 
under. If the straw has no sap, burn it off, and 
plow as before. If possible, follow eaeh plow with 
a subsoil plow, and go 6 or 8 inches deeper. This 
will make the stiff clay, which almost everywhere 
underlies our land, more open to the genial influences 
of the sun and air, and enable it to get rid of the 
surplus water of winter, and heavy rains in other 
seasons of the year. 
About the middle of June, following when the 
weeds are about half grown, and before they have 
formed their seeds, sow the land broad cast at the 
rate of a bushel per acre, of the numerous varieties 
of peas among us, except the “ black-eyed,” which, 
having very little vine, affords little shade. In all 
cases I prefer those which have the most vine, and 
ripen earliest. When the land has much weeds or 
grass upon it, turn under the peas with any kind 
of plow, running not over three inches deep. If the 
land is bare of weeds. I prefer covering the peas 
with a large heavy harrow, running both ways— 
first lengthwise and then across the beds. As it is 
important to give the peas a start over the weeds 
and grass, I soak them six hours in water, and rub 
them in plaster of Paris; and, when they begin to 
leaf and branch, say, when twelve inches high, I 
sow plaster at the rate of a bushel per acre. This 
stimulates their growth, and they overpower the 
weeds and grass. 
When about half the peas are ripe—not “ half 
ripe”—hogs should be turned in to trample and cut 
up the vines, otherwise it is extremely difficult to 
turn them under. So soon as this can be done, the 
hogs should be taken off, for shading the land from 
the summer’s sun—a most important matter in all 
improvement—and giving to the thin soil a large 
mass of vine leaves and other vegetable substances. 
From experience in the use of both, I think peas but 
little inferior to clover (to which family, indeed, it 
belongs,) as a specific manure for wheat. 
After this mass of vine has been turned under, 
you have a ” pea ley,” over which sow a bushel 
and a half of wheat per acre, and six quarts of 
clover seed. Harrow both in thoroughly, and let 
the work be finished by the middle of October. The 
return will, of course, depend somewhat on the 
quality of the ” old field;” but I venture to affirm, 
that it will amply repay all labor and outlay, and as¬ 
tonish by the great result apparently from so trivial 
a cause. 
I am familiar with the great increase of crops 
from the use of lime and clover, and I do not mean 
to compare the two methods of renovating land as 
equal; but where lime is not to be had, there is no 
application that can compare for a moment, on well 
drained land, (if it need, draining) with plaster, 
neas and deep tillage. No gold mine is so valuable 
as a good marl pit. I am, however, confining my¬ 
self to interior districts, where neither lime nor 
marl can be had. 
After the wheat comes off in June following, the 
clover, if sown early in October, will have grown 
so as to shade the land pretty well, even on the waste 
I speak of. It should not be grazed the first year, 
at all: in the February after, top-dress it with all 
the manure to be had, not forgetting to apply all the 
old ashes within reach. This time of the year, 
(winter) is best for applying manure in our country, 
where the hot sun acts so injuriously on a bare sur¬ 
face. The roots of the young clover being protect¬ 
ed from the hard frosts and sudden changes, by the 
manure, it shoots forward with the earliest warmth 
of spring, and smothers all weeds. When the weeds 
mature their seeds, they draw upon the fertility of 
land equal to most crops. Clover gives a crop equal 
to any other, and is all returned to the land in drop¬ 
pings of the stock while grazing upon it. As proof 
of its profit, for three years I have never fed my work¬ 
ing horses on grain or fodder but once a day, from 
the middle of May till the clover fails. They are 
turned on the clover field after the day’s work is 
over, and taken up in the morning in good condition 
for service. I have never lost one by this manage¬ 
ment: in fact they improve from the time they are 
thus treated, and work better. 
After the clover has been on the land for two sum¬ 
mers, during which period it has dropped three crops 
of leaves and stalks, and thereby greatly improved 
the land, either turn it under as before, in Septem¬ 
ber or October, for wheat, or later in the fall for 
corn the ensuing year. In the former case, you will 
find your land as thickly set as before with volunteer 
clover, which ought to remain as a pasture for the 
summer, after the second crop of wheat comes off. 
If corn instead of wheat, be grown, sow peas broad 
cast among the corn at the last plowing, soaking 
the seed and rolling them in plaster as before. After 
the corn crop, do not suffer the land to “ lie out.” 
No error can be more opposed to good farming, than 
that which assumes that land is improved by 11 lay¬ 
ing out” and permitting a crop of weeds to mature 
upon it. If we had duly reflected, this error would 
long since have been apparent, in the continued 
quantity, of thousands of acres lying waste around 
us, not a whit improved by 11 lying out .” After the 
soil has once been brought up by peas, subsoiling, 
or deep plowing and clover—all within reach of the 
farmer even in the interior—it will not again relapse 
unless the former barbarous and senseless practice 
of exhaustion and negligence be again adopted. Tf 
lime can be had, even at a cost of 20 cents a bushel, 
I would in all cases spread it on the land, after the 
first crop of peas had been turned under, to the 
amount of fifteen or twenty bushels per acre. This 
quantity will greatly benefit the land, and enable 
the owner shortly to repeat the application of a like 
quantity. 
Canada and the United States. 
Hon. Mr. Fergusson, member of the Canadian 
Parliament, in his speech at the late meeting of the 
Canadian Agricultural Association, spoke of the 
agreeable intercourse he had enjoyed with the people 
of the state of New-York in the following terms. 
He said for seven years past he had been in the habit 
of attending the New-York State Agricultural Fair. 
He had had the honor of being invited there from year 
to year, and he would say that if they would only go 
there with candid feelings and with a desire to im¬ 
prove, they would see something that would aston- 
