12 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
of marine air; and when this is the case, lime and ashes serve as 
good substitutes. 
The time of sowing is commonly in the spring, with the spring 
crop, and before the last harrowing ; or upon winter grain in March 
or April, followed by a light harrow, and sometimes without it. 
Yet clover is often sown in Sept, or Oct. with the seed corn. The 
objection against the latter practice is, that the tender plants are 
liable to be destroyed by the winter. Rolling the ground after the 
seeds have been covered by the harrow is of manifest advantage: 
It produces a smooth surface, breaks the clods, and compresses the 
earth about the seeds, and thus 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 sown on an acre , depends upon the quality 
of the soil, the purpose to which the field is to be applied, and the 
quantity 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, af¬ 
ter 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 render it perennial. Timothy and herdsgrass (red- 
top) are suitable accompaniments 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 Gr^at Britain it is 
often increased to fourteen pounds, while in Flanders it L but six 
pounds, though there the land is admirably 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 be¬ 
fore the clover begins to grow. Upon lands annually dressed with 
plaster, a bushel is considered a sufficient dressing for an acre, 
though greater quantities are often applied wi h advantage. 
The making clover into hay is a process different from that of 
makino- hay from natural grasses. All herbage plants abound most 
in nutriment, 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 the season, may be ten per cent lighter than 
when it is fully ripe; but the loss is amply counterbalanced, by ob¬ 
taining 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 ma¬ 
turity, 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 united, 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 appropriated 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 anddeposite 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 droop¬ 
ing, so as to carry off the rain which may fall. The points to be 
regarded are, to cock before the leaves begin to crumble, 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 preju¬ 
dice, and should not be opened until there is a fair prospect of ob¬ 
taining a few hours of good weather to complete the curing pro¬ 
cess. 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 curing 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 high¬ 
est perfection. If rain is apprehended, 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 preserva¬ 
tion. The more the swath is kept unbroken, 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 color. 
The produce of clover, on the best soils, is from two to three tons 
per acre, and in th's 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 produced in autumn. 
ON THE USE OF LIME AS A MANURE. 
BY M. PUVIS. 
Translated for the Farmers’ Register from the Annales de VAgriculture 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 con¬ 
taining any notable proportion of animal or vegetable matter. 
It is said that manures, [putrescent or enriching,] serve for the 
nutriment of plants. But it is the same as to substances improv¬ 
ing to the soil, which furnish to it matters which it needs to be 
fruitful, and which furnish to vegetables, the earths and saline com¬ 
pounds which enter as essential elements in their composition, their 
texture, and their products. Such improving substances ought 
well to be regarded as nutritive. 
Thus lime, marl, and all the calcareous compounds employed in 
agriculture, since they furnish lime and its compounds, which some¬ 
times form half of the fixed principles of vegetables, ought also to 
be considered as aliments; or, what comes to the same, as furnish¬ 
ing a part of the substance of vegetables. Thus again, wood-ash¬ 
es, pounded bones, burnt bones, which furnish to vegetation the 
calcareous and saline phosphates which compose a sixth of the fix¬ 
ed 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, 
[i engrais ,] is, that the former furni-h, for the greater part, the fix¬ 
ed 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 prin¬ 
ciples of which it has need, acquires, a9 we shall see, a greater en- 
ergy to gather for its sustenance the volatile principles which the 
atmosphere contains. 
