THE CULTIVATOR. 
161 
without duly reflecting, that they apply as well to grass as to grain— 
Meadows do deteriorate; in a few years the finergrasses run out, because 
the soil becomes exhausted of the particular food which affords them 
nourishment; coarse or innutricious plants take their place, and the herb¬ 
age becomes inferior in quality and greatly diminished in quantity. Upon 
an average, old established meadows would yield double their present 
crops, if judiciously alternated with grain and root crops. The terms 
“suitably divided into meadow, plough and pasture lands,” which 
are generally employed to recommend farms on sale, are an indica¬ 
tion of bad husbandry, and very often betray the secret which com¬ 
pels the owner to sell. Excepting in very stony districts, every acre 
of land which will produce good grasses, may, by being rendered 
dry and rich, be made to produce good grain and roots. In the con¬ 
vertible system of husbandry, permanent meadow' or plough lands are al¬ 
most unknown—every field produces in turn, crops of grain, grass and 
roots. 
There are three classes of crops which alternate beneficially with each 
other, viz:—1st. Grain, or corn, or dry crops, which mature their seed, 
and most exhaust the fertility of the soil;—2d. Grass crops, of the influ¬ 
ence of which upon the soil, I have already spoken; and 3d. Root or 
green crops, embracing turneps, potatoes, beets, clover, &c. In old 
meadows and pastures, not only the better grasses disappear and coarse 
herbage and mosses come in, but the soil becomes too compact and hard, 
to admit the free extension of the roots, and the genial influence of the 
sun, dew and atmosphere, which are primary agents in the process of 
vegetable nutrition. Tillage corrects these evils. It cleans the soil 
of foul weeds, and converts them into sources of fertility; it breaks and 
pulverizes the soil, and fits it for the return of the grass crop at the close 
of the rotation; while the vegetable matters of the sward contribute to 
augment the grain or root crop which is torfollow. All green crops are 
more or less fertilizing, when buried in the soil; but clover is to be pre¬ 
ferred, as well on account of its enriching properties to the soil, as that it 
also affords hay and pasture. I have practised sowing clover seed with 
all my small grain crops, though I intended to plough the field the follow¬ 
ing year. The food which this clover affords to the coming crop, richly 
compensates for the cost of the seed and sowing, to say nothing of the 
pasture it gives in autumn. Hence, tillage is admirably calculated to fit 
and prepare the ground for grass: while grass, in return, directly or indi¬ 
rectly furnishes an abundance of food for grain and roots. The fertility 
of a soil depends essentially upon its power to absorb water by cohesive 
attraction, and this power depends in a great measure upon the state or 
division of its parts; the more divided they are, the greater is their ab¬ 
sorbent power. The crop upon a hard, compact soil, will suffer from 
drought; but if this soil is finely pulverized and broken, it will suffer 
much less. The first may be compared to the rock, which receives 
moisture upon its surface, and upon its surface only; the latter to the 
sponge which receives and transmits moisture to its whole mass, and 
which retains it for a long time. 
I will close my remarks upon the farm, already too protracted, I fear, 
for the patience of my hearers, by a brief reference to the prominent 
crops which seem adapted to the soils and climate of Berkshire. 
Although your soils contain sand, and clay, and lime, three prominent 
requisites for the growth of wheat, yet they do not seem adapted to the 
profitable culture of this grain—they do not enable you to compete suc¬ 
cessfully with the great wheat districts of the west. This grain may be 
grown for- family use, but I doubt whether its culture can be made profit¬ 
able here, as an article of commerce; when cultivated, however, the 
spring varieties are to be preferred to those of winter, as being less ex¬ 
posed to the vicissitudes of the seasons, and the ravages of insects, and 
consequently more certain in their returns. 
Indian corn is as indispensable to the Yankee, as the potato is to the i 
Irishman, or the oat to the Scotchman. It is not only meat and meal to : 
his family, but it is food.for his cattle and manure for his land. It is there- i 
fore a very desirable crop, and hence it is often cultivated at an absolute ; 
loss. It requires a great outlay of labor; yet if the soil is dry, and clean, I 
and rich, and the season propitious, few farm crops make a better return. < 
It should never be planted, in this latitude, upon wet or cold, orpoor lands, j 
The shortness of the summer is a serious objection to its culture. There i 
are several things, however, which may be done to obviate, or at least to : 
lessen, this objection. The early varieties ripen a fortnight earlier than ; 
the late varieties. By making the land dry, we may raise its natural tem- i 
perature. By the liberal use of unfermented manure, spread and well turned I 
under by the plough, the warmth of the soil maybe farther increased, and s 
the growth and maturity of the crop thereby accellerated. If the surface be 
flat, and the crop likely to suffer from heavy or protracted rains, throw your 1 
land into ridges for three rows, or into narrow ridges for one or two rows, ■ 
which will render it more dry and warm. In the culture of this crop, I have ; 
found the harrow and the cultivator, far preferable to the plough. The latter 
cuts and bruises the roots, which are ordinarily of greater length than the I 
tops, wastes the manure, and robs the plants of more than half their pas- i 
ture. Earthing or hilling the plants, is also in a great measure dispensed | 
with in modern husbandry—it being found that good culture consists in i 
merely keeping the ground clean, and its surface mellow and open to at- i 
mospheric and solar influence. In harvesting, it is decidedly best to cut 
the crop at the ground, at the ordinary time of topping it, when the ker¬ 
nels have become glazed, and immediately to set it in stooks to dry and 
mature. The advantages of this practice are, first, it secures the grain 
and fodder from the injurious effects of early frost; 2dly, it gives more and 
better corn than when topped in the old mode; and lastly, it affords much 
more and far better fodder than any other mode of harvesting. The Jaws 
of vegetable physiology show, that the elaborated or descending sap of 
plants, constitutes their true and only food, and hence corn can receive 
no accession of growth, after it has been divested of the leaves, the ela¬ 
borating organs, which grow above it. It is equally apparent, that when 
the stalk and grain are cut up together, the latter continues to draw ela¬ 
borated food from the former for some time after it has been severed from 
its root. By attention to these matters, I have escaped all injury from 
frost to my own crop, for the last seventeen years, and have not yet been 
disappointed in obtaining a good—an abundant harvest. 
This county, I think, is well adapted to the cultivation of oats. But 
oats, like store pigs, are too often left to shift for themselves, or to take 
up with what nothing else will thrive upon. From the abundant product 
which they yield to good culture, their exemption from disease and insect 
enemies, and the uniform high price they command in the market, I ven¬ 
ture to recommend an increased attention to their culture, particularly on 
cold, moist lands, for which they are particularly suited. 
Root culture seems well adapted to your soils, your climate, and your 
principal business—the rearing of cattle and sheep. This is emphatically 
the potato, the turnep and the beet zone—the potato on the stiffer soils, 
the ruta baga on those of a sandy or gravelly texture, and the beet on 
those of a loamy or medium grade. And they are all excellent for thriv¬ 
ing on fresh manure, and of fitting it to become the proper food for your 
grain crops. They yield the greatest amount of food for animals; they 
ameliorate the soil, by pulverizing and cleaning it; they add much to the 
manure of the farm; and they alternate remarkably well with grain and 
grass in the system of convertible husbandry. In the culture of these 
crops, liand-hoeing may be in a great measure dispensed with—the plough 
and the harrow being principally employed in cultivating the potato, and 
the drill barrow and cultivator or horse hoe, in sowing and cultivating the 
Swede and the beet. A good dressing of manure will add from forty to 
fifty per cent to the value of these crops. 
I cannot speak in too high commendation of the Swedish turnep, or 
ruta baga, particularly.to the cattle and sheep farmer. It has never disap¬ 
pointed my expectations. I have readily converted it into meat and milk, 
and ever found a demand and a fair price for it in market. The tops afford 
a rich food for cows and other neat cattle, in late autumn. Secured in 
cellars, the roots may be fed to stock during winter; or, if buried in the 
ground, they may be commenced upon in March and fed till June. They 
give a great flush of milk to cows, without imparting to it, where the ani¬ 
mals have daily access to salt, much unpleasant flavor. The horse and the 
hog feed and thrive upon them; the ox will fatten upon them, fed with 
two bushels a day, and a trifle of hay or straw; and they are invaluable 
for sheep in the winter and spring, particularly to milk giving ewes. Six 
hundred bushels to the acre may be deemed a medium crop, under good 
culture, though the product has been known to exceed this quantity three¬ 
fold. The ruta baga requires a loose, rich, dry soil. 
The mangold wurzel has been highly commended by those who have 
cultivated it successfully; but my experience with ithas been but limited, 
and my success not flattering. It demands more labor than the ruta baga, 
is less certain in its growth, and does not keep good so long. But it may 
be grown on loams that are too tenacious for the Swedes. 
The sugar beet may be cultivated as easily as the mangold wurtzel, 
yields nearly the same product, and its culture is about as profitable, for 
cattle food and for ameliorating the soil, as the latter. But when we con¬ 
sider its value as a material for the production of sugar, I cannot but con¬ 
sider its introduction among us, as a farm crop, as forming a new and an 
auspicious era in our husbandry. All beets abound in saccharine matter, 
but the white Silesian is denominated the sugar beet, on account of its 
diminutive, or rather medium size—it having been ascertained, that the 
juices of the smaller roots are more concentrated, or abound more in su¬ 
gar, than the juices of'the larger growing varieties. The culture of the 
sugar beet has but commenced among us, and little or no preparation has 
yet been made for the manufacture from it of sugar. I have perfect con¬ 
fidence, however, that this will soon be done, and that the farmers of 
Berkshire will ere long find a sure and liberal profit in the culture of the 
sugar beet. 
There are many other topics, connected with the prosperity of the 
farmer, and through him with the best interests of the country, which I 
should like to discuss, did time permit; but I forbear; and will close with 
some admonitory hints, to the young class of my audience. 
Young farmers of Berkshire! You are soon to fill the places occupied 
by your fathers. Upon you will devolve, not only the charge of this so¬ 
ciety, which has been so far sustained with praiseworthy zeal, and great 
public usefulness, but the welfare and character of the country. Your 
situation will soon be one of great responsibility.' As you sow, so you 
must reap. If you fail to deposite the good seed in the spring time of 
