THE CULTIVATOR. 
13 
facilitates their germination. A light harrow may also be employed 
in the spring, upon winter grain, with advantage to the grain and seeds. 
The quantity of seed sovm on an acre, depends upon the quality of 
the soil, the purpose to which the field is to be applied, and the quan¬ 
tity of grass seeds sown with it. As much of the seed sown upon 
clays does not germinate, allowance should be made for the failure; 
yet upon these and wet grounds, the main dependence, after the first 
year, is upon timothy or other grasses sown with it. If the object is 
pasture, the variety of seeds should be as extensive as practicable, as 
the object is to obtain an abundance of food at all seasons, and to ren¬ 
der it perennial. Timothy and herdsgrass ( red-top ) are suitable ac¬ 
companiments on moist, and orchard grass and tall meadow oat grass 
on dry grounds. The usual quantity of seed sown on the acre is about 
ten pounds, though in Great Britain it is often increased to fourteen 
pounds, while in Flanders it is but six pounds, though there the land 
is admirable fitted to receive it. 
The after culture of clover consists in freeing the surface of stones 
and sticks, the soil from docks and thistles, and in applying an annual 
top-dressing of gypsum, or when this is inoperative, of lime or ashes. 
The top-dressing is best applied in the spring before the clover begins 
to grow. Upon lands annually dressed with plaster, a bushel is con¬ 
sidered a sufficient dressing for an acre, though greater quantities are 
often applied with advantage. 
The making clover into hay is a process different from that of mak¬ 
ing hay from natural grasses. All herbage plants abound most in nu¬ 
triment, and should be cut, before the seeds are formed, and indeed 
before fully in blossom, that the full juice and nourishment of the plant 
may be retained in the hay. A crop of clover, when cut in the early 
part of Hie season, may be ten per cent lighter than when it is fully 
ripe; but the loss is amply counterbalanced, Jby obtaining an earlier, 
a more valuable, and more nutritious article ; while the next crop will 
proportionably be more heavy. The hay from old herbage will carry 
on stock, but it is only hay from young herbage that will fatten them. 
When the stems of clover become hard and sapless, by being allowed 
to bring their seeds towards maturity, they are of little more value as 
provender than an equal quantity of the finer sort of straw. 
The mode of making clover hay, as practised by the best farmers, is 
as follows: The clover is cut close to the ground, in as uniform and 
perfect a manner as it is possible to accomplish, by the scythe kept 
constantly sharp. What part of the stem is left by the scythe is not 
only lost, but the aftergrowth is neither so vigorous nor so weighty as 
when the first cutting is taken as low as possible. 
As soon as the swath is partially wilted, let it be gently turned over, 
but not spread or scattered, without breaking it. This may be done 
with forks or rakes. If the weather is fair, and the clover cut in the 
morning, the swaths may be turned after dinner; and if mowed after 
noon they may be turned before evening; at which time those turned 
after dinner may be put into grass cocks. This last operation should 
be performed with care, and in this manner. Three swaths are ap¬ 
propriated to a row of cocks. The laborer gathers a good fork full, 
and deposites it on the centre swath, if the ground is dry, if not in one 
of the intervals, putting it down gently, so that the cock may present 
a small base; he then continues to gather and deposite in the same 
way until the cock is brought to a point, at the height of 4 to 5 feet, 
according to the dryness of the clover,—the dryer this is the higher the* 
cock may be made. When completed the grass cock is two to three 
feet broad at the ground, tapering to the apex, and the projecting ends 
of the herbage drooping, so as to carry off the rain which may fall. 
The points to be regarded are, to cock before the leaves begin to crum¬ 
ble, and not to suffer the dew to fall upon the dried surface of the 
swath. These grass cocks may stand to advantage 36 hours without 
any prejudice, and should not be opened until there is a fair prospect 
of obtaining a few hours of good weather to complete the curing pro- 
ness. When this is the case, open the cocks as soon as the dew is off, 
spread them partially, four to six inches thick. If the day is good the 
spread clover may be turned over between twelve and two, and in an 
hour or two afterwards gathered for the barn. By this process of cur¬ 
ing the leaves are all preserved, injury from dew and rain is in a great 
measure avoided, the stocks are better dried, and the appearance and 
value of the forage is retained in its highest perfection. If rain is ap¬ 
prehended, after the grass cocks have stood a night, these may be 
doubled, by putting one upon the top of another, and dressing with a 
rake. An intense sun is almost as prejudicial to clover as rain; and 
therefore it should not be shook out, spread or exposed, oftener than 
is necessary for its preservation. The more the swath is kept unbro¬ 
ken, the more green and fragrant will be the hay. 
The secret of making good hay, says Low, is to prepare it as quickly 
as possible, and with as little exposure to the weather, and as little 
waste of the natural juices, as circumstances will allow. When we 
are enabled to do this, the hay will be sweet, fragrant and of a greenish 
colour. 
The produce of clover, on the best soils, is from two to three tons 
per acre, and in this state, in the London market, it generally sells 20 
per cent higher than meadow hay, or clover and rye-grass mixed. 
The nutritive products of clovers, will be found in the table at the 
close of the next chapter. 
The produce in seed, is stated by Dickson at from three to five bushels 
per acre. Clover will not perfect its seeds, if saved for that purpose 
early in the year ; therefore it is necessary to take off the first growth, 
or keep it down with sheep till late in May, either by feeding or with 
the scythe, and to depend for the seed on those heads that are pro¬ 
duced in autumn. 
ON THE USE OF LIME AS A MANURE.— by m. pUvis. 
Translated for the Farmers’ Register from the Annales de l' Agriculture Fran* 
caise, of 1835. 
ON THE DIFFERENT MODES OF IMPROVING THE SOIL. 
To improve the soil is to modify its composition in such manner as 
to render it more fertile. 
The definition, which might be extended to manures charged with 
vegetable mould [humus'] or animal substances, which also modify the 
composition of the soil, is limited by French agriculture to substances 
which act upon the soil, or upon plants, without containing any nota¬ 
ble proportion of animal or vegetable matter. 
It is said that manures, [putrescent or enriching,] serve for the nu¬ 
triment of plants. But it is the same as to substances improving to the 
soil, which furnish to it matters which it needs to be fruitful, and which 
j furnish to vegetables, the earths and saline compounds which enter as 
essential elements in their composition, their texture, and their pro¬ 
ducts. Such improving substances ought well to be regarded as nu¬ 
tritive. 
Thus lime, marl, and all the calcareous compounds employed in ag¬ 
riculture, since they furnish lime and its compounds, which sometimes 
form half of the fixed principles of vegetables, ought also to be con¬ 
sidered as aliments; or, what comes to the same, as furnishing a part 
of the substance of vegetables. Thus again, wood-ashes, pounded 
bones, burnt bones, which furnish to vegetation the calcareous and sa¬ 
line phosphates which compose a sixth of the fixed principles of the 
stalks, and three-fourths of their seeds, ought well to be considered, 
and surely are, nutritive. 
What then particularly marks the distinction between manures which 
improve the soil [amendemens,] and alimentary manures, [engra.is,] is 
that the former furnish, for the greater part, the fixed principles of 
vegetables, the earths, and salts, which are not met with ready formed, 
neither in the soil or in the atmosphere; while alimentary manures 
furnish a small part of the volatile principles which are abundantly 
diffused throughout the atmosphere, whence vegetables draw them, by 
means of suitable organs: and what is most remarkable, is, that the 
vegetable, by receiving the fixed principles of which it has need, ac¬ 
quires, as we shall see, a greater energy to gather for its sustenance 
i the volatile principles which the atmosphere contains. 
| The greater part then of the soils, to be carried to the highest rate 
of productiveness, requires manures to improve their constitution. 
Alimentary manures give much vigor to the leafy products—but they 
multiply weeds, both by favoring their growth and conveying their 
seeds—and they often cause crops [of small grain] to he lodged, when 
they are heavy. Manures which improve the soil, more particularly 
aid the formation of the seeds, give more solidity to the stalks, and 
j prevent the falling of the plants. But it is in the simultaneous em- 
jployment of these two means of fertilization by which we give to the 
soil all the active power.of which it is susceptible. They are neces¬ 
sary to each other, doubling their action reciprocally: and whenever 
they are employed together, fertility goes on without ceasing—increas¬ 
ing instead of diminishing. 
The greater part of improving substances are calcareous compounds. 
Their effect is decided upon all soils which do not contain lime, and 
we shall see that three-fourths, perhaps of the lands of France are in 
that state. The soils not calcareous, whatever may be their culture, 
and whatever may be the quantity of manure lavished on them, are 
not suitable for all products—are often cold and moist, and are covered 
with weeds. Calcareous manures, by giving the lime which is wanting 
in such soils, complete their advantages, render the tillage more easy, 
destroy the weeds, and fit the soil for all products. 
The improving substances have been called stimulants; they have 
been thus designated because it was believed that their effect consisted 
only in stimulating the soil and the plants. This designation is faulty, 
because it would place these substances in a false point of view. It 
would make it seem that they brought nothing to the soil, nor to plants 
—and yet their principal effect is to give to both principles which are 
wanting. Thus the main effect of calcareous manures proceed from 
their giving, on the one hand, to the soil the calcareous principle which 
it does not contain, and which is necessary to be able to develop its 
full action on the atmosphere—and on the other hand, to vegetables, 
the quantity which they require of this principles, for their frame-work. 
