54 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Feb. 
Helderburgh Farming. 
Editors Country Gent. —In my letter of Dec. 
7th, on Helderburgh Farming, I promised to give you 
the rotation of crops still farther, after I had prepared 
the land and considered it in sufficient tilth to raise 
any crop. We can now cultivate almost any crop to 
advantage, provided we can keep the land in good 
heart without laying out so much expense as to entire¬ 
ly destroy the profits. To secure this necessary end, 
in the latter part of March or fore part of April, I 
sow on the wheat crop about ten pounds of the small 
kind of clover seed to the acre- I prefer to sow it 
after the fall of some light snow. I prefer the small 
kind because it makes a turf sooner than the larger, 
and comes to maturity much earlier. By the time the 
wheat is ready to come off in August, this young clo¬ 
ver has obtained a fair start. The fall rains assist it 
still more in forming a complete mat over the whole 
surface of the ground. Should snow fall early, with¬ 
out much frost in the ground, this clover will grow 
and thicken during all the winter. 
In the spring, say about the 10th or 15th of May, 
this clover will have attained about its full maturity. 
It is then plowed in with a fiat furrow at 8 or 10 inches 
depth, and a roller passed over to make it smooth. 
Then marked out both wajps with a corn-marker, from 
2 feet 9 inches to 3 feet apart, and is then ready for 
corn or potatoes, whichever we may choose to grow. 
The method of treating the corn crop does not differ 
materially from that discussed by your Malone corres¬ 
pondent, in your paper of Jan. 5th. I use a small 
J handful of composition, (consisting of about ten bush- 
| els ashes, three bushels plaster, and 100 lbs. guano,) 
j to the hill, and prefer not over three stalks to the hill 
when the rows are but three feet apart. I consider the 
stalks, if well secured, to about pay the whole expense 
of raising the crop. To effect this, I cut up early in 
small stooks, and if possible secure all in the barns 
without any rains to bleach them. 
I consider this clover plowed in, in the manner de- 
cribed above, as good as about twenty loads of manure 
to the acre. Should we plow in the fall, as does your 
Malone correspondent, this green manuring would be 
lost, and besides experience has abundantly taught 
the farmers of this region that fall plowed sward land 
for corn, is attended with almost an entire loss of crop 
from the ravages of the “wire worm,” as it is called; 
whereas they are seldom known to affect the crop when 
sward land is left till spring. 
You see I prefer leaving the herbage to grow until 
I am ready to plant, and would do it all in the same 
day if convenient. Land plowed in the fall does not 
prove so detrimental to the potato crop; for if the 
worms do eat off the main root the others become 
equally productive. The only difference is, so far as 
my experience goes, that we have just as many pota¬ 
to toes when the stalk has been attacked by the worm, 
(a only an almost infinite number of exceedingly small 
■M ones besides. Now I am speaking of these “wire 
worms,” I will inquire, Mr. Editor, if you or any of 
your correspondents can inform us how we can rid the 
land of them? I have seen it suggested in some of 
your papers, that soaking the seed in tobacco water 
will entirely prevent their ravages. Will it do as well 
on barley ? Why will they attack the fall plowed, and 
leave the spring plowed almost entirely harmless? 
But I must hasten to give you the rotation still farther. 
The com crop being secured, the next in order is 
peas; then wheat, as before described ; then seed with 
clover again, and this rotation may be continued for 
any number of years, and all the crops improve in 
quantity and quality (other things being equal) from 
year to year, until I have no doubt fifty bushels can 
be realized from the acre,, with no expense above the 
ordinary labor, save that of a few pounds of clover 
seed and the carting of the manure, which is very 
much increased in consequence of the increased pro¬ 
duce of the acre. As we increase our product from 
the acre, we increase our stock on a given number of 
acres; and. this stock well husbanded, produces that 
fertilizer which would, with a little enterprise, soon 
make our land “flow with milk and honey.” 
Should it be deemed advisable at any time, to raise 
grass for hay or for soiling, I should adopt this meth¬ 
od: instead of the ten pounds of clover seed to the 
acre, I should, in the fall, when sowing the wheat, sow 
about two or two and a half bushels of timothy, and 
say half a bushel redtop seed to the acre, and then 
the ten pounds of clover in the spring, as before stated. 
The objection to seeding so heavy I know is, that it 
cannot all head out, and is thus of no use. I know 
that not one spear to a million can head out, but as 
much will head out as would if seeded lighter, and 
the remainder makes a rich and fine under-growth, of 
which all kinds of stock are so fond, and besides it 
being so thick, once wet in the spring, it never dries 
out so as to injure the growth. It may be mowed 
twice, and even three times, and will produce at least f. 
four tons to the acre. One acre is sufficient to keep a 
team of horses during the season of fattening, by keep¬ 
ing them up, whereas four acres would be necessary 
should they be suffered to run out. The same observa¬ 
tions will apply to other kinds of stock, such as milch I 
cows, working oxen, &c. The other three acres can be 
profitably employed in raising other orops. I tried the 
experiment a few years since on a small scale (about 
half an acre.) As soon as the grass manifested any 
disposition to lodge, I cut it and secured three loads of 
good hay. This was in June. The next mowing was 
about the first of August. This yielded two loads, and 
the next in September, which produced one load. I 
consider this last mowing as rather a disadvantage than 
otherwise, as it leaves the ground too bare, and is very 
liable in consequence to winter-kill. I am aware of 
the objection that such hay does not “spend well,” 
and the answer is, that it does not. But cows thrive 
well on it, and give, if not as much milk as when fed 
on grass, at least far richer. I know that ripe hay, as 1 ^) 
it is called, will “ spend well,” for I have seen it lay >4 
