■^.SV^O .,,„^<:^ '«'^\„ '^;..^/..S^ ^0^ ^. <<■• * '--- ' ^^^■' **' . ^5 -^^^ x° .^%^^ . ^'^x^ ^.^- .','-,■•% 0° . r"--.^'' -life: %.^' .* >A V* 'is " > L--v.^.-,, XQ<=^X. % ■%<^^ %" % V •1^ ' , . -^ . A another key for holding the rods when they are to be unscrewed by means of the key C. Fm. 13. jf ^ Fig. 15 ** This instrument may frequently be found useful when the channels and reservoirs can be reached in this man- ner. The apertures are formed by the auger in the bot- tom of the drain. When the water is reached, it will spring up into the drain, in the same manner as water in the bottom of a well. It is not necessary to employ any artificial means for keeping the apertures open, as the flow of the water will suffice to maintain for itself a pas- sage. " Sometimes, in place of an auger-hole, wells are sunk OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. Ill at intervals along the side of the drain, and filled with stones in the manner shown in fig. 13. " In all cases of under-draining, the drains should be made of sufficient dimensions. They should not be less than 4 feet deep, even when the pervious stratum hes a less depth ; and the reason is, that they may be more permanent, and better defended from injury, from mud and sand carried down by surface-water. It is not neces- sary that they be made deeper than 4 feet when that is found to be sufficient ; but they must be carried, if neces- sary, to the depth of 6 feet, or sometimes of 7 feet, though the expense and difficulty of executing the work increase, in a great proportion, as the dimensions of the drain increase. " The importance, in this species of draining, of pro- ceeding upon principles in laying out the lines of drains, instead of acting at random, as so many do, cannot be too strongly impressed upon the attention of the drainer. Every drain, however rudely devised, and imperfectly executed, may do some good. But one drain well laid out, and of the required dimensions, may perform a pur- pose which no multipHcation of minor and insufficient drains can effect. These may lessen the effects of wet- ness, but the other is designed to remove the causes of it ; and the more perfect practice will usually be found, in the end, to be the most economical as well as the most efficient. " The drains of the larger class described, it will be seen, are intended solely for the removal of water which is contained in reservoirs and channels below the surface. They do not supersede the necessity of carrying away water which is at or near the surface. From this latter cause, an equal or greater injury may arise, and must be met by a corresponding remedy." — Professor Low''s Ele- ments of Jlgriculture. Under- drains, for the want of stones or tiles, are some- times constructed of other materials, as boards, plank, brush, straw, turf, &c. We have tried them all. They serve a temporary purpose, and may be resorted to as matters of necessity. But we would not advise their use 112 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. on the score of economy. In draining the rule has pecu- liar force, that what is done should be well done — be the object either economy, or permanent utihty. We repeat — draining is comparatively a new branch of improvement with us. Its principles are little under- stood, and its advantages but illy appreciated ; and we are not likely to learn much in either except from ex- perience. When we are convinced of its value, we shall persevere in it, notwithstanding repeated disappointments, till we succeed in managing it upon correct principles. The sooner we begin, therefore, the more rapid will be our progress and the greater the advantages. CHAPTER XIII. PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. When thorough draining has been effected, upon lands to be benefited thereby, there is another operation which is calculated to aid in the efficiency of manures, and in the increase of farm-products. This is good tillage^ — a perfect pulverization of the soil, and the keeping it free from weeds, which retard the growth of the crop, and rob it of its food. Good tillage is important, not only as it serves to exterminate weeds, to facilitate the digestion of vegetable food, and to mix and incorporate this food with earthy matters, — but as it breaks and mellows the soil, and enables the roots of plants to range freely in search of this food. Every farmer must have observed, that when tillage has been but imperfectly performed, as is sometimes seen about stumps and rocks, and near fences, the crop is comparatively feeble and light. This is not owing to the poverty of the soil, because the plough, as it rises to the surface in these places, deposits and accumulates there the finest and best mould of the field. The feebleness of the grain arises from the imperfect tillage which these spots receive. PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 113 As we have before observed, the atmosphere and the rains are not only charged with the elements of fertility, but they are indispensable agents, together with heat, in preparing the vegetable food deposited in the soil. Com- plete pulverization, therefore, is essential to the full de- velopement of their enriching properties. They should not only be permitted to enter ^ but to circulate in the soil. Stagnant air and stagnant water soon become hurtful to plants as well as to animals. The old practice of carrying the main furrows to the extremity of the field, and of dispensing with head-lands, is a bad and slovenly one, and ought to be every where exploded, because, under this practice, the head-lands can only be imperfectly worked. The cut-and-cover prac- tice is still worse, as it leaves one half, and sometimes two thirds of the soil, undisturbed by the plough. We remember well, when we followed the plough in our boy- hood, and knew nothing of the philosophy of ploughing, our aim was, to go over much ground, and show a plough- ed surface, regarding the complete breaking up of the soil as of minor importance. There will always be a great many boys at the plough, until the importance of good ploughing is well understood. Good ploughing consists in turning and breaking every inch of the soil to the re- quired depth ; and good tillage requires that the harrow and roller should finish, if the plough has failed to effect, a complete pulverization. A green sward becomes pul- verulent as the roots of the grasses decay, and is best without a second furrow, because this turns again to the surface, to the wasting influence of the sun and winds, the vegetable matters buried by the first ploughing, and which, if left buried, would contribute largely to the sus- tenance of the crop. As the roots of the grasses decay, the soil becomes loose and porous, and is permeable to moisture, air, and heat. Hence the advantage of fallow crops over naked fallows, and of depositing seeds upon the top of a clover ley ; the sod then imparts fertility to the soil, while it enables it to derive important advantages from the co-operation of external agents. Good tillage requires that, when practicable, as in the 10* 114 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. culture of drilled and hoed crops, the surface soil should be kept clean while the crop is growing, for the same rea- son that the soil is required to be made so before depos- iting the seed ; viz., to facilitate the decomposition of the vegetable food, to stimulate the organs of the plants, and increase the growth and product of the crop. There is no better expedient for preventing the evils of drought upon a soil, than that of keeping the surface mellow and clean. Atmospheric air and dew, always charged with the food of plants, penetrate such a surface as into a sponge, and impart to the roots of plants both aliment and stimuli. Dews fall upon a hard surface, and are evaporated by the first rays of the morning sun ; but they penetrate a loose surface, and moisten and fructify it. Hence the high repute of drill husbandry, which enables the cultivator to keep his crops clean, and the surface of his soil mellow and open. Good tillage has reference to depth, as well as quality of tilth. " There are many plants, the roots of which are found from fifteen to twenty, and even thirty feet un- der ground — sainfoin and lucerne, for instance ; even red clover will strike down three feet if the soil be a fertile loam ; and some of our commonest vegetables, if it be a friable or sandy, push their tap roots to about the same depth. The roots of wheat will penetrate as far as eight inches into the earth ; and when sown on the crowns of ridges, they have been found at the depth of twelve. We may therefore assume the depth of twelve inches as the utmost vegetative limit of corn land. Provided the soil be open and fertile, the nearer its depth approaches to twelve inches, the greater number of plants may it there- fore be supposed capable of furnishing with support." — British Husbandry, vol. ii. pp. 49, 50. Soils should be ploughed as deep as the substratum will admit, at least once in a course of crops, if this can be reached with the force of an ordinary team ; and when the surface soil is superficial, it should be deepened, as fast as fertility can be imparted, by turning up, ^t suitable intervals, some portion of the subsoil. The atmosphere PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 115 imparts to this apparent inert earth, more or less of the elements of fertility. We have a good illustration of the advantages of artifi- cially, but gradually, deepening the soil, in the practice of Baron Von Voght, an eminent German agriculturist, who in a few years transformed a thin, unproductive soil into one of great depth and fertility. In 1813, the Baron undertook to improve the condi- tion of an estate denominated Flottbeck, as a pattern farm, and to make it an experimental farm for the north of Germany. In 1829, he had carried his improvements to so high a state of excellence, that he published, for the benefit of the visiters who thronged to see him, a pam- phlet,, developing the principles, by the adoption of which, his soil, naturally bad, had been raised to a state of high productiveness. It is from a portion of this pamphlet, for we have not seen the whole of it, that we collate the following facts. The soil of Flottbeck is a mixture of sand and clay. Its original depth of krume (mould) was only three inch- es ; the surface was uneven, and the soil wet, water stand- ing for a long time, and manure ineffectual on account of the consequent low temperature. Fields could not be sown, owing to quagmires, often till June. The winter crops were full of tares and perennial weeds ; summer crops abounded in wild radish and mustard, the clover with wild chamomile, sorrel, &c., and the fields with dog's grass, and other noxious plants. How many of our farms now form a counterpart to this description of Flottbeck ! The means of improving which the Baron instituted to raise the condition, and increase the fertility of this farm, consisted principally in — 1. Levelling the surface, and thorough drainage. 2. Deepening the krume, or soil, at least one inch a year, till he had gained a depth of fourteen inches — this depth being requisite, in his opinion, for the roots of plants to penetrate, and as a reservoir for moisture, to supply the crop in time of dry weather. To obtain this depth, trench ploughing (rayolt) was resorted to when necessary. 116 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 3. Increasing the fertility with the increasing depth of the soil, by ploughing in green crops, and by husbanding and judiciously applying manure — the latter applied to the potato and rape crops, and before it had become ex- hausted by fermentation. 4. Throwing the land into one-bout ridges in autumn, (it being generally flat and rather stiff',) and cleaning the intermediate furrows with a double mouldboard plough. This operation enriched the soil by atmospheric influence, broke down its stubbornness, and laid it dry, so that the spring operations could be commenced two or three weeks earlier than formerly. 5. Thorough pulverization preparatory to putting in seeds, and giving these only a superficial covering of earth. 6. Graduating, by a scale, which the Baron's long ob- servation and numerous experiments had enabled him to contrive, the manure to be' applied, to the precise de- mands of the soil and the crop — thus receiving the whole benefit which it was capable of imparting, without loss by excess. 7. A judicious rotation — in which green crops often intervened. The rotation was one of six years, as the clover, which he observes forms the basis of agriculture, cannot return oftener. The intermediate crops were wheat, oats, mixed fodder, barley, rye, potatoes, vetches, rape, &c., the climate of Germany not admitting the cul- ture of Indian corn. In 1829, Flottbeck exhibited a far different appearance from what it did in 1813. All the fields showed a level surface — the krumiC or mould had every where a depth of 14 inches. The fields were rendered dry by ditches, and the under-water was carried off' by 27 under-drains — no noxious plants infested the ground, save the dog's grass, when the clover happened to be frozen out — and the produce was so much increased, that the same area, which, in 1813, would yield only 14 bushels rye, in 1829 was found to produce 24 bushels of wheat. We think there is much in Baron Von Voght's prac- tice that commends itself to the notice of our farmers. PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 117 The means which he employed are within our reach, and the advantages of using them manifest. The chmate of Germany is not very dissimilar to ours, save that ours is rather the most mild. That our readers may understand the principles upon which the improvements at Flottbeck were based, we subjoin them in the Baron's own words. '' The few general principles adopted here with all kinds of produce, are the fruit of thirteen years' experi- ence, and several thousand experiments. " 1. The soil must have 11.280 to 14.000 inches of krume, in order to admit of the roots penetrating into the ground ; that in wet weather, the water, which in a flat soil might drown the crops, may be absorbed, and formed in the deep into a reservoir, from which the* extremities of the roots may imbibe a nourishing moisture, impregna- ted with carbonic gas, which it draws from the manure fermenting in the earth.* "The krume must have a depth of 14.000 inches, in order that the exhausted surface, being buried at a greater depth, may reimbibe the lost moisture. " This I obtained, by having the land ploughed in au- tumn, to a depth of about 5.640 to 7.520 inches, then having it finely harrowed, and finally rayolt it with two ploughs, one behind the other, (the last with four ani- mals ;) this requires, of course, swing ploughs, as it is absolutely necessary to plough before rayoled. *' The latter operation is usually performed by oxen. "2. In autumn all ditches must be opened, and all the drains examined, so that the water may not be stopped in any place. "3. The rayolt lands must be laid in high furrows, by means of ploughing, always two furrows together, af- ter the rayoled and furrowing, so as to make a water-fur- * " Thaer mentions the following proportion of the value of the soil, with a flat and deep mould. ' If,' says he, ' the soil, with a mould of three inches, is worth 38, that possessed of five inches of mould will be worth 50 ; that of 8, 62 ; and that of 11, 74 ;' and this en- tirely agrees with my experience at Flottbeck. Should we then hesi- tate to spend a few years, and some manure, thus permanently to enhance the value of our fields ?" 118 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. row at every 16.920 inches, which is deepened and cleaned by means of a double struckbrett, [mouldboards fixed to the plough,] with a clayey soil ; this operation is indispensable. " The advantage of this mode of treatment is, that it keeps the soil dry, and renders it capable of being culti- vated three weeks sooner than other shallow land ; that it avoids stiffness, and, on the contrary, the high ridges, being frozen through in the winter, are found very mellow in the spring. I cannot deny that in autumn this requires four kinds of ploughs, (the two last of which may certainly be considered as only half kinds of ploughs,) instead of one kind, generally used on large farms. Moreover, this depth of mould cannot be obtained in less than ten years, when, at the sameHime, the disadvantage of an inferior subsoil can be repaired by manure, which will add about one inch of mould in a year — a method quite impossible on large farms, and on small ones attainable only by a pro- prietor, and never by a farmer. " These high furrows are separated in the spring with the four-horse split plough : if the land is quite clean, it may, after being harrowed in the manner which will be mentioned hereafter, be immediately sown ; but if it is not, it is hooked [harrowed] crosswise. " 4. All the land which is not rayolt [trench-ploughed] — because there remains from the preceding harvest too much manure on the surface, which, if the next crop should want it, must not be removed too far, is, if it bears no manure crop, ploughed in autumn, first shallow, then deep, and lastly laid in high furrows. In spring, in which there is as little ploughing as possible, it is, after the split- ting, according to the necessity of the crop and soil, first harrowed, and then hooked crosswise, or only harrowed in the manner prescribed. "5. It is a principal maxim to sow a green crop for ploughing in, in the rape-seed stubble, as well as in the corn stubble, where no clover has been sown. In August, I use for this purpose rape-seed ; in the beginning of Sep- tember, turnips ; from the middle of September to the middle of October, rye ; then there is but one ploughing PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 119 in autumn, a method which I recommend on large farms. " The manure crop is in the spring shallowly rayoh in, and is equal in its effects to 3.914 to 5.811 loads of manure per acre. ''6. One observation which leads to the most impor- tant results, was the certain conviction, that it is the vital power of plants, which, by the incomprehensible faculty of decomposition and assimilation, by means of their leaves and stalks, constantly imbibe an incredible quanti- ty of substances, in the shape of gases and manures, and convert them into their own elements, rejecting what they do not want, changing what they have received into a new body, and so continuing until they have formed their blossoms ; that the root, which till then keeps grow- ing and oozing out moisture, only begins when its growth is perfected powerfully to decompose that which surrounds it, and alone supports the fruit, whilst the leaves and stalks are fading ; that the vital point of the plant has its seat exactly in the centre of the germ, from which it forces the root into the earth, and the stalk upwards ; that every thing depends, in the first growth of the plant, on keeping this point in health and activity ; that this should be done in sowing, " 1st. When the surface is as much as possible pulver- ized, in order that the seed-corn or potato-shoot should be surrounded by, or rather laid on earth finely divided, in which the fibres of the root may quickly shoot, and where air, moisture, and warmth may operate with facility. " 2d. When the shoot, lying on such a pulverized sur- face, is covered only a couple of fines, in order that light, air, warmth, dew, and other atmospheric moistures may immediately excite the vitality in this point, and thereby promote the developement of the germ and pro- cure nourishment to the first leaf. " I refer, with regard to this, especially, to the speci- mens of dried plants kept ready for the inspection of the visiters, which so strikingly show what difiterence there is in the vital germ lying on the surface, where roots and leaves immediately, numerously, and powerfully shoot 120 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. from one point, and the weakened vital germ, which, ly- ing at the depth of 1.680 inches, shoots forth few roots, but a thin tube, which rises as far as the surface, where the knot is formed, whence the weakened germ pushes forth a single and sickly plant. '' The result of this observation was, that we took every possible pains to give the surface, to a depth of from 1.880 to 2.820 inches, the necessary state of pulveriza- tion, to divide the thickly-sown seed equally upon it, and to give it as thin a covering of the pulverized soil as pos- sible. But for this we were entirely without imple- ments. " The grubber, indeed, gave looseness to the surface, but did not destroy the small clods. The roller pressed the soil too firmly, and, if it happened to rain, a fresh pro- cess became necessary. The usual harrow, with teeth 6.580 inches apart, drew, in a ground previously har- rowed, lines in which seed sown by the best sower would fall, and then stand too thickly, while a surface of 2.280 inches was. left between these lines, which contained kw plants, but became a nursery for weeds. " Then it occurred to us, (after the usual grubbing and harrowing,) to pass with the iron Mecklenburgh harrow reversed, the upper side of it being flat upon the surface, till all the small clods were pressed into a powder ; then I had harrows made, the teeth of which are only from 1.410 to 1.880 inches wide apart, and in the Flemish fashion, placed in a slanting angle. With these we passed sharply over this finely-pressed soil, with the horse fas- tened to the middle, and afterwards to one corner, after which we sowed. The corn came to lie in lines 1.410 inches apart, and was harrowed in crosswise, with the drag teeth of the close harrow,* and by this means the seed was slightly covered, and not again displaced. '' By this mode of cultivation, it was found that every germ immediately shot forth strong roots and several stems at once ; and an experience of several years has shown an increase of produce of from 20 to 30 per cent, occa- * With the teeth slanting forward. They are called drags when the teeth slant backwards. PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 121 sioned by it, as we continued to cultivate a piece of ground next to it in tiie usual manner. "7. I must further mention, as the last, but not less important principle and cause of success, that each of the manured fields has been brought to that point of fertility in which it can yield the greatest produce ; so that with less manure, it would not yield its full produce, and more manure would cause the crops to lie down, even if the year was not wet. The difficulty of being able to fix this point, for every field and kind of crop, with certainty, was removed by the now perfected geometrical method by which, with the help of a scale formed on twenty years' experience, the degree of productiveness may be marked, in which the field has been left in the last crops ; i. e., seldom below 100 degrees, which denotes a field capable of yielding 24.02 bushels of wheat per acre, and below which it is not advisable to let a field sink." Jethro Tull and his disciples maintained, that the great secret of inducing fertility, consisted in minutely dividing and pulverizing the soil by culture ; and John Taylor, the Arator of Virginia, and an excellent practical as well as scientific farmer, considered the atmosphere as the great store-house for vegetable food, where it exists in a gaseous form. The good tillage we advocate embraces all the advantages of Tull's and Taylor's theories, with- out lessening the importance which we attach to barn-yard manure. The deep ploughing of dry land, or the breaking up and stirring of the subsoil, promotes fertility, by increas- ing the power of the land to absorb water by cohesive attraction. " The power of soils to absorb water from air," says Davy, " is much connected with fertility. This power depends in a great measure upon the state of di- vision of its parts ; the more divided they are, the greater their absorbent power. When this power is great, the plant is supplied with moisture in dry seasons ; and the effect of evaporation in the day is counteracted by the absorption of aqueous vapors from the atmosphere, by "the interior parts of the soil, during the day, and by both the exterior and interior during the night." The soil im- 11 XV. 122 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. bibes heat earlier in the spring, and retains it later in au- tumn, in proportion as it is dry and deep, — a matter of high consideration in cold climates, where the length of the summer scarcely suffices to mature the crops. The quality and dryness being the same, a soil is fertile and durable nearly in proportion to the depth of the tillage which it receives ; six inches giving nearly double the pasture for plants that a three-inch stratum does — and a twelve-inch tilth greatly exceeding in productiveness one of only six inches. Von Thaer calculates this difference in proportionate degrees in lands which contain a vegeta- tive stratum of soil of four, six, eight, and twelve inches in depth, provided, of course, that it be all of equal qual- ity. If, therefore, each seed were to produce a plant, it would follow that ground which contains eight inches of depth of fertile mould, might be sown with double the quantity of that which consists of only four inches. He, however, admits, that this principle cannot be carried to that extent, because the action of the atmosphere must ever afford that superiority to the surface, that a cubic foot of mould, if divided into two square feet, will always produce a greater number of plants than if the seed were sown upon one foot superficial ; but he assumes the value of the land to be increased, in the proportion of eight per cent. , for every inch of mould beyond the depth of six to ten inches, and to be diminished, in the same proportion, from six to three inches, in soils of a thinner staple. Principes Raisonnes d^ Jig . ^ vol. iii. p. 138, §735. These considerations have been hitherto but httle regarded in our practice, though they constitute an important feature in the new system of husbandry. Good tillage demands, also, the extirpation of weeds. Every plant which grows upon a soil tends to impair its fertility, and weeds more than cultivated crops, because they are generally the most hardy, and the greatest con- sumers of vegetable food. They are particularly preju- dicial to crops in a dry season, as they exhaust the soil of moisture in proportion to their superficies, or the sur- face of their stems and leaves, some species transpiring their weight of moisture every twenty-four hours. The PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 123 drill culture and deep ploughing both lessen the evil of weeds ; the first tends to destroy them, and the latter to bury their seeds so deep, as to prevent the plants getting ahead of, and choking, the young crop. Clean tillage has been too much neglected in our practice. Many crops are diminished a fourth, a third, a half, by pestiferous weeds which are permitted to seed and propagate upon the land. In regard to some troublesome perennials, as Canada thistles, wild onions, quack grass, daisies, &c., the best means of destroying them is, to prevent the growth of leaves, their elaborating organs, which concoct and pre- pare their food. This is done by frequent summer plough- ings, or by a succession of well-cultivated hoed crops. Good tillage requires good implements, and these to be kept in order, that the farm-work may be economically done, and well done, and done at the proper time. The disparity between old and new implements of culture is great, not only in the time employed, but in the manner in which they do their work, and in the power required to perform it. The old plough required a four-cattle team, and two hands, to manage it, and the work ordi- narily was but half executed. The improved plough is generally propelled by two cattle, requires but one man to manage it, and, when properly governed, performs thorough work. Harrows and other implements have un- dergone a like improvement. Besides, new implements, which greatly economize the labor of tillage, are coming into use, as the roller, cultivator, drill-barrow, &c., so that a farm may now be worked with half the expense of labor that it was wont to be worked forty years ago, and may be better worked withal. Mind, likewise, where it is put in requisition, and enlightened by science, is doing ten times more in aid of agricultural labor than it formerly did. If we revert to old, and, in many cases, present prac- tices, we shall perceive, that thorough tillage has not been sufficiently attended to. Our implements have been de- fective, and the manner of using them often imperfect. Good ploughing is all-important to good farming, and still 124 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. there is no labor upon the farm that has been more im- perfectly performed, than this generally has been. Light soils seldom require but a single ploughing for the seed, if well executed ; but if badly executed, two ploughings are too little. Our implements are, however, daily im- proving ; the importance of good tillage is becoming more and more apparent, and our practical knowledge is in- creasing. CHAPTER XIV. OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. There are six prominent objects to be effected by til- lage ; viz., 1 . To break up the entire surface-stratum of soil, there- by to render it permeable to the agents of vegetable nu- trition and growth, and the roots of plants. 2. To giv^e the greatest exposure of surface to the ame- liorating influence of the atmosphere. 3. To induce a pulverization of the soil, that seeds may more readily germinate and grow, and air and moist- ure more freely circulate in it. 4. To destroy weeds and foreign plants, that rob the crop of food, and choke its growth. 5. To effect an economical distribution of the dung, the food of the crop, by blending and incorporating it with the soil. 6. To bury the seed of the intended crop. The principal implements employed in the operation of tillage are, the Plough, Harrow, Roller, Cultivator, and Drill. §1. The Plough. In order to profit from the excellent illustrations of Professor Low, in the use of the Plough, we shall copy this writer's remarks from his Elements of Practical Ag- riculture. OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 125 ' ' By means of this instrument the earth is to be turned over to a given depth ; and this is to be effected by cut- ting from the ground successive sods or shces of earth, so that each sod or shce shall be raised up or turned over, in such a manner that an entirely new surface shall be ex- posed to the atmosphere." In this mode of laying the furrow, it will be perceived, the largest surface is exposed to the enriching influence of the atmosphere — viz., one entire edge, and most of both the upper and under surfaces of the furrow-shce. In fig. 14, let A B C D represent the end or trans- verse section of the slice of earth which is to be turned over. Fig. 14. Fig. 1.5. Fig. 16. The slice is first to be raised from the position in which it lies in fig. 14 ; it is next to be placed in the position shown in fig. 15, and it is finally to be placed in that represented in fig. 16. " In the following diagram, fig. 17, let A B C D, corresponding with the same letters in the last figures, represent a transverse section of the slice of earth which is to be turned over. This shce is first to be raised from its horizontal position A B C D, by being turned upon its corner C as a pivot, and placed in the position C E F G, corresponding with that of fig. 15 ; it is then to be turned upon its corner G, as upon a pivot, and laid in 11* 126 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. the position G H I K, corresponding with that of fig. 16. In this manner the side D C, which was formerly un- derneath, will be above, namely, in the position H I ; and if successive slices be thus reversed, they will rest upon each other in the manner shown by the section of the slices P Q R S, O L M N, and G H I K. Fig. 17. " The angle of inclination at which these different slices will naturally rest upon each other in the manner shown in the figure, will depend upon the proportion which the width of the slices bears to their depth ; and that the greatest extent of surface may be exposed to the air, the angle of their inclination will be 45°. In order, there- fore, that the shoes may be at this angle, the proportion which the width of the slices bears to their depth is to be determined ; and this can be done by simple calculation ; for it can be shown that, the width of the slice A B being the hypotenuse of an isosceles right-angled triangle, the depth of the slice B C will be one of the sides. Sup- posing, therefore, the width of the sod A B to be ten inches, the depth B C will, by calculation, be 7.071 inches. '' If, then, beginning at one side of a field, we shall cut off a shoe of earth, the entire length of this field, and place it in the position P Q R S, fig. 17, and then cut off a second slice, and place it in the position of O L M N, and then a third shce, and place it in the position G H I K, and so on, the various slices will rest upon each other at a given angle, in the manner represented. *' A similar operation is to be performed by the plough. Beginning at the right-hand side of the field or ridge to be ploughed, a sod, which we shall now call a furrow- slice, is to be cut from the firm ground, raised up and turned over, and so on. In this manner, an entire new OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 127 surface will be exposed to the atmosphere, and the suc- cessive furrow-slices laid resting upon each other, thus : — Fig. 18. '' An essential property of the plough is, that it shall move in the earth with a steady motion ; and the giving to it the force and combination of parts necessary for that purpose is one of the main difficulties attending its con- struction. " Were it ascertained, by experiment on the plough when at work, at a given depth of furrow, and in soil of a given texture, that a cord attached to any point A, fig. 19, and drawn in the oblique direction A B, would so Fig. 19. pull forward the plough, that it should press uniformly upon the earth at all points, from C to D, so that the share should neither tend to point upwards or downwards, but should move horizontally forward, then it is to some part of this line that the moving power should be applied ; and further, it is known from the principles of mechanics, that it matters not, in so far as regards the force exerted. 128 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. to what precise part of this Hne the power is apphed. Now, without entering into any mathematical investigation of the principles upon which this line is to be determined, it is to be observed, that in a well-made plough, formed on the principles pointed out, this line, drawn from the usual point of detachment of the draught on the collars of the working cattle, will intersect the sole of the plough at E, a little behind the setting of the share, and a little to the right of the plane of the left side of the instrument. " Now, knowing the height at which the point of draught is to be attached to the shoulders of the working cattle, let us suppose 4 feet, and the distance from the point of the share at which the animals of draught can be conve- niently yoked, let us suppose 12 feet, then laying off D F 12 feet, and F B 4 feet, and drawing B E ; it fol- lows that the point at the end of the beam, is that to which the draught is attached. " But the angle which the line E B forms with the surface, is not, as can be shown, constant, but varies with the depth ploughed, and the tenacity of the soil. That the instrument may suit itself to these variations, as well as that any defects in the form of its parts may be coun- teracted, and that the line of draught may be placed in that portion which is required to pull forward the plough, without there being any tendency in the share to sink into the ground or rise out of it, the bridle is fixed at the end of the beam, so as to elevate or depress the line of draught, as may be required. Should the plough, for example, tend to go deeper into the earth, the line of draught is to be lowered, by means of the bridle, so that it shall form a greater angle B G F ; the effect of which will be to counteract the tendency which the plough has to go deep- er. The same effect will be produced by shortening the traces by which the horses are attached to the draught, and thus increasing the angle. In like manner, by means of the bridle, the point of draught can be shifted to the right or to the left. If the point of the share tends to point to the left hand, in the firm ground, the line of draught is shifted more to the left ; and if to the right hand, it is shifted more to the right. This adjusting of the plough's OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 129 motion is easy, and is performed by the ploughman, until he feels that the plough continues to swim fair^ to use his own technical language, that is, until he feels, which he does at once, that it continues to move horizontally for- ward, without any tendency to turn to the right or left, or to rise from the earth or to sink into it. A well-con- structed plough of this kind, therefore, needs no wheels or other devices to steady its motion ; the effect being produced by merely altering the line of draught. " In ploughing, it has been seen, a sHce of earth is to be cut from the left-hand side, and to be turned over to the right-hand side. In this operation, the left-hand or near-side horse walks on the ground not yet ploughed, the right-hand or ofF-side horse walks in the furrow last made, and the workman follows holding the handles of the plough. By means of these handles he guides the plough, and he directs the animals of draught by the voice and the reins. When he is to turn the plough at the end of the ridge, or when it encounters an obstacle, as a large stone, he presses down the handles, so that the heel of the plough becomes a fulcrum, and the share is raised out of the ground. "In ploughing, the instrument ought to be held vertically. If it is inclined to the left-hand side, the same work is performed in appearance, though not in reality, a portion of the ground below not being tilled at all, but left thus : Fig. 20. " The plough is of the most perfect form, when its various parts are so adjusted that they shall not oppose each other's motion ; but it is very difficult to form a plough that is perfect in its form and the combination of its parts. Even in those of the best construction, there is frequently found to be a tendency to rise out of the ground, or to turn to one side, generally the right-hand or open side. The tendency to rise out of the ground can be corrected by giving an inclination downwards to the point of the share, and the tendency to turn to the open or right- hand side can be corrected by turning the point of the 130 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. share slightly to the left-hand side. By these means, however, the labor of draught is increased, and care must therefore be taken that this tempering of the irons, as it is frequently called, be not in any case carried further than is necessary to correct the defects of the instrument. All that is necessary beyond this is effected by changing the position of the line of draught, by means of the bridle on the beam. '' With regard to the depth to be ploughed, this, we shall see in the sequel, depends upon the kind of crop to be cultivated, and other circumstances. It has been shown that a furrow-slice of ten inches in width requires a depth of seven inches, that is, a depth of about two thirds of the width, in order that it may lie at the angle of 45°. But, although it is necessary to proceed upon this prin- ciple in forming a plough, we cannot regulate the width to the depth in this manner in practice. It is not neces- sary that the depth should be to the width in the propor- tion of two to three, or that the sod should be precisely at the angle of 45°. In the field, all that can be arrived at is a kind of approximation to the true proportions. When the sods are considerably too wide in proportion to their depth, the ploughman will be admonished of this by their lying too flat, and too slightly overlapping each other. When their depth is considerably too great in proportion to their width, they will stand too upright, and be apt to fall back again into the furrow. " The medium depth of good ploughing may be held to be seven inches. When circumstances, as the kind of crop, and the nature of the soil, do not require deep ploughing, the depth may be less ; but it will be consid- erable in those cases to be afterwards adverted to, when deep ploughing is from any cause expedient. " In the moist cHmate of Britain, and indeed in most parts of Europe, it is necessary to form the ground into what are termed ridges, so as to admit of the water which falls upon the surface finding a ready egress. And even in lands so dry that little injury will result from stag- nating water, such ridges are generally formed, on account of their convenience in the different modes of tillage. OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 131 " The first operation in the formation of ridges is stri- king the furrows. " Let it be supposed that afield has been laid level by previous ploughings, and that, the marks of former ridges being obliterated, the lines of the new ones are to be laid out. The usual breadth of ridges is from fifteen to eighteen feet, and sometimes more. We may assume, in the follow- ing descriptions, fifteen feet to be the width of the ridge. "Let a steady ploughman be furnished with three or more poles of wood shod with iron, eight or nine feet in length, and divided into feet and half feet. The first op- eration is to mark oiF, at two sides of the field, what is termed a head-land. This is merely a ridge formed par- allel to the side of the field, on which the horses are to turn, to afford sufiicient space for which, these ridges may be eighteen feet wide. The lines of them are marked off before the other ridges, in order that the ploughman may know when to turn his horses. After the rest of the field is ploughed, the head-lands themselves are ploughed and turned into ridges. "In the following diagram, fig. 21, representing a field, letE F, G H, represent the lines of the head-lands, drawn parallel to A B, and C D, the sides or boundaries of the field, and at the distance from each of these sides of eighteen feet. These lines the ploughman marks out, by running a straight furrow with his plough parallel to the two sides. Fig . 21. B / s c G b F C e g d a 132 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. " Let him now, beginning at the two sides of the field, A D, parallel to which it is intended to run the ridges, measure off with his pole E a, seven and a half feet. At the point a, let him place one of his poles. This is the point at which he is to enter his plough. But, leaving his horses in the mean time, let him walk on to a convenient distance, as to I, and then in like manner measuring off I Z>, seven and a half feet, let him set up his second pole at 6, and then, at the further end of the field, on the line of the head-land, at c, let him place his third pole. He has now three poles placed in a line ; but if, from the length of the field, or irregularities of the sm-face, more than three poles are necessary, more must be used, as there must be so many poles in sight, that the ploughman may be enabled to direct his plough, by means of them, in a straight line. He now returns to his plough, and enters it at the first pole at a, keeping the other two poles in a line, so that he may be enabled to plough directly towards them. Having entered his plough at a, he stops his horses and measures off fifteen feet to c/, where he plants the pole. He then returns to his plough, which is standing at a, and drives his horses, keeping the two poles before him as a guide, to the second pole, b. Having done this, and leav- ing his plough standing at 6, he measures off from b to c, fifteen feet, and there he plants his pole. He then returns to his plough, and proceeds forward, making his furrow in a straight line to the last pole at c, where in like man- ner he stops his horses, and measuring off fifteen feet, he plants his pole at/. " In this manner he has placed his poles in a straight line, at the distance of fifteen feet from the last position, and parallel, as before, to the line of fence. He now turns his horses short about, and returns by the furrow he has just drawn, c b a. By this second ploughing he throws the earth out in an opposite direction, so that he has formed a completely open furrow. In returning, he takes care to correct any irregularity or crookedness which may have taken place through the unsteady motion of the horses in his first track. " The poles being now placed in a line c? e /, he brings OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 133 his plough to c?, enters it, and stops it there. He meas- ures off fifteen feet from d to g, and fixes his pole at g ; and then he proceeds with his plough to e and /, repeating the same operation with the poles as before, and returning by the track of the last-made furrow from / to d. In this manner he proceeds throughout the whole-field, forming open parallel furrows, at the distance from each other of fifteen feet ; these furrows are to form the centres of the future ridges. " The field is now prepared for being ploughed into ridges, and the manner of doing so is this : — " The ploughman, beginning at the left-hand side of the open furrow, ploughs his first furrow-slice towards it. He then, returning by the opposite side, performs the same operation, causing the two first furrow-slices to rest upon each other. " Thus, in forming his first ridge, he begins at the side of «, and ploughing in the direction of a to c, he turns his first furrow-slice into the open furrow a c. When he ar- rives at c, he turns his plough right about ; and returning from c to a, he lays his second furrow-shce upon the first one, as at C, fig. 21. " In this manner he continues, always turning to the right-hand side, and laying his furrow-slices towards the centre of the ridge, until he has reached the boundary of the ridge, E H, on the one side, and the line o s, half way between c a and d /, on the other. He has thus formed a ridge, of which c a is the crown or centre, and H E and o s the termination. By proceeding in this manner tliroughout the field, the whole is formed into ridges, of which the first-marked furrows are the centres. " It has been said that the ploughman continues turn- ing his horses to the right, and that thus, having proceeded from a to c, he returns from c to «, and so on, always ploughing round a c as a central fine. When, however, he has proceeded from a to c, he may turn his horses left about, and return from /to d, and so on, always lay- ing his furrow-slices towards a c and / c?, respectively. In this manner he will have ploughed the half of two adjoining ridges, and terminated at the space o 5, half 12 XV. 134 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. way between them. This method of ploughing, it will appear, has the same effect as turning the horses right about, and is the most frequent and convenient in prac- tice. " In the following figure, 22, in which C C, C C, C C are the centres of the ridges, the manner in which the successive furrow-slices have been laid upon each other is shown. Fig. 22. " By this laying of the earth towards the centres, the ridges acquire a certain curvature. By ploughing the earth away from the intervals D E, F G, the ground is hollowed at these parts, which now forms the open furrows. It is by these open furrows that the water which falls upon the surface finds a passage. " A certain, though not a great, degree of curvature, is given to the ridge by this ploughing. It is frequently, however, necessary to give it a yet greater degree of cur- vature and elevation. This is done by ploughing the whole ridge a second time, and in a similar manner. " The plough is first driven along the centre of the ridge from C to C, forming an open furrow. Successive furrow-slices are then laid towards this furrow, in the same manner as in the previous ploughing. This is done OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 135 with the successive furrow-shces, until the plough reaches the open furrows D E, F G. In this manner the whole ridge is ploughed, and an increased elevation and curva- ture given to it. This operation is termed gathering. ' ' In performing the operation of gathering, it is impor- tant that the ridge be formed with a uniform curvature, so that it shall not have what is technically termed a shoul- der, or hollow part, on each side of the crown. It is to prevent this defect, that the open track is made along the crown before the first two slices are laid together ; by which means the ploughman is better enabled to lay them upon each other in such a manner that they shall not over- lap and form a protuberance at the crown of the ridge. A transverse section of the ridges, when gathered, will appear thus : — Fig. 23. " A ridge, however, being already formed, it may be wished to plough it again, and yet to preserve it at the same curvature and elevation. In this case, the plough is to enter at the open furrow, and to lay the successive furrow-slices towards it, until the two adjoining ridges are ploughed. By this means all the shoes of the same ridge lie in the same direction, and the curvature and elevation of the whole remain as before. This operation is termed casting, and the manner in which the furrow-slices rest upon each other will appear in fig. 23. " In the same operation of casting, two methods may be pursued. The two first furrow-slices, as those at E and Cj may be laid resting upon each other, as in fig. 24, in which case the two ridges will be formed, as it Fig. 24. 3 were, into one large ridge ; or else, the open furrow at E may be preserved by keeping the two first furrow-slices 136 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. at a little distance from each other, and preserving the space between them, as in fig. 25. Fig. 25. B C E C G '' When land is ploughed in this manner, the ground is taken from one side of each two adjoining ridges at G, and laid towards the other, E ; that is, it is gathered towards one side and gathered from the other. In this manner the ground at the open furrow G, from which we gather, becomes more bare of earth than the open furrow E, towards which we gather. This is an imper- fection unavoidable in casting a ridge. When, therefore, we wish to cast a ridge twice in succession, we reverse the former mode of ploughing ; we gather towards the open furrow G, and from the open furrow E, and thus the ridge is restored to its former state. *' Another method of ploughing is cleaving. In this case, the plough commences at the open furrow, lays the first sHce tow^ards it, and then, returning by the other side of the open furrow, lays the second slice upon the first, as in fig. 26. When it has reached the centre, it stops Fig. 26. B C E C G and begins with another pair of ridges, and ploughs the half of each pair together in the same manner. In this way the open furrows of the ridges become the centres, and the former centres become the open furrows. The operation of cleaving is of constant occurrence in the summer-fallow, and other cleaving processes of tillage. When we wish to level a ridge, we cleave it. " There are two variations to be noticed in the prac- tice of cleaving : either the two first slices are laid togeth- er, in which case the open furrows of the former ridges become the centres, and the former centres the open furrows, in the manner shown in fig. 26 ; or a certain OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 137 distance is kept between the two first slices, and so the open furrow is preserved. In this case, each ridge is split into two ridges, and the number of open furrows is doubled. See fig. 27. Fig. 27. '' The next method of ploughing is cross-ploughing. This, as the name denotes, is ploughing in a direc- tion crossing that of the former ridges and furrows. Fiff. 28. " In cross-ploughing, the workmen place themselves at equal distances from each other, as thirty or forty yards, at the side of the field at which they are to begin to plough. Each then runs a straight furrow across the field, as, fig. 28, from A to D, from B to E, from C to F. Each then returns as from D to A, from E to B, from F to C, laying always the successive furrow-slices to- wards the right hand, until each man arrives at the ter- mination of his allotted space, xx^x x^xx^xx. There has been thus formed by each workman one great ridge, but so extended that it may be said to be without curvature. The ploughmen, we perceive, turn from left to right around the first furrows, A D, B E, C F. But they may also turn from right to left. Thus, in going from B toE, the ploughman lays his first furrow-slice to the right hand. When he arrives at E, he may turn his horses left about, and proceed to D, and returning from D to A, lay his first furrow-slice to the right hand towards T> A. Turning left 12* 138 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. about when at A, he proceeds in the direction B E, and SO on, always turning left about, until he has arrived at the middle space o, when the whole space A D and B E will have been ploughed. " Sometimes, for convenience, and the saving of dis- tance, he may plough in the first place round the central line BE, by turning from left to right, and then plough the remainder of the interval by turning from right to left. " These are matters of detail somewhat difficult to be described clearly, but so simple in themselves that they need only to be seen in the field, to be thoroughly under- stood. " The first operation, we have seen, is, striking the furrows previous to forming the ridges. This is done by laying off, by means of furrows, first the lines of the head- lands, and then the parallel lines corresponding to the fu- ture centres of the ridges to be formed. " The next operation is forming the ridges. This is done by beginning at the centre, and ploughing towards it, until each ridge is formed. " When ridges are formed, they may subsequently be ploughed in different ways. " First J they may be gathered ; in which case, begin- ning at the crown, the ridge is ploughed, and an increased elevation given to it. " Second^ they maybe cast ; in which case, two ridges are ploughed together, and either formed into one large ridge, or, by keeping the open furrows clear, retained in two ridges. " Third, they may be cloven ; in which case, begin- ning at the open furrows, the half of each adjoining ridge is laid together. The first two furrow-shces may either be laid close together, or the open furrow may be kept clear between them. In the first case, each ridge will have been so cloven, that the open furrow shall have be- come the crown, and the crown the open furrow. In the second, each ridge will have been cloven into two, and the number of ridges and open furrows doubled. " In the original laying out of the ridges, the lines have been described as running straight through the field ; OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 139 but it is frequently expedient, on account of the irregular- ities of the surface or other causes, to change the direc- tion of the ridges at some part of the field, so as to facilitate the discharge of the water. " The appHcation to this case* of the principle of stri- king the furrow is easy. The ploughman makes a furrow where the change of direction is to take place, straight or curved, as circumstances may require. The one set of ridges terminate at this part, and the others are laid off from it in the new direction to be given. The plough- man, by means of his poles, as before, strikes his first set of furrows, terminating them at the furrow where the change of direction is to take place. From this furrow he strikes his second set of furrows in the direction in which they are to run. The part where the opposite set of furrows meet, maybe made an open furrow, or a raised- up ridge, or head-land, as circumstances may require. " The direction of the ridges must generally be regula- ted by the sloping of the fields, and the lying of ditches and fences, so that they may promote the main purpose for which they are formed, the carrying off of surface- water. But, other circumstances being alike, they should be made to lie as much as possible north and south, and as rarely as possible east and west ; for, in the latter case, when the ridges are much elevated, the north side has a somewhat less favorable exposure than the south side. " Sometimes ridges are altogether dispensed with, either where the land is very dry, or where it is wished to keep it in grass, and give it the aspect of a park or lawn. In this case, the ploughs may either follow each other round the entire field, and terminate at the centre, or they may plough in large divisions, as in the case of cross-ploughing. " In ploughing very steep land, it is frequently laid in ridges diagonally across the slope, for the purpose of rendering the labor more easy, and of lessening the dan- ger of torrents carrying away the surface. ^'The precaution to be observed in this case is, to make the ridges slope upwards from the right hand, as from A to B, fig. 29, and not from the left hand, as from C to D. For in the first case, when the laboring 140 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE- cattle are ascending the steep, the plough is throwing the furrow-slice down hill ; whereas, in the other case, when the cattle are ascending, they are raising the furrow-shce up hill, by which their labor is greatly increased. Fig. 29. '' Besides the open furrows of the ridges, which act as channels for carrying off the water, it is necessary, when there are hollow places where water may stagnate, to form open furrows or channels. This .is done by draw- ing a furrow with the plough in the direction most con- venient for the purpose. A workman then follows with a spade or shovel, and carefully opens intersections with other furrows, so that there may be a free communica- tion between them. " Sometimes it is necessary that the furrow made by the plough be further deepened by the spade, so as to form a channel sufficiently large ; and wherever head-lands in- tersect the run of water, channels must be cut through them to the ditch or outlet, so that none may stagnate upon the ground. Attention to these details in practice is essential in all cases of tillage ; and it manifests a want of skill and industrious habits in the farmer to suffer his lands to be unproductive by the stagnating upon them of surface-water." — Professor Low^s Elements of Practical Agriculture. It has been ascertained, that a team, w^alking at the rate of one and a half miles an hour, will plough the following quantity of a medium soil, to the depth of five inches, in nine hours : A. R. P. Breadth of furrow 8 inches, at 1 J an hour, 1 00 cc 9 u u "10 20 " 8 '^ 2 " 1 1 10 u 9 c( cc ''12 00 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 141 The difference in the quantity ploughed in these in- stances clearly demonstrates the value of action in horses ; but it must at the same time be observed, that the dis- tance travelled at the slow pace is only twelve, while at the quicker rate it is sixteen miles. We will close the subject of ploughing, with the fol- lowing § 2. Rules for Ploughmen, 1st. The horses should be harnessed as near to the plough as they can be placed without impeding the free- dom of their step ; for the closer they are to the point of draught, the less exertion will be required to overcome the resistance. 2d. When ploughing with a pair abreast, the most powerful horse should be worked in the furrow ; but if the team be harnessed in line, and there be any difference in the height of the cattle, the tallest should be put fore- most, if he be in every respect equal to the other. 3d. When at work, they should be kept going at as regular and good a pace as the nature of the work will permit ; for they are thus more manageable, and the draught easier than when slow. By due attention to this, the heavy soil will cling less to the coulter, and the land will be found to work more freely. 4th. The breadth and depth of the furrow being as- certained, the plough should be held upright, bearing equally all along on a straight sole, and be made to move forward in a regular line, without swerving to either side. The edge of the coulter should be set directly forward, so that the land-side of it may run in a parallel Hne with the land-side of the head, and in such a position that their slant or sweep may exactly correspond. 5th. The ploughman should walk with his body as nearly as possible upright, without leaning on the stilts, and without using force to any part, further than may be absolutely necessary to keep the implement steadily in a straight hne. He should also be sparing of his voice, and of correction to the team : of the former, because too much cheering and ordering only confuses the cattle ; 142 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. and of the latter, because punishment, when often repeat- ed, at length ceases to have due effect, and thus leads to unnecessary beating. There is, in fact, a certain degree of taste in plough- ing, as well as in every thing else, — a kind of tact, which is difficult to be taught, and hardly to be acquired except by a sort of instinct. The ploughman who tills the ground with dexterity, never presses upon the plough without necessity. A mere touch, or a glance of the eye, tells him when she is going wrong, and a slight turn of the hand sets her instantly right ; whereas a clumsy fel- low, without feeling in his palms, or readiness or percep- tion, is continually either throwing the plough out, or she is riding upon the heel or point, straining the team, tiring himself, and altogether making bad work. There are various modes of regulating the pitch of the plough. Thus, it may be made to go deeper by lower- ing the back-bands, or increasing the distance of the team ; by setting the muzzle higher up in the index of the beam, and by slanting and giving the coulter a greater rake forward ; and the reverse will make it go shallower. It can also be constructed with a regulating lever, which may be attached to any of the foot and wheel ploughs now in use, and can be used occasionally, or otherwise, as circumstances may require. The side motion may be thus altered so as to make the plough take a broader slice, or, as it is commonly called, " to give her more or less land :" by putting the hook of the traces into the notches of the muzzle more tow^ards the unploughed ground, you take land from the plough ; but by shifting it to the furrow side, you give it land. It ought, there- fore, to be made about eight inches in length, and may Fig. 30. Fig. 31. OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 143 be fixed either to the side of the beam, or to the top and bottom, as delineated in figs. 30 and 31. The ploughman may also give greater breadth by press- ing the stilts towards the right ; though it is a bad plan, and requires too much exertion to be continued through- out a day's work. On the subject of draught, it may be observed, that when horses are properly harnessed to the plough, their traces will be in a direct line, from the point of draught at the shoulder, to the point of the share, passing through the regulating notch of the muzzle. It is proper, there- fore, to ascertain the animal's height, in order that the muzzle may be fixed accordingly ; but as his shoulder is not so far from the ground when he is pulling, as when he is in a state of rest, an allowance must be made for the difference. Thus, if a line be drawn from A, at the share of the plough, to B, fig. 32, and then a perpendicu- Fig. 32. lar line from B to C, at the horse's shoulder, an angle is formed ; then if another perpendicular line be formed from A to a, and measured upon the same scale, it will give the height of the beam from the ground, at the depth to which it is to be ploughed. It follows, therefore, that the more the beam is raised in height, the longer it must be made, and consequently the traces of horses must be lengthened : this, however, lessens their power ; for it is sufficiently well known, without entering into any mathematical proof upon the subject, that the further the animal is placed from his work, the less effectual will be his exertions. The Rev- erend Mr. Priest made this experiment, w^ith a furrow 144 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 9J inches wide and 3| deep ; when the length of the horses' traces was 10 feet 5 inches from the point of the share to the point upon their shoulders upon whence they were drawing, the force exerted upon the point of draught of the plough, or the power of their draught, was only 2| cwt. ; but when the traces were lengthened to 15 feet 6 inches, the force exerted to draw the plough was 3J cwt. — See British Husbandry. § 3. The Harrow. The uses of the Harrow are, 1st, to pulverize the soil ; 2d, to clean the ground of the roots of foul plants, as dock, quack, &c. ; and, 3d, to cover the seed. The triangular drag, with stout iron teeth, which is well adapt- ed to new lands, has been principally in use until a recent period ; but we are now having them of various patterns, and adapted to different soils and different purposes. Upon new lands, and upon heavy clay soils, a strong, heavy harrow is to be preferred, particularly in preparing the ground for seed. A light harrow would not do for either of these purposes, — it would neither tear up the new soil, nor pulverize the stiff one. Upon lands already under culture, or not stiff, square or angular harrows are preferred ; while upon well-worked farms of light soil, lighter jointed harrows, with smaller and closer-set teeth, and frames that will conform to inequalities of surface, are best, and are in all cases preferable for seed-harrows. A farmer, therefore, who makes pretensions to good management, ought to have at least one heavy harrow to pulverize the soil, and another and a different one to cover his seeds. In using the harrow, the teamster should understand the object, and take care to accomplish it. If it be to break down and mellow the soil, this should be done, though it may require one, two, or three bouts. If it be an object to eradicate the roots of perennial weeds, these should be carefully collected, as they are thrown to the surface, and carried off ; and if the harrow is ap- plied to cover seeds, every particle of the surface should be gone over, both ways of the field, and a smooth- OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 145 ness and evenness of the surface effected as far as prac- ticable. In regard to the shape of the teeth, they should be square, with a gradual taper to the point, the fore part being kept straight, as in T, fig. 33. The teeth should Fig. 33. not be placed too closely together, for then they would be too much impeded by the obstacles opposed to them : they should be so disposed and drawn, that one tooth shall not cut in the track of another, and that one part of the instrument shall not be more interrupted than another : their number should not be too great, because their pow- er to penetrate into the ground will be diminished, unless the weight of the harrow is considerably increased : and, lastly, they should not be longer than necessary, because an unnecessary length will expose them to greater ob- structions, and render them more liable to split the frames in which they are fixed. Harrowing is best performed when the land is dry, 13 XV. 146 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. because the soil is then better pulverized, and less poached by the feet of the cattle. The harrow is often employed upon winter grain, in the spring, and to manifest advantage. A hght one is best for this purpose, as the object is merely to break and pulverize the surface. It is also employed, and here is a heavy one wanted, to scarify old meadow and pasture grounds, to extirpate moss, and to cover the seeds of grasses which may be sown to renovate them. For the latter purpose, as also for pulverizing stiff clays, Conck- lin's press-harrow, fig. 34, is an admirable instrument. Fig. 34. The harrows represented in fig. 3-3 are of the most approved construction, for light soils and for seeds. The frame is wood and the teeth are iron. " They are connected together in pairs by hinges. They consist each of four bars of wood, A B, C D, &c., which are joined together by an equal number of cross- bars of smaller dimensions, mortised through them. The larger bars may be 2| inches or more in width, by 3 in depth, and the smaller 2J inches in width, by 1 in depth. The larger bars are placed oblique to the smaller OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 147 bars, and to the line of the harrow's motion, and the teeth are inserted into them at equal distances from each other. This inclination is made to be such, that perpendiculars falling from each of the teeth upon a line L M, drawn at right angles to the harrow's motion, shall divide the space between the bars into equal parts, so that the various teeth, when the instrument is moved forward, shall indent at equal distances the surface of the ground over which they pass. " The number of teeth in each harrow is twenty, five being inserted in each of the larger bars. When two harrows, therefore, are employed together, the surface of the ground from L to M is indented by 40 teeth, impres- sing the ground at equal distances from each other, and covering the space of about 9 feet. The teeth may pro- ject below the under surface of the frame 7 or 8 inches, their length somewhat increasing from the hindmost to the foremost rows, where the oblique position of the line of draught tends most to elevate the harrow. The teeth are often inserted into the frame with a little inclination forward ; but this deviation from the perpendicular, if made at all, should be very slight, because it renders the harrow more apt to be impeded by the weeds or oth- er substances collecting in the angle between them and the frame. The teeth are fixed in the bars by boring holes with an auger of about | of an inch in diameter, and then drawing them firmly through. The teeth, when thus driven into the bars, will be retained with sufficient firmness. The best of the common kinds of wood for the larger bars, as being least liable to split, are elm, beach, or ash, and for the cross-bars ash. " The iron rods which terminate in the hinges, O, O, may pass through the frame-work, to give it greater strength. These rods keep the harrows at the distance required, and the hinges admit of either harrow rising or falling according to the inequalities of the surface. When thus joined, the harrows are drawn by two horses guided by reins, the driver walking behind, so as to be prepared to lift up either harrow when choked by weeds, or other- wise interrupted. 148 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. §4. The Roller. The roller is made of iron, stone, or wood, according to convenience, or for the purposes for which it was in- tended. In American husbandry, we have no reason to expect, or perhaps desire, any but such as are made of wood, and such as any farmer, who has a moderate de- gree of mechanical skill, and the carpenters' tools which every farmer ought to keep, may readily construct. A sound oak log, with the frame and shafts or tongue ap- pended, will make a good roller. Rollers are made of dif- ferent lengths and sizes, varying from 15 to 30 inches in diameter, their length from five to ten feet, and their weight should be from 12 to 20 cwt. — the heavier soils requir- ing the heavier, and the lighter soils the lighter one. The weight can readily be increased by stones, or other heavy substances, deposited in a box to be placed upon a frame. The lighter kinds are made in one piece ; but the larger and heavier kinds are made in two pieces, with a washer between them, and an iron rod passing through the centre of both, which forms the axis upon which they revolve. English farmers construct on the model indicated in fig. 35, upon the frame of which a box may be attached, either Fig. 35. to contain stones to add to the pressure of the roller, or to receive small stones and rubbish, gathered by the team- ster as he progresses, and which are to be carried off. The objection to the English roller is, that the power is not advantageously applied. We think the model delin- eated in fig. 36, and which is the kind generally used in the United States, is preferable to the other, because the draught is nearly in a right line from the point of draught at the col- lar or yoke, to the point of resistance. This may be done and the advantages of the box retained. It is stated by Low, that, comparing together two rollers with cylinders OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 149 of unequal diameter, that with the larger cylinder will be more efficacious than that with the smaller cylinder, because a greater weight can be brought, by the exertion of the same force, to act upon the ground. Fig. 36. The uses and advantages of the roller are many and important. It is particularly serviceable in the seeding process, to break down the clods, pulverize and smooth the surface, and to press the earth to the smaller seeds, which otherwise often fail to germinate for lack of moisture. This is particularly the case with oats, barley, and grass- seeds. In autumn, the roller is sometimes passed over winter grain, with the view of counteracting the injurious effects of frost the following winter. In spring, it is ad- vantageously drawn over winter grain, as soon as the ground is so solid and dry as to bear the tread of the cat- tle without poaching it. It renders light ground more compact, presses the soil to the roots of the grain, and thus promotes its growth ; and upon all soils it closes the innumerable cracks and fissures which abound upon the occurrence of dry weather in spring, occasioned by the abstraction of moisture and the consequent contraction of the soil, — and, by partially burying the crown, causes grain to tiller better, that is, to send up more seed-stocks. 13* 150 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. Finally, a heavy roller is of great advantage to grass- grounds in the spring, by reducing irregularities of surface, and pressing down the plants or earth which have been thrown up by the frost. There are also rollers constructed for other purposes, as the spiked roller, which is used to pulverize stubborn clays preparatory to the wheat crop, and to scarify old mead- ows and pastures, as a means of renovating them, and of covering the seeds of grasses which may be sown thereon. Ohh'is descYiptionisC oncklin^ s press-harroic, fig. 34, and a somewhat similar implement invented at Washington. The common spiked roller is formed by inserting several rows of spikes, of cast or wrought iron, in a common hard- wood roller. The concave, or scalloped roller, is adapt- ed to the form of ridges, and a small one is often at- tached to the horse turnip-drill, § 5. The Cultivator. There are now various implements in use denominated Cultivators, similar in their use, and frequently resembling, in their construction, the horse-hoes of Europe. They are particularly serviceable in the culture of Indian corn, Swedish turnips, beans, and other row and drilled crops, as a substitute for the plough. By passing this imple- ment frequently between the rows, the ground is kept free from weeds, and in a fine state of pulverization, while the manure and vegetable matter of the sod, which have been buried by the plough in preparing for the crop, are left below, where they are most efiicacious, and the roots of the plants are preserved from injury. The cultivator should be passed through a hoed crop twice at a dres- sing, and if the soil be stiff or grassy, it may be passed oftener, or repeated at short intervals. The teeth are of various forms, according to the purpose for which they are used. One of these forms is shown in fig. 37. It is most convenient to have teeth of different kinds, for instance, such as are fitted to skim the surface, and de- stroy weeds — others to break up and pulverize the sur- face ; and others, again, to gather the roots of quack and other perennial pests. One of our neighbors has been OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 151 enabled completely to eradicate quack-grass in his Indian corn, by the frequent use of this implement. The dif- Fig. 37. ferent kinds of teeth may be adapted to the same frame, .and fastened with nuts or wedges, and shifted in a few moments. The frames are generally made to contract or expand at pleasure, so that the implement may be graduated to different breadths. They are generally drawn by one horse. § 6. The Drill Barrow. Drills are used exclusively for sowing seeds, and are various in their construction. They are propelled by manual and by horse power. The former are denominated drill barrows, and are generally adapted to sowing single rows. They are of recent introduction in American husbandry, and their use is principally confined to sow- Fig. 38. ing turnips, beets, &c.; and some of them, under the name of corn-planters, are employed in planting Indian 152 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. corn. They are an economical implement upon the farm, and are particularly so where root culture has obtained a deserved footing. Drills drawn by horses, and sowing ten or a dozen rows at a bout, are used to a considerable extent in Great Britain ; and those most familiar with their use, claim for this culture great advantages over the broadcast system. The drill system enables the cultivator to keep his grounds clean, and insures an augmentation of product. Fig. 39. Fig. 38 is a delineation of Bement's, and fig. 39 of an ordinary drill barrow. CHAPTER XV. ALTERNATION OF CROPS. Alternating crops, is to grow crops of different kinds, and, as far as practicable, of different habits, suc- cessively in the same field, as grain, roots, and grass. It is an essential requisite in good farming, and forms a part of it, wherever the soil will admit of it, and wherever farming has arrived at any degree of perfection. It is this which gave to Flemish husbandry a pre-eminence over that of every other country, long before the new system had obtained a footing in Great Britain. The Flemings insist, that land does not require rest where this principle is adhered to ; and we think it is Radclifi^e who states, that he saw the operations of harvesting the grain crop, ploughing, and sowing turnips, going on in the same ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 153 field simultaneously — the ground being broken up and sowed as fast as the corn was cut and removed. In this way they often get two crops in a season, and very fre- quently three in two years. It is by alternating crops, that the county of Norfolk, and other sandy districts in England, once poor and unproductive, have been con- verted into the most wealthy and populous portions of that country. It is this alternating system which has con- tributed, in a great measure, to the astonishing recent improvements in the .agriculture of Scotland — on many farms none of the fields being kept in either meadow or pasture more than two years in succession. And it is this system which constitutes the pioneer-marks of im- proved husbandry in our own land. In the preceding essays, we have suggested the impor- tance and the modes of making our lands rich and dry, and of subjecting them to good tillage. Let us now in- quire under what method of management they are likely to make us the largest returns, without diminishing their intrinsic value. It must be palpable to every observing farmer, that the old mode of dividing our farms into meadow, plough, and pasture lands, and of permanently using each section for one purpose only, is a most wretched system of exhaustion, both to the land and its occupant. The tillage ground deteriorates, with the scanty manuring it gets, till it ceases to make a return for the expense of culture, or till it is thrown into old fields or commons. The grasses run out in the meadow, and mosses and perennial weeds come in ; the soil becomes too compact and impervious for the ready admission of the great agents of vegetable decom- position and nutrition, heat and air, and the free extension of the roots of the finer grasses ; — ^and, as all is carried off, and little or nothing brought back, the elements of fertihty become exhausted, the land annually becomes poorer, and the crops grow every year lighter. Nothing but a triennial top-dressing of manure or compost will keep up the fertility of perennial meadows ; and these fertilizing substances can seldom be spared from the ara- ble part, to which they may be applied with more certain 154 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. profit. The pasture is the only portion of such a farm that is improving ; and, even in this, bushes, brambles, and noxious weeds are too often permitted to intrude, to choke and destroy the better herbage. It is equally apparent, that we cannot take two or more arable crops, of the same kind, from a field, in successive seasons, without a manifest falHng off in the product. The reason of this may be found in an immutable law of Nature, which has provided for each species of plant a specific food, suited to its organization and its wants. Thus some soils will not grow wheat, although abounding in the common elements of fertility, and although they will make a profitable return in other farm-crops — in con- sequence of such soils being deficient in the specific food required for the perfection of the wheat. The same re- mark applies to other farm-crops. One family or species of plants requires a different food from that which another family or species requires ; and it seems to be another law of Nature, that what is not essential to one family, or species, shall be left in the soil, or returned to it through the excretory organs of the growing crop. Of course, the specific food for any class, or species, continues to accumulate in the soil, the general fertility being kept up, till the return again to the field of this particular crop. Thus it is supposed to require ten or a dozen years for the specific food of flax sufficiently to accumulate for a second crop, after one has been taken from a field. Even the specific food of clover becomes exhausted by a too frequent repetition of it in the same field ; it being found necessary, in Norfolk husbandry, to substitute for it, in every other four years' course of crops, other grass-seeds, so that this may not be repeated oftener than once in eight years. In the analysis of plants, wheat is found to contain lime, the turnip to contain sulphur, &c., and hence we infer that these elementary matters are essential, in the soil, to the growth of these crops. There are exceptions to the rules of practice which these laws inculcate. Some soils seem natural to wheat, others to oats, timothy, &c., and successive crops of these are taken without apparent diminution of produce. ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 155 Yet it is better to regulate our practice by general laws, than by casual exceptions. In the cases noted as excep- tions, there is probably so great an accumulation of the specific food of the particular crop, that it has not been exhausted, though it evidently must have been diminished. It is in accordance with the natural laws we have noticed, that the grasses in our meadows run out or change ; that the timber-trees of the forest alternate — new species springing up as the old ones decay, or are cut off; and it is in accordance with these laws that the alternation of crops has been adopted in all good fai:giing. To simplify and render the subject more plain, the generahty of tillage crops have been grouped into two classes, differing essentially in their character, culture, and influence upon the soil. These two classes are de- nominated culmiferous crops, and leguminous crops. The first is so named from culm, the stock or stem of grains or grasses, usually jointed and hollow, and supporting the leaves and fructification. Our intention is here not to include the grasses. Culmiferous crops are termed rob- bers or exhausters of the soil. This class includes wheat, barley, oats, rye, Indian corn, tobacco, cotton, &c. These are particularly exhausting during the pro- cess of maturing their seeds. If cut green, or when in blossom, they are far less exhausting. Leguminous crops, strictly, are peas, beans, and other pulse ; but here the group is intended to embrace, besides, all that are con- sidered ameliorating or enriching crops, as potatoes, tur- nips, carrots, beets, cabbages, and clover. These last are not only less exhausting than the culmiferous class, as but few of them mature their seeds, and all, on ac- count of their broad system of leaves, draw more nourish- ment from the atmosphere than the narrow-leaved plants of the other class, but they tend to improve the condition of the soil, by dividing and loosening it, with their tap and bulbous roots. For these reasons they are called ameliorating crops ; and as they generally receive manure, and are cultivated with the horse or hand-hoe, they are peculiarly adapted to fit the soil for the culmiferous group of crops. 156 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. There is another distinguishing feature between the culmiferous and leguminous classes we have named — the form of their roots. The first are generally fibrous-rooted, are more divided, spread themselves near the surface, and draw their nourishment principally from the upper stratum of the soil. The leguminous group are generally spindle or tap-rooted, with few radicles, and consequently draw most of their nourishment from the lower stratum of the soil, and through the lower extremities of their roots. Plants, says Chaptal, exhaust only that portion of the soil which c^mes in contact with their roots ; and a spindle root may be able to draw an abundance of nour- ishment from land, the surface of which has been exhaust- ed by short or creeping roots. The roots of plants of the same or analogous species, continues the same writer, always take a like direction, if situated in a soil which al- lows them a free developeraent ; and thus they pass through, and are supported by, the same layers of earth. For this reason we seldom find trees prosper that take the place of others of the same species, unless a suitable period has been allowed for producing the decomposition of the roots of the first, and thus supplying the earth with fresh manure. Good husbandry, therefore, enjoins, that culmiferous and leguminous crops should follow each other in suc- cession, except where grass is made to intervene ; and it matters little what crops are selected from the two classes. The good judgement of the farmer may be here exercised to determine which are likely to be to him the most ad- vantageous. It may be proper to note two exceptions to this rule : Indian corn may, under certain contingen- cies, be made to follow a small-grain crop to advantage, and oats may be sometimes sown, as a fallow crop, upon a grass ley ; as a fallow crop to precede wheat or rye, and to supersede a naked fallow. Some soils, it is true, are better suited to one kind of crop than another ; as, for instance, calcareous clays, and strong loams, are better adapted to wheat than silicious gravels and sands ; while the latter are better fitted to Indian corn, turnips, clover, and other tap-rooted plants, than clays. And where In- ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 157 dian corn is to succeed small grains, we venture to recom- mend the sowing of clover with the small-grain crop. It far more than compensates, to the corn crop, the ex- pense of seed and sowing, and gives, withal, much au- tumn pasture. In other respects, such as the exhaustion of the soil, it is a matter of little interest with the farmer, what crops of each class are chosen to alternate with each other. Farm-stock seems necessarily to be embraced in the system of alternate husbandry. Cattle convert the bulky products of the farm into meat, butter, cheese, wool, &c. These concentrated products are carried to market at com- paratively trifling expense. Cattle, which furnish labor, and convert into manure the stalks, straw, coarse hay, and other ofFal litter of the farm, are necessary to keep up its fertihty ; for without manure the soil will grow poor, and its products annually diminish. Manures, we repeat, are a main source of fertility and of wealth, — they are the substantial food of our crops. Lime, and gypsum, and other extraneous matters, are good as auxiliaries, but none of these can be depended on, as means of fer- tility, without the efficient aid of dung. This is the bread — the " staff of life," to our farm-crops. Our sup- ply of this essential requisite will depend on the amount of stock we feed upon the farm ; and the amount of stock we can keep profitably, will again depend upon the fertility of the soil, and the abundance of its products. So that grain, and grass, and root, and cattle husbandry, are reciprocally and highly beneficial to each other. It is maintained, by practical men, that grounds under good tillage will yield as much cattle-food, in roots, straw, &c., as the same grounds would yield in grass, thus leaving the grain as extra profit. The subject of clover, which we have classed with ameliorating crops, merits a further and distinct no- tice. We find that clover was cuhivated at an early period by the Flemings, and constituted an important item in their excellent system of husbandry. Its introduction into British husbandry is of comparatively modern date. 14 XV. 158 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. Forty years ago its culture may be said to have com- menced in the United States ; but its progress was slow till within the last few years ; and even now, the farmers of large portions of our country are practically ignorant of its improving and enriching qualities. Its benefits have been great wherever it has been introduced, accompanied with the use of gypsum ; and the two combined have done much to improve our husbandry. But their benefits are capable of being much more widely extended. Clover is less exhausting to the soil than almost any other crop. It derives much nourishment from the at- mosphere ; and its tap-roots, penetrating the soil to a great depth, break and pulverize it, and fit it admirably for the reception of tillage crops. We consider the use of clover as cattle-food, great as it is, but of secondary importance to the farmer — its most profitable uses being to feed crops and furnish seed. No green crop is so ser- viceable as manure ; and the second crop of the early variety may be profitably preserved for seed. We have recorded in the Cultivator the practice of Mr. , of Tompkins county, who has converted a poor farm into one of great productiveness, almost entirely by the judicious use of clover. He sows the seed liberally, preferring the early or southern variety. This he feeds till the 20th of June, or, if it is to be mown, he cuts it by the 25th of that month. He then leaves it for a sec- ond or seed crop ; and after this is off, he generally turns up the ley for a winter or spring crop. Thus the first crop serves to feed his cattle ; the second serves the double purpose of feeding his cattle and filling his purse, for the average product of an acre is four or five bushels of seed, worth ordinarily from thirty to fifty dollars, and the stems are carefully saved, and serve for cattle -food and litter ; while the roots and foliage left upon the field go to fertilize it for the next crop. We can quote no better authority than Chaptal, a dis- tinguished chemist, and a practical farmer upon a broad scale, in support of the alternating system. He says, " Artificial grass lands (constituting a part of the alter- nating system of husbandry, and in contradistinction to ALTERNATION OF CROPS, 159 natural and permanent grass lands) ought now to be considered as forming the basis of agriculture. These furnish fodder, the fodder supports cattle, and the cattle furnish manure, labor, and all the means necessary to a thorough system of cultivation." In order to show the contrast which exists in the pro- ducts of farms, under the new and old systems of hus- bandry, we quote two cases of products under the new system. In neither of these cases were the lands of great natural fertility. The first farm is situated on a sandy pine plain, which until lately was considered of little value for husbandry. Forty years ago these lands sold for three dollars an acre. They now sell at fifty to one hundred dollars an acre. The other farm lies in the neighborhood of Poughkeepsie, and, if we are correct in our recollections, a part of it was in old field, or com- mons, in 1801-2. Samuel T. Vary's farm lies on the Kinderhook plains. There are 145 acres under cultivation. It was worked in 1835 by Mr. Vary and his sons. His total expendi- ture, that is, money laid out for his family and farm, amounted to ^385 75. After speaking of the depreda- tions of the wire -worm, early and late frosts, and other drawbacks with which farmers are ever afflicted, Mr. Vary proceeds to give the following statement of the Products and Sales of the Farm in 1835. 12 calves, .... #37 89 196 lbs. butter, at 20 cents, . 39 20 1542 " cheese, at 8 cents, 123 36 30 lambs, at 155. . 56 25 850 bushels oats, at 52 cents, 442 00 375 do. potatoes, at 25 cents 3, . 93 75 20 tons hay, at $15 per ton, 300 00 72 bushels onions, at 50 cents, . 36 00 500 do. corn, at 84 cents, 420 00 220 do. wheat, at $1 50, . 330 00 4 cows, beef. 69 00 2 oxen and 2 steers, do. . 130 00 7 shoats. 17 00 160 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 1440 lbs. pork, at 7 cents, . . . $100 80 22 wethers, at $4 each, . . . 88 00 Total value, $2,283 25 Deduct money paid out, . . . 385 75 Leaving a balance of . . $1,897 50 See Cultivator, vol. ii. p. 181. The other case is that of Mr. David Harris, the de- tails of which are also given in the Cultivator, vol. iii. p. 30. Mr. Harris cultivated 143 acres. He gives the following as the proceeds of his farm in 1835. 190 bushels of wheat, at $1 25, . $237 50 165 " of rye, at 94 cents, . 155 10 325 " of corn, at 75 cents, . 243 75 900 " of oats, at 50 cents, . 450 00 27 '' of buckwheat, at 50 cents, 13 50 7 live shoats, .... 40 00 1200 lbs. pork, at 7 cents, . . . 84 00 3 calves, 9 50 90 tons of hay, at $22, . . 1,980 00 Advance on 26 sheep, . . . 65 00 60 bushels potatoes, at 25 cents, . . 15 00 $3,293 35 The amount of sales from the above. 100 bushels of wheat, at $1 25, . $125 00 165 " of rye, at 94 cents. 155 10 209 "■ of corn, at 78 cents. 163 02 700 '' of oats, at 50 cents, 350 00 7 live hogs, .... 40 00 3 calves, ..... 9 50 75 tons of hay, . 1,762 50 Advance on 26 sheep, . . . 65 00 Received for pasture and feed, exclusive of my own stock. . 60 00 $2,730 12 Expenses for labor, &c. on the farm. 275 00 Nett profit, .... $2,455 12 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 161 Thus Mr. Vary's farm afforded him a nett annual profit of about $13 08 per acre, over and above the amount paid out for his family, and for farm-labor, &c., and Mr. Harris's gave him a nett profit of about $17 16 per acre, over and above his farm-expenses. A strong argument in favor of alternating crops may be drawn from the alternations which are naturally going on in forests, and in permanent meadows, and from the hab- its of many plants, in sending abroad roots and stollens, to estabhsh a progeny in fresh, unexhausted soil. Thus, in forest lands, the new growth seldom resembles altogether that which has been felled. Hard wood frequently suc- ceeds the pine and hemlock, while the pine and cedar, in innumerable instances, succeed the primitive growth of hard wood. The raspberry and the strawberry soon ex- haust the soil of specific food, and Nature has endowed these plants with the power of virtually changing their location, by means of roots and stollens, and of annually renewing their vigor from the resources of, to them, a virgin soil. And even the delicate stoloniferous rose is constantly changing its location in this way, and droops and declines, in three or four years, if confined to a sin- gle spot. With herbaceous plants which die and decay where they grow, this disposition to change does not ex- ist in so great a degree — because they annually return again to the soil, and furnish the specific food for a new generation of their species. So general is this law of alternation, that it has become a well-settled opinion among British farmers, that even our common biennial clover should not be sown oftener than at intervals of six or eight years upon the same field, its tendency, in common with other plants, being to exhaust a specific property of the soil. We will close this essay with quoting, from Chaptal, the principles which he lays down in regard to the alter- nating system of husbandry, and the conclusion he draws from them. His principles are — "1. All plants exhaust the soil. " 2. All plants do not exhaust the soil equally. *' 3. Plants of different kinds do not exhaust the soil in the same manner. 14* 162 ALTERNATION OF CROPS, ii 4. All plants do not restore to the soil either the same quantity or quality of manure. '' 5. All plants do not feed the soil equally." And from these principles he deduces the following conclusions : — " 1. That, however well prepared a soil may be, it cannot nourish a long succession of crops without being exhausted. "2. Each harvest empoverishes the soil to a certain extent, depending upon the degree of nourishment which it restores to the earth. " 3. The cultivation of spindle roots ought to succeed that of running and superficial roots. "4. It is necessary to avoid returning too soon to the cultivation of the same, or to analogous kinds of vegeta- bles, in the same soil. "5. It is very unwise to allow two kinds of plants, which admit of the ready growth of weeds among them, to be raised in succession. "6. Those plants that derive their principal support from the soil, should not be sown, except when the soil is sufficiently provided with manure. "7. When the soil exhibits symptoms of exhaustion, from successive harvests, the cultivation of those plants that restore most to the soil must be resorted to. " These principles are confirmed by experience ; they form the basis of a system of agriculture, rich in its pro- ducts, but more rich in its economy, by the diminution of the usual quantity of labor and manure. All cultiva- tors ought to be governed by them ; but their apphcation must be modified by the nature of soils and climates, and the particular wants of each locality." — Chemistry applied to Agriculture. ROOT CULTURE. 163 CHAPTER XVI. ROOT CULTURE. The advantages of root culture to the soil, in the al- ternating system, have already been briefly alluded to ; but this culture possesses higher claims to our notice than the bare influence it has in ameliorating the soil : it consti- tutes, otherwise, by far the best means of economically feeding and fattening farm-stock, and adds greatly to the means of fertilizing the soil. It trebles the amount of cattle-food, and doubles the quantity of manure. It more- over may be made to supply a large portion of human food. Potatoes constitute a great portion of the bread and meat of the Irish peasantry — and there are no people more hale and robust than the Irish — feed their cows, fat- ten their pigs and poultry, and form an article of foreign commerce. The turnip has long been an important crop in Germany. The beet culture in France now furnishes annually a hundred millions of pounds of sugar, for human consumption ; while the refuse of the crop enables the French to enjoy the luxury of good beef and good mut- ton, which were scarce commodities with them before the beet culture was introduced. The field culture of the carrot has long been profitably adopted in Flanders. In the culinary, or kitchen department, the liberal use of roots has in a measure become indispensable to whole- some diet ; and while they are grateful to the palate, and promotive of health, they greatly economize the expense of bread and meat. In British husbandry, the introduc- tion of root culture has been considered as important in increasing the products of the soil, as the application of steam has been to the improvement of the manufacturing arts. We will quote here a passage from the New Edin- burgh Encyclopedia in confirmation of this fact. " The introduction of turnips into the husbandry of Britain," says this respectable work, " occasioned one of 164 ROOT CULTURE. those revolutions in rural art which are constantly occur- ring among husbandmen, and, though the revolution came on with slow and gradual steps, yet it may now be viewed as completely and thoroughly established. Before the introduction of this root, it was impossible to cultivate light soils successfully, or to derive suitable rotations for cropping them with advantage. It was also a difficult task to support live stock through the winter and spring months ; and as for feeding and fatting cattle and sheep for market, during these inclement seasons, the practice was hardly thought of, and still more rarely attempted, unless when a full stock of hay was provided, which only happened in a very few instances. The benefits derived from the turnip husbandry are, therefore, of great magni- tude : light soils are now cultivated with profit and facil- ity ; abundance of food is provided for man and beast ; the earth is turned to the uses for which it is physically calculated ; and, by being suitably cleaned with this pre- paratory crop, a bed is provided for grass-seeds, wherein they flourish and prosper with greater vigor than after any other preparation." Few of our farmers are probably apprized of the fact, that English beef and mutton, so highly extolled, and of which John Bull so vauntingly boasts — and perhaps no people have better — is mostly winter-fattened, without the addition of any sort of grain, upon roots and straw. All of the field-cultivated roots are found well adapted to our soil and climate ; and where their culture has been undertaken with spirit, and managed with judgement, it has been fully demonstrated, that labor and capital cannot be more profitably apphed in any other department of husbandry, than it can be in this. It gives the most cat- tle-food and most manure, important items in the econo- my of the farm, and leaves the soil in excellent order for grain and grass-seeds. The great obstacle to root cul- ture, other than the potato crop, has been, the labor which is required to secure the roots from the frosts of winter ; and yet the labor and expense required for this purpose, are perhaps no greater than we expend in securing our grain and forage, if they are so great. Where cellars are ROOT CULTURE. 165 not adequate — and they may be constructed under barns with advantage — these roots may all be securely preserved in pits, in dry situations, due precaution being had to cov- ering and ventilation. We do save potatoes, and we can save other roots in the same way. It is the novelty of the labor, rather than the amount of it, and a want of practical knowledge in their culture and preservation, which intimidate and deter very many. It has been demonstrated, in repeated experiments made in our coun- try, that labor is more profitably bestowed upon root crops, if judiciously applied, and the profits of the land are greater, than in most of the other crops that we cultivate. Assuming the average product of hay at a ton and a half to two tons per acre, and of beets and ruta baga at 600 bushels — and allowing a bushel and a half of the latter (90 lbs.) to be equivalent, for farm-stock, to 20 lbs. of hay, an acre of the roots will go as far in the economy of feeding, as nearly three acres of meadow, to say nothing of the tops, which are excellent food, and which will, at least in a great part, compensate for the extra expense of culture. These roots, besides, may be used as a substi- tute for grain, to working horses and oxen, and for pigs. The three acres of grass are found to give less than 9,000 lbs. to the dung-yard, while the one acre of ruta baga, or beets, gives 36,000 lbs., or four times as much as the three acres of grass land. Five things are essential in the culture of root crops : first, a dry soil ; second, a rich soil ; third, a deep soil ; fourth, a well-pulverized soil ; and, fifth, good after-culture. The crop will be abundant in proportion as these several requisites are regarded, and deficient in proportion as they are neglected. By a dry soil, we mean a soil that is not wet. Moisture is beneficial to all crops, and is indeed indispensable to their growth ; but water is detrimental to all root crops, though it repose upon the subsoil, or appear but occa- sionally upon the surface. Hence, when roots are to be grown upon soils that are tenacious or flat, or upon those which repose upon an impervious subsoil, the land should either be previously under-drained, or should 166 ROOT CULTURE. be thrown into ridges, and the furrows kept open for the free passage of the water in heavy rains. A rich soil is as essential to good crops, and particu- larly to root crops, as nourishing and abundant food is to the fattening of farm-stock. We all know that lean pas- ture and coarse forage, although they may keep^ will not fatten cattle. It is equally true, that although farm-crops will live and grow upon a poor soil, the product and profit will be great only on a rich one. The advantage to the crop, as well as to the animal, will be in proportion to the quantity of organic matter which is converted into living organic matter — into vegetables and into meat. Mere earthy matters enter but minutely, or adventitiously, into the structure of either. Hence the maxim, verified by long experience, that it is better to cultivate one acre of rich land than three acres of poor land. The expense of cultivating the latter is threefold that of the former, while the product of the one rich acre, is often equal to the product of the three poor acres. Ordinarily speaking, a good dressing of manure will double the products of a root crop. To illustrate this fact more fully, we quote the following tabular statement from Arthur Young's experiments with potatoes. It is unnecessary to add, that Mr. Young was one of the most intelligent and care- ful agriculturists of the last generation. The prepara- tion and culture were alike in all the cases noted below, except that in those marked with an asterisk (*) the crop was manured, and in the others the crop was not ma- nured. 6 Preceding Expense. Product J Profit. Loss. 2 crops. £. s. d. bushels £. s. d. s. d. 1 Fallow, . 3 19 1 104 at Is. 6d. 2 18 5 2 Barley, . 4 5 9 128 2 3 11 10 3 Wheat, . 6 13 6 46 20 4# Do. . . 7 16 10 101 20 2 5 6 5 Do. . . 6 2 6 39 20 7 6 6 Do. . . 7 19 4 63 20 16 11 7* Do. . . 4 14 5 170 20 9 2 8 Do. . . 8 9 3 30 20 15 6 9* Do. . . 4 12 1 201 20 11 2 9 ROOT CULTURE. 167 The three manured crops, it will be seen, gave an aggregate product of 472 bushels, and an aggregate nett profit of £22 105. 3c?., ($99 90, say $100 ;) the three adjoining plats, treated like the others in all respects but manuring, gave an aggregate nett product of 132 bushels, and an aggregate nett profit of but 85. lie/., ($1 96, say $2 ;) thus showing that the manure, in these cases, pro- duced an absolute gain of $98, and that where it was not used, there was a mere nominal profit of two dollars. These facts will serve to show the reader, firsts the great value of manure in farming operations, and to stimulate him to save and economize it ; and, secondly^ to show him the propriety of always manuring his potato and other root crops, which are equally benefited by the ap- plication, except a heavy dressing has been given to the preceding crop, for which, it is now generally admitted, the unfermented dung of the stables and cattle-yards is best fitted. A deep-worked soil is necessary, for all but the potato crop, and even to this it is highly beneficial, — that the tap-roots of the beet, carrot, and turnip may not only penetrate freely, and increase their length and their vol- ume, but that their radicles — their mouths — which are principally upon their lower extremities, may there find food for the parent plant. Even the turnip and the pota- to, in a deep tilth, send down their roots to a great depth, for food and moisture. This may be seen upon the bor- ders of a field where the soil has been superficially ploughed, and where the product is always inferior, and most liable to suffer from drought. The pulverization of the soil is essential to the ger- mination of the seed, to the ready extension of the roots, to the free circulation in it of air and moisture, and the admission of solar heat, all contributing to prepare and transmit the food to the growing plants. If the soil is lumpy, or coarse, and does not come in close contact with the seed, to keep it moist, the seed cannot germi- nate ; the roots cannot freely extend in search of food ; nor can this food be properly prepared, and transmitted to the plant, unless the soil be so pulverized as to permit 168 ROOT CULTURE. the free circulation of air and moisture through all its in- terstices, and through its mass. The air and dews, we repeat, are charged with the elements of fertility, and the more freely they are permitted to penetrate the soil, the more benefit will they impart to the crop. Good after-culture implies, the keeping of the ground free from weeds, which rob the crop of its food, thinning the plants to a proper distance, and keeping the surface mellow, or open to atmospheric influence. If the soil is dry, and rich, and deep, and well pulverized, the labors of the husbandman will yet not avail much, in root crops, if he neglects either to destroy weeds, to thin, when ne- cessary, his plants, or to keep the surface loose and open. But these latter requisites to success may easily be got along with, if they are attended to in time, and with proper implements. The potato ground should be well harrowed, to destroy all the young weeds, and to pulver- ize the surface, before the shoots have all broke ground. It may afterwards be almost wholly managed with the plough and cultivator. The beet, carrot, and ruta baga, if sown, as they should be, in rows, should be cleaned in like manner, and for like purpose, with the cultivator, as soon as the rows of the young plants can be readily dis- tinguished. One hour's labor, in this way, will destroy more small weeds, and correspondingly benefit the crop, than three hours' labor will effect upon large weeds. It is easier to destroy the acorn, than it is to eradicate the oak. To crowd plants, is like overstocking a pasture, or endeavoring to make fat animals from half rations of food. It is dividing among many that food which is re- quired to perfect one. It moreover tends to exclude light, heat, and a free circulation of air, essential to the developement of vegetables, and the perfection of their growth. Hence a moderate number of plants will give a better product than a great many, upon the same ground, in a crowded situation. This is a hard lesson to teach to some farmers, in regard to root crops. FALLOW CROPS AND NAKED FALLOWS. 169 CHAPTER XVII. ON SUBSTITUTING FALLOW CROPS FOR NAKED FALLOWS. The practice, under the old system of husbandry, has been, to plough up grass grounds in June, July, and Au- gust, for winter grain ; to cross-plough and harrow suc- cessively, and to sow upon them in September and October. In England the ground was ploughed the preceding autumn, and the ploughings and harro wings repeated during the succeeding summer till seed-time. The effect of this system was, the loss of the ground for a season, an unnecessary outlay of labor, and the wasting of a great portion of the fertilizing matters of the sward, by turning it repeatedly up to the surface. These labors and losses are in a measure superseded, by substituting fallow crops, that is, by taking a crop after one ploughing, upon the inverted sward. While this is growing, the sod is decomposing, the repeated ploughings are saved, the field is turned to profit, the tilth is in fine condition the next fall or spring, for small grains, and the soil receives all the benefit of the fertilizing properties of the sod. Old swards, especially if the soil is stiff, are ploughed deep late in autumn, and receive a ^superficial furrow, or a thorough harrowing, in the spring, to fit them for the fallow crop. Clover leys may be ploughed just before the seed is to be deposited, and the preparation finished by the harrow or roller. There is no agricultural writer of note, and very few good farmers, who now advocate summer fallows, except on stiff clays, or wet grounds, which cannot be readily worked in spring or fall, and this principally for the pur- pose of cleaning them from perennial weeds. We sub- join some quotations, from high authorities, in corrobora- tion of this fact. '* Fallowing was necessary," says Chaptal, " as long as grains only, all of which exhaust the lands, were cultiva- 15 XV. 170 FALLOW CROPS AND ted ; during the intervals of tilling the fields, a variety of herbs grew on them, which offered food for animals, and the roots of which, buried in the soil by the plough, fur- nished a great part of the necessary manure. But at this day, when we have succeeded in establishing the cultiva- tion of a great variety of roots and artificial grasses, the system of fallowing can be no longer supported by the shadow of a good reason. The ease with which fodder may be cultivated, furnishes the means of supporting an increased number of animals ; these in their turn supply manure and labor ; and the farmer is no longer under the necessity of allowing his lands to be fallow. The sup- pression of the practice of fallowing is then equally ser- viceable to the cultivator, who increases his productions without proportionally increasing his expenses, and to society, which derives from the same extent of soil a much greater quantity of food, and additional resources for supplying the workshops of the manufacturer," — Chemistry applied to Agriculture. " It is already acknowledged, that it is only upon wet soils, or, in other words, upon lands unfit for the turnip husbandry, that a plain summer fallow is necessary." — J^ew Edinburgh Encyclopedia. " As there is only one good reason for fallowing," says Cooper, in the Domestic Encyclopedia, " namely, to destroy weeds, — and as this can be done full as well by fallow crops, that is, by crops that require frequent clean- ing during their growth, no fallows ought to be permitted in a good system of husbandry." Before root culture, or the alternation of crops, had obtained any thing like a footing among us. Chancellor Livingston — and we can ask no better authority — satisfied of the great loss of labor and farm-profits by the old sys- tem of farming, drew the following comparison between the advantages of summer fallows and fallow crops, pre- dicated, we believe, principally upon his own practice. " I will endeavor," says Chancellor Livingston, " to state the profits and loss of two farmers, each cultivating, besides his meadows, one hundred acres of arable land, one in the usual [old] mode of this country, and the other by the intervention of vetches and clover. NAKED FALLOWS. 171 " Common Agriculture, 100 Acres. 20 acres In corn, 35 bushels, 50 cts. £7 20 " oats on corn ground of the pre- ceding year, 20 bushels, at 2s. . .200 20 acres summer fallow, . . . 20 " wheat, 10 bushels, at 8s. . .4 00 20 " wheat stubble in pasture, . 2 14 1 10 1 00 , 1 00 £1 4 100 acres. Five years' yield, per acre, £13 2 " Expense per acre for jive years. Indian corn, ploughing, &c. £2 00 Oats, twice ploughed, . . 1 00 Harrowing, seed-sowing, and harvesting. Summer fallow, Wheat, seed and harvesting. Rent on 5 acres, at 50 cts. a year, Balance of profit on 1 acre in 5 years, or 5 acres in 1 year, . . . £5 18 *' Profit on Fallow Crops on Intervention of Fallow Crops instead of Fallowing. 20 acres in Indian corn, . . .£700 20 acres in vetches, 25 cwt. at 2s. 6d. 3 2 6 20 " in wheat, 12 bushels, . . 4 16 20 *^ in clover, 25 cwt., 31 cents, 3 2 6 20 " the same, . . . .326 Five years' produce of one acre, . £21 3 6 " Expenses. Indian com, . . . £2 Ploughing corn ground for vetch- es, . . . . . 10 Seed, 3 bushels, sowing, &c. 12 Cutting and making hay, . 8 Vetch stubble ploughed once for wheat, seed and harvesting, 1 10 12 lbs. clover-seed and sowing, 15 172 FALLOW CROPS AND Mowing clover, paid by the sec- ond crop, . . . Rent, $4 50, or 50 cents a year, 10 £6 15 To balance of profit, per acre, in 5 years, or on 5 acres in 1 year, . . £14 8 6 " Thus while one farmer makes £1 3s. bd. a year per acre, upon his hundred acres, clear of expense, the other makes £2 I7s. 6d. ; the one gets little better than one hundred, the other gets three hundred a year. In the above statement I have given one farmer credit for two bushels of wheat more than the other, since I am per- suaded the vetch crop will improve the ground more than the difterence, as the dung given to the corn will not be exhausted by this so much as by the oat crop, before the wheat is sown. To this profit should also be added the continued improvement of the crop by the one mode of husbandry, and the continued decrease by the exhausting the land in the other. " The fallow farmer has no fodder which the rotative farmer does not possess, except the straw of his oats, which we will value at half a ton of hay per acre. He then has from his oats, on 20 acres, ten tons. The fallow farmer has, from 20 acres vetches, 25 tons. From 40 acres of clover, . . . 50 " 75 Deduct the oat straw, ... 25 Superiority of fallow-crop farmer, . 50 tons. " He can thus winter, at one ton a head, 65 head of cattle more than the fallowing farmer ; and as each of these will afford at least six loads of dung, he will be able to carry out 390 loads of dung more than the fallow- ing farmer, besides that he has one exhausting crop less. It will be easy to see what difference this must make in a few years in the produce of a farm, and how much more it would be than I have rated it at. We often ask with astonishment, how the British farmer can afford to pay a NAKED FALLOWS. 173 guinea an acre rent, [a tenth of his produce in tithes, a heavy poor-rate, and an enormous tax.] The difficulty is solved if we examine the above statement, since the dif- ference between fallowing and establishing a rotation of crops amounts to more than the difference of our rents and theirs. I know there are some stiff soils on which it would be difficult to establish the rotation I mention, but this should be no argument against it where the soil will admit of it, particularly as clover and vetches may be in- troduced with a certainty of success, even if the ground should be naturally poor, by the addition only of gypsum, which will indeed add a few cents a year to the acreable expense, but it will, in all probability, at the same time add nearly a ton to the produce. " I would not be considered as confining my observa- tion to vetches, which have not yet been sufficiently tried in this country ; potatoes or carrots, or peas sown thin, and cut green for provender, may all answer the purpose, but, above all, clover. If this last is the only crop to be brought into the rotation, the system must be changed to the following course : 1st, corn ; 2d, barley and clover ; 3d and 4th, clover ; 5th, wheat and one ploughing. By this means a crop of clover will be substituted for a fallow." Thus far Chancellor Livingston. We would add this suggestion, that as the culture of turnips and beets is now successfully progressing among us, and as the winter- wheat crop is becoming so precarious as to render a re- sort to the spring varieties of that grain probable, the following course would be better adapted to our husband- ry than the one recommended above : first year, corn or potatoes, upon a clover ley, with long or unfermented manure ; second year, spring wheat with clover-seeds ; third year, clover cut in June, and fallowed with turnips ; fourth year, barley or oats with grass-seeds ; fifth year, meadow ; sixth year, pasture. In this way seven crops would be obtained in six years ; three of them would be decidedly ameliorating, and but two particularly exhaust- ing ; and in five of the seven years the field would afford pasture in autumn. This course is particularly recom- 15* 174 FALLOW CROPS AND mended where manure is scarce ; as it is believed that ma- nuring the first crop of the course well would keep up the fertility upon lands not very light and sandy, as it would embrace two grass leys. Where beets or carrots are to be cultivated, they may be made to follow the dunged crop of corn or potatoes, and be followed in their turn by barley, or oats, or wheat, and grass-seeds, thus giving a five-years' course, in which the field would give two grass, two ex- hausting, and one root crop. Two objections may be started to the first course ; first, that the clover cannot be cut in time to get in the turnip crop ; and second, that sow- ing grass-seeds twice in the course will be too expensive. To the first objection we offer our common practice, which is, to sow our ruta baga upon a clover ley — the southern or small clover — after the grass has been cut for hay, in June, so that the ruta baga may be sown before the first of July. The common turnip may be put in a month later. To the second objection we answer, that the value of the clover ley to the soil, to say nothing of the feed which it will afford to cattle, will twice l-epay the cost of the seed. We are satisfied, from ex- perience, that it is profitable to sow clover with every crop of small grain, on soils adapted to its growth, merely for the purpose of enriching the land. Before we close this subject, we will quote, from ' British Husbandry,' two highly-successful experiments, made upon clay farms, in substituting fallow crops for naked fallows. Although our crops differ somewhat from those cultivated in England, yet the hints and demonstra- tions which these examples afford, will not be lost on the American farmer. The two following are the cases alluded to, which we give in the words of the British editor. '' greg's system. ** The farm of Coles, near Buntingford, in Hertford- shire, consists of 240 acres of arable land, which is de- scribed as ' a very tenacious clay, in some places mixed up with calcareous earth, which causes it to bind at top after heavy rains ;' and w'as formerly worked nearly un- NAKED FALLOWS. 175 der a three-course system of summer fallow, white corn, and pulse, or clover. Turnips were seldom sown, as the difficulty of feeding or carting them off was found to be injurious to the succeeding crop ; and, consequently, only a small flock of 80 ewes or 140 wethers was kept, which was constantly folded during the summer. Upon this, and the observations regarding the disadvantages attending the similar plans of his neighbors, it is unneces- sary that we should here offer any remark, for we know that they have been, in many instances, improved, and our more immediate object is to state the system after- wards adopted by Mr. Greg^ and since followed by his nephew, during upwards of twenty years. '•' Having, as he tfells us, ' established in his mind, as a general principle, that fertility was to be derived from pulverizing the soil, clearing it from water, and keeping it clean, he proceeded to inquire how those objects were to be obtained at the least expense ; and he found that the best method to promote them was to reverse the whole system of the former cultivation.' Accordingly, instead of ploughing four or five times only, in summer and spring, and fallowing every third year, he formed the de- termination ' to plough only once for a crop ; to plough only in winter ; never to fallow the land in summer ; to practise the row-culture, and to use the horse-hoe.' The mode in which he carried his plan into execution was as follows. *'He divided the farm as nearly as possible into six equal parts, which are cultivated in a six-course shift, consisting of turnips ; barley or oats, clover, standing two years ; peas or beans, upon the ley ; and lastly, wheat. The ground is marked out by a drill into ridges of five and a half feet in width, intersected by furrows of ten inches wide ; thus leaving only fifty-six inches for each land, which is worked by a Suffolk swing plough, formed upon a construction to cut a perfect trench of seven inches deep, and requiring four bouts to complete the ridge, which is made sufficiently convex to describe an inclined plane of three inches from the crown to each furrow. Thus water is prevented from remaining upon 176 FALLOW CROPS AND the land intended to be cropped, by being drawn into the ten-inch furrow, which is carried two inches deeper ; the horses never tread but in a furrow ; and by the soundness of this ploughing Mr. Greg states, that ' when effected in the autumn or before Christmas, a perfect friabihty is obtained in the tilth by the influence of the frost during the winter, and the surface-water may be as effectually got rid of as by under-draining.' " As soon as the harvest is completed, the wheat-stub- bles are haulmed, and the lands are marked out and ploughed one bout : dung is then ploughed in to the amount of ten loads per acre, and three bushels of winter tares with a bushel and a half of winter barley are sown, to precede turnips, to the extent of about half the ground intended for that crop, which, in common seasons, it does not impede, as the tares are cut upon a moist furrow for the turnip-sowing. " The tare-sowing being finished, the bean and pea- stubbles are prepared for wheat ; which is a difficult op- eration on heavy land, when the object is to get the seed early into the ground. The labor which they require from the plough, roll, and harrow, was so great as to inr duce Mr. Greg to use a powerful grubber, or scarifier, of a form which covers an entire land ; and it performed so well that he has since continued to use it instead of the plough, as he found that he could thus sow forty acres of wheat in a very few days, regardless of weather, and at a sixth part of the expense. " Having sown the wheat, the remainder of the land intended for turnips is ploughed and dunged. The ploughing is also performed for peas and beans ; and it is desirable that these operations should be completed be- fore Christmas. As soon as the season turns, the land which was ley, and intended for beans and peas, is scari- fied ; and when the growing weather commences, the beans are drilled at fifteen inches, for the convenience of horse-hoeing. The peas are next drilled ; but as these, by falling over, preclude the possibility of hoeing them more than twice, they are sown at intervals of twelve inches. " As the ground is cleared of turnips, it is ploughed NAKED FALLOWS. 177 into lands. In the spring, the barley is drilled in rows of eight inches — not leaving any space for furrow — and the clover and rye-grass is sown up, and then across the lands. "As soon in May as the weather permits, and the sun is sufficiently powerful to kill weeds, the scarifier is set to work, succeeded by a strong harrow ; and having by these operations obtained cleanliness, the first favorable weather is made use of to sow Swedish turnips ; or, should they fail, they are succeeded by white turnips, and in the event of a further miscarriage, coleseed is sown. With these, and the assistance of about ten loads of clo- ver, and ten weeks' run on pasture in bad weather, 500 sheep are now kept on the farm, but lie enclosed at night in a spacious and well-littered yard. The fodder pro- duced by straw and clover-hay supports from forty to fifty head of cattle, and nine working horses are kept, which are soiled during the entire summer : thus so large a quantity of dung is made that no manure is purchased. " In this manner 200 acres are ploughed between har- vest and Christmas, besides the cartage of dung and other odd jobs on the farm ; but this is easily performed with the aid of the grubber, and the land being entirely ploughed in the winter, there is only the sowing of Lent corn to execute in the spring : the horses are therefore put upon green food, by which a considerable saving is made in the consumption of com. Many other details of management are given in Mr. Greg's pamphlet, which is brief and well worthy of attention, but which we refrain from enumerating, as we only meant to call attention to the extraordinary statement which it contains, of such a system of culture having been so successfully pursued upon land of that nature, as to yield an average, during six years, of the following crops, namely ; Per acre. Wheat, 25 bushels. Barley, 40 " Beans, 35 " Peas, 30 " Clover, twice cut, ... 2 tons. Thus, after the deduction of rent and the interest of 178 FALLOW CROPS AND £2,500 capital, presenting, upon an average of six years, a profit of £671 35., or £2 1 5s. lid. per acre, and a result in favor of his mode of cultivation of no less than an annual difference amounting to £638 135. " Of the accuracy of the minute account thus furnished by Mr. Greg, we have no reason to doubt, though we confess ourselves somewhat skeptical regarding the jus- tice of the conclusions which he has drawn respecting the superiority of his own plans over those of his neigh- bors ; for every man, however high his honor and impar- tiality, is yet unconsciously biased in favor of any pur- suit of his own, and no farmer could Hve upon the profit which he has assumed as that of cultivation under the old plan. On a subject of such vital importance to agricul- ture as that of the fallow system, we indeed deemed it prudent to apply to the present Mr. Greg for further in- formation, which he readily afforded ; and. from recent personal communication and correspondence, we are as- sured by him, ' that his uncle's system is still pursued upon his farm with the best effect ; as is evinced by the clean condition of the land, the heavy crops produced, and the quantities of stock maintained. The only altera- tion of importance made in his mode of cultivation sub- sequent to the publication of his pamphlet, was the sub- stitution of a seven-years' course, in place of that of six years, by which he obtained two crops of wheat — one on the clover ley, and another after the beans and peas. The annual course of cropping in the several years now, therefore, stands thus ; — 1. Turnips. 5. Wheat. 2. Barley. 6. Beans and Peas. 3. and 4. Clover. 7. Wheat. '* ' No material alteration has been made in the imple- ments ; nor was any fallow permitted so long as the late Mr. Greg's health allowed his superintendence of the farm ; but the bailifi' now occasionally fallows afield of the heaviest land : this, however, is only resorted to when the land sown with turnips has not been prepared in time for the barley crop, and only averages about 16 acres a year out of 250.' " a NAKED FALLOWS. 179 beatson's system. " Knowle Farm, in the neighborhood of Tunbridge Wells, which was a few years ago in the occupation of the late General Beatson, contains about 300 acres of land, of which 112 are arable, and is described as abound- ing with clay, and retentive of surface moisture, but when dried by the summer heat, it becomes as hard as a brick, and impervious to the plough, unless with a great power of animal exertion, particularly as the general mode is to plough deep. The established rotation in that part of Kent and the neighboring portion of Sussex, is fallow, wheat, and oats, with occasionally clover and rye-grass ; and the husbandry appears to have re- mained unaltered for many ages, with the single exception of substituting lime for manure instead of marl. Upon this system the farm was managed during the General's absence, while Governor of the Island of St. Helena ; and finding on his return, in the year 1813, ' that he had no cause to boast of its profit, he resolved to trace the whole progress of the operations, from the commence- ment of the fallow to the close of the rotation ;' the re- sult of which was, that, ' having made a series of experi- ments, to which he devoted his attention during five years, he determined upon the total abolition of fallows. 5* * His experiments were extended to various objects besides the working of the land ; particularly to the combinations of different kinds of manure, and the burning of clay, (for which, see our vol. i. chap- ters 16 and 17 ;) but our present extracts only extend to the subject of fallowing, the charges of which he states to have amounted to £16 per acre, thus : — Labor, breaking up the clover ley and 3 subsequent ploughings, £3 12 6 Eleven harrowings, at ten acres per day, 90 Manure, one and a half wagon-load of lime, between the third and fourth ploughings, 7 10 Carting and spreading ditto, 6 Seed, two and a half bushels of wheat, at 10s 1 5 Sowing and rolling, , 1 6 Rent and taxes for the year of fallow, 1 10 Ditto for the year of crop, 1 10 £16 4 180 FALLOW CROPS AND '' In order to effect this, he adopted several new im- plements, chiefly of his own invention, for a description of which we must refer to his ' New System of Cultiva- tion,' as we have only seen the scarifier in use. This is of a light construction, and certainly performs well ; though, upon land such as that described by the General, it is worked by a pair of horses, and sometimes more, instead of one. " He conceived that the grand source of all the heavy expenses of the old method might be traced to the fallow itself, and to the mode of preparing it — ' by bringing up immense slags with the plough, by reversing the soil, and thus burying the seeds of weeds that had fallen on the surface, by which a foundation is laid for all the subse- quent laborious and expensive operations.' To avoid these, he therefore thought it necessary to proceed in a different manner — ' to only break and crumble the sur- face-soil, to any depth that may be required ; to burn and destroy the weeds ; after which he would have the land in a fine and clean state of pulverization, and in readiness for receiving the seed, without losing a year's rent and taxes ; and all this at a mere trifle of expense, when compared with that which is incurred by a fallow.' " In pursuance of this, he reduced the ploughing to a single operation at the depth of four inches. The chief use, indeed, which he made of the plough was to open furrows at twenty-seven inches apart, which was per- formed by a couple of horses at the rate of three acres per day, and was merely intended to prepare the land for the scarifiers, ' which, by passing twice across these furrows, loosen all the stubble and roots of weeds, which are afterwards, with a small portion of the soil, placed in heaps and burned.' By these means, together with the more frequent repetition of the horse-hoeing, and the in- troduction of the row-culture, the General assures us * that his lands were rendered much cleaner, and yielded better crops than they did formerly, after all the heavy expenses of lime and fallows.' He indeed states, that these operations produced the effect of pulverization to the depth of six or seven inches, and their expense was — NAKED FALLOWS. 181 Five scarifyings, with a single-horse implement, at Is. 8d. per acre, £0 8 4 Two harrowings, at 10| ... 19 £0 10 1 that the whole charge of cultivation, under a four-course system upon this plan, including rent, was — . Tares, beans, peas, &c. per acre, .£5 Wheat, .....". 5 Oats and barley, . . " . 3 13 6 Clover and rye-grass, . '' . 2 15 £16 8 6 thus only amounting to a trifle more than that of the fal- low upon the former plan ; that land cultivated upon his farm in this manner has yielded 460 sheaves of wheat per acre, whilst the average produce of the other fields did not exceed 360 ; and that the difference in favor of the new method amounts, upon an average — when wheat is at 105. the bushel — to <£350 per annum upon the cultiva- tion of 100 acres." — British Husbandry. We have endeavored, as we proposed, to demonstrate the practicability of improving the soil, of increasing its products and its profits ; of thereby multiplying the means of subsistence and comfort ; of rendering our farmers, who must give the impress to our character as a people, more intelligent, industrious, and virtuous, and our nation truly independent ; we have endeavored, we say, to show, that all these desirable ends may be promoted by manu- ring, draining, and good tillage ; by alternating husbandry, by extending the culture of root crops, and by substituting fallow crops for naked fallow^s. We have endeavored also to show, that our suggestions, in all these branches of improvement, are sanctioned by the principles of sci- ence, and have been amply verified in practice. If the principles we have assumed be correct, and the practice we recommend in conformity with the sound principles of natural philosophy, then the old-fashioned farmer is ad- monished thereby to change his course of practice, if he would prosper in his business, — to study, to practise, and to adopt the new system of husbandry, so far as his 16 XV. 182 ADAPTATION OF soil and circumstances will permit ; — to drain his wet lands, economize his manures, and to apply them before they are half wasted, — to till well what he does till, — to alter- nate his crops, — to extend his root and clover culture, — to increase his stock as the products of his farm will per- mit, — and to substitute fallow crops for summer fallows. And the settler on new lands is admonished to adopt a like course, if he would preserve the fertility of his soil, and render his lands permanently productive. CHAPTER XVIII. ON THE ADAPTATION OF PARTICULAR CROPS TO CERTAIN SOILS. It is well known that certain plants are found to abound most naturally in particular soils, and that some plants are almost exclusively confined to such — as primitive, transi- tion, and secondary ; sihcious, calcareous, or argillaceous; dry or wet ; rich or poor ; — and botanists pretend to deter- mine, from the examination of a plant, its pecuhar habita- tion. It is reasonable to conclude, from analogy, that cultivated plants have their preferences, as to soil, as well as those which grow naturally. Indeed, we have abun- dant proofs of this fact, in our ordinary farming opera- tions. This subject has long engaged the attention of Dr. Von Thaer, the distinguished Principal of the Prussian school of Moegehn. The following table exhibits a clas- sification of soils, particularly adapted to the crops designa- ted, with their elementary parts, and relative value, both in regard to the soils and the crops which they produce. Although the real value of every rotation depends, in a great measure, upon the manner in which its several pro- cesses are executed, and upon the demands of the mar- ket ; yet, abstractly speaking, some courses must be con- sidered as better than others, because the crops may be more suitable to the peculiar qualities of the land on which they are to be grown. CROPS TO SOILS. 183 a ^ . •^ a SOILS. -og "o " o ^ ?i^ S " 3 13 ^ 74 Cl- io o X P- > 1 1 r 4^ lU 100 2 ! First class of strong wheat ( soils, 81 6 4 8^ 98 .S 79 20 4 6* 96 4 40 22 36 4 90 5 Rich barley land, . . . 20 67 3 10 78 6 7 \ Good wheat land, . . ! 58 56 36 30 2 12 4 2 77 75 8 J r 60 38 2 70 9 \ Ordinary wheat land, . ? 48 50 " 2 651 10 11 Good barley land. 68 38 30 60 2 2 60 60 12 18 > Ordinary barley land, . < > Oat and rye land, . . \ 33 28 65 70 -5 s 2 2 50 40 14 15 23i 18J 75 80 QQ 30 20 It will be perceived that the wheat soils possess from 40 to 81 per cent, of clay, from 4 to 36 of carbonate of lime, and from 4 to 11 J of humus, or geine. Lime seems to be an indispensable ingredient in a wheat soil. Neither barley, oats, nor rye, and we may extend the remark to Indian corn and turnips, and indeed to many other farm products, requires carbonate of hme, though this always gives a chemical and mechanical improvement to the soil, by rendering sands more compact, and more reten- tive of moisture and manure, and clays more light and pervious to atmospheric and solar influence, and to the roots of the crop. All the soils in which sand pre- dominates over clay, are best adapted to the growth of Indian corn, turnips, clover, &c., though the product will depend on the soluble organic matter in the soil, and the fidelity of the culture. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are alluvial soils of the richest quahty, and embrace much of the land upon the lower flats of riv- ers coming from secondary and transition formations, and a large portion, it is believed, of the secondary formation 184 ADAPTATION OF lying west of the Alleghany range of mountains ; and from the abundance of vegetable mould, or humus, which such soils contain, and the intimate state of admixture with earthy materials in which it is found, they are not so stiff as the quantity of clay which they contain would seem to indicate. But their texture will become more compact as the vegetable matter becomes exhausted by bad hus- bandry. From the absence of hme in most of the prim- itive formation east of the Alleghanies, many districts, although not deficient in the other ingredients, are not found congenial to the growth of wheat. No. 4 is a fine clay loam, such as abounds in many limestone districts, and contains a very large proportion of carbonate of lime. The application of lime or marl to such a soil would be a waste of time and money. Indeed, while there is four per cent, of carbonate of lime in a soil, it is doubted whether these applications can be made with any advantage. No. 5 may be termed a very rich sand loam, in which there is one fifth clay, one tenth humus, or organic mat- ter, and a sufiiciency of carbonate of lime for ordinary purposes. This soil is easily worked, is adapted to al- ternate husbandry, if made dry, and, although graduated a tenth below No. 1, is probably as profitable a soil as the farmer can cultivate. Nos. 6 and 7 may be denominated kind clay soils, about upon a par with No. 5, clay more preponderating in their composition, and with less than half the humus that No. 5 contains — a deficiency, however, which a good farmer would soon contrive to remedy. Nos. 8, 9, and 10 are rated of less value than the preceding, because they are deficient in carbonate of lime and humus. Upon these, it is presumed, mild lime, and marl, and ashes would prove beneficial, and would raise them to the value of Nos. 6 and 7. All of these num- bers, and those which follow, may be considered as corn, turnip, and clover soils, if the deficiency of humus is sup- plied by manuring. Nos. 10, 11, and 12 form the lightest classes of soils, and are termed sandy, from the preponderance of CROPS TO SOILS. 185 sand over clay. These lack carbonate of lime, and humus and clay ; and clay-marl or blue clay, or indeed any clay, properly applied, would constitute an excellent dressing for them. Green crops, of any sort, turned under with the plough, are here particularly serviceable. "When duly enriched they will bear good rye. Clover, or other green crops, should frequently intervene in the alterna- tion. If dry, sheep may be advantageously pastured upon them. We will here make some suggestions as to the mode of applying marl or clay to sandy lands, though at the risk of repeating what we may have already said upon this subject. The object of the apphcation is to improve the absorbent and retentive properties of the soil, as it regards moisture and manure. It is hence important that the clay or marl should be pulverized and intimately incor- porated with the soil. Pulverization can only be effect- ed by exposing the marl or clay to the action of the frosts, rains, and the sun. If laid upon the ground in masses, or heaps, pulverization is but partially effected, and that only upon the surface of the heaps. It is advisable there- fore, and it is the practice we have settled upon, to draw the clay or marl on to the ground in autumn or winter, and to spread from the carts, as far as its adhesive quali- ty will permit, over the entire surface of the field. The lumps become saturated with rain, the frosts penetrate, expand their volume, and loosen their adhesive proper- ties, and when the clay or marl afterwards becomes dry, they may be broken down by a maul, and pretty well pulverized and distributed by the roller and harrow. The operations of tillage will then produce as good a mix- ture as can be expected. Were the attempt made* to blend these materials with the soil, without the prepara- tory process of pulverization, much of the benefit of the application would be lost. Besides, the clay and marl, by exposure to atmospheric influence, part with deleteri- ous properties which they often possess when drawn from the pit, and are ameliorated and enriched by the atmo- sphere. Judging from experience, we consider twenty or thirty-two horse loads of blue clay, containing, like that 16* 186 THE EFFECTS OF about Albany, 25 to 30 per cent, of carbonate of lime, applied, agreeably to the foregoing directions, to an acre of land like Nos. 14 and 15 of the above table, of more ultimate benefit than an equal number of loads of barn-yard manure. The majority of soils do not contain more than five per cent, of humus ; and, as we have observed, many contain little or no carbonate of Hme. Without the first, no admixture of earths can be productive ; and without the latter, wheat, and probably some other farm-crops, can- not be grown to advantage. Yet where there is a due admixture of sand and clay, two per cent, of carbonate of lime, and an equal proportion of humus, will render the soil productive, for a season, or until the lime and the dung are too far exhausted by the growing crops. Sandy soils are much more easily wrought than clay soils ; and if they are tolerably well dunged and managed, or if green crops are made frequently to alternate, they make a good return to the husbandman. Under constant tillage they are soon exhausted ; and it is but seldom they are found to yield a succession of grass crops. Alternate husbandry should therefore, at aH events, be resorted to upon soils of this description. CHAPTER XIX. EFFECTS OF CROPPING AND MANURING. The reader will find a further illustration of the bene- fits of manuring, of alternating crops, and of aboHshing naked fallows, in the facts and suggestions which we are about to present him. We have heretofore endeavored to make it plain, that living and dead plants contain the same elementary mat- ters, — that dead plants afford the proper aliment for liv- ing plants, — and that, consequently, the fertility of a soil will be increased or diminished, in proportion to the quan- tity of dung or organic matter which is returned to it, CROPPING AND MANURING. 187 compared to the quantity which is taken from it by crop- ping. New or virgin soils may contain a large supply of vegetable matter, or humus, or soluble geine, terms which mean much the same thing, or they may contain an abundance of the specific food of certain plants, as of wheat, for instance, enough to feed several successive crops ; yet the powers of fertility are diminished by ev- ery succeeding one, if the crops are carried off from the field, and nothing returned to it to supply the loss, — until finally, if the system of cropping goes on in this way, the food of plants will become exhausted, and the land sterile and barren, for all the profitable purposes of hus- bandry. If we look to the old continent, we shall per- ceive that large districts, once fertile and populous, have, by the injudicious management of the husbandman, be- come almost waste and depopulated. A great portion of Egypt, of India, of Asia Minor, of the Barbary States, and of Spain, which once sustained their millions of inhabitants, and were to the world examples in the arts of culture and civilization, may be cited in illustration of this fact. And if we will turn our eye upon the Atlantic border of this new continent — new at least in culti- vation and improvement — we shall see ample evidence of the melancholy tendency of the old, the exhausting system of husbandry. We shall see millions of acres of once fertile lands, formerly in as high repute as the El Dorado of the west — the land of promise — worn out and exhausted of their fertility, by the old wretched system of cropping, cropping, cropping, until they have been thrown into " old fields^^'' or commons, as unworthy of culture. And even in the. fertile west, from the abuse of those who are charged with their culture, are the lands in some districts assuming the garb of old age and unproductive- ness, and their occupants are passing further west, to seek out and exhaust the patrimony destined for coming gen- erations. If we put an ox to a stack of hay, he may subsist upon it a longer or shorter time, according to the quantity of food which it contains. A constant diminution of his food is going on ; and although he may feed and fatten till the 188 THE EFFECTS OF last lock is consumed, it is very certain, that unless the stack, or the food, is replenished, the ox, when the stack is consumed, will hunger and die, for want of nourish- ment. The organic matter in the soil is the stack of hay, and the crops are the ox. As long as the organic matter continues in sufficient quantity, the crops will thrive ; but the moment the organic matter is exhausted, or is deficient in quantity, the crops, like the ox, will pine and die, for want of food. The herdsman takes care to provide fresh food for the ox before the stock of hay is exhausted ; and the prudent farmer will take like precaution to provide for the coming wants of his crops. Providence has imparted fertihty to the soil for the benefit of man, to whose management He has intrusted it ; and He has endowed him with the faculty, and provided abun- dant means, of perpetuating that fertility. How reckless and improvident do we consider the young spendthrift, who wantonly squanders his paternal inheritance. He not only injures himself, and perverts a noble object of his being — that of doing good to his fellows — but he does injury to others by his bad example, and robs his chil- dren of their inheritance. The contemner of Nature's laws, who wantonly wastes the bounties of Providence, by a reckless, exhausting system of husbandry, does injury to himself and others of a like nature, though not perhaps to equal extent, nor in so glaring a manner, as the spend- thrift who squanders, in vice and folly, his paternal estate. Crops exhaust the fertility of the soil in proportion to the nourishment they respectively draw from it. To keep up our comparison with the animal kingdom, we may liken our grain crops to our cattle and .horses, which are gross feeders, and consume a large quantity of food ; and our grass and roots to sheep and swine, which consume less, which thrive on comparatively scanty and coarse fare, and in a measure requite us for their food, by their intrinsic value, and by the fertility which they impart to the soil. The hog and the sheep, the grass and the roots, will live upon the pasture or soil which will not sustain the more gross feeders — the grain and the cattle — yet, like the latter, they will only thrive well when well fed. CROPPING AND MANURING. 189 Von Thaer, who has not, perhaps, his superior m the practical and scientific business of farming any where, has turned his attention, for several years, to a series of experiments and observations, with a view to ascertain the degree of diminution or augmentation of fertility, which soils ordinarily experience from the culture of the principal farm-crops, and has combined the results of his observations in a series of tables. Although these do not possess perfect accuracy, for any thing hke this would be impossible from the nature of the inquiry, they never- theless serve as useful data to farmers who are anxious to preserve or to increase the fertihty of their soils, by ju- dicious rotations, and by applying all the means of fertility which the farm affords. "The vegetative power," says ' British Husbandry,' " is supposed to be in proportion to the quantity of hu- mus, (or soluble vegetable matter,) or mould, which is contained in the soil, and its consumption has been found to be regulated according to the amount of nutritive mat- ter consumed by the crops which are grown upon it. The degrees of exhaustion thus occasioned, have only been fixed by naturahsts with any degree of certainty, in so far as regards the usual species of cultivated grain and pulse ; for, as to the other products of the earth, although they have doubtless similar effects when similarly repeat- ed, yet those which consist of vegetable roots and grasses, and which are drawn from the land before they have per- fected their seed, are nevertheless — whether from the in- fluence attributed to their shade upon the soil, from sustenance drawn from the air and water, or from other causes with which we are not acquainted — only viewed as amehorating crops. Corn crops are, however, consid- ered respectively to exhaust in proportions which render the proportion of about 4| bushels of wheat equal to that of 6 bushels of rye, 8J of barley, and 12 of oats." "According to all the experiments which have been made, there is reason to suppose, however, that upon a soil of moderate fertility, an average crop of wheat em- poverishes the land to the extent of 40 per cent., while one of rye only produces that effect as far as 30. Al- 190 THE EFFECTS OF though barley is more exhausting than oats, yet, upon strong land, in a less perfect state of culture, the latter produces proportionably larger crops, consequently ab- sorbs more nutriment ; and, for this reason, they may be both stated at 25 per cent. " The exhaustion by these crops is proportionably re- paired, and the land is restored to its former nutritive powers, in three ways, namely — " By the application of putrescent manure ; according to its quantity and quality. ''By the ground being left a certain time under pasture ; according to the number of stock which it can support. '' By the operation of a summer fallow ; according to the manner in which it is performed." Von Thaer considers the exhaustion by grain crops in the following relative proportions : — Wheat 4 degrees, rye SJ, barley 2^, oats ly%-, per bushel of product ; that upon poor soils, whose original fecundity is 40, according to the scale given in the preceding chapter, a fallow adds 10 degrees to its fertility, pasture 20, and 8 tons of ma- nure, of ordinary quality, 50 degrees — so that the manure and fallow, or manure and pasture, add 60 or 70 degrees, and are more than sufficient to double what the crop would have been without them. Without them, a crop of rye would have yielded but five bushels per acre ; with them, the yield would be 7 J to 10 bushels. A fallow is bene- ficial, not only on account of the fertihzing properties it may draw from the atmosphere, and by the influence of working the land, but from the weeds and vegetable mat- ters which it buries in the soil. Pasture is fertilized by the droppings of the stock, and the rich sward it gives to the plough and to the tilled crop. In the two following tables, the journal^ which is about two thirds of an English acre, is the measure of land ex- perimented upon. The schiffel is more than a bushel and a half, Winchester measure. These tables are pre- dicated upon accurate experiments, and show the aug- mentation or diminution of fertility, caused by the crops, the manures, the pasture, and the fallow. CROPPING AND MANURING. 191 TRIENNIAL SYSTEM. Fecundity, \yiu^o u/iiUf ui/U/ii/Uii vo. •Augmentation. Diminution. Fallow, 10 deg. 6 4-10 loads of manure, 67 deg. Rye, 6 schiffels. 30 deg. Barley, 6 do. 21 deg. Fallow, . . . 10 deg. Rye, 3J schifFels, . 171 deg. Oats, 4 do. . 10 deg. Fallow, light folded, 28 deg. Rye, . . . . 20 deg. Oats, . . . . lOi deg. 115 deg. 109 deg. By which course, land would gain six degrees of fer- tility in nine years, provided the manure was that of well- fed cattle ; but if principally straw, it probably would oc- casion no amendment. ALTERNATE SYSTEM. Fecundity. Crops and manures. Augmentation. Diminution. 9 loads of dung. 90 deg. Potatoes,* 80 schiffels. 10 deg. 30 deg. Barley, 9 do. 31ideg. Peas, .... 10 deg. 3| loads of manure, . 37i deg. Rye, 8 schifFels, 40 deg. Clover, mown. 12 deg. Pasture, 20 deg. Oats, 11 schifFels, . 27i deg. 169i deg. 139 deg. * The augmentation of fertility is here added, because of the culture bestowed upon the potatoes as a fallow crop, the value of which is considered equal to 10 degrees. 192 THE EFFECTS OF This course would augment the fertility of the soil, in eight years, SOJ degrees, besides producing crops of superior value. This increase is owing to the clover and pasture, and the additional quantity, as well as su- perior quality of the dung, made by cattle fed upon roots and clover. Land is progressively improved by the pro- duction of good crops, consumed upon the farm, and the manure which they supply, if the latter is properly hus- banded and applied. This will be rendered still more apparent by the fol- lowing summary of four different rotations actually carried into effect, and each consisting of 120 journals, or equal to 76.1.6 11-5 acres English, and bearing the crops here mentioned, after deducting the seed. No. 1. Courses of crops. Product per journal. Fallow dunged. Rye, .... 8 J schiffels. Barley, .... 8J do. Oats, .... 8 do. Clover and mown, . . 14 centnus.* Ditto pasture two years, together with 170 journals of extra meadow and sheep-pasture. No. 2. Oats upon pasture ley, . 12 schiffels. Fallow dunged. Rye, . . . . 10 do. Barley, .... 10 do. Rye, .... 5 do. Clover and mown, . . 20 centnus. Ditto pastured two years, together with 100 journals of extra pasture meadow, dunged. No. 3. Potatoes, ... 87 schiffels. Barley, .... 12 do. Clover, .... 24 centnus. * The centnu is 103 lbs. English. CROPPING AND MANURING. 193 Oats, . . . . 14 schiffels. Peas, . . . . 6 do. Rye, . . . . 10 do. Tares, .... 20 centnus. Rye, .... 9 schiiFels. Meadow dunged, . . 15 centnus. Besides 100 journals sheep-pasture. No. 4. Oats upon pasture ley, . 14 schiffels. Fallow, sown both before and after with winter and spr fodder, Rye, Peas, Rye, Potatoes, Barley, Clover mown, . ng tares for 20 centnus. 10 schiffels. 6 do. 9 do. 87 do. 12 do. 24 centnus. Ditto pastured with sheep 2 years. Meadow, 150 journals dunged, 15 centnus. The produce of these several crops, both in fodder and manure, as well as in grain, and the profit gained by feeding of stock, were then summed up, and being calcu- lated according to the price of grain, were reduced to schiffels of rye, from which were deducted the charges of cultivation, thus affording a parallel between the dif- ferent courses, as follows : — o Product of straw. Produce of fod- der, reduced in wt. to an esti- mate in hay. Manure. Profit on cattle. Profit of grain. Nett balance. Centnus. Centnus. Centnus. Schiffels. Schiffels. Schiffels. 1 4173 2936 14219 992 1948 1869 2 6464 4650 22228 1651 2958 3028 3 7916 9120 29272 2430 2960 3458 4 10973 12315 41791 3178 4323 5188 It appears from these results, that the fertility of the soil, and the consequent profits of the farm, were in- creased. 17 XV. 194 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. First. In proportion to the augmentation of manure, by reason of meadow, green crops, and roots ; Secondly. In proportion to the increased ratio which the above-named crops and pasture bear to the grain crops. And, Thirdly. In proportion to the amount of pasture. And it will be further seen, that the courses were profitable, and the fertility of the soil increased, in propor- tion as green, leguminous, and root crops were alternated with grain crops — the two first, and least profitable courses, giving three grain crops in successive years — the third course intervening clover, peas, or tares between the grain crops — and the fourth and most profitable course alter- nating dry, green, leguminous, and root crops, followed by clover mown or pastured three years. The inference from these experiments, made by one of the most intelligent and careful of men, is, that if we would preserve or increase the fertility of our lands, and thus augment the profits of our labor, we should not sow dry crops for two successive years, upon the same field — but alternate them, as far as practicable, with roots, legumens, green crops, meadow, and pasture. The reader will find these matters more largely treat- ed of in 'British Husbandry,' and particularly in Von Thaer's works on agriculture. CHAPTER XX. RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. We shall now proceed to offer some rules and sugges- tions in husbandry, of general application, to enable far- mers, and particularly novices in the business, to judge of the character and qualities of their soil, — of its adaptation to particular crops, — of the causes of deterioration, — and of the means of perpetuating its fertility ; or, if worn out or empoverished, of restoring it to its primitive vigor. These facts or suggestions form a sort of synopsis, or RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 195 epitome, of what has been stated in the preceding essays of the principles and practice of the New Husbandry. Though they may not in all cases fully apply, they will in the main, we believe, be sound and useful. 1. The essential elements of a good soil, are sand, clay, lime, and organic matter. Magnesia, iron, and vari- ous other minerals and salts, are often found blended with the preceding ; but in general they are not considered as exercising a great influence upon its fertility, except they exist in more than ordinary proportions. 2. The presence of sand, clay, and vegetable matter in a soil, is deemed indispensable to all crops ; and lime, in some of its forms, is considered indispensable to wheat, and perhaps some other crops, and prejudicial to none, where it is in moderate quantity. 3. The presence of sand and clay is readily detected by the experienced eye ; that of vegetable matter by the consistence and color of the soil ; and that of carbonate of lime, or calcareous earth, by drying a portion of soil, and pouring upon it some acid, as the muriatic, or even strong vinegar. If it contain any considerable portion of carbonate of lime, effervescence will take place, and the carbonic acid be expelled by the application. The pro- portions in the elements of a soil are ascertained by chem- ical analysis. 4. Sand is the most essential in the earthy ingredients of soils, and most predominates in them, though where it exceeds eighty-two per cent, the soil is virtually barren, for it is then too porous to retain long either moisture or manure. Clay is next in importance and proportion ; but when it greatly preponderates, the soil becomes stubborn, is hard to be worked, is too retentive of moisture, too im- pervious to atmospheric influence, and is more or less un- productive. Lime exists in the smallest proportion, and is least essential of the three common earths, and from two to four per cent, of the upper tillable stratum is all that is deemed essential to the growth and maturity of any crop. When lime is in excess it induces barrenness, though calcareous soils are considered conducive to the health of the neigh- 196 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. borhood, imbibing or neutralizing, like chlorine, the im- purities of the atmosphere. Organic matter, that is, vege- table or animal, is indispensable in a soil. It is the food of plants. Yet even this is often found in excess, as in peat, and in too highly manured grounds, and is often insoluble, or infertile, till mixed with larger portions of earthy mat- ters, or brought in contact with fermenting materials. 5. When there is perceived to be a deficiency of sand, of clay, or lime in a soil, the defect may be remedied, and permanent improvement effected, by an admixture of the deficient element or elements. When there is an ex- cess of ehher, it can only be remedied by a similar but more tedious process. Thus a load of clay, properly blended with an arid sand, — or a load of sand mixed with a stubborn clay, or a few bushels of mild lime, or marl, or ashes, upon a soil deficient in calcareous earth, often prove of more ultimate service than a load of barn-yard manure. But, 6. Both lime and dung, the latter in far the greatest proportion, are taken up and consumed by the growing crop ; and if the crops are not consumed upon the field, so that their principal elements return again directly to the soil, the land must be periodically replenished with them, or it will soon become deficient in these elements of fertility. 7. The sand and clay of the soil may be hkened, in their offices, to the stomach of the animal — the recipient of food ; the lime and salts to the gastric juices, which facihtate the digestive process in the animal stomach, and to the condiments, as salt, &c., which we employ to stim- ulate the digestive organs and promote health ; and the organic matters in the soil to the food which feeds and fattens the animal. 8. If the crops grown upon a soil are permitted to de- cay upon, and return again to it, its fertility will not be diminished, but rather improved. It is upon this princi- ple that the Flemings have converted sterile lands into fer- tile ones. They plant the larch, and in a few years the soil becomes so enriched by the foliage of the trees, as to afford, after the wood is cleared off, tolerable crops, and RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 197 the nucleus of greater improvement. But when the crop is carried off, and nothing returned, deterioration must take place — the food for the vegetables must undergo a continual diminution. This is a plain exposition of the cause of hnds^ wearing out ; and at the same time of the means of preventing their wearing out. 9. All the elements of a good soil being present, its fertility, and consequent profit, will in a measure depend upon its exemption from an excess of water, which, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad master. This excess may arise from spouts and springs bursting up from below, — from surface-waters, where the ground is level, or near- ly so, settling and reposing upon a tenacious soil or sub- soil, or from waters flowing from higher grounds. Hence the importance of draining. We do not know of any farm-crop which thrives upon a soil habitually wet, either upon the surface, or within the natural range of the roots. Water meadows and rice grounds profit by periodical floodings, but they are injured by habitual wetness. 10. Fertility depends much, also, upon the quality and properties of the subsoil. If this is bad, or comes too near the surface, its faults may be corrected by furrow- draining, and the trench or subsoil plough, or by bringing it up, in small portions at a time, or during a course of crops, to the ameliorating influence of the atmosphere, and incorporating it with the upper stratum, or proper soil. 11. If a soil, under good management, does not return good crops, or if the crops are found annually to diminish, it is a sure indication that there is a deficiency in some of the primary elements of a good soil, that the subsoil has a malign influence, or that there is an excess of water. It is the province of the manager to seek out the cause of the evil, and to apply the proper remedy, be it lime, manure, drainage, or deeper tilth. In doing this, a knowl- edge of natural science will be found of great advantage. 12. The small-grain crops are the greatest exhausters of the fertility of the soil, on account of their narrow system of leaves, which draw sparingly from the atmosphere, and the large portion of nutriment they extract from it to 17* 198 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. mature their seeds. The remark extends to the narrow- leaved grasses, converted into hay, when they are permit- ted to ripen their seeds in the field. 13. Indian corn, tobacco, and beans maybe embraced in the second class of exhausting crops ; for, although they have broad leaves, and derive much nourishment from the atmosphere, they are nevertheless gross feeders, bulky crops, and leave very httle upon the soil to compensate for what they take from it. But great economy in dung may be effected by feeding these crops with the long manure of the yards and stables, instead of summer-yarding it, as many farmers are wont to do. These crops will feed upon what is otherwise lost in the yard, — the gaseous matters of the dung. These afford exactly what the crops named want, and at the time they want it. 14. Roots come next in the order of exhausting crops ; but they in part compensate for what they take from the soil by the ameliorating influence they have upon it, pulver- izing and freeing it from weeds — by their roots and the culture they demand. 15. Green crops, that is, clover, buckwheat, rye, oats, turnips, and even weeds before they seed, ploughed un- der as food for plants in their green^ succulent state, are enriching crops, and powerful auxiliaries in keeping up the fertility of the farm ; but they are too seldom resorted to for this purpose. 16. Depasturing with cattle, and particularly with sheep, enriches a soil. According to Von Thaer, it adds 20 per cent, to the fertility of an ordinary soil, that is, in five years it will double its fecundity. This results from the fact, that the crop is returned to the soil in the drop- pings and stale of the animals which crop it. 17. Not only do different crops tend to exhaust differ- ent properties of the soil, denominated their specific food — but different crops, in consequence of their different systems of roots, draw their food from different portions of the soil : the fibrous-rooted from near the surface, and the tap-rooted from below, and partially from the sub- soil, into which a portion of the humus is carried down by the rains, and into which the tap-roots penetrate to obtain it. RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 199 18. Lime and clay are essential in a wheat soil. In- dian com delights in a rich, dry, sandy loam, and makes a good return on light sands, provided it is well fed, that is, well dunged. Turnips excel on dry, sandy soils, though ruta baga requires that they be rich. Barley does best on loams in which there is considerable clay, as do the beet and pea. Oats and potatoes find a congenial home in rich, moist grounds, though for the latter the surface stra- tum should be light and mellow. Of the grasses, the tap- rooted, as the clover, lucerne, &c. require a deep soil, per- meable to their roots, and free from water ; the fibrous- rooted, as the tall oat, orchard-grass, &c. thrive upon soils that are dry and shallow ; and the rough-stalked meadow, bent, and some of the festuca and agrostis fami- lies, are congenial to, and often natural in, moist or swampy grounds. The timothy, the herds-grass of the Eastern states, our main dependance for winter forage, adapts its habits, it is said, to its location — being fibrous-rooted upon dry, and bulbous-rooted upon moist grounds — and therefore suited to either. 19. The natural fertility of a farm cannot ordinarily be kept up, or increased, where arable and mixed husbandry prevail, from the resources of the farm and cattle, without a resort to an alternation or change of crops. Although the diminution of fertility may be imperceptible for a time, — and although some soils seem naturally and peculiarly adapted to certain crops, — yet the stock of humus or of specific food is constantly diminishing, and will ultimately fail, if the same crop, or class of crops, is grown upon the same ground in successive years. Whether, according to the theory of De Candolla and Malcaire, the excrementi- tious matter thrown into the soil by the growing crop is poisonous to its species ; or whether, as we maintain, each species requires and exhausts, wholly or partially, a specific food in the soil, suited to its particular wants, — we will not stop now to inquire ; but it is a fact established by general experience, that an annual change of crops upon a field, while under tillage, tends very much to economize its fertility, and to increase the profits of the labor bestowed upon it. Hence, 200 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 20. It has been laid down as a sound rule in farming, that two white, or grain, or culmiferous crops, should not be made to succeed each other in the same field ; but that each of these should be alternated with, or preceded and followed by, a green, a grass, a root, or a leguminous crop. 21. Where the soil of a farm will admit of it, a good course is to alternate, — 1. roots or Indian corn, with long manure upon the sod ; 2. grain, with grass-seeds ; 3. grass for two years ; or, grass one year ; 4. grain and grass-seeds upon the first furrow ; and, 5. and 6. meadow and pasture. The poorer, or more sandy the soil, the oftener should it be returned to grass, particularly to clo- ver and pasture. 22. Geologists refer to three distinct formations, as constituting the crust of the earth — the primitive, as con- taining little lime and no organic remains ; the transition^ containing lime and organic remains ; and the secondary, abounding extensively in both these elements of fertility. Their natural relative fertility is in the reverse order in which they are named, the secondary being best, and em- bracing most of the great basin of the Mississippi, and the country drained by its tributary streams. We say noth- ing of alluvial formations, made by the ocean and rivers. These deposits partake of the character of the country from whence they are brought, and are more or less fer- tile, according to the fertility of the districts from which their soil is derived, and the force of the currents by which the deposits have been made, — a rapid current leaving only the coarser and heavier materials, while the finer and richer matters subside where the current is slow and less agitated. 23. The three great formations which we have men- tioned, possess, it is well known, characteristics differing from each other. They grow, naturally, many plants peculiar to each, and they are adapted to difl^erent branch- es of husbandry, and to diiferent farm-crops. The primitive will not generally grow good wheat ; but is suited to grass, oats, potatoes, &c. The transition is adapted to natural grasses, and to most of the arable crops, particularly to the cereal class ; and the secondary RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 201 to the cultivated grasses, to roots, and particularly to wheat.* 24. There are other circumstances, in regard to the location of a farm, which demand the consideration of the master, which refer to latitude and elevation. Plants have their natural zone, or climate, beyond which they do not grow, or thrive but imperfectly. There is a differ- ence in every degree, or seventy miles, of latitude, upon tide-water, of five or six days, in the forwardness of nat- ural vegetation in the spring, and nearly a like difference in the blighting indications of autumn. But what is of equal importance, but less generally regarded, is the dif- ference in climate produced by altitude. Three hundred feet of elevation is considered equal to one degree of lat- itude, in its influence upon temperature. Hence it does not follow, that because a crop will thrive and ripen in a given latitude upon tide-water, it will thrive and ripen well in the same latitude at a higher elevation. On the contrary, to be better understood, we say, that, other things being ahke, the climate on tide-water, in latitude 42°, is similar to that of a place three hundred feet eleva- ted above tide-water in latitude 41°, or of a place nine hundred feet above tide-water in latitude 39° ; so that the table-land of Mexico, in latitude 16°, at an elevation of seven thousand eight hundred feet above the ocean, * An able writer in the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, in reference to these formations, terms the primitive, which it seems comprises the most elevated lands in Scotland, the region of heath and coarse herbage ; the transition, the natural region of the grasses ; and the secondary, the region of the cultivated grasses, and particularly adapted to arable and alternate husbandry. He assigns to each a par- ticular and distinct breed of cattle. To the first, or higher region, a thick-haired, small, hardy breed ; to the second, or middle region, those of large size ; and to the third, or lower region, those that are more sensitive to cold, gross feeders, and that acquire the greatest weight. He then goes on to show, from numerous examples, that the several breeds are the most profitable in the several districts assigned them ; and that they have been manifestly improved, in most cases, by a judi- cious cross with the improved short horns. There is much good sense in the writer's remarks ; and although the description of the three for- mations does not fully apply in the United States, the remarks as to the influence of altitude or climate, upon different breeds of domestic animals, are entitled to high consideration. 202 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. should possess about the same mean temperature, and produce the same natural and artificial growth, as Kings- ton, upon the Hudson, though the extremes, both of heat and cold, are probably greater at the northern than they are at the southern point.* These data are assumed from recollection, and may not be precisely correct. 25. The means of preserving, and of augmenting, the fertihty of the soil, are sufficiently indicated in the pre- ceding suggestions. They consist mainly in manuring, * "All the western part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz," says Humboldt, in his New Spain, " forms the declivity of the Cordilleras of Anahuac. In the space of a day, the inhabitants descend from the regions of eternal snow to the plains in the vicinity of the sea, where the most suffocating heat prevails. The admirable order with which different tribes of vegetables rise one above another, by strata as it were, is nowhere more perceptible than in ascending from the port of Vera Cruz to the table-land of Perote. We see there the physiogno- my of the country, the aspect of the sky, the form of plants, the fig- ures of animals, the manners of the inhabitants, and the kind of culti- vation followed by them, assume a different appearance at every step of our progress. " As we ascend, Nature appears gradually less animated, the beauty of the vegetable forms diminishes, the shoots become less succulent, and the flowers less colored. The aspect of the Mexican oak quiets the alarms of a traveller newly landed at Vera Cruz. Its presence de- monstrates to him that he has left behind him the zone so justly dread- ed by the people of the north, under which the yellow fever exercises its ravages in New Spain. This inferior limit of oaks warns the colonist who inhabits the central table-land how far he may descend towards the coast, without dread of the mortal disease of the vomito. Forests of liquid amber, near Xalapa, announce by the freshness of their verdure that this is the elevation at which the clouds, suspended over the ocean, come in contact with the basaltic summits of the Cordilleras. A little higher, near la Bandarila, the nutritive fruit of the banana-tree comes no longer to maturity. In this foggy and cold region, therefore, want spurs on the Indian to labor, and excites his industry. At the height of San Miguel, pines begin to mingle with the oaks, which are found by the traveller as high as the elevated plains of Perote, where he be- holds the delightful aspect of fields sown with wheat. Eight hundred metres higher, (two thousand six hundred feet,) the coldness of the climate will no longer admit of the vegetation of oaks ; and pines alone cover the rock, whose summits enter the zone of eternal snow. Thus in a few hours the naturalist, in this miraculous country, ascends the whole scale of vegetation, from the heliconiaand the banana-plant, whose glossy leaves swell out into extraordinary dimensions, to the stunted parachyma of the resinous trees." RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 203 draining, the admixture of earthy materials, and the aher- nation of crops. 26. Stable and fold-yard dung is most profitably applied in an unfermented, or partially fermented state, and to hoed and autumn-ripening crops. Fermentation dimin- ishes the fertilizing properties of manure. If this ferment- ation takes place in the soil, the gases, the volatile por- tion which first escapes from the putrefying mass, are retained in the mould, and serve to feed the crop. If fermentation takes place in the yard, or upon the surface, the gases are wasted, and the dung undergoes further loss from the rains which ordinarily leach it. Long ma- nure should be spread broadcast, and well buried by the plough. 27. Short manure, or that which has undergone fer- mentation, is most beneficial when harrowed in, upon arable lands, or spread upon the surface of grass grounds. 28. Old meadows may be kept in a productive state, in ordinary cases, by a triennial top-dressing with manure or compost ; or may be renovated, and restored to a pro- ductive state, by the modes recommended in the essay which follows, Chapter XXI. 29. Composts are economical, when made to absorb fertilizing liquids which would otherwise be wasted — or to decompose inert vegetable matter, as peat-earth, &c. 30. Lime, gypsum, marl, and ashes are powerful aux- iliaries, when applied to proper soils, or suitable crops. Observation and experience will be the best guides in their application. They should all be appUed to the surface, or but superficially covered. 31. All vegetable and animal matters constitute the food of plants, when they are rendered soluble, or capable of being dissolved in the water of the soil. 32. Bone-dust, horn-shavings, poudrette, woollen rags, urine, and animal carbon, or burnt bones, are concentrated manures, and should be used sparingly and with great care, upon or near the surface of the soil. Pigeons' and hens' dung partake much of the character of the prece- ding, and require precaution in their use. We think the best mode of applying the two first named, is to mix ashes 204 ON THE IMPROVEMENT with them, or long manure, just before they are put upon the soil, whereby they are brought speedily into a state of fermentation and decomposition. 33. The best guards against drought, are keeping the soil deep, rich, clean, and mellow on the surface. 34. The more cattle that are well kept upon a farm, the more manure ; the more manure there is applied, the greater the product and the profit, and the greater the means of sustaining an increased stock of animals upon it. All of these advantages are increased when root crops are made to enter largely into the system of culture. CHAPTER XXI. ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. Although the alternation of grass and grain crops, in connexion with the rearing of cattle, is deemed most prof- itable, on soils and in situations which will admit of this kind of husbandry, yet there are many situations in which this alternate change cannot be carried into effect with- out manifest prejudice to the interests of the cultivator. There are some soils so natural to grass, as to yield an nndiminished product for many years, almost without la- bor or expense. There are others, upon the banks of streams, which periodically overflow, which it is prudent to keep in grass, lest the soil should be worn away by the rapid flow of waters. Besides, fertility is kept up 'Upon these last, by the annual deposit of enriching materi- als. Others, again, are too precipitous, or too strong, to admit of arable culture. Nor should we conceal the fact, that it is still a controverted point, whether rich, stiff clays are not most profitable, when permanently appropriated to jgrass. Whatever causes prevail, the fact is indisputable, that a considerable portion of our lands is, and will con- tinue to remain, in meadow and pasture. It is with the view to aid the farmer in correcting the defects which jnay exist in such grounds, and in improving and keeping OF GRASS LANDS. 205 them in condition, that we ofier the following suggestions. And, first, § 1 . Of Pastures. The evils that are experienced in pasture grounds, are, the gradual disappearance of the best grasses ; the growth of mosses and w^eeds in their stead ; and the prevalence of coarse herbage, which cattle reject, in situations where there exists a superabundance of moisture. Wherever there are stagnant waters, as upon flat surfaces that abound in springs, or which have a superficial soil upon a tena- cious subsoil, the herbage is not only mainly rejected by the stock, but the pasture is unhealthy, particularly to sheep ; but it is remarked, that if the water is in continued motion, as is generally the case upon the declivities of hills and mountains, ill consequences do not so often re- sult. To remedy the evils we have enumerated, and to im- prove the value of pasture grounds, one or more of the following expedients may be resorted to, viz., sowing and harrowing in grass-seeds, scarifying, bushing, draining, manuring, top-dressing with marl, lime, or ashes. Grass-seed may be sown either in September or April, followed by the harrow, and, if practicable, by the roller. The harrow partially extirpates the mosses, breaks and pulverizes the surface, and buries the seeds ; and the roller presses the earth to the seeds, and smooths the surface. The bush harrow is to be preferred. This may be con- structed by interweaving some strong, but pliant branches of trees through the open squares of a heavy harrow, which thus forms an efficient brush, and when drawn over the groimd performs its duty perfectly during a short distance ; but the branches, being pressed close, and worn by the motion, soon become so flat as not to have the effect of spreading the earth thrown upon the surface by earth- worms, ground-mice, or ants. It is therefore recom- mended, in ' British Husbandry,' as a better mode, to fix the branches upright in a frame, placed in the front part of the carriage of the roller ; by which means they can be so placed as to sweep the ground effectually, and when 18 XV. 206 ON THE IMPROVEMENT worn, can be moved a little lower down, so as to contin- ue the work with regularity. This operation also com- pletely breaks and scatters the manure dropped on the field by the stock, and particularly incorporates it with the surface-mould. Scarifying is cutting the sod and loosening the surface. Concklin's press-harrow (fig. 34) is a suitable implement for this purpose. We also subjoin the drawing of an implement constructed for this purpose, which we take from ' British Husbandry,' calculated to be drawn by a one or two-horse team. Fig. 40. This implement is intended to cut the sod perpendicu- larly so far down as to sever the roots of the grass, which occasions it to throw out fresh roots. It slices the sod, without tearing it, and should be constructed with a num- ber of very sharp coulters, fixed into a cross-beam at such distances as may be thought advisable, from six inches to a foot, and of a width according to the strength intended to be employed in drawing it. The blades should be occasionally whetted to preserve their edge, and the im- plement should be used when the ground is in a moderate state of moisture, and the grass short. If the land is poor, or moss-bound, it may be passed crosswise also. It is best adapted to moist clays, which do not contain stones or gravel. It is advantageously used to precede the sowing of grass-seeds. The foot- wheel is to regulate the depth of the work. Draining improves the quality of the herbage, and marhng, liming, or ashing increases the quantity. It is remarked, that animal dung, when dropped on coarse OF GRASS LANDS. 207 pastures, produces little or no benefit ; but when calcare- ous matters have been laid upon the surface, the finer grasses soon take possession of it. Bushing, that is, drawing over the ground tops or heavy branches of trees, tends to extirpate moss, loosens the surface to atmospheric influence, and covers grass-seeds which may be sown previous to the operation. Manures are seldom applied to pastures, especially with us ; but, apphed in the form of compost, as a top-dressing, they are decidedly serviceable. Gypsum and spent ashes may be apphed whh undoubted benefit in most cases. Upland pastures have been greatly improved in Scotland, according to Sinclair, by drawing surface-drains diago- nally across the face of the hills. The herbage is ren- dered more palatable and wholesome, and the waters are prevented from accumulating so as to cut gullies and chasms in the hill-sides. It need hardly be added, that bushes, thistles, and other perennial weeds obstruct the growth of grass, and that they ought to be carefully extirpated ; and that surface stones diminish the herbage in proportion to the extent of surface which they occupy. These, then, should be converted into walls, one of the most economical fences, if well laid, because the most permanent, that can be constructed. The weeds that infest pasture grounds are mostly bien- nials or perennials. If these are cut two or three times in a season, at the surface of the ground, they will die. Leaves are as essential to vegetable, as lungs are to ani- mal life. Divested of these elaborating organs, the vitali- ty of the vegetable is soon destroyed. Our pasture grounds are generally left to take care of themselves ; but there is no doubt that expense bestowed upon their improvement, in some of the modes above suggested, would be profitably laid out. Their value depends upon the quality and quantity of the herbage which they afford. The quality is in a great measure determined by the exemption of the soil from stagnant waters, the quantity by the richness of the soil, and its exemption from moss, bushes, weeds, stones, and other surface obstructions ; for if these are eradicated or re- 208 ON THE IMPROVEMENT moved, it is presumed the nutritious grasses will occupy their places. §2. Of Meadows. The crop being here annually carried off, it becomes a matter of necessity, if the field is to be kept permanent- ly in grass, to apply manure occasionally, if we would prevent a diminution of product. It is affirmed, that a perfectly thick bottom cannot be maintained on perma- nent meadows, in England, unless it is manured every second year. Gypsum will effect much here, upon dry soils, though there its effects are equivocal ; but gypsum alone will not suffice here. The average product upon our old grass lands will hardly exceed a ton and a half an acre. With a biennial or triennial top-dressing of dung or compost, where the sod is in good condition, it is beheved the average would be double. Meadows are subject to all the evils that are experi- enced in pastures, from mosses, wetness, and the dimi- nution of the finer grasses, besides the greater exhaustion of fertility consequent upon carrying off the annual growth ; and the same measures are best adapted to reno- vate them. Meadows are generally depastured after the hay has been taken off, and the rowen partially grown. " After the cattle have been removed," says an Enghsh writer, " the land is bush-harrowed and rolled.''^ It has been stated, though some question the fairness of the ex- periment, that the operation of heavy rolling has been found to add six or seven hundred weight of hay per acre to the produce of the crop.* The effect of pasturing meadows in the spring, upon the coming grass crop, has been a matter upon which farmers have differed — though all agree that heavy cattle should not be kept on so late in autumn, or put on so early in spring, as to injure the sole of the sod, by poach- ing it when in a wet state. Mr. Sinclair has stated, that a given space of the same quality of grass having been cut towards the end of March, and another space of equal size left uncut until the last week in April, the pro- * Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 88. OF GRASS LANDS. 209 duce of each having afterwards been taken at three dif- ferent cuttings, that of the space last cut exceeded the former in the proportion of three to two ; and in one in- stance, during a dry summer, the last-cropped space ex- ceeded the other as nearly two to one.* It is generally conceded, that it is better to feed off rowen, than to cut it as a second crop. But when grass grounds can be alternated with arable crops, and where they are not periodically overflowed, or triennially dressed with compost or manure, we are de- cidedly of opinion that they should be subjected to the alternating system. A field well laid down in seeds, will give more grass the two first seasons, or in the three sea- sons following, than it will in the four seasons following these, unless it is overflowed, manured, or top-dressed. Besides, the grass ley, if turned under, greatly enriches the soil for a tillage crop ; — which, by its ameliorating tenden- cy, in pulverizing, opening it to atmospheric influence, and exposing a new surface, fits the soil again for the re- turn of the grasses. But the mere alternation of crops tends to preserve the fertihty of the soil. A great objection to the alternating system on clay grounds is, that it is difficult to make the grass-seeds take, the spring and autumn being generally too wet to obtain so complete a pulverization of the soil as will fit it for the reception of grass-seeds, — and of course, if sown then, they do not germinate and grow. Judge Van Bergen, of Greene County, New York, has adopted a practice which obviates these objections. He sows his grass-seeds with buckwheat, at midsummer, when the ground can be well worked. We have seen his fields, a stiff clay, of one, two, and three years' seeding, as well set with grass as we have seen on the most favored soils ; and, compared with adjoining meadows which had not been broken up, the crop was at least double. Where old grass-grounds are to be broken up, other than for a summer fallow, the first ploughing should be in autumn, in order that the vegetable matters of the sod may * Woburn Grasses, p. 389. 18* 210 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. undergo a partial decomposition in time to meet the wants of the spring crop, and that the soil may be exposed to the ameliorating influence of the winter frosts. Paring and burning, upon clay soils, would be of manifest advantage, not only in converting the sod speedi- ly into soluble matters, but in improving the condition of the soil itself. We long entertained a prejudice against this mode of improvement, on the ground that it de- stroyed much of the food of plants ; but we have been induced, in a measure, to change our opinion, from a conviction, that the food of plants is not annihilated, but rather concentrated, changed in its form, and rendered more available to the crop. This is seen in burning new fallows. Paring and burning produce a further benefit by destroying most of the seeds and roots of noxious or useless plants. " The objections to the division of a farm," says Sir John Sinclair, "one half into permanent grass, and the other half into permanent tillage, are not to be surmount- ed. The arable is deteriorated by the abstraction of the manure it produced, if applied to enrich the grass ; while the greater part of the manure thus employed is wasted ; for spreading putrescent substances upon the surface of a field, is to manure, not the soil, but the at- mosphere ; and is justly condemned as the most injurious plan that can be devised in an arable district. The mis- erable crops of corn produced where this system prevails sufficiently prove its mischievous consequences. So in- jurious is this mode of management, that, in the opinion of the most intelligent farmers, the landlord loses one fourth of the rent he might otherwise have got, from every acre thus debarred from cultivation, while the public loses 3j bushels of grain for every stone (14 lbs.) of beef or mutton thereby obtained." The complaint of the inferiority of the new over the old pasture herbage, originates, says Sinclair, either from the improper choice of seeds, or from giving them in too small quantities ; and he quotes the example of an emi- nent farmer, upon a clay farm, who stocked heavy with grass-seeds, and who always secured a thick coat of her- CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 211 bage the first year, which differed from old pasture only in being more luxuriant. There can be but Httle doubt, that grasses will grow more luxuriantly in a soil which has been recently meliorated by the plough and harrow, than in one which has remained undisturbed for years. The great difficulty is in getting the ground into proper condition to receive the seeds, and in getting them to begin to grow. CHAPTER XXII. ON THE CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. On the judicious selection and proper cultivation of grasses, materially depend the profits of the farmer. These constitute, directly, the principal food of his farm- stock ; and, indirectly, the food of his crops. If his grasses are abundant and nutritious, a greater number of domestic animals may be maintained, and the greater will be the returns they will make to the soil, in manure. A well-set sward is far more enriching to the soil, because it contains much more organic or vegetable matter, the food of plants, when ploughed under, than one that is thin and meager. A judicious selection comprises those kinds which are naturally best adapted to the soil. A proper cultivation consists in keeping them free from stagnant water, noxious weeds, and, if to remain long in meadow, in giving them a triennial top-dressing of manure or com- post. One acre of good grass will cut three tons of hay, or keep a cow, or, if in lucerne, will soil half a dozen cows five months in a year. Four acres of lean, poor grass will cut little more, if any, than three tons of hay, and will barely suffice to keep a cow. There is as much difference between good and bad grass lands, in regard to profit, as there is between a good and a bad field of corn or wheat. The common practice in this branch of husbandry has hitherto been wretchedly bad. Generally, and until late- ly, we have either altogether omitted to sow grass-seeds, 212 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. or have sown them so sparingly, or of so few kinds, that we have in a great measure lost much of the profit which they are calculated to afford. Timothy and red clover have been almost the only seeds sown ; and unless the soil has been prolific in indigenous kinds, our pastures have been thin, and our meadows light. There is one fact in regard to grasses which is not sufficiently known and appreciated. Different species subsist upon different specific properties of the soil, and draw their food from different strata, the fibrous-rooted gathering sustenance from the upper, and the tap-rooted from the lower stra- tum. And it has been found, that although a superficial square foot of turf will only supj)ort a given number of plants of one species, it will nevertheless support double or treble that number of plants comprising several spe- cies. We mean, by cultivated grasses, those of which the seeds are sown by the husbandman, whether indigenous, or natural to the soil, or exotic. And in discussing the subject, we shall consider them under two heads, and shall draw liberally for facts and illustrations from Lou- don and other approved agricultural writers. The divis- ions we propose are, — 1. Herbage plants, or those particularly fitted for al- ternate husbandry. 2. Cultivated grasses, or those best adapted for mead- ow and pasture. § 1 . Herbage Plants. Under this head, Loudon has embraced the clovers, lucerne, sainfoin, birdsfoot trefoil, parsley, burnet, rib- wort, plantain, broom, wall-flower, yarrow, &c. The six last are never cultivated among us as herbage or field plants ; the sainfoin, which is peculiarly adapted to chalk soils, has never been successfully cultivated among us, and the birdsfoot trefoil but partially. We shall therefore confine our remarks, in this department, to the clovers and lucerne. The cultivation of clovers and lucerne exclusively for five stock, is comparatively a modern improvement in CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 213 husbandry. These plants were not introduced into British husbandry until the sixteenth century. Their introduction among us, on any thing hke a general scale, was far more recent. Indeed, lucerne has hardly yet ob- tained a footing among us ; and a great many of our far- mers are yet strangers to the great advantages which the cultivation of the clovers imparts to farming operations. In Flanders, where husbandry underwent its earliest improvements after the feudal age, and where it is found now most to excel, the cultivation of clovers is deemed indispensable to profitable farming. It forms a part of the course in every system of rotation upon all soils that will grow it. Upon their cultivation, says Radchffe, hinges apparently the whole of the farmer's prosperity. " Without clover, no man in Flanders would pretend to call himself a farmer." Clover is used there as it should be used here — both to feed the animal and to enrich the soil. In Great Britain, clovers are considered alike in- dispensable to good farming, particularly upon sandy and other light lands. Their general introduction into Amer- ican husbandry promises higher advantages than have been derived from them in Europe, inasmuch as gypsum, which exerts a magic influence in their growth, produces a more uniformly beneficial effect in the United States than it does in Europe, excepting perhaps in the interior of Germany. Those districts in our country in which clover and plaster were first introduced, as some of the counties in the valley of the Hudson, and on the eastern border of Pennsylvania, have unquestionably made the most rapid strides in agricultural improvement, and are now confessedly, and by far, the best-cultivated districts of our country. Those who have followed their exam- ple, in whatever part of the country they have been loca- ted, are reahzing a rich reward for their intelligence and enterprise. Several counties might be named, which have doubled their agricultural products, and the profits of their agricultural labor, since the introduction of clo- vers and gypsum. No thorough-going farmer, we believe, who has given them a fair experiment, has voluntarily given them up. 214 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. The species of clover in cultivation are — 1. The common red clover, {Trifolium pratense,) a biennial, and sometimes, if not permitted to seed, a tri- ennial, known from the other species by its broad leaves, luxuriant growth, and reddish purple flowers. 2. The white, or creeping, or Dutch clover, (T. re- penSj) is a perennial plant, known by its creeping stems and white flowers ; and springing up, it would seem, al- most spontaneously, in most of our pastures and meadows. 3. The yellow clover, hop-trefoil, or shamrock clo- ver, (T. procumbens,) a biennial, known by its procum- bent shoots, yellow flowers, and black seeds. This species is not cultivated among us, though it seems to abound in the northern and middle States. 4. The cow-grass, meadow clover, or marl-grass, (T. ynedium of Linnseus, and resembling, says Beck, the T. Pennsylvanicum of Wild,) is a perennial, resembling the red clover, but of a paler hue, dwarfer habit, with pale red or whitish flowers, and long roots, very sweet to the taste. Whether what we term Southern Clover is the T. medium^ or T. Pennsylvanicum^ or a variety of the T. pratense, we shall leave it to botanists to settle, bare- ly remarking, that its time of flowering is usually ten to fourteen days earlier than that of the northern red clover. 5. Scarlet clover, (T. incarnatum.)) an annual, a na- tive of Italy, but little known or cultivated either in the United States or Great Britain. We have sown it twice on a limited scale ; and although it promised a handsome product, it did not attain its growth in time for a forage crop, or to mature its seeds. Of the species we have named, the pratense, repens, and medium, if the latter be a distinct species, are the only ones which are, or are likely to be, cultivated among us. The first yields the heaviest burden, but is coarser, and later in maturing than the last named ; and the lat- ter has consequently one manifest advantage over the former, — it will give two crops in a season, one to the scythe, and one for seed. It is to be remarked, that the first growth or crop of clover seldom produces much seed, on account of the heat of our mid-summer. If the first CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 215 crop of the large clover is not cut until it is in full blossom, the season hardly suffices for a second crop to mature its seed. The southern clover may be fed till the 20th June, or the first crop taken by the 25th or 28th, and the sec- ond or seed crop will come to perfect maturity, in ordi- nary seasons, before the autumnal frosts. The white clover is not sown to the extent it deserves to be. Being a perennial plant, and grateful to all kinds of farm-stock, its continuance in meadow and pasture grounds renders it highly valuable, both for hay and grazing. It does not seem to intrude upon the taller grasses, but will occupy every vacant space, and add essentially to the value of the crop. It is universally valued and admired ; then why not sow it more generally } The soil best adapted to the growth of red clover, ( T. pratense and T. medium^) to which we shall hereafter con- fine our remarks, is a deep, sandy loam, or other soils which will admit freely the long tap-roots to extend down- wards ; but they will grow in any soil, provided it be dry. Calcareous soils are also peculiarly congenial to clover ; and the application of gypsum upon soils sensitive to its influence, will call into action the seeds, which before would seem to have lain dormant, for want of this stimu- lus, or specific food. The usual time of sowing clover-seed is in the spring, if with a spring crop, before the last harrowing ; or upon winter grain in March or April, when the field will bear cattle without poaching the ground, followed by a light harrow or roller. Let no one fear to injure his grain by harrowing it in the spring. The harrow or roller efi:ects a material benefit, by breaking the crust which is gener- ally perceptible on the appearance of dry weather, in the spring, closing the innumerable cracks which are caused by the contraction of the soil, and in pressing down, and even covering the crowns of the plants. Harrowing win- ter grain in the spring has long been a general practice in tlie north of Germany, and the practice would not have been persisted in had it not been found beneficial. Clo- ver-seeds are sometimes sown with the autumn crop, in September or October ; though this practice is not to be 216 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. approved of, as the plants do not ordinarily obtain suffi- cient strength to withstand the severity of our northern winters. A better practice would be, we think, to sow with buckwheat in July. The plants would then have time to estabhsh themselves well in the soil. We, how- ever, think that spring sowing is to be preferred in the northern States. The quantity of seed to be sown on an acre, will de- pend upon the quality of the soil, the purpose to which the clover is to be apphed, and the quantity of other grass- seeds sown with it. As much of the seed sown upon stiff clays, or upon grounds not well pulverized, will not vegetate, for want of a continued supply of moisture, al- lowance should be made for the failure ; yet, upon these, and wet grounds, the main dependance, after the first year, is upon timothy or other grasses sown with the clo- ver. If the ground is intended for pasture, the varieties of seeds should be as extensive as possible, as the object is to obtain an abundance of food at all seasons, and to render the pasture perennial. The usual quantity of seed sown on the acre in the United States, is about ten pounds ; in Great Britain it is often increased to fourteen pounds ; while in Flanders six pounds is the medium quantity, though in the latter country the land is always in the best condition to receive it. The more plants that can be made to grow, the finer will be the herbage, and the greater the amount of vegetable matter afl:brded by the ley to the crop which is to follow. The after-culture of clover consists in freeing the sur- face 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 hme or ashes. The top- dressing is best applied in the spring, before the clover begins to grow. Upon lands annually dressed with plas- ter, a bushel is considered a sufficient dressing for an acre, though greater quantities are often apphed with ad- vantage. The making clover into hay is a process different from that of making hay from natural grasses. All herbage plants abound most in nutriment, and should be cut be- CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 217 fore the seeds are formed, and indeed before fully in blos- som, 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 counter- balanced, by obtaining an earlier, a more valuable, and more nutritious article ; while the next crop will be pro- portionably 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 proven- der 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 td the ground, in as uniform and perfect a manner as it is possible to accomplish, by the scythe kept constantly sharp. That part of the stem left by the scythe is not only lost, but the after-growth is neither so vigorous nor so weighty as when the first cutting is taken as low as possible. As soon as the grass is partially wilted, let the swath be gently turned over, but not spread or scattered. 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 mown after noon they may be turned before evening ; at which time those turned after dinner may be put into grasscocks. This last op- eration should be performed with care, and in this man- ner : — Three swaths are appropriated to a row of cocks. The laborer gathers a good forkfull, and deposits 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 deposit in the same way until the cock is brought to a point, at the height of four to five feet, according to the dryness of the clover, — the dryer this is, the higher the cock may be made. When completed, the grasscock is two to three feet broad at the ground, tapering to the apex, and the projecting ends of the herbage drooping, so 19 XV. 218 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. as to carry off the rain which may fall. The points to be regarded are, to cock before the leaves begin to crum- ble, not to suffer the dew to fall upon the dried surface of the swath, and to build the cocks so as completely to shed rain, should the weather be bad. These grasscocks may stand to advantage 36 or 48 hours, without any pre- judice, and should not be opened until there is a fair pros- pect of obtaining a few hours of good weather to com- plete the curing process. When this is the case, open the cocks as soon as the dew is off, spread them partially, from 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 be gathered for the barn. By this process of curing, the leaves are all pre- served, injury from dew and rain is in a great measure avoided, the stalks are better dried, and the appearance and value of the forage are retained in their highest perfec- tion. If rain is apprehended, after the grasscocks 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 there- fore it should not be shaken out, spread, or exposed often- er than is necessary for its preservation. The more the swath is kept unbroken, the more green and fragrant will be the hay. The advantage of curing clover in the cock is this, that when cured by being spread, the leaves and blos- soms are dry long before the stems are cured, or suffi- ciently dry ; so that either the stems must be housed be- fore they are properly cured, or, if made sufficiently dry by long exposure to the sun, the leaves and blossoms become too dry, crumble, and are lost. If in cock, all parts of the plant dry alike, the moisture in the mass is equahsed, and when gathered to the barn, there will scarcely be a leaf lost, while the stalks will be amply cured. A slight fermentation often takes place in the cocks, which, instead of doing any injury, is a benefit, as it prevents the hay from afterwards heating in the mow or stack. It is a good practice to sprinkle salt upon clover hay, when deposited in the barn, especially upon CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 219 the first loads brought in, not so much with the view of preserving the hay, as of seasoning it, and rendering it more palatable to the cattle. The secret of making good hay, says Low, is to pre- pare 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. The difference in quality, resulting from the mode of curing, is apparent from this fact, that well-cured clover, according to Loudon, is generally twenty per cent, higher in the London market than mead- ow hay, or clover and rye-grass mixed. As we have before remarked, clover will not perfect its seed in the early part of the season ; therefore it is necessary to take off the first growth, either as a hay crop, or by feeding it off, till June, and to depend for the seed upon those heads that are produced in autumn. The product in seed varies from two to five bushels an acre. When ripe, the heads are gathered, with or with- out the stems, threshed, and the seed separated from the chaflf in a clover-seed mill. The seed forms an article of substantial profit with many farmers, and amounts often to more than the rest of the crop. Assuming as an aver- age four bushels to the acre, and estimating it to be worth ten dollars a bushel, the acreable value would be forty dollars. The expense of threshing and cleaning is com- paratively trifling. The stems of the seed crop, if cured in the manner directed for clover hay, are of more value as fodder than straw, and constitute excellent litter for the stables and yards. When we take into consideration the value of the first crop for forage, and of the second crop for seed and lit- ter ; and consider, that while clover is one of the least exhausting crops to the soil, it returns more to it than almost any other crop, and benefits it mechanically by pulverizing and dividing it, by its tap-roots ; — if we take these several matters into consideration, together with the facts, that clover is admirably adapted to light, sandy 220 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. lands, to the alternate system of husbandry, and that its growth is wonderfully accelerated by gypsum — we shall not be surprised at the saying of the Flemings, that '' without clover, no man in Flanders would pretend to call himself a farmer ;" nor shall we be surprised at the uniform success which has attended its culture in the United States. Lucerne — JWedicago sativa^ L. Lucerne is a deep-rooted perennial plant, sending up numerous small and clover-like shoots, with blue or vio- let spikes of flowers. It is a native of the south of Eu- rope, is extensively cultivated in the south of Spain, Italy, France, Persia, and Lima, in the two latter being cut all the year round, — and is partially cultivated in Great Britain and the United States. With us it is often called French clover, and is found to be as hardy as red clover. It was extensively cultivated by the Romans, and com- mended by Columella, as the choicest of all fodder. Three quarters of an acre of it, he thought abundantly suf- ficient to feed three horses during the whole year. The soil for lucerne must be dry, friable, inclining to sand, and with a subsoil not inferior to the surface. Un- less the subsoil be good, deep, and dry, it is in vain to attempt to cultivate lucerne. A friable, deep, sandy loam is excellent for it. No land is too rich for it. The preparation of the soil consists in deep ploughing and minute pulverization. Loudon recommends trenching for it. But a good preparation is a potato crop, heavily dressed with long manure, the ground ploughed very deep, and the manure buried at the bottom of the furrow, and the crop kept perfectly free from weeds. The season most proper for sowing in the northern and eastern States is about the 1st to the 15th of May, when the ground has become sufficiently warmed to promote quick germination. The manner of sowing lucerne is either broadcast or in drills, and either with or without an accompanying crop. Broadcast, with a very thin cast of winter rye, is most generally preferred in the United States ; though drills, by enabling the cultivator to keep out grasses and weeds, CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 221 promise the greatest permanency to the crop. A gen- tleman, who has sown in drills, three feet apart, and cul- tivated alternate rows of mangel wurtzel with the lucerne, speaks in high commendation of the practice. Arthur Young recommends drilhng at nine inches. The quantity of seed, when the broadcast method is adopted, is from fifteen to twenty pounds ; in the United States, sixteen pounds is the usual quantity, — and when drilled, eight to twelve pounds suffices. The ground should be perfectly pulverized, the seed put in with a fine harrow, and the operation of sowing finished with the roller. The after culture of lucerne^ sown broadcast, consists in harrowing, in the spring, to destroy grass and weeds ; rolling, after harrowing, to smooth the soil for the scythe ; and such occasional top-dressings with gypsum, ashes, or rotted manure, as the plants may require, or the conve- nience of the farm best afford. The harrowing may com- mence the second year, and the weeds collected should always be carefully removed. In succeeding years, two harro wings may be applied, one in spring and the other in the latter part of the summer. If in drills the crop must be kept clean by the hoe, cultivator, &c. Liquid manure from the cattle-yard is an excellent manure for this crop. The taking of lucerne, by mowing, for soiling or hay, or by tethering, hurdling, or pasturing, may be consid- ered the same as for clover. Lucerne frequently attains a sufficient growth for the scythe from the 1 0th to the 20th May ; and in soils that are favorable for its culture, it will be in a state of readiness for cutting a second time in twenty or twenty-five days, being capable of undergo- ing the same operation, at nearly similar intervals of time, during the whole of the summer season. In the United States, in a good soil, it may be cut, for soiling, four, and sometimes five times in the season. The application of lucerne is, with us, generally for the purpose of soiling, with the exception sometimes of the last cutting. It is advantageously fed in its green state to horses, cattle, and hogs ; but as a dry fodder, it is also capable of affording much sustenance, and as an early food for ewes and lambs, may be of great value in par- 19* 222 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. ticular cases. All agree in extolling it as food for cows, whether in a green or dried state ; and it is said to be much superior to clover, both in increasing the milk and butter, and in improving their flavor. In its green state, care is necessary not to feed too much at a time, especially when moist, as cattle may become hoven or blown with it. It is a good precaution to cut it the day before it is used, and to let it wilt in the swath. When made into hay, lucerne should never be spread from the swath, but managed as directed for clover. It may be housed before perfectly dry, if it is alternated in the mow with layers of straw, which imbibe the superabundant juices, and thereby become grateful and nutritious to the farm-stock, when fed with the lucerne. Soiling is a term applied to the practice of cutting her- bage crops green, for feeding or fattening live stock. On all farms under correct management, a part of this crop is cut green for the working horses, often for milch cows, even when at pasture ; and in some instances, both for growing and fattening cattle. On small farms, this crop is of immense advantage, as affording a ready substitute for pasture. The produce of lucerne, cut three times in a season, has been stated from three to five, and even eight tons per acre. In soiling, one acre is sufficient for five or six cows during the soihng season.* * In the first volume of the Transactions of the Society for the Pro- motion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, we find a detailed state- ment of a series of experiments made by the late Chancellor Livings- ton, in 1791 to 1794, in cultivating lucerne, most of which proved unsuccessful. He sowed it mixed with clover-seeds, and by itself, on a variety of soils, at different seasons, and with oats, wheat, buck- wheat, barley, and turnips. These experiments warrant the following conclusions : — That the seeds should be sown on a dry, rich, deep soil, in May, when the earth is sufficiently warm to excite a quick germina- tion and growth ; that from 16 to 20 lbs. of seed should be sown on an acre, and the ground harrowed and rolled ; that " it is full as hardy as clover," and " better braves the biting frosts of spring, and keen autumnal blasts, than clover, or any cultivated grass of this climate ;" and that the profits of an acre may be estimated from $20 to $30 per annum. The following is Chancellor Livingston's account of the ex- pense and produce of the third year — this experiment being made on the fourth of an acre. " 1st April — manured with ten loads of black earth from a swamp, or at the rate of 40 loads to the acre. CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 223 One of our farmers has kept eight cattle (two oxen and six cows) upon an acre of lucerne, during the season, with a range of three or four acres of pasture. Say, how- ever, the produce is equal to a full crop of red clover in value, then, yearly for nine or ten years, (its ordinary duration in a productive state,) at an annual expense of harrowing and rolling, and a triennial expense of top-dres- sing, it will be of sufficient value to induce farmers, who have suitable soils, to lay down a few acres of this crop near their homesteads. To save seed, the lucerne may be treated precisely as red clover, i. e., obtained from the second cutting, or even the third, the crop being left to ripen its seed. It is easily threshed, the grains being contained in small pods, which readily separate under the flail, threshing-machine, or clover-mill. § 2. Cultivated Grasses. '' The forage, hay, and pasture grasses," says Lou- don, *'of which we are now about to treat, are found " It was very luxuriant, and cut twice before the 20th June, for plough-horses, kept in the stable — being, when they began to cut each time, about 16 inches high — the average height, taking the first and last cutting, each time, about 20 inches. On the 24th of July, cut and made into hay, produced 1000 lbs., or two tons to the acre. On the last of August cut a fourth time, produced 600 lbs., or 2400 to the acre. The fifth crop is not cut, but is now, the first of October, 20 inches high, and very promising in its appearance. If we have no severe frosts before the middle of this month, it will produce about 6 cwt. of hay. Produce and Expense of Acre JVo. 1. 40 loads of black earth from an adjoining swamp, at Is. per load, . . £2 00 00 Cutting five crops and making them into hay, at 8s. . 2 00 00 Tons. Cwt. Two first crops, valued at 5 cwt. each, or 2 Third crop in hay, .... 2 Fourth crop do. .... 1 4 Fifth, estimated at .... 1 6 4 6 tons 4 cwt. , at 2s. 6d £15 10 00 Expenses above, 4 00 00 Profit, £11 10 00 224 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. clothing the surface in every zone, attaining generally a greater height, with less closeness at the roots, in warm climates ; and producing a low, close, thick, dark green nutritive herbage, in the cooler latitudes. The best grass pastures are found in countries that have least cold in winter, and no excess of heat in summer, as in Ireland, England, Holland, and Denmark. In every zone, where there are high mountains, there are certain positions be- tween the base and summit, where, from the equilibrium of the temperature, turf may be found equal to that in marine islands." The universal presence of the forage grasses, and the rapidity with which all soils become covered with them, when left uncultivated, is the obvious reason why their selection and systematic culture are of but recent date. This branch of culture originated in England, about the middle of the seventeenth century, and at first embraced only rye-grass, was afterwards extended to cock's-foot, timothy, foxtail, &c. The Duke of Bedford made the latest and most laborious efforts towards attaining a knowl- edge of the comparative value of all the British and some foreign grasses worth cultivating. The result is given in the Appendix to Sir H. Davy's ^Agricultural Chem- istry^ and of which an abstract will be found at the close of this essay. With respect to the general culture of grasses, though no department of agriculture is more simple in the execu- tion, yet, from the nature of grasses, considerable judge- ment is required in the design. Though grasses abound in every soil and situation, yet all the species do not abound in every soil and situation indifferently. On the contrary, no class of perfect plants are so absolute and unalterable in their choice in this respect. The creep- ing-rooted and stoloniferous grasses will grow readily on moist soils ; but the fibrous-rooted species, and especially the more delicate upland grasses, require particular at- tention as to the soil in which they are sown ; for in many soils they will not come up at all, or die away in a few years, and give way to the grasses which would naturally spring up in such a soil, when left to a state of nature. CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 225 Hence in sowing down lands for permanent pasture, it is a good method to make choice of those grasses which thrive best in adjoining and similarly-circumstanced pas- tures for a part of the seed, and to mix with these what are considered the very best kinds. Although the catalogue of grasses, indigenous and for- eign, which are useful for forage, is numerous, yet the nmnber cultivated, or propagated artificially, is very hmited, and indeed it is but recently, not perhaps half a century, that we have been in the habit of sowing grass- seeds at all. The practice is however gaining, and it is reasonable to believe, that many species will ere long be advantageously cultivated, which have hitherto altogether escaped the notice of the farmer. We shall confine our remarks, at present, to those spe- cies which are cultivated, upon a broader or less scale, among us. And we begin with that deemed most valua- ble as a forage grass, at least in the northern States ; viz., 1. Timothy^ better known in the east as herds-grass, and in Europe as meadow cafs-tail, (Phleum pratense.) This is the general forage grass of the northern States. It finds here a congenial climate, particularly in moun- tainous districts, is perfectly hardy, perennial, highly nutritious, and gives an abundant product ; and it should not escape the notice of the farmer, that it is far more rich in nutritious properties, when cut in the seed, than when cut in the blossom. It is often sowui alone, but more generally with clover ; though the two are not well conjoined, for the clover is in condition to be cut two weeks before the timothy is in seed. Yet where the grounds are intended to be left a considerable time in grass, the loss is not so material ; for the clover gradual- ly disappears, while the timothy enlarges its volume, and fills the ground. Although the crop is less nutritious when cut early, the aftermath compensates, in some meas- ure, for the deficiency ; for, if suffered to seed, the after- growth is comparatively trifling, and the exhaustion to the soil is far greater. The maturing of the seeds, of all crops, is what most impairs the fertihty of the soil. 226 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. Another consideration which renders this grass desirable is the value of the seed which it affords, and which may- be saved without materially deteriorating the hay crop. From ten to thirty bushels of seed are taken from an acre by many farmers, in the valley of the Mohawk, and con- stitute a large item of their farm profits. The seed of this grass being small, particular care is requisite in pul- verizing the ground for its reception, and, when practica- ble, the roller should follow the seeding process. The seed may be sown in autumn with winter grain, in the spring with a crop, or at midsummer with buckwheat. Upon stiff, tenacious clays, the latter practice has been found to be advantageous, unless the season prove unusually dry. In cutting timothy for seed, the most approved mode is to reap the tops, say twelve inches long, with a sickle, to the width of a swath or two, and then immediately to cut down the stems with a scythe. In this way, all foul seeds may be avoided, and a suitable place provided, as the cutting progresses, to spread and dry the tops. 2. Red-top^ the herds-grass of the middle and south- ern vStates, [Jlgrostis vulgaris,) is indigenous, perennial, and valuable for hay and pasture, on lands adapted to its growth, which are reclaimed swamps and other moist grounds, and in which it almost every where springs up and flourishes spontaneously. This grass and timothy are fit for the scythe about the same time, and are therefore very suitable kinds to be sown together. Its cultivation is yet very limited, though of manifest advantage. The seeds are kept for sale in the seed-shops. The white-top ov foul meadow is said, by Muhlenburgh, to be a variety of the w2. vulgaris. 3. American Cock''s-foot and Orchard-grass are dif- ferent names given to the Dactylis glomerata of botanists. This is one of the most abiding grasses we have. It may be known by its coarse appearance, both of the leaf and seed-spike, its broad leaves, seed-glumes resembling a cock's-foot, and also by its whitish-green hue. It is prob- ably better adapted than any other grass to sow with clo- ver and other seeds for permanent pasture, and for a crop of hay, as it is fit to cut with clover, and grows CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 227 remarkably quick after being cropped by cattle. Five or six days' growth in summer suffices to give a good bite. Its good properties consist in its early and rapid growth, and in its resistance of drought ; but all agree, that to ob- tain its greatest value, it should be kept closely cropped. Sheep, it is said, will pass over every other grass to feed upon it. If suffered to grow long without being cropped, it becomes coarse and harsh. Arthur Young and Mr. Cook commend it highly, and the latter culti- vates it on an extensive scale at Holkham. Colonel Pow- ell, of Pennsylvania, after growing it ten years, declares, that it produces more pasturage than any cultivated grass that he has ever seen in America. On being fed very close, it has been found to afford good pasture after re- maining five days at rest. It is suitable to all arable soils. It abounds in seed, which is easily gathered ; but, on account of its peculiar hghtness, (the bushel not w^eigh- ing more than twelve or fourteen pounds,) it should be spread on a floor and sprinkled whh water a day or two before it is sown, that it may become saturated, and more easily germinate. Two bushels of seed are sown to the acre, when sown alone ; and half this quantity when sown whh clover. The orchard-grass should be cut early when intended for hay, as it diminishes two sev- enths in value, as hay, by being permitted to ripen its seeds. When cut early with clover, the after-growth, or rowen, is very abundant. 4. Tall Oat-grass^ (^Jlvena elatior.) Dr. Muhlen- burgh, and Mr. Taylor, of Virginia, place this at the head of good grasses. " On the continent of Europe," says Dickson, " in comparison with common grass, it is found to yield in the proportion of twenty to two." Dr. Muhlenburgh says, of all others it is the best grass, and earliest for green fodder and hay. The Doctor was prob- ably not advised of its deficiency in nutritive matter, as indicated in the experiments of Sinclair. It possesses the advantage of early, late, and quick growth, for which the orchard-grass is esteemed, and is well calculated for a pasture grass. We have measured it in June, when in blossom, (at the time it should be cut for hay,) and found 228 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. the seed-stems four and a half feet long. The latter- math, it will be perceived by the table which is append- ed, is nearly equal in weight, and superior in nutritious matter, to the seed crop. Sinclair says it thrives best on a strong tenacious clay ; and Muhlenburgh prefers for it a clover soil. Dickson speaks well of it, and says it makes good hay, but is most beneficial when retained in. a close state of feeding. The seed falls and wastes un- less gathered early, and with care. Sow at the rate of six or eight pecks the acre, with grain, in the spring. 5. Sweet-scented Vernal Grass {Ant ho x ant hum oclo- ratum) is a foreign perennial grass, of dwarfish habit, sown principally on grounds intended for pastures, for the very early feed which it affords, and for its growing quick after being cropped. Muhlenburgh says it delights in moist soils ; the ' Bath Papers' assure us it does well in clayey loams ; and Dickson, that it grows in almost any soil, including sands and bogs. It is eaten by oxen, horses, and sheep, though not so freely as some other grasses are. 6. Meadow Foxtail [Jllopecurus pratensis) is also a foreign grass, possesses all the advantages of early growth with the preceding, and is much more abundant in pro- duce and nutriment, but is not so well suited to difl:erent soils. It almost invariably constitutes one of the several seeds which are sown together by the British farmer, par- ticularly when the grounds are intended for pasture. ''Of all the English grasses," says Dickson, "this ap- pears to be the best adapted for cutting twice. It starts up very rapidly after mowing or feeding, and produces an abundant aftermath." It does best in moist soils, whether loams, or clays, or reclaimed swamps. It abides nine or ten years. Sheep and horses have a better relish for it, according to G. Sinclair, than oxen. It abounds in seed, says Middleton, which is easily collected from the swath during mowing time. The two preceding grasses were probably introduced first some years ago, into the neighborhoods of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, &c., by emigrants, or others ; and as they seed earlier than the orchard-grass or tall oat, and before they would be likely to be cut for hay, the CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 229 seeds have probably been scattered, and these grasses are now found in those neighborhoods, among the natural grasses of the meadows. A great advantage resulting from sowing these seeds, as also of the orchard and tall meadow-oat, is, that they are disseminated upon the farm, and thus tend to augment the natural growth of herbage. 7. Rye-grass, [Loliwn perenne.) This is exten- sively cultivated in Scotland, and in the north of Eng- land, and forms the principal seed sown with clover. There are several varieties ; some of which are annual, and others biennial and perennial. The Itahan rye-grass has within a few years attracted notice, as being superior to the other kinds. The common kinds have been re- peatedly tried in the United States, but generally with poor success — our summers being too dry, and our win- ters too cold for it. We have also twice tried the Italian variety, but the result has induced us to abandon it, as unsuited to our climate. To those who wish to try the rye-grass, it will be proper to add, on the authority of Dickson and others, that it is a good pasture grass, and is valuable in rich moist meadows ; that cows and sheep eat it freely ; and that Arthur Young considers the orchard- grass superior to it. The biennial rye-grass is preferred for a first crop with clover, as being of larger growth, and better suited to alternate husbandry. The perennial is preferred for grounds that are to be left longer in grass, as it abides several years. The Italian variety gives the largest produce, and, were it hardy enough to withstand the cold of our winters, would no doubt become a valua- ble acquisition to our husbandry. The seed sells in the American shops at three to four dollars a bushel. On the whole, we do not recommend its culture, except in elevated or humid districts. We have enumerated, we believe, all the grasses, that have hitherto been cultivated in the United States to any considerable extent. There are many other species, in- digenous and foreign, which might be worthy of our no- tice, and which may yet form valuable accessions in our husbandry, whenever they shall be brought into notice, cultivated, and their merits determined, in experimental 20 XV. 230 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. farming. There are other grasses that spring up sponta- neously, and which produce a good turf without labor, as the blue-grass of the western States, or flat-stalked mead- ow-grass, (Poa compressa^) the smooth-stalked mead- ow-grass, {Poa pratensis,) the red meadow-grass, {Poa aquatica,) and the rough-stalked meadow-grass ; (Poa trivialis ;) also many species of the festuca and agrostis genera, particularly the Jl. stricta, of which our quack or witch-grass is a variety. Upon this last it may be well to remark, that Dr. Rich- ardson first brought this grass into notice, as a superior forage, well adapted to reclaimed bogs and swamps, par- ticularly in mountainous districts, in localities where other grasses will not thrive. The pecuhar value of the fiorin arises from the concrete sap laid up in its numerous joints; and indeed it may be remarked that the straw or stems, of all plants, are rich in nutriment in proportion to the frequency of their joints, which are peculiarly the deposit of nutritious matters. The fiorin sufi:ers less in weight and nutriment, by frosts, than any other grass ; and of course affords good winter pasture. It is propagated by stolens or roots ; the ground being previously drained, and ameliorated by one or more crops, for which purpose potatoes or other root crops are preferable. The surface is made smooth and clean, the strings or roots are then strewed over it, and a compost, consisting in part of bog- ashes, lime, and loam, spread over, sufficient to prevent the roots being blown away. The quack, switch, or witch grass, a variety of the fiorin, is highly nutritious, roots and all, and, if cultivated for forage, might prove a profit- able crop ; but the objection is, it interferes too much where it is not wanted, and will stay where it is once in- troduced. In pasture grounds, however, it seldom abides after the third year. We will endeavor to class the grasses of which the seeds can be procured in this country, according to the best data in our possession, for the uses to which they are best adapted, and to indicate the soils on which they respectively thrive. But before we do this, we will in- troduce Dickson's classification of grasses for different CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 231 soils in Great Britain, which will show the quantity and variety of seeds sown to the acre in that country. Clayey Soils. Marl or cow-grass, 5 lbs. ; trefoil, 5 lbs. ; crested dog's-tail grass, 10 lbs. ; meadow fescue-grass, one bushel ; meadow foxtail grass, one bushel. And when the three last cannot be procured, meadow soft-grass, two bushels ; meadow cat's-tail, or timothy, 4 lbs. Loamy Soils. White clover, 5 lbs. ; crested dog's- tail, 10 lbs. ; rye-grass, one peck ; meadow fescue-grass, three pecks ; meadow fox-tail, three pecks ; yarrow, tv;^o pecks. Or, where the second cannot be had, rye-grass, one peck ; and rib-grass, 4 lbs. And in room of the last three, meadow soft-grass, half a bushel ; timothy grass, 4 lbs. ; marl or cow-grass, 5 lbs. Sandy Soils. White clover, 7 lbs. ; trefoil, 5 lbs. ; burnet, 6 lbs. ; rye-grass, one peck ; yarrow, one bushel. Or, instead of the last, rib-grass, 4 lbs. ; rye-grass, 1 peck. Chalky Soils. Burnet, 10 lbs. ; trefoil, 5 lbs. ; white clover, 5 lbs. ; yarrow, one bushel, or, in its place, rye- grass, one bushel. Peaty Soils. White clover, 10 lbs. ; crested dog's- tail grass, 10 lbs. ; rye-grass, one peck ; meadow fox- tail grass, two pecks ; meadow fescue-grass, two pecks ; cat's-tail, or timothy grass, one peck. Or in place of the second, fourth, and fifth, meadow soft-grass, six pecks ; rib-grass, 5 lbs. ; marl or cow-grass, 4 lbs. Our classi- fication embraces — I. Grasses best suited to arable lands, and designed to alternate with grain and roots. II. Those best adapted for hay or meadows ; and, III. Grasses which are most profitably sown for peren- nial pastures. I. There are several descriptions of land which are much more profitably employed in tillage than in grass, particularly those that are dry or light, and which have little tendency to produce good herbage. Yet constant cropping with grain would soon exhaust them of fertility, without an expense for manure which few can afford. The system of introducing artificial or sown grasses, after two, three, or four years' tillage, is happily calculated to 232 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. avert the evil, and constitutes one of the late improve- ments in farming. " The lands are thereby not only pre- vented from being so much exhausted as would otherwise be the case, and at the same time rendered fit for the growth of particular kinds of grain, without the necessity of fallowing ; but a much larger proportion of green and other food, than could otherwise he obtained, is provided for the support of live stock." The grasses best adapted to this purpose, are the red and white clovers, lucerne, and the orchard, tall oat, timothy, and rye grasses. Clover is the primary dependance on all soils that will grow it, and particularly where gypsum can exercise its magic powers. As vegetables are said to exhaust the soil in proportion to the smallness of their leaves, (the larger and more succulent these, the more nutriment the plant draws from the atmosphere, and the less from the soil,) clovers are entitled to the high commendation they have received among American farmers. But as these plants are liable to premature destruction by the frosts of winter, it is pru- dent and wise to intermix with their seeds those of some other grass more to be depended on. For this purpose. On sands^ light loams, and gravels — and these consti- tute the soils usually employed in convertible husbandry — the orchard-grass, or tall meadow oat-grass, appears best calculated to insure profit. They grow early, delight in a clover soil, and are fit for the scythe when clover is in bloom — the period at which it ought to be made into hay. The hay from this mixture may be made before the harvest commences ; and if the soil is good, a second crop may be cut almost equal to the first. If intended for pasture, the second or third year, either of these grasses will afford more abundant herbage than timothy. Lu- cerne may be sown on deep sandy loams. On clays and heavy loams, timothy may be sown alone, or those grasses named in the preceding paragraph, sepa- rate or mixed. On wet soils and reclaimed swamps, as the only object of tillage ought to be to prepare the ground to be laid down in grass, the kinds indicated in the preceding re- marks as suitable for such soils, and intended for meadow CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 233 grasses, should be selected, yet so scanty is our assort- ment, that we can only name timothy and herds-grass. II. Meadows. These may be classed under three heads : viz., low or alluvial lands, on the banks of riv- ers, creeks, and brooks ; uplands naturally moist, or of clay or heavy loam ; and reclaimed bogs and swamps. These soils, to adopt a common term, are natural to grasses^ while the expense of tillage, and the uncertainty of a crop, render it most proper to appropriate them to grass. The objects, in stocking meadows, are, to select those grasses ivhich yield the greatest burden of hay^ and afford the most nutriment for cattle. When mixed ?eeds are employed, care should be taken to select those which can be most profitably cut at the same time. The impro- priety of mixing timothy and orchard-grass, for instance, will be apparent, from observing that the last should be cut in the latter end of June, while the former continues to improve till the first of August. Timothy is undoubt- edly the best grass which we can employ for meadows, on moist or tenacious soils. Herds-grass, and rough-stalk- ed meadow-grass, often come in spontaneously. And if the timothy is left standing until its seeds have formed, seeds enough fall to supply new plants. For light loams, sands, and gravels, the tall oat and orchard grasses are probably the best ; and to these may be added red and white clover. The great difficulty is, to prevent the deterioration of meadows. This takes place from the better grasses run- ning out, and giving place to coarser kinds, to mosses, and to useless and noxious plants ; aided, often, by a neglect to keep them well drained. Hence it is of the first importance to keep the surface soil free from standing water, by good and sufficient drains ; and it often becomes necessary, and in most cases advisable, on a flat surface, to lay the land in narrow ridges, at right angles with the ditches. Another precau- tion to be observed is, not to depasture them with heavy cattle when the ground is wet and poachy. Harrowing in the fall has been found beneficial to meadows. It destroys mosses, covers the seeds of grasses which have fallen, 20* 234 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. or have been previously sown, and thus produces a suc- cession of young plants. In Europe, top-dressings of lime, marl, compost, ashes, and yard manure are repeated at intervals of two or three years. In Flanders, extensive appHcations are made in this way, of the urine of animals, after it has fermented, or been diluted. It is collected in cisterns under the stables, and adjoining the yard in which the stock are fed, summer and winter. With us, the annual application of a bushel of plaster of Paris is found beneficial, on most lands not absolutely wet. The gypsum not only thickens the verdure with clover, but is of advantage to most of the other grasses. Stable manure should be applied only when it can be spared from the more profitable uses of tillage, as it is far more beneficial mixed with the soil than spread upon the surface. Its most economical application as a top-dressing, is in the form of compost, made by mixing it with bog-earth, river mud, the wash from the highways, or other rich earth, at the rate of one load of dung to five or six of earth. If turned and mixed well, this constitutes a valuable top-dressing for grass grounds, and is best applied in the autumn. When these means fail to insure a good crop of hay, it is time to resort to the plough, a course of crops, and reseeding III. Pastures. Here the object is to obtain those grasses which are most nutritious, relished by cattle, and which supply green feed from March to December, or such a mixture as will give a succession of fresh herbage during the grazing season. The tall-oat, rye, and orchard grasses are best adapted to the lighter and drier soils, where the spontaneous growth of clover and other indige- nous grasses should be encouraged by top-dressings, or the application of plaster. In moist and stiff grounds, timothy and herds-grass may be sown with the tall-oat. Our observations, under the preceding head, in regard to draining, top-dressing, sowing seeds, and scarifying or har- rowing, lose none of their force when applied to pasture grounds. It is believed, that, if once introduced upon our farms, the valuable grasses which we want would propagate themselves. If so, how important is it that we obtain them, particularly those which our seed-shops already aiford. 235 8 o 14 ^ •jspwuno iiBJausQ li The most nu- tritive, early grass. One of the best mead- ow grasses. ! 1- >> 2 -0 ,A n c ^ bi) 1 4 r I •X«q joj ino )saq usijav i c -1 1 a 1 1 5 •Suipsas JO auii) ni sx-edq v i\0]i\\'^ l^qi 0) Shu8jW0(J JO ami) aip jvj sjeaq sswS aMl Mai'IAi aniBA aiBuoiuodojj 1 " 2 to 2 -4 3 00 a CO 2 L_ •paag ui uaq^ 1 S S _>% s 1 >f "3 s •j9A\0B ni uatiAV §i 1 §1 t 1 t 1 1 S § 1 •a.t3B ano m jan^ui aAHujnjy[ ili i§s i^S ill 11^ ii^ igS •jaiitui aAWJj -nn JO aABS sui.jp ^,9 TJ-W-I- — WOJ ojoim 0x0 IN (NOi (2 1 h fe 1 (^ Oi 1 1 BOTANIC AND ENGLISH NAMES. li j : s '. 11 1! li 1 : M • 1 : II £ ■- 11 1 J 1 1 s 1 1 li li J3 ; M : 1 : If (2° S 1 >> ■ i j 1 1 i bn 1 1 J- j .2 1 i 1 1 ■s 1 1 1 I i 2 • i 1 t 1 1 s 1 236 1 1 Is p pi bo 1 Ex.mead.gr. Aqnatic grass. Early and productive. ' An early gx. Ex. for hay. 1 1 1 4 ■a i 1 1 a ^ 1 c ! 1 1 c 1 1 • 1 1 e a : 2 : «D . s 1 ^ i2 § b. ^ 1 1 1 _>. ^ f 3 _>> i •-1 •" », _>> _s '1 i 5! 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A KNOWLEDGE of the Constituents of the atmosphere, and of the various and important offices which it performs in animal and vegetable economy, is valuable to the far- mer, not only as aiding him in promoting the health of himself and his family, and of his brute animals — and in all his rural and money-making operations — but as offering a source of high intellectual enjoyment. Although the sub- ject may be deemed too abstruse for the generality of far- mers, we consider it fraught with so much useful instruc- tion, that we venture to say it will be read with interest by many of our young friends, and we would fain hope that it may lead some of them into a course of study, in physical science, which will not only benefit them individually, but ultimately become beneficial to the human family. Nei- ther fame nor fortune is hereditary. And let no young man be deterred from aspiring to both, because he is the son of an humble farmer. The brightest geniuses of the age have come from the plough. The Creator has en- dowed us with power to become acquainted with many of the apparent phenomena of Nature, and of rendering them subservient to our wants ; and, in this free country, the humblest individual has ample leisure and means to pursue the investigation, and win the reward. The time and means that are usually devoted, in early life, to frivo- lous, and often deleterious pleasures, would suffice to lay in a stock of useful knowledge, which would become a treasure and a blessing in after-life. But it should never be forgotten, that in all our undertakings, mental, moral, and physical, a determined perseverance is the only ra- tional prelude to success. With these views and hopes, we shall briefly describe the principal constituent parts of the atmosphere, and some of its more important offices, that seem most hkely to interest the agriculturist. 238 THE ATMOSPHERE, AND The atmosphere is composed principally of two invisi- ble gases, termed oxygen^ (sometimes vital air, being indispensable to animal life,) and azote or nitrogen^ in the proportion of about four fifths of the latter to one fifth of the former. This proportion is found to exist, with tri- fling modifications, in all latitudes and at all elevations. Although these elements are invisible in the atmosphere, they both assume liquid and solid forms under many and various circumstances. Nitrogen abounds in animals, but seldom to a great extent in plants. It is however found in wheat, in what is denominated gluten, and it is this which gives to that grain its prominent value. It abounds in the urine, but seldom, or but partially, in the dung of animals. " It is the base of ammonia and nitric acid, (aquafortis,) and ap- pears to be the substance which Nature employs in con- verting vegetable into animal substances." — Fourcroy. Its principal office seems to be, to neutralize, in some measure, the properties of oxygen, and to render it fit for respiration and combustion. Oxygen enters more or less into all animal and vegeta- ble matters. It constitutes 88 parts in 100 of water, — forms from 40 to 70 per cent, of all vegetable acids, — more than 40 per cent, of the wood of the oak and beech, — about 50 per cent, of starch, the nutritious property, next in value to gluten, of grain, pulse, and roots, and 64 per cent, in sugar. It is essential to animal and vegetable life ; it is necessary to fermentation, to combustion, to the germination of seeds, and to the growth and maturity of plants ; and combining with the carbon of the blood, it produces the greatest proportion of animal heat. It also combines with metals and forms oxydes, or, in common language, rust. Nitrogen and oxygen are called simple bodies, because they are supposed to be incapable of division or decom- position. Carbonic acid gas, also, is found to constitute about one thousandth part of the atmosphere ; and in winter, it has been found to amount to one five hundredth part. This is a compound substance, composed of two parts of oxy- ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 239 gen and one of carbon, the latter being found pure in the diamond, and forming the substance of mineral and wood coals. This gas is produced in abundance by fermenta- tion, respiration, and combustion, is absorbed and decom- posed by the leaves of plants, the oxygen being set free, and the carbon being converted into wood, &c. The causes which produce it, sometimes, in confined situa- tions, give it in such excess as to render it prejudicial to animal health ; but the free access of atmospheric air soon restores the equilibrium. It constitutes much of the prop- er food of plants. Thus animals and vegetables are mutu- ally benefited, through the wise provision of the Creator, by their proximity to each other — plants giving off oxygen, necessary to animals — and animals giving off carbonic acid gas, the pabulum of vegetable life. Water also exists in the atmosphere, in the form of an elastic fluid. This fluid is found to form, at the tempera- ture of 50° Fahrenheit, about one fiftieth of the volume of the atmosphere, in the driest time in summer, and is in- creased with the increase of temperature — heat accelera- ting the evaporation of moisture from the earth's surface. When the temperature of the air is diminished, the aque- ous fluid is condensed, and appears in the atmosphere in the form of vapor, or clouds, and is copiously deposited, in summer, in the form of dew. This water is retained, principally, in the lower regions of the atmosphere. It is so slightly united with the other elements of the atmo- sphere, that a change of temperature produces a change in its proportions ; whilst nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic acid preserve, always, nearly the same relative proportions. " Independently of those bodies which essentially con- stitute the atmosphere," says Chaptal, "there are mingled in it the exhalations constantly arising from the earth ; these are again disengaged from the air, and precipitated, as soon as the heat, or any other cause which occasioned their ascension, ceases to act upon them. These ex- halations modify the properties of the air, [by the carbonic acid gas, &c. disengaged from animal and vegetable mat- ters in a state of putrefaction,] and affect its purity. The oxygen and the water of the atmosphere become impreg- 240 THE ATMOSPHERE, AND nated with the particles of the exhalations, which are de- posited with them upon the surfaces of other bodies, when they remain in contact, or enter into combination, with them. The origin and dissemination of many maladies may be traced to this source ; the germ of them is carried through the air by the aqueous fluid. And for the same reason it is, that intermittent fevers are endemic in those situations where large quantities of vegetable matter are undergoing decomposition, as upon the borders of ponds and marshes ; and that the miasm, which arises from nu- merous animal remains, in a state of decomposition, be- comes a fruitful source of disease. It is for the same rea- son also dangerous, under some circumstances, to breathe the evening air ; the aqueous fluid contained in it is loaded with noxious principles, w^hich the heat of the sun, during the day, had caused to ascend into the atmosphere. The disagreeable odor, conveyed to us in mists, is owing to the power of the aqueous fluid in transmitting the exhala- tions arising from the earth. The manner in which the air conveys to us the perfume of plants, and the odors which it contracts from the exhalations of bodies in a state of decomposition, indicates clearly its influence in produ- cing maladies, and still more plainly its power of propaga- ting those that are contagious." — Chemistry applied to Agriculture. According to the best authorities, a man inhales, or takes into his lungs, from six to ten pints of air at every respi- ration or breath. This air comes in contact with the blood in the lungs, and both the blood and the air un- dergo a material change in consequence. The blood im- bibes a portion of the oxygen from the air, assumes a florid red hue, and acquires thereby the power of sup- porting life, and is fitted to become a part of the living ani- mal. The air receives, in return for the oxygen, or vital air, which it gives to the blood, about an equal portion of carbonic acid, which vitiates it, and renders it unfit for further respiration ; or, if this vitiated or impure air is again respired, the blood becomes likewise vitiated by its contact with it, and all its functions become more or less disordered. x\tmospheric air, as we have observed, con- ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 241 tains about 79 parts of nitrogen, 21 of oxygen, and near- ly one of carbonic acid. A greater or less quantity of oxygen unfits it for healthy respiration, and causes disor- ganization and disease in the animal system. When at- mospheric air is inhaled upon the lungs, it parts with 8 or 8| per cent, of its oxygen, and receives in return a like quantity of carbonic acid. Thus atmospheric air becomes rapidly vitiated by being breathed, and is as speedily restored to its purity by li^althy vegetation, which takes up the carbonic acid, or decomposes it, and gives off, or sets free, oxygen. According to Dr. Bostock's estimate, an average-sized man consumes about 45,000 cubic inches of oxygen, and gives out about 40,000 of carbonic acid, in 24 hours. " Taking," says Dr. Combe, '' the consumption of air at 20 cubic inches at each breath- ing, as a very low medium, and rating the number of res- pirations at 15 in a minute, it appears that, in the space of one minute, no less than 300 cubic inches of air are required for the respiration of a single person. In the same space of time, 24 cubic inches of oxygen disappear, and are replaced by an equal amount of carbonic acid, so that in the course of an hour one pair of lungs will, at a low estimate, vitiate the air by the abstraction of no less than 1,440 cubic inches of oxygen, and the addition of an equal number of carbonic acid, thus constituting a source of impurity which cannot whh safety be over- looked." Atmospheric air becomes vitiated by one, or a combi- nation, of the following causes : — 1. By animal respiration ; 2. By decaying animal and vegetable matters ; 3. By stagnant waters ; and, 4. By combustion in close apartments. Many cases are cited of the fatal effects of breathing highly-vitiated air in prisons, in small, close apartments, and in unhealthy districts. One of the most horrible was that which occurred in the Black Hole of Calcutta, where one hundred and forty Englishmen were thrust into a confined place, eighteen feet square, in which there were but two small windows on one side, and where ventilation 21 XV. 242 THE ATMOSPHERE, AND was impossible. Scarcely was the door shut upon the prisoners, when their sufferings, for want of fresh air, commenced, and in six hours ninety-six of them were dead. In the morning only twenty-three of them were living, many of whom were subsequently cut off by pu- trid fever, caused by the dreadful effluvia and the corrup- tion of the air. Other cases are recorded of persons dying, for want of fresh air, in small, close cabins ; and numerous cases are annually recorded of deaths caused by burning charcoal in close apartments, where the oxygen is abstracted from the atmosphere, by the carbon of the charcoal, to form carbonic acid. But it is not only where death or severe sickness ensues, that the breathing of viti- ated air is hurtful ; it is always prejudicial, more or less, to health ; it impairs the constitution, and is often the latent cause of diseases which ultimately prove fatal. " The chief symptoms," says Orfila, " which follow the breathing impure air, are great heaviness in the head, tinghng in the ears, troubled sight, a great inclination to sleep, diminution of strength, and falhng down." These sensations are experienced in crowded, heated rooms, in steam-boat and canal-boat cabins, &c. Decaying animal and vegetable matters are a prolific source of disease, by vitiating the atmosphere we breathe, particularly in cellars, close yards, or other places where the effluvia they generate are not speedily dissipated by the winds. Hence fevers are most prevalent where due re- gard is not had to cleanliness, as in dwellings where there are wet and dirty cellars, adjoining filthy yards and lanes, and in houses in and about which animal and vegetable matters are suffered to accumulate and putrefy. Hence the sickness that pervades newly-cleared countries, from the decay of vegetable matters, on the first exposure of the soil to the full influence of solar heat. The deleterious influence of stagnant waters upon the atmosphere is known to all, and when combined with animal and vegetable putrefaction, the evil is greatly in- creased. Hence the draining of marshes and wet lands contributes essentially to the healthiness of a neighborhood. Combustion also vitiates the air in close rooms, par- ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 243 ticularly gas-lights — a single gas-burner consuniing more oxygen, according to Combe, and producing more car- bonic acid gas, to deteriorate the atmosphere of a room, than six or eight candles. We shall not speak of the other matters which commingle in the atmosphere, as light, heat, and electricity, although they possess a great influence upon animals and plants — but proceed to the improvement, and the apphcation to rural affairs, of the facts already established. We MAY profit by these truths : — 1. In selecting sites for our dwellings — taking care to have them in airy situations, remote from marshes, ponds, and stagnant waters, which vitiate, by the exhalations they give, the atmosphere we breathe, and thereby generate disease. 2. In the manner of constructing our dwellings. The cellars should be dry, with windows at opposite sides, for ventilation, whenever the weather will permit. The rooms should be lofty, and rather capacious than con- tracted, should all open, by windows, to the exterior, and should be ventilated every fair morning in summer. 3. In improving our personal and domestic habits^ by practising cleanliness, an ancient, if not a modern virtue ; — by avoiding the deleterious influence of the night air, especially in autumn, when much vegetable matter is in the process of decay ; — by well ventilating our apartments, particularly when the atmosphere is pwe and salubrious ; — by keeping our cellars free from putrefying vegetables, and other filth ; — by graduating the temperature of our rooms in winter, which should not be suffered to rise above 64° of Fahrenheit ; by avoiding hot sleeping- apartments, in which the temperature often varies, be- tween the hour of going to bed, where fires are kept up, and the hour of rising, when the fires have gone out, — a transition too trying for the most robust constitution ; — by abandoning the use of foot-stoves, which transform our wives and daughters into green-house plants, and render them too sensitive to cold, poison the air they respire, and beguile them into indolent and inactive hab- its, as detrimental to their health as to their useful- 244 THE ATxMO SPHERE, AND ness ; — by taking frequent exercise in the open air, when our habits are studious or sedentary ; — by sleeping in rooms without fires, with open partition doors, that fresh air may at all times have free access, and by avoiding lodging too many persons in the same room ; — and by inducing our females to go warmly and tidily clad, as well to church as to parties of pleasure. How many human constitutions are ruined, in our cities and villages, by indulging in habits which philosophy and reason teach us to avoid. 4. In multiplying ornamental trees and shrubs about our dwellings^ which serve to purify the air, abate the fervor of summer heats, by carrying off a portion of the caloric with the moisture they exhale, and which are withal an embellishment and an evidence of good taste. 5. In the construction of our stables and cattle-sheds. Farm-stock are as much benefited by cleanliness and good air as man ; and the same precautions which go to se- cure the health of the latter are essentially requisite to promote the thrift and well-being of the former. Hence the importance of having clean and well-ventilated stables and sheds, of removing the dung so that it does not under- go fermentation in the stalls, and of giving cattle whole- some exercise. 6. In the planting of our seeds. The atmosphere be- ing essential to germination, both on account of the oxy- gen and heat which it contains, all seeds should be deposit- ed in the soil within its reach ; they should be put just so low as will barely secure about them moisture enough to insure their germination. We have reason to think, that small seeds often fail to grow from being buried too deep in the soil, and that, even if they germinate, the food which the cotyledons afford, and which is their only support till the seminal leaves are developed, is not sufficient to carry the plumula, or upright shoot, to the earth's surface, where alone the leaves can exercise their office of elaborating or preparing the food. 7. In the management of our field and garden crops. The soil has a strong affmity for water, and the atmo- sphere penetrates it freely, when pulverulent and loose; but ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 245 where the soil is compact and crusted, neither the atmo- sphere nor the dews are able fully to exert their salutary influence in promoting the growth of the vegetation upon it. In the former case, the soil is Hke a sponge, per- vious to atmosphere and dew, and transmitting both to the roots of plants, with the elementary food with which they are both charged. But where the earth is hard and crusted, by alternate rain and sunshine, neither dew nor air penetrates freely, and the former is dissipated by the first rays of the morning sun. Hence the best preventive against the evils of drought, is the frequent stirring of the surface, and keeping it constantly permeable to atmo- spheric air, and the vegetable nutrition with which it abounds. We remember an account of a remarkable illustration of the benefit of frequently stirring the surface of cultivated lands, given by Curwen, a distinguished British agriculturist. He prepared a field of stiff, forbid- ding land, and planted it with cabbages. His neighbors all declared he would get no crop ; but he put a horse and cultivator among the plants, and subjected the ground to almost constant stirring during the growing season. The result was, he gathered an immense crop, some of the cabbages weighing over 50 lbs. each. The farmer may derive great benefit from this practice in the culture of drilled and hoed crops, provided he does not go so deep as to cut the roots of his plants, or throw his manure to the surface. 8. In draining our wet lands ^ which will contribute at the same time to promote health, and augment our profits. For, generally speaking, our wet and marshy lands are the richest in organic matters, and become the most prof- itable to the owner, when thoroughly drained. And, lastly, we may profit from the facts we have detailed — 9. In the management of our manure. All the food of vegetables must be resolved into a hquid or gaseous form, before it can enter the mouths of plants, or become Incorporated in the vegetable structure. This change is effected, in dung, by fermentation or decomposition, by which the parts are separated. The gaseous matters first escape. If fermentation takes place in the soil, the earths 21* 216 GERMINATION OF SEEDS. imbibe, and the plants growing thereon are nourished by them. If fermentation takes place upon the surface, either in the yard or in the field, these gases rise, from their specific gravity being less than that of atmospheric air, and are dissipated by the winds. The liquid matters escape next. If buried in the soil, the soil absorbs and gives them off to plants. If left upon the surface, they are washed away by rains, or sink, with little or no benefit to the owner, into the earth beneath them. The whole of the matter of dead animals and plants is convertible, if buried in the soil, into living plants, by the ordinary pro- cesses of Nature ; and it is capable, however solid it may seem, of being reduced to liquid or gaseous forms, fitted to the wants of our crops. Indeed, it proceeds to take these forms immediately, on its losing its vitality, as soon as it comes in contact with air, heat, and water, the great agents of decomposition. The moment fermentation be- gins, the waste of vegetable food begins, if the fermenta- tion takes place upon the surface ; carbonic acid gas is disengaged, and is scattered by the winds ; the oxygen of the atmosphere, uniting with the hydrogen of the mass, forms water, which settles into the ground, or is carried off by the rains ; the mass is reduced in volume ; and when fermentation has exhausted its force, it has lost one half of its fertihzing properties. If the fermentation takes place in the dung-yard, or upon the field, we repeat, this half is lost to all useful purposes of the farm. If it takes place in the soil, the earth imbibes it, and the plants growing thereon are fed and nourished by it — the gases and liquids are converted into the solid matter of the grow- ing crop, be it grain, grass, pulse, or roots. CHAPTER XXIV. ON THE GERMINATION OF SEEDS. Seeds often fail to grow^ and the seedsman is as often blamed, for vending bad seeds, when they are really GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 247 good, and when the cause of their not growing is owing to the gardener or planter. To induce germination, moisture, atmospheric air, and a certain temperature, are indispensable ; and it is also requisite that light be ex- cluded, until the nutriment in the seed is exhausted, or until the root can draw nourishment from the soil. The first effect of the air, heat, and moisture upon the seed is to change its properties, — to convert its starch into sugar — into a sort of milky pulp, the proper food of the em- bryo plant. If at this stage the seed becomes dry, its vitality is believed to be destroyed ; but if these agents are permitted to exert their influence, the contents of the seed swell by degrees, and the first point of the future root, having formed, breaks through the shell in a down- ward direction, and at about the same time the point of the future stem comes forth in an upward direction. The presence of air, heat, and moisture is as indispensable to the growth of the plant, as it is to the germination of the seed. Now it often happens, when seeds are planted in fresh- stirred ground, or where the soil is moist, they undergo the incipient process of fermentation, and the earth not being pressed upon them, and dry weather ensuing, the moisture is abstracted, and the seeds perish. Too much moisture is also often destructive to the vital principle of seeds, — and* others again are buried too deep to be vivi- fied by solar and atmospheric influence. The first ob- ject in planting, therefore, should be, to place the seed just so far under the surface, and so to cover it with earth, as shall barely secure to it a constant supply of moisture. There are many seeds, as of the carrot, pars- nip, orchard-grass, &c., which, if not previously steeped, or the soil well pulverized and pressed upon them, fail to grow for want of moisture. Hence, in sowing orchard- grass, it is found prudent to spread the seed upon a floor, and sprinkle it with water, before it is sown, and to pass a roller over the ground after it is sown. And hence, in light garden mould, it is advisable to press, with the hoe or spade, the earth upon all light seeds after they are sown. 248 GERMINATION OF SEEDS. But we would draw the attention of the farmer, as well as of the gardener, to another mode of preventing failure and disappointment in the growth of certain seeds — and that is, by sprouting them before they are planted. This may be conveniently done with Indian corn, pumpkins, mangel wurtzel, beets, &c., on the farm, and with mel- ons, beans, cucumbers, peppers, and a great number of other seeds, which are assigned to the garden. The mode of doing it with the field-seeds we have named is this : Steep the seeds twelve or twenty hours in water of a tepid or warm temperature — then take off the water, and leave them in a warm place, covered, to exclude the light and prevent their drying, or in a dark cellar or room, and the radicles or roots will shoot in a few days, and may then be planted without injury. Being obHged to suspend our planting four days, on account of rain, we found our seed, which had been previously steeped, and set by in a dark room, with radicles two or three inches long. It was planted with but little inconvenience, and did remarkably well. Mr. I. Nott sprouted a part of his corn last year, while a part of the seed was not sprouted, — and, what is worthy the particular notice of the farmer, he assures us, that the sprouted corn ivas not injured by the wire-worm^ while the unsteeped seed was seriously in- jured^ although planted by the side of each other. Mr. Nott accounts for the difference in this way : The wire- worm attacks the chit, and feeds upon and destroys the germ ; but' the radicles having protruded, and not being to the taste of the worm, the insect attacked the solid part of the kernel, where its progress was too slow, and too remote from the germ, to retard its growth. Mr. Nott also sprouted his mangel wurtzel seed, and planted it so late as the 27th of June. Almost every seed grew, and the crop might be called a good one early in Septem- ber. To sprout garden-seeds, procure two sods, of equal size, say 18 inches square ; lay one down in the corner of the kitchen chimney, grass down ; lay your seeds upon it ; if small, wrap them in a piece of brown paper ; then place the other sod upon them, grass up — water well with ON STALL-FEEDING CATTLE. 249 warm water, and the seeds will sprout in twenty-four to forty-eight hours. There is one manifest advantage in sprouting seeds, — it tests their goodness, and shows whether they will or will not grow. A small quantity of seed-corn, submitted to this test before planting, would in many instances pre- vent great loss to the farmer. CHAPTER XXV. # ON STALL-FEEDING CATTLE. In the management of our cattle, as in the management of our crops, much is lost for want of system and regular- ity. The stall-feeding of neat cattle for the butcher is annually increasing, and promises to increase in interest, as we progress in the culture of roots. There is proba- bly the difference of one third to one half, in the profits of the business, whether it is well or badly managed. Under this view of its importance, we extract from the 'Farmer's Series' the following compendium of the man- agement recommended in that work. " The first point is the comfort of accommodation ; for in whatever way they [cattle] may be placed — whether under sheds or in close ox-houses — they should have the security of perfect shelter from the weather, with a certain degree of warmth ; that is to say — if in open hammels, the sheds should be broad, the roof low, and the floor well covered with an abundance of dry litter. We are, how- ever, decidedly of opinion, that close walls will further the object more promptly ; though we do not coincide in the idea that it will be promoted by too much heat ; and we should therefore recommend a moderate degree of healthful ventilation. In these stalls litter is very frequently dispens- ed with — or else sand, or any rubbish, is substituted for straw ; but there can be no doubt that animals enjoy the comfort of a dry bed as well as their master, and the more they seek repose in it the better. 250 THE ECONOMY OF '' The next is strict regularity in the administration of food — both as regards the stated quantity and the time of supplying it. The periods may be regulated as the feeder thinks proper ; but, whenever adopted, should never after- wards be altered. Oxen are quiet animals, and those which are fed in the house soon acquire a precise knowl- edge of the exact hour at which food is usually given ; and if that be transgressed, or the quantity be not furnish- ed, they become restless ; but if the time and quantity be strictly adhered to, they remain tranquil until the next period arrives. If no disturbance takes place, they, in- deed, generally lie down to ruminate, and nothing will be found to forward the process of fattening more than this perfect quietude ; wherefore, the stalls should not only be well bedded, but light should be very much excluded, the doors should be closed, all outward annoyances as far as possible prevented — and, in short, every means should be used to promote complete ease, rest, and contentment. " Some persons serve out food as often as five times a day ; but the most prudent, and the better practice, is to give it as soon as possible after day-hght, at noon, and some time before sunset ; which enables the animals to fill their bellies, and to have sufficient time for that quiet digestion which is interrupted by too frequent feeding. In stating that the quantity should be moderate, we how- ever alluded merely to the not allowing the animal to have so much as to cloy him ; he ought always to have as much as he can fairly eat with a rehsh, but the moment he begins to toss it about, it will be then evident that the keenness of his appetite is satisfied, and it should be instantly re- moved. '' The last is thorough cleanliness. The ox-house should be opened before day-light, and well cleansed, both by pail and broom, from every impurity. After the ani- mals have been satisfied with food, whatever may remain should be instantly removed, and the cribs and mangers should be swept out, and washed, if necessary ; water should then be given without limitation.* If their hides * According to an experiment stated by Sir John Sinclair, an old man was appointed to discover how often some cattle, consuming CUTTING UP CORN. 251 be then wisped, it visibly occasions a very pleasurable sen- sation ; as they begin to fatten, the ancient coat falls off, and if this be accelerated by the curry-comb, the better appearance of the beast will well repay the trouble." CHAPTER XXVI. THE ECONOMY OF CUTTING UP CORN. Thirty years ago, we read a communication of John Nicholas, then we believe of Virginia, on the advan- tages of cutting up instead of topping Indian corn. These advantages appeared to us so palpable, that in the noviti- ate of our farming operations, twenty-odd years ago, we reduced it to practice ; and although since we have occa- sionally adopted the topping system, by way of compari- son, we have made it our general practice to cut up the crop ever since. We are convinced, from our long expe- rience, that it possesses over the old mode the following advantages. 1. It saves labor. With proper implements, which ev- ery farm can furnish without expense, two smart men will cut up and stock two acres in a day. They cannot top more than one acre, and they are to be bound, stocked, and backed off the field, or left to be bleached till the corn is harvested, when they have lost half their value. A hill is gathered with a blow in cutting up ; in topping, a cut must be made upon every stalk. 2. It adds to the grain crop. We have satisfied our- selves, by careful experiments, that we gain six to ten bushels of corn per acre, by cutting up, above what we chaff and straw upon a farm, went to the watering-trough in a short winter's day, and, that he might not be confused in the execution of his orders, one particular bullock was pointed out for his report ; ac- cording to which, it drank eight times in the course of the day, and the man was convinced that the rest of the cattle drank as often as the one fixed on. Now, twice a day is generally the most in which they get water ; and they are not able, at one or two opportunities, to drink a sufficient quantity. — Husbandry of Scotland, p. 100. 252 ECONOMY OF CUTTING UP CORN. obtain by topping our corn. And we account for it on the well-known principles in vegetable physiology, that all the nutriment of plants must be elaborated, or prepared, in the leaves, and that this elaborated sap, or prepared food, descends — consequently, that when the leaves above the corn are taken off, by topping, the grain can gain no further nutriment, or accession of growth ; and that when the crop is cut up, and stooked, the grain does continue to obtain nutriment, and accession of growth, for some days, from the descending, or elaborated sap, whh which the succulent stems are abundantly charged. The leaves also continue their elaborating process for some days after the corn is cut. 3. It augments the cattle-fodder^ and preserves its nu- tritions properties. Cut and well stooked, neither the grain nor the forage is likely to be seriously injured by the weather, even if left in the field late. If topped, the tops must be exposed to the deteriorating influence of the rains, winds, and sun, until they are dry enough to bind, which diminishes their value. If cut up, the whole of the stalks are converted into forage. If topped, but a small part becomes useful. And if the butts are fed in the cat- tle-yards, they imbibe additional fertilizing properties from the urine and liquids which abound there, and which are lost if there is no litter to absorb them. Hence, In the fourth place , it gives more food to the crops as well as to the cattle, by saving that which otherwise is often lost to the farm. And, Finally^ cutting up has this important advantage, at least in the north, — it secures the crop, both grain and for- age, from the damage of early autumnal frosts — for after the grain is cut and stooked, it is not liable to injury from their occurrence. We may add, that the ground may be cleared two or three weeks earlier, for a winter crop, where it is desirable to sow in autumn. ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 263 CHAPTER XXVII. ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. There are few things better calculated to attach us to our HOMES, — where the social virtues love to congre- gate, and to dispense their blessings, than rural embel- lishments. This is true whether we apply the term to our neighborhood or individual abode. The pubhc grounds about the great cities of the old continent, some of which comprise an area of five hundred acres, are the theme of general admiration, the theatres of healthful exercise and recreation, and the sources of high intellectual enjoyment. The lesser towns and villages, even of oui' own country, owe more of their charm and interest to the trees and plants which embellish their squares, streets, and grounds, in the eye of a man of taste, than to an}/ ostentatious show of brick and mortar — more to the beauties of Nature, than to the works of man. Nay, the highest efforts of the human intellect are in vain put in requisition to imitate the handiworks of the Creator. And when we come down to the suburban residence, and even to the unostenta- tious abode of the farmer, how are their beauties height- ened, and their value enhanced, by a screen of ornamen- tal trees, and a well-kept garden. Loudon tells us, that in travelling from Strasburgh to Munich, he passed through a continued avenue of forest and fruit trees, planted on both sides of the highway, for more than one hundred miles. Who that has passed through New England, in summer, has not admired the beautiful trees with which he is in a measure enshroud- ed? The great objection to planting is, that one may not live to enjoy the fruit or the shade of the trees which he plants. Such an objection is unworthy of the age, which should, if it does not, have regard to the interests of the human family, and of posterity, — and is, besides, affecting to hold a shorter tenure of life than all of us hope 22 XV. 254 ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. for, and most of us expect. Twenty years ago, at forty years of age, we commenced the cultivation of what was termed a barren, untameable common, not an acre of which had been cultivated, and on which a tree or shrub had never been planted by the hand of man. We have now growing in our court-yard, comprising about half an acre, and in the highway in front of it, fifty species of forest and ornamental trees, many of them forty and fifty feet high, more than fifty species of ornamental shrubs, not including the rose, besides a vast number of herbaceous, ornamen- tal, and bulbous and flowering perennial plants — the great- est number of which, in all their variety and hue of foli- age, flowers, and fruil, may be embraced in a single view from the piazza. Most of our fruits have been raised by us from the seed, or propagated by grafting or budding. Yet we can enumerate more than two hundred kinds, in- cluding varieties, which we are now in the habit of gath- ering annually from trees, vines, &c. of our own planting. We feel grateful to God for these rich and abundant bles- sings, and for the impulse which prompted our labor. We have adduced our own example, not in a spirit of vaunting, but to convince the young and the middle-aged, that there is abundant reason for them to plant, with the hope of en- joying the fruits of their labor. The old should plant from an obligation they owe to society, and for the requital of which they have but a short period allowed them. The young should plant for the double purpose of ben- efiting themselves and their children. We would by no means advise that the farmer should confine himself to mere ornamental trees. There are many fruit-trees that are not only ornamental but useful, about dwellings, as the cherry, pear, apple, quince, &c. There is not a spring or an autumn in which a few hours cannot be spared, without detriment to the labors of the farm, to plant out fruit and ornamental trees and shrubbery about the dwelling, and but very few hours are requisite. There is no great art required in the business. The holes for the plants should be dug larger and deeper than the size of the roots, in order that these may be sur- rounded on all sides by rich surface mould, into which the ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 255 new roots may push freely, and find food. The infertile soil from the pit should be thrown away, and its place supplied by mould taken from the surrounding surface ; the roots should have their natural direction, and the earth be well pressed upon them ; and the plants should be pro- tected from cattle till they are of a size not to be injured by them. Our attention has been particularly drawn to this sub- ject, by reading the report and the constitution of the Bangor Association, termed, the Ornamental Tree Soci- ety, which has been recently formed, and whose object is the embellishment of their city by planting out forest trees. The constitution requires, that "every member shall himself set out, or cause to be set out, one or more ornamental trees, on such of the public streets or squares of the city as he may elect" — the kind of tree, and the distance of planting, to be determined by the directors. Accompanying the report, in the New England Farmer, are two letters from General Dearborn, on ornamental planting, evincing much experience and good taste in the matter. " The monotony of appearance, which lines or clumps of the same tree produce, is to be avoided, and a pic- turesque and agreeable aspect obtained, by increasing the varieties ;* for as the periods of their fohation are so very different, as well as the tints of green when in vege- tation, and the remarkable autumnal changes quite as dis- similar, they are presenting an ever-varying, yet always pleasing and interesting scene. Besides, we have so many magnificent species of native trees, which flourish luxuriantly, even in the most exposed situations, that I have never been able to divine, why one particular tree should be so universally selected, as shades, or for orna- ment, not only around private dwellings, but for all pub- lic places. As well might all flowers be excluded from our gardens but the rose, or the lilach, and all fruits from our orchards but the apple." " For your streets I recommend the alternate planting * The General considers the planting of only one kind of tree as evincing a bad taste. 256 ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. out of rock maples, elms, white ash, white maple, bass- wood, beech, and red, white, and other oaks." [We will add to the hst of native trees, the buttonwood, the tulip- tree or whitewood, and cucumber-tree, {Magnolia acu- minata,) for the city and village, and the black walnut, butternut, and honey locust for the country.] " The rock maple is certainly one of our most superb trees, and in my own estimation superior to the elm. Its form and foliage, with the splendid changes of its autumnal aspect, are of surpassing beauty. The basswood ( Tilia Amer- icana) is the American linden, or lime, and much superior, for its size, graceful form, and large leaves, to the much celebrated and favorite European species. It is easy to transplant, and of rapid growth. The oaks are of rapid growth, and were once as renowned as the name of England. They have been the choice trees of all the cel- ebrated nations of antiquity. The occidental plane, or American buttonwood, is also a finer tree than the orien- tal variety, which was so much admired and cultivated by the Asiatics and Romans." For pubhc grounds and squares, the General recom- mends, also, the white pine, cedar, hemlock, spruce, and we would add the fir, the larch, and a sprinkling of for- eign trees, as the Enghsh and Scotch elms, larch, abeel, horse chestnut, mountain ash, &c., which may be obtained at the nurseries. He recommends the spring as the best season for transplanting in New England ; that the roots be taken up as entire as possible ; that the trees be not more than two inches in diameter ; that the tops be not cut or mutilated ; — '' Do not," says he, " cut off a sin- gle twig, save such as may be within four or five feet of the ground." He also directs that large and deep holes be made for the reception of the trees, and that these holes be filled with the best mould, to be well trodden down and watered after the tree is planted. In regard to conif- erous and other evergreens. General Dearborn recom- mends, that they be taken from open grounds — (nurseries are the best) — all the limbs carefully preserved, and as much of the dirt about the roots retained as possible. " The best time," he continues, "to transplant all the ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT, 257 evergreen trees is later than that for the deciduous, and is just before they commence vegetation.'''' These direc- tions are all good ; yet we would amend, or rather add to, the one which regards the time for transplanting ever- greens. We transplant them just after vegetation has commenced — have transplanted in July, with entire suc- cess — and om' friend, Michael Floy, of New York, a professional nurseryman, prefers the month of August. He showed us, the other day, several large firs, which had been planted at that season, in front of his grounds at Har- lem, all of which lived and did well. We think evergreens should be planted when the tree is growing — as the foliage requires a constant supply of nourishment through the roots ; and if the functions of these are dormant, as they are likely to be when evergreens are transplanted while vegetation is at rest, the foliage is apt to wither, and the plant to die ; and the only danger to be feared from trans- planting these trees at midsummer, is that which arises from excessive evaporation. To guard against this, as much earth should be lifted with the roots as is practica- ble, the holes for their reception should be large and deep, filled to the proper height for the roots of the tree with loose mould, and well saturated with water ; the surface around the tree should be well mulched with litter, and this well wet, and superficially covered with earth, and the plants occasionally watered if the weather is hot and dry. As to the effect of planting, upon the beauty of the landscape, Mr. A. J. Downing, in a well-written article upon this subject, justly remarks, — " Many a dreary and barren prospect maybe rendered interesting, — many a natural or artificial deformity hidden, and the effects of almost every landscape may be im- proved, simply by the judicious employment of trees. The most fertile countries would appear but a desert without them, and the most picturesque scenery in every part of the globe has owed to them its highest charm. Added to this, by the recent improvements in the art of transplanting, the ornamental planter of the present day may realize, almost immediately, what was formerly the slow and regular production of years." 22* 258 ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. As to the effect of planting and gardening, upon the body and mind of those who engage in these pursuits, we offer the following remarks from Loudon's ' Suburban Gardener,' and we recommend them to the special notice of all gentlemen who are troubled with dyspeptic or hypo- chondriac affections. " There is," says an author, " a great deal of enjoy- ment to be derived, from performing the different opera- tions of gardening, independently of the health resulting from this kind of exercise. To labor for the sake of ar- riving at a result, and to be successful in attaining it, are, as cause and effect, attended by a certain degree of satis- faction to the mind, however simple or rude the labor may be, and however unimportant the result obtained. To be convinced of this, we have only to imagine our- selves employed in any labor from which no result en- sues, but that of fatiguing the body, or wearying the mind; the turning of a wheel, for example, that is connected with no machinery ; or, if connected, effects no useful purpose ; the carrying a weight from one point to anoth- er and back again ; or the taking a walk without any ob- ject in view, but the negative one of preserving health. Thus it is not only a condition of our nature, that in or- der to secure health we must labor ; but we must also labor in such a way as to produce something useful or agreeable. Now of the different kinds of useful things produced by labor, those things surely which are living beings, and which grow and undergo changes before our eyes, must be more productive of enjoyment than such as are mere brute matter — the kind of labor and other circumstances being the same. Hence, a man who plants a tree, a hedge, or sows a grass-plot in his garden, lays a more certain foundation for enjoyment, than he who builds a wall, or lays down a gravel walk ; and hence the enjoyment of a citizen, whose recreation, at his suburban residence, consists in working in his garden, must be higher in the scale, than that of him who amuses himself in the plot around his house, with shooting at a mark, or playing at bowls." A strong illustration of this truth lately came within our ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 259 knowledge. An esteemed friend, who had become wealthy, and retired from active business, at the middle age of life, had become particularly diseased in body and in mind. We advised him to recreate himself in horticultural pur- suits, as an antidote to both maladies. He replied, that he had no taste, and could not acquire a relish, for these pursuits. We thought otherwise ; and as he was going to spend the summer with a relative, on a farm which belonged to him, we presented him with half a dozen trees, asked him to plant them on his farm, and to report to us in autunm, whether they had afforded him any gratification. When he returned from his summer resi- dence, he confessed, with gratitude, that they had been to him a source of high interest and gratification ; that they had received his constant care and attention ; that he had watched, with a kind of paternal feeling, the developement of the leaves, and the growth of the branches ; that he had examined them almost daily, sedulously guarded them from injury, and watered them with his own hand ; and that these cares and labors aflbrded pleasure without alloy. Had our regretted friend made this experiment two years earlier, he would, in all probability, be now numbered among the hving, and probably among the hale and hearty. But to return to our quotations from Mr. Loudon: — "One of the greatest of all the sources of enjoyment resulting from the possession of a garden," remarks our author, '' is the endless variety which it produces, either by the perpetual progress of vegetation which is going for- ward in it to maturity, dormancy, or decay, or by the almost innumerable kinds of plants which may be raised in even the smallest garden. Even the same trees, grown in the same garden, are undergoing perpetual changes throughout the year ; and trees change also in every suc- ceeding year, relatively to that which is past ; because they become larger and larger as they advance in age, and acquire more and more their characteristic and mature form." " Independently of the variety of changes result- ing from the variety of plants cultivated, every month throughout the year has its particular operations and its products ; nay, it would not be too much to say, that 260 ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. during six months of the year, a change takes place, and is perceptible, in the plants of a garden, every day ; and every day has in consequence its operations and its prod- ucts." In conclusion : A bountiful Providence has given the vegetable kingdom for our sustenance, employment, and highest intellectual enjoyment, — and has scattered these elements of happiness, with a profuse hand, every where within our reach. It is left for us to enjoy them in a greater or less degree, as we learn to appreciate their value, and exert ourselves to apply them to their proper use. The brute is content to satisfy its animal wants. Man, the lord of the creation, should have a higher aim, because he has higher sources of enjoyment than the brute, and higher duties to perform — he is the husband- man appointed to take care of and nurture the great vine- yard, and to carry out the purposes of the all-bountiful Giver. ADDRESS, PREPARED TO BE DELIVERED BEFORE THE AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES OF NEW HAVEN COUNTY, CONN. SEPT. 25, 1839. For the following Address, — the last prepared by the lamented au- thor, — the publishers are indebted to the kindness of his son, Jesse Buel, Esq., and the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies of New Haven. The subjoined letter will show the interest with which the reading of the Address was listened to by a large and respectable assem- bly, and the regret felt by them that the author should have been pre- vented, by sickness, from delivering it himself. New Haven, Sept. 26, 1839. To Jesse Buel, Esq. — Dear Sir, We have the pleasure of ten- dering to you the thanks of the Agricultural and Horticultu- ral Societies of New Haven, and of many other citizens, for your excellent Address, which was impressively read yesterday to a large assembly, both from the city and the neighboring towns. We are instructed to say to you, that the discourse was heard with great satisfac- tion and delight, and that, by a unanimous vote, a copy is requested for publication. The sentiment was warmly expressed, that a copy ought to be placed in every family in the State, and the only regret manifested by the au- dience, was, that the respected author should be arrested by sickness in his journey, and that they were thus deprived of listening to one whose bright and successful example, gave such decisive weight to his pre- cepts of wisdom and of real patriotism. It is made the duty of the Committee also to inform Judge Buel, that the Hon. Simeon Bald- win, Henry Whitney, and James Brewster, Esqrs., were appointed agents to promote the circulation of the ' Cultivator,' and to recommend that useful publication to the public favor, and to a more extensive and efficient patronage in this State. The Committee beg leave to express their personal satisfaction in the performance of the pleasing duty assigned them, and to add their warmest good wishes for the restoration to health, and for a long course of usefulness, to one who has proved himself a real benefactor to hia country. On behalf of the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies, and of many other citizens. S. Baldwin, B. SiLLIMAN, En Ives, J. Knight, ^ Committee, SfC. James Brewster, A. N. Skinner, Henry Whitney, To the abc^ye, Judge Buel replied, assenting to the publication of the Address. ADDRESS. I APPEAR here, gentlemen, by invitation, to address you on the cukivation of the soil, in which it is the object of the associations here convened to promote improvement. I have been prompted, in the undertaking, rather by a desire to render a service, than from a confidence in my ability to perform one ; and in the few remarks I have to offer, shall need much of your indulgence, for defect in style, and deficiency in matter. Agriculture and Horticulture are intimately related to each other. They both depend upon the soil, and the animals and plants which it nurtures, for support, for profit, and for pleasure. They both administer, and are indis- pensable, to our wants and comforts. They are governed in their operations by the same natural laws. Agricul- ture has cognizance of the farm, which supplies our prin- cipal wants ; Horticukure, of the garden, which adminis- ters to our more refined appetkes, to our heakh, and to the rational pleasures of mind. The one gives us bread and meat, and the materials for our clothing ; the other gives us the choice delicacies for the table, and multiplies around us the charms of floral beauty, and rural scenery. Both tend to beget habits of useful industry and sober re- flection, and to improve us in all the social relations of life. It is befitting, therefore, that institutions designed to foster and promote improvements in these primary and associate branches of labor, should unite in their anniversary cele- bration, and in returning thanks to the Supreme Being, for the bounties of a fruitful season. Of the utility of these celebrations, and exhibition of the products of the farm and garden which are made at them, I have no kind of doubt. They bring to pubhc 264 ADDRESS. notice whatever is new and most valuable, in a business which highly interests us. They perform the work of years, in diffusing useful knowledge in all the departments of rural labor. They awaken, in the bosoms of hundreds, the dormant powers of the mind, which otherwise might have slumbered in apathy. They excite to industry, to emulation, and to the study of those laws which every where control the visible creation, and which enhghten and reward all who humbly seek and follow their coun- sels. Nor is it the cultivator of the farm and garden alone that are to be benefited by these exhibitions. What- ever tends to increase and improve the products of the soil, serves to augment the common stock, and enables the grower to supply the market with more and better products, and to buy more liberally of the other classes in return. The merchant, the manufacturer, the mechan- ic, and the professional man, have all, therefore, as deep an interest in promoting the improvement of agriculture and horticulture, as the farmer and gardener have. So- ciety is in some measure a joint concern, at least so far as relates to what are termed the producing classes ; the more these earn by their labor, the greater is the acces- sion of substantial wealth to the community. The amount of honey in a hive, depends not upon the number of bees which it contains, but upon the labor and skill of the working bees. The farmer virtually provides for the other classes, and is at the same time their principal pa- tron and customer ; and although his labors are too often held to be low and menial, by those who cannot, or will not appreciate their value, his condition affords the best criterion by which to judge of the welfare of those around him. No country can long flourish, or preserve its mor- al and physical health, whose agriculture is neglected and degraded. The amount of a farmer's sales, and of his purchases, will depend upon the surplus products of his farm, and upon the profits of his labor. Double these, by an improved system of husbandry, which I feel assur- ed can be done, and which has been far more than real- ized, in many old districts of our country, and you will double the substantial wealth of the neighborhood, and ADDRESS. 266 impart corresponding life and activity to every other de- partment of business. If we look to Spain, to Portugal, to a great portion of Italy, to South America, or any other country where agriculture is neglected, or holds but a subordinate rank, we shall find a degraded population, characterized by superstitious ignorance, poverty, and crime. Every class of the community, therefore, has a deep interest in promoting the improvement of the soil ; and all should willingly contribute their aid towards en- lightening, honoring, and rewarding those who are hon- estly employed in its cultivation. With regard to the utility of Agricultural and Horti- cultural Societies, much will depend upon the objects which bring together their members. If they associate for selfish purposes, merely to monopolize the spoils, and withdraw whenever they are disappointed in their sinister hopes, jealousies and apathy will ensue, and the associa- tion will fall, as many under like circumstances have fall- en, without public loss or public regret. But if the asso- ciation is formed for mutual improvement, and in the be- nevolent and patriotic desire to do a pubhc good, — to stimulate and reward industry and enterprise, however humble their condition, — and strives, by concentrated and persevering efforts, to improve the condition of a district, of a county, or a State, — then will it inspire public confi- dence, obtain public support, and become a public bles- sing. To illustrate this last proposition, I beg to refer to some associations which have been tried, and whose la- bors have been crowned with palpable and brilliant suc- cess. The counties of Berkshire, Essex, and Worcester, in Massachusetts, have each, for many years, maintained an Agricultural Society ; and they each distribute ten or twelve hundred dollars a year, one half of which is paid out of the State treasury, in prizes to successful competi- tors in the various departments of agricultural and house- hold labor. It is said, and I believe with truth, that every dollar thus expended, has made a return of twenty dollars, in the increase of agricultural products which it has caused ; and so satisfied are the inhabitants of the 23 XIII. 266 ADDRESS. benefits of the expenditure, that an increased spirit is an- nually manifested, by all classes, to maintain and perpet- uate these nurseries of industry and improvement. The Highland Society of Scotland affords another il- lustrious example of the utility of agricultural associations, when conducted with a view to public improvement. This society was organized in 1784, but so few were its members, and so limited its means, that it attracted but little public notice, nor effected any great improvement in husbandry, till the commencement of the nineteenth century. Yet it had sown the good seed which never fails, under proper management, to yield to the husband- man a bountiful harvest. Nor did it fail in this case. The society now numbers twenty-two hundred members, embracing most of the opulent and influential men of the country, of all professions, and distributes annually in prizes, about seventeen thousand dollars. In no country or district has agriculture made more rapid strides in im- provement, than it has in Scotland, since the organization of this society ; and although it may not have been the only, it most assuredly has been a principal cause, of this wonderful and salutary change. Up to 1792, the agri- culture of Scotland, to adopt the language of the Edin- burgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, was " wretched — execrably bad, in all its localities ! Hardly any wheat was attempted to be grown ; oats full of thistles was the standard crop, and this was repeated on the greater part of the arable land, while it would produce twice the seed thrown into it ; turnips, as part of the rotation of crops, was unknown, few potatoes were raised, and no grass- seeds or clover were sown. A great part of the sum- mer was employed, in the now fertile shire of Fife, in pulling thistles out of the oats, and bringing them home for the horses, or mowing the rushes, or other aquatic plants, that grew on the bogs, around the homestead." But a change soon came over the land. The seed which had been sown by the Highland Society had germinated, and its luxuriant foliage already covered the soil. In 1815, according to the authority I am quoting, "beau- tiful fields of wheat were to be seen ; drilled green crops ADDRESS. 267 every where abounded ; the bogs had disappeared ; the thistles no longer existed ;'' naked fallows were abolish- ed ; draining was extensively introduced ; wet lands were made dry ; poor weeping clays were converted into tur- nip soils ; and " whole parishes were completely trans- formed from unsightly marshes, into beautiful and rich wheat-fields ; and where the plough could scarcely be driven for slush and water, were heavy crops per acre, and heavy weight per bushel."* The improvements in Scotch husbandry have continued to advance, until, ac- cording to the estimate of Sir John Sinclair, and Profes- sor Lowe, both high authority, — until the acreable prod- ucts of her soil more than double those of our Atlantic States. The means adopted by the Highland Society to effect these radical improvements in Scotch husbandry, are such as may be employed by us with almost a certainty of cor- responding success. " In the days of its youth and fee- bleness," says the Quarterly Journal I have just quoted, "the Highland Society sent the leaven of the turnip husbandry into all the glens and straths of the north, by offers of small prizes to certain Highland parishes, and the same may be said as to the growth of clover and the finer grasses. As it advanced in strength, as to numbers, and to cash, attention was turned to premiums for stock ; then came offers of reward to men of science to discover better implements and machines, to diminish friction, and consequently draught, such as in the threshing-mill, and other parts of agricultural machinery. Still advancing in the scale of intellect and of science, premiums were offered for essays to bring to light the facts connected with chemistry and natural philosophy ; and, under the auspices of the society, was set up the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, a work which has been the vehicle of conveying so much useful information to the agriculturist, that we humbly venture to say, it ought to appear on the book-shelf and table of every farmer's parlor. After this, the great stock-shows were resolved upon." At the * Quarterly Jour. Ag. for June, 1839, p. 70. 268 ADDRESS. Glasgow show in 1838, there were exhibited for prizes, 461 neat cattle, 121 horses, 274 sheep, and 47 swine, total 903 domestic" animals, in 634 lots. Of the other kinds of competitors, the numbers were as follows : For Butter, - - - - 18 " Full Milk Cheese, - - 15 '' Skim Milk Cheese, - - 6 " Wool, - - - - 8 " Roots and Seeds, - - 13 " Implements, - - - 28 In 88 lots. The number of persons present at the exhibition, was estimated at over 17,000, besides workmen and official people ; — not one in a thousand of whom probably left the exhibition without carrying home with him some newly acquired knowledge in his business, or some new stimulus to improvement and industry. Not only has Scotland profited by the labors of her Agricultural Society, but Great Britain generally, and even the United States have been highly benefited by them. The information which that Society has promulgated, has been widely dissemi- nated among us by our agricultural journals, and has con- tributed not a little to the improvement of the agriculture of our country. And in England, which had been thrown into the back-ground by the superior improvement of Scotch husbandry, it has, within the last year, induced the formation of the English Agricultural Society, on a broad and liberal scale, which promises important advantages to English husbandry, and to agriculture generally. As evidence of the utility of Horticultural Societies in multiplying and improving the products of our gardens, and in promoting rural embellishments, I would refer to the neighborhoods of Boston and Philadelphia, where societies of this kind have long existed, and to the Horti- cultural Society of Londqn. In the first-named cities, and their environs, the progress of horticultural improve- ment has been manifestly great. Many new and choice fruits, culinary vegetables, and ornamental plants, have ADDRESS. 269 been introduced, culture has been much improved, the markets better suppHed, and prices cheapened. The London Society, although its garden has been established but about twenty years, has concentrated in it, from both continents, and from the islands of the sea, embracing every clime, more than five thousand varieties of edible fruits, including fourteen hundred varieties of the apple, and seven hundred of the pear, and an innumerable num- ber of ornamental plants, many of them before unknown in our catalogues. Its collection of pears, which em- brace hundreds of recent origin, from Flanders and from France, have been already broadly spread over these States, and supply our dessert with a succession of this delicious fruit. As a corresponding member of this So- ciety, I have participated, and have enabled others to participate, in the good which it has been generously dif- fusing abroad. In 1825, and at subsequent periods, I have been supplied liberally with grafts of the choicest fruits which it had collected. The greatest obstacles to Horticultural improvement, are, ignorance of the relative merits of different kinds of fruits and culinary vegetables, and of the proper modes of cultivating and preparing them for the table. The generality of country gardens exhibit but a scanty assort- ment of vegetable productions, and these are but badly cultivated, and often of inferior quality. The tendency of Horticultural exhibitions is, to show the good and bad in contrast, or rather to promulgate a knowledge of the better sorts, of their culture and use, to excite useful competition, and to demonstrate the utility of garden cul- ture, as a source of health, pleasure, and profit. I have had many fruits presented to me, which the donors con- sidered of the first quality, but which I found, on com- parison, to be of secondary, or inferior grade. The man who has seen or tasted only inferior fruits, may well mis- take them for good ones. It is as easy to cultivate good fruits as bad ones ; and no one eats so good fruits as he who cultivates them himself. It is as easy to cultivate the vergaleu as it is the choke pear ; the green gage as the horse plum ; and yet the difference between them, in 23* 270 ADDRESS. all the qualities which we most esteem, is incomparably great. But till we can show our neighbor better fruits, he will continue to cultivate, and rest content with, his choke pear and horse plum. With regard to what is termed ornamental gardening, or the cultivation of flowering shrubs and plants, there is an objection, real or affected, often made by very many people, on the ground that it yields no profit. If the great object of life was to accumulate money, without enjoying any of the comforts which it confers, save the gratification of animal appetite, the objection would be conclusive. But we are endowed with other and higher appetites than the mere brute ; and Providence has every where sur- rounded us with suitable objects for their developement, and innocent gratification. And shall we reject the prof- fered benefaction so kindly tendered for our benefit, be- cause it adds nothing to our pelf ? And what is there in the natural creation, better calculated to soften down the rough asperities of our nature, to awaken kind feelings to- wards each other, and excite reverence and love for the Most High, than a familiar acquaintance with the wonders and beauties of his vegetable kingdom. Did you ever know a misanthrope, or a miser, who was an admirer of flowers ? I would not recommend the neglect of more important duties, for the culture of a flower-garden : yet when there is ability or leisure, and these may be found to a greater or less extent in almost every family, a taste for floral beauties should be inculcated in the young, not only as a source of rational pleasure, but as a salutary precau- tion against bad companions and bad habits. The mind must be employed, and must have recreation. It is bet- ter to direct it to the works of the Creator, than to the works of man. Lord Bacon has said of the garden, " It affords the purest of human pleasures — the greatest re- freshment to the spirits of man — without which, buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks." But I am forgetting myself. In my ardor to commend Horticulture, for its useful, elevating, and purifying influ- ence upon the habits and manners of society, I did not recollect that I am addressing the highly polished inhab- ADDRESS. 271 itants of a classic city,* who have long since demonstrat- ed, in practice, the truth of the lessons I would inculcate. I will therefore dismiss this branch of my subject, and turn to the more rugged, though not less important, topic of x\griculture ; barely adding, — That in all endeavors to improve the condition of so- ciety, whether religious, moral, or industrial, individual efforts and example can effect but little ; and hence, that in every great work of reform or improvement, the con- centrated strength of many has been resorted to, and brought to a focus, by means of associations ; and that the great objects of society are not likely to be promoted in a more eminent degree, by any, than by associations formed for like purposes with those which I have now the honor to address. Being a native of this State, and having spent my early days within its borders, I can well remember the farming practices that were v/ont to prevail. The farm was, to use the commendatory language of that day, "suitably divided into meadow, pasture, and plough land," and each division was exclusively devoted to its object, until most of the nutritious grasses had " run out,^^ in the meadow, and the plough land had become too much impoverished to bear a remunerating crop. Many an acre was turned into '' old field,^'' or commons, destitute alike of natural or artificial herbage, affording scanty gleanings to half- famished cattle. I beg not to be misunderstood. I am describing what was a bad feature in Yankee husbandry. Farming has no doubt recently undergone great improve- ments in Connecticut, as it has elsewhere. Yet on a fair comparison with highly-cultivated agricultural districts, I believe that it will be found that the husbandry of this State, in the main, is susceptible of great improvement. The lands of Connecticut were originally rich and pro- ductive. The earthy elements remain in a great measure unchanged ; the seasons are about as propitious as they were wont to be ; and the lessons in improvement that have been taught elsewhere, leave little reason to doubt, * New Haven. 272 ADDRESS. that under proper management, they may again be re- stored to their original fertility. In a late tour which 1 made through parts of New York and New Jersey, I found many evidences of recent im- provement, and I doubt not similar ones abound in my native State. In a part of Dutchess County, which I visited, the best farms have been sold, within my recol- lection, with improvements and buildings, at from seven to seventeen dollars an acre. They cannot now be bought for one hundred dollars an acre ; and one was sold last year at auction, without buildings, at one hun- dred and thirty dollars an acre. Fifteen years ago, a farm in western New York, of 400 acres, exhausted by bad husbandry, was bought by a Scotch farmer for $4000. This farm has been so improved by good hus- bandry, that the owner was last year oftered for it $40,000. He refused the offer, upon the ground, that it actually netted him the interest of $60,000, or $10 50 the acre. A farm was pointed out to me in New Jer- sey, which was recently sold for seven dollars the acre, and that was all it was said to have been worth in its then condition. By a liberal outlay in draining, it being level and wet ground, and in liming, manuring, &c., it is now considered worth one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre. I went over another farm which a few years ago was bought at the same price, and which now, on account of the improvements which have been made upon it, is considered worth one hundred dollars per acre. 1 am informed on the best authority, that similar cases of the rapid increase in the products and value of farms, conse- quent upon an improved system of management, are to be found in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Although these cases are isolated ones, they nevertheless serve to show the practicability of vastly increasing the value and products of our exhausted lands. Among the causes which have essentially contributed to the deterioration of our lands, and the consequent depression of our Agriculture, 1 consider the following as prominent : Ignorance of the principles of Agriculture ; ADDRESS. 273 The want of a sufficient outlay in the management of our farms ; and The low estimation in which the employment has been held by all classes, including farmers themselves. Agriculture has too generally been considered a busi- ness requiring mere physical power, with which the prin- ciples of natural science had little or nothing to do. To plough, sow, and gather the crop, has been the general routine of farming operations, regardless of the poverty which our practice was inflicting upon the soil and upon our children. Like the reckless heir of wealth, we found ourselves in possession of a treasure ; and without inquir- ing for what purpose it came into our hands, or realizing our obligations to husband and preserve it, for others, we have squandered it lavishly, tlirough our ignorance or our folly. True, we have been occasionally admonished of our error, by the schoolmen ; who, wrapped in abstract science, and knowing little practically of its application to husbandry, have as often tended to confuse and mysti- fy, as to enlighten and instruct. Hence the prejudice which has arisen, against book-farming. But science and art are now uniting their labors, and are deriving mutual aid from each other, on the farm, as they have for some time been doing in the manufactory and in the shop of the ar- tisan. A new era is dawning upon the vision of the far- mer ; a new light is illuming his path, and a new interest and new pleasures are urging him on to improvement. He begins to study the laws which Providence has or- dained for the government of improved culture, and he finds, in their application to his labors, the means of in- creasing profits and high intellectual enjoyment. And the more he studies and is guided by these laws, the more does he become satisfied of former errors, and of his comparatively hmited sphere of usefulness. Science is probably capable of rendering more important services to husbandry than to any other branch of labor, and presents a wider field of useful study to the cultivator of the soil, than to any other class of society. The deficiency in farming capital, or rather the stin- giness with which capital is employed in improving and 274 ADDRESS. maintaining the condition of our lands, is another cause of declension in the profits and character of our Agricul- ture. The farmer is too prone to invest his surplus means in some new business, or in adding to his acres, instead of applying them to increase the profits of his la- bor and the products of his farm. He either works more land than he can work well and profitably, or he diverts to other objects the means which would yield a better return if applied to the improvement of the farm. He is apt to consider twenty or thirty dollars an enormous and wasteful outlay upon an acre of land, or upon a choice animal ; and yet the interest of this ouday will be ten times paid by the increase of crop or the increase of the animal ; and in most cases the principal also will be re- turned to him in the course of two or three years. Many of the most thriving farmers in southern New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, make a quadrennial expenditure of twenty dollars or more to manure an acre ; and it has become a maxim with them, that the more the outlay for manure, the greater the net profit of their lands. But it is not the outlay for manure alone, that demands a lib- eral expenditure of capital. Good seed, good farm-stock, and good implements, are all essential to the economy of labor, and to neat and profitable farming. And I think it will appear from the cases I have quoted, that in many locations, capital may be very advantageously employed, in reclaiming wet and marshy grounds, generally rich and the most productive when laid dry. When our cattle grow lean, and threaten to disappoint our hopes of profit, we do not hesitate to impute the evil to the want of food, or to inattention in the herdsman. And if we are prudent managers, we at once graduate our Stock to our food, knowing that one well-fed animal is of more value in the market, than two animals that carry but skin and bones, and take care that the food is properly fed out. When our crops become lean, we need not hesitate to ascribe the decrease in product to like causes — want of food, or want of attention in the farmer ; and prudence and profit in like manner require, that our crops, like our animals, should be limited to the food and labor ADDRESS. 275 which we have to bestow upon them. In other words, an acre well manured and well worked, will be found to be more profitable, than four poor acres badly worked. I may be here asked, whence are to be obtained the vast supplies of manure requisite to manure our old lands ? I answer, from a multiplicity of sources around us, from every animal and vegetable substance within our reach. Nothing that has once been part of an animal or a vegetable, but can be converted into corn, grass, and roots. I think I may assume as facts, that upon an aver- age, not half the manure is saved upon our farms that might be, and that this moiety is half lost before it is ap- plied to the soil. Every horse, ox, or cow, wintered upon the farm, if well fed, and littered with the straw, stalks, &c., of the crop, should make from six to ten cords of good manure. Dr. Coventry, late Professor of Agricul- ture at Edinburgh, estimated that the straw of an ordinary acre of grain, computed at 21 cwt., may be converted by the urine and liquids of the stables and cattle-yards, into three and a half tons of manure ; that meadows which cut one and a half tons of hay will give four tons of ma- nure ; clover, the first year, six tons, and the second year, five and a half tons per acre ; and that with the extraneous substances which may, with due care, be collected with- out expense from the roads, the ditches, the ponds, and from refuse of every kind about the house and premises, the acreable amount should be amply sufficient for a full supply of manure once during every course of the four- year system of husbandry. Arthur Young, with 6 horses, 4 cows, and 9 hogs, which consumed 16 loads of hay and 29 loads of straw, obtained 118 loads of manure, 36 bushels to each ; and from 45 fatting oxen, well fed and littered, 600 tons of rotten manure. But an American lawyer,* and an excellent practical farmer withal, has gone beyond these estimates. I visited, a few weeks ago, his farm, which lies upon the sea-shore. It consists of about 200 acres, most of which was in a course of crops. The crops of the season had all received an ample supply * W. A. Seeley, Esq., of Staten Island. 276 ADDRESS. of manure, as their appearance indicated ; and yet I was shown masses of well-prepared compost, in reserve, con- sisting of yard manure, peat ashes, peat earth, sea-weed, and fish — estimated at twenty-five hundred loads — all produced upon his own farm. The third obstacle to Agricultural improvement, which I propose to notice, is the subordinate rank to which this employment has been consigned, and to which the farmers themselves have contributed, by a want of respect for themselves and respect for their vocation. The whole- some habits of society have been so broken up, by the civil and political convulsions of the age, and the inordi- nate thirst for acquiring wealth and fashionable conse- quence, through mercantile and other speculations, that honest productive labor has been thrown entirely into the back-ground, and considered not only ungenteel, but me- nial and servile. Yet I venture to lay down this proposition, that he who provides for the wants and comforts of him- self and family, and renders some service to society at large, by his mental and physical industry, performs one of the high duties of life ; and will ultimately be rewarded in the conscious rectitude of his life, by a greater measure of substantial happiness, than he who makes millions by fraud and speculation, to be squandered in extravagance or wasted in folly, by his children or grandchildren. The revolutions which are constantly taking place in families, sufficiently admonish us, that it is not the wealth we leave to our children, but the industrial and moral habits in which we educate them, that secures to them worldly prosperity, and the treasure of an approving conscience. The farmers, I have remarked, share in the errors of the day. Not content with the gains which are ever the reward of prudent industry, and which might be greatly increased by the culture of the mind ; nor content with one of the most independent conditions in society, hun- dreds and thousands of them seek other and new employ- ments, and some of truly menial character, to get rid of labor, the greatest blessing to man, and to raise themselves in the imaginary scale of fashionable society. And if they cannot participate, themselves, in this imaginary ADDRESS. 277 greatness, (and it is seldom any thing more than imagina- ry,) they are anxious to inflict the evil upon their posterity, — to rear their sons to the law, the rail-road to office, to political power, and turmoil ; to make them merchants, a useful, but greatly over-stocked business, or to place them in some other genteel employment, which shall exempt them from the toils of labor, the salt that best preserves from moral corruption. Mistaken men ! What class in society have within their reach so many of the elements of human enjoyments — so many facilities for dispensing benefits to others, one of the first duties and richest pleasures of fife — as the independent tillers of the soil ? " The farmer," says Franklin, " has no need of popular favor ; the success of his crops depends only on the blessing of God upon his honest industry." If discreetly conducted on the im- proved principles of husbandry. Agriculture offers the cer- tain means of acquiring wealth, and as rapidly as is con- sistent with the pure enjoyments of life, or with the good order and prosperous condition of society. Agriculture is the golden mean, secure alike from the temptations of mushroom opulence, and the craven sycophancy and de- pendance of poverty. "Give me neither poverty nor riches," was the prayer of the wise man of Scripture, "lest," he added, "• I be full and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord ? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." When we consider that Agriculture is the great business of the nation — of mankind ; that its successful prosecu- tion depends upon a knowledge in the cultivators of the soil, of the principles of natural science, — and that our Agriculture stands in special need of this auxiliary aid, — we cannot withhold our surprise and regret, that we have not long since established professional schools, in which our youth, or such of them as are designed to manage this branch of national labor, might be taught, simultaneously, the principles and practice of their future business of life, and on which, more than any other branch of business, the fortunes of our country, moral, political, and national, essentially depend. We require an initiatory study of 24 XIII. 278 ADDRESS. years in the principles of law and medicine, before we permit the pupil to practise in these professions. We require a like preliminary study in our military and naval schools, in the sciences of war and navigation, ere the student is deemed qualified to command. And yet, in Agriculture, by which, under the blessing of Providence, we virtually '' live, and move, and have our being," and which truly embraces a wider range of useful science than either law, medicine, war, or navigation, we have no schools, we give no instruction, we bestow no govern- mental patronage. Scientific knowledge is deemed indis- pensable in many minor employments of life ; but in this great business, in which its influence would be most potent and useful, we consider it, judging from our practice, of less consequence than the fictions of the novehst. We regard mind as the efficient power in most other pursuits ; while we forget, that in Agriculture, it is the Archimedean lever, which, though it does not move, tends to fill a. world with plenty, with moral health, and human happiness. Can it excite surprise, that under these circumstances of gross neglect. Agriculture should have become among us, in popular estimation, a clownish and ignoble employ- ment .'' In the absence of Agricultural professional schools, could we not do much to enlighten and raise the charac- ter of American husbandry, by making its principles a branch of study in our district schools ? This knowledge would seldom come amiss, and it would often prove a ready help ujider misfortune, to those who had failed in other business. What man is there, who may not ex- pect, at some time of life, to profit directly by a knowl- edge of these principles ? Who does not hope to become the owner, or cultivator, of a garden, or a farm ? And what man, enjoying the blessing of health, would be at a loss for the means of an honest livelihood, whose mind had been early imbued with the philosophy of rural cul- ture — and who would rather work than beg ? An early acquaintance with natural science is calculated to beget a taste for rural life and rural labors, as a source of pleasure, profit, and honor. It will stimulate to the ADDRESS. 279 improvement of the mind, — to elevate and to purify it, — to self-respect, to moral deportment. And it will tend to deter from the formation of bad habits, which steal upon the ignorant and the idle unawares, and which con- sign thousands of young men to poverty and disgrace, if not to premature graves. A knowledge of these princi- ples, to a very useful extent, can be acquired with as much facility in the school, or upon the farm, as other branches of learning. Why, then, shall they not be taught ? Why shall we withhold from our Agricultural population that knowledge which is so indispensable to their profit, to their independence, and to their correct bearing as freemen ? Why, while we boast of our supe- rior privileges, keep in comparative ignorance of their business, that class of our citizens who are truly the con- servators of our freedom ? I know of but one objection, — the want of teachers. A few years ago, civil engineers were not to be found among us. The demand for them created a supply. We have demonstrated that we have the materials for civil engineers, and that we can work them up. We have materials for teachers of Agricultural science, which we can also work up. Demand will al- ways insure a supply. The enumeration of the foregoing obstacles to Agricul- tural improvement, sufficiently indicates the means which will be efficient in removing them. The means consist, so far as I now propose to notice them — 1. In giving a professional education to the young far- mer, which shall embrace the principles and the practice of the business which he is designed to follow in life ; and, 2. In diffusing, more extensively, among those who have completed their juvenile studies, and are better fitted to profit by the lessons of wisdom and experience, a knowledge of the same principles, and of the best modes of practice which these principles inculcate, and which experience has proved to be sound. We have professional schools in almost every business of life, except in the cultivation of the soil, one of the most important and essential of them all, and one em- bracing a larger scope of useful study in natural science. 280 ADDRESS. and in usefulness to the temporal wants of the human family, than any other. The policy of monarchs, and of privileged orders, has been to repress intelligence in the Agricultural mass, in order to keep them in a subordinate station. But neither the policy nor the practice should be countenanced by us. Our Agriculturists are our privileged class, if we have such. They are our sover- eigns, because, from their superior numbers, they must ever control our pohtical destinies, for good or for evil. And the more intelligent and independent we can render them, the more safe we make our country from the con- vulsions of internal feuds, and the danger of foreign war. I put the question to fathers — Would you esteem that son less, or think him less likely to fulfil the great duties of life, who had been educated in a professional school of Agriculture, with all the high qualifications which it would confer for public and domestic usefulness, than him \vho had been educated for the counter, the bar, or other high professional callings ? On which could you best rely for support and comfort in the decline of life ? Nay, I will venture to carry the appeal further — to the dis- criminating judgement of the unmarried lady — Would you reject, as a partner for fife, the student of such a college, coming forth whh a sound mind, deeply imbued with useful knowledge, and a hale constitution, invigorated by manly exercise, whose cares and affections were hkely to be concentrated upon home and country, and whose precepts and examples would tend to diffuse industry, prosperity, and rural happiness around him ? The fa- ther's response would be, I think, an unhesitating no, to the first question ; and the lady's, after due deliberation, I verily suspect, would be a half articulate amen ! I pretend not to the spirit of prophecy, yet I venture to predict, that many who now hear me, will live to see pro- fessional schools of Agriculture estabhshed in our land, to see their utihty extolled, and to be induced to consider them the best nurseries for repubhcan virtues, and the surest guaranty for the perpetuity of our liberties. They should be established — they will be established — and the sooner they are estabhshed, the better for our country. ADDRESS. 281 To those who have passed to manhood, and who have made up their mmds, from necessity or from choice, to till the ground, the means of improvement — of studying the principles of their business, and of becoming acquaint- ed with the most approved and modern practices in hus- bandry — the opportunities of acquiring useful knowledge, are abundant and cheap. One of these means, and a valuable one, is proffered him through the exhibitions and publications of these societies. Another is the perusal of books upon Agriculture and rural economy, which should form a part of social and rural hbraries. And another facility of acquiring this useful knowledge, is afforded by the Agricultural periodicals of our country, which, besides containing much that is instructive in the philosophy of farming, are a record of the best modes of practice, and of much that is new and important, in the various depart- ments of rural and household labor. A volume of the Cultivator, of which 1 can speak with accuracy, contains about as much matter as five or six volumes of the popu- lar novels of the day, and twice as much as four numbers of our literary quarterly journals. The price of the Cul- tivator is one dollar per annum. I verily think, that if the farmer would divide his patronage between political and Agricultural journals, he would be a manifest gainer, in his fortune and in his family — would be more happy in his business, and domestic in his habits — a better mana- ger, and a more useful citizen. Time will not permit me to go into the details of mod- ern improvements in husbandry. These improvements are great, and afford the brightest hopes to the philan- thropist and the patriot. No one who can carry back his memory forty years, can withhold his wonder at the as- tonishing improvements which have in that time been made in the manufacturing and mechanic arts, by reason of the aids of science ; and those who can scan the future, will have no less reason to rejoice, in the anticipated ad- vantages which are in prospect, from an improved culture of the mind and the soil, consequent upon a better system of education to the agricultural population, and the gen- 24* 282 ADDRESS. eral diffusion of useful knowledge, which is likely to re- sult from it. I will merely further remark to the farmer, that if he would prosper in his business, he should study, practise, and adopt, the better system of husbandry which is abroad in the land, and which has already greatly profited thou- sands, so far as his soil and circumstances will permit ; that he should drain his wet lands, economize his manures, and apply them with judgement ; cultivate well, what he does cultivate ; alternate his crops ; extend his root culture ; increase and improve his stock, as the products of his farm will permit ; and substitute fallow crops for naked fallows. In conclusion, gentlemen, permit me to express my hearty wish, that success and honor may crown your ef- forts to improve the condition of your country, industrial and moral, associate benefits almost as intimately con- nected as cause and effect ; and that you may long live to enjoy the blessings which are promised to him who truly loves his neighbor, and reveres and worships his God. APPENDIX. COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. If the square of the diameter of a circle be multiplied by .7854, the product is the area. If the diameter of a sphere be cubed and multiplied by .6236, the product is the solidity ; and the square of the diameter, multiplied by 3.14159, is the surface of the sphere. To find the contents of a cask, add double the square of the bung diameter to the square of the head diameter, and multiply this sum by the head of the cask ; then divide the product by 1,077 for ale gallons of 280 cT^ibic inches each, or by 882 for wine gallons of 231 cubic inches each. Quincunx is one at each of four corners, and one in the middle, thus, : • : The convexity of the earth interposes to prevent the sight of distant bodies. Thus, at 600 yards, one inch would be concealed, or an object one inch high would not be seen in a straight line ; at 900 yards, two inches ; at 1,400 yards, five inches ; at one mile, eight inches ; three miles, six feet ; four miles, ten feet ; five miles, sixteen feet ; six miles, twenty-four feet ; ten miles, sixty-six feet ; twelve miles, ninety-five feet ; thirteen miles, one hundred and twelve feet, and fourteen miles, one hundred and thir- ty feet. The mechanical powers may be reduced to three, but they are usually expressed as six — the lever, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the screw, and the wedge. In a single moveable pulley, the power gained is double. In a continued combination, the power is twice the num- ber of pulleys, less 1. In levers, the power is reciprocally as the lengths are each side of the fulcrum or centre of motion, as illustrated in the steelyard. 284 APPENDIX. The power gained in the wheel and axle is as the radius of the wheel to that of the axle. The power gained by an inclined plane is as the length to the height. The power of the wedge is generally as the length to the thickness of the back. The power of the screw is as the circumference to the distance of the thread, or as 6.2832 to that distance. Resistance is an affair of experiment, sometimes a third, and at other times less. The friction of cylinders or wheels is as the pressure, and inversely as the diameter. The least friction is when polished iron moves on brass. The area of a circle is the product of the diameter and circumference, divided by 4. A fall of one tenth of an inch per mile, will produce a motion in rivers. The greatest velocity is at the surface and in the middle, and the least at the bottom and sides. But as the velocity increases, the action on the sides and bottom increases also. Eclipses return in the very same order every 18 years and 1 1 days, supposing four leap years in the interval, and if five, then every 10 days. Other cycles of motion, how- ever, vary the phenomenon or measure. The moon's shad- ow is less than 170 miles broad ; but the eclipse, in de- gree, for 2,000 miles. A pump ten feet above a well, with seven inches bore, will discharge 70 gallons a minute ; and at 30 feet 4 inches, 23 gallons. The specific gravity of water being 1 .000, that of al- cohol, pure, is 0.829 ; beer, 1.034 ; cider, 1.018 ; milk, 1.032; linseed oil, 0.94; vinegar, 1.025; sea-water, 1.026; ox bone, 1.666; brass, 7.824; brick, 2.; cork, 0.24; gold, 19.2587; granite, 2.728 ; bar iron, 7.68; lead, 11.352; lignum-vitae, 1.33; mahogany, 1.06; marble, 2.716 ; mercury, 13.58 ; oak, 1.17 ; platina, 20.722 ; sil- ver, 10.474; clay-slate, 2.67; tin, 10.717, limestone, 1.386 ; elm, 0.671 ; honey, 1.45. — Treasury ojf Knowledge. MEASURES OF LENGTH. Measures of length are the distance of one object from another, according to some agreed standard. A line is the twelfth of an inch, and the 144th of a foot. COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 2S5 A geometrical pace is 4.4 feet English ; and an English mile contains 1,200 paces, or 1,760 yards, or 5,280 feet. A Scotch mile contains 1,500 paces ; a German mile 4,000 ; a Swedish and Danish mile 5,000 ; the Russian mile 750. A hand, used in measuring the height of horses, is 4 inches. A surveyor's chain is 4 poles, or 66 feet, divided into 100 links of 7.92 inches. A square chain is 16 poles, and 10 square chains are an acre. 640 square acres are a square mile ; and 4,840 square yards are an acre, 69.58 yards each way. The Irish acre is 7,840 square yards. The Scotch acre is 1.27 English. A French arpent is ^ of an English acre. 121 Irish acres are equal to 196 English. 48 Scotch acres are equal to 61 English. 11 Irish miles are equal to 14 English. 80 Scotch miles are equal to 91 Enghsh. A sea league is 3.4536 miles, or the 20th of a degree. 6,078 feet are a sea mile. A degree at the equator is 365,101 feet, or 69.148 miles, or 69^ nearly. In latitude 66° 20', Maupertuis meas- ured a degree of latitude, in 1737, and made it 69.403 ; and Swanberg, in 1803, made it 69.292. At the equator, in 1744, four astronomers made it 68.732 ; and Lambton, in 1803, latitude 12°, 68.743. Mudge, in England, made it 69.148. Cassini, in France, in 1718 and 1740, made it 69.12, and Biot, 68.769 ; while a recent measure in Spain, makes it but 68.63, which is less than at the equator, and contradicts all the others, proving the earth to be a prolate spheroid, which was the opinion of Cassini, Bernouilli, Euler, and others, while it has more generally been re- garded as an oblate spheroid. Degrees of longitude are to each other in length, as the cosines of their latitudes. For every 10° they are as fol- lows : — Equator, 10° 20° 30° 40° .69.2 .68.15 .65.27 .59.93 .53.1 50° 44.48 55° 39.69 60° 34.6 70° 23.67 80° 12.02 The pendulum which vibrates seconds, 39.1393 inches 286 APPENDIX. at London, is the standard for the British measures, mile is equal to 1,618.833 such pendulums. One WEIGHTS. The standard of weights, is, the cubic inch of distilled water, weighing 253.458 Troy grains ; the Troy pound, 5,760 grains, or 22.8157 inches. The same standard of 7,000 Troy grains, makes the pound avoirdupois, 27.7274 cubic inches ; ten of which, or 277.274, being the impe- rial gallon, or a quart 69.32 ; and a gill of five ounces of water, equal to 8.664. The American quintal is 100 pounds. The weight of a cubic inch of distilled water, in a vac- uum, is 252.722 grains, and in air, is 252.458 grains. The Turkish pound is 7,578 grains ; the Danish, 6,941 ; the Irish, 7,774; the Neapolitan, 4,952; the Scotch, pound Troy, 7,620.8. A cubic foot of loose earth or sand weighs 95 pounds. A cubic foot of common soil weighs 124 pounds. strong soil. 127 clay. 135 mason's work. 205 distilled water, 62.5 ' cast iron, 450.45 ' steel. 489.8 ' lead. 709.5 ' platina. 1,218.75 ' copper. 486.75 ' cork, 15 tallow, 59 oak. 73.15 ' brick, 125 air, 0.0753 ' MEASURES OF CAPACITY. Measure is length, breadth, and thickness, estimated by known lengths, or compared by other known quantities ; thus, there are 12X12X12^1,728 cubic inches in a cu- bic foot, and 3X3X3=27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. The imperial gallon is 277.274 cubic inches. A gill, or quarter of a pint, is 8| inches. The imperial gallon contains 10 lbs. avoirdupois, of dis- COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 287 tilled water, weighed in air at 62°, with the barometer at 30 inches. Two gallons are equal to a peck, eight to a bushel, and eight bushels to a quarter. Heaped measure, per bushel, is 2,8 15J cubic inches clear. The Winchester bushel is 18 J inches in diameter, and 8 inches deep, containing 2,154.42 cubic inches. 1,000 ounces of rain-water are equal to about 7| gallons wine measure, or to a cubic foot. 7 pounds avoirdupois is a gallon of flour. A chaldron of coals is 58 1 cubic feet. Twelve wine gallons of distilled water, weigh 100 lbs. avoirdupois. The imperial dry bushel, when not heaped, is 2,218.192 cubic inches ; the peck, 554.548 ; gallon, 277.274, and quart, 69.3185. The bushel is 8 inches deep, and 18.8 wide, with a heap 6 inches high. • A bushel of wheat is 60 lbs., rye, 53 lbs., barley, 47 lbs., oats, 38, peas, 64, beans, 63, clover-seed, 68, rape, 48 lbs. A Scotch pint is equal to four English pints. A Scotch quart is 208.6 cubic inches. There are 545,267,000 cubic yards in a cubic mile. INTERESTING FACTS IN CHEMISTRY. Chemistry is the study of the effects of heat and mix- ture, with the view of discovering their general and subor- dinate laws, and of improving the useful arts. — Black. Whenever chemical action takes place, a real change is produced in the substance operated upon, and its iden- tity is destroyed. If a little powdered chalk (carbonate of lime) be put into a glass of water, the chalk will sink to the bottom of the vessel. Though it should be mixed with the water, if left at rest it will soon subside ; no chemical action has taken place ; therefore the water and the car- bonate of lime both remain unaltered. But if a small quan- tity of diluted sulphuric acid be added to a glass of chalk and water, a violent effervescence will commence the rpo- ment they come in contact with each other ; a chemical unionof the two substances will be the consequence of this chemical action ; the identity of each substance will be destroyed, and sulphate of lime, or gypsum (a body very different from either of the substances employed) will be produced. 288 APPENDIX. Heat has a tendency to separate the particles of all bodies from each other. Hence nothing more is necessary to effect the decomposition of many bodies than to apply heat, and collect the substances which are separated by that means. It is evident that water exists in the atmosphere in abundance, even in the driest season, and under the clear- est sky. There are substances which have the power of absorbing moisture from the air, at all times, such as the fixed alkalies, (potash and soda,) and sulphuric acid, the latter of which will soon absorb more than its own weight of water from the air, when exposed to it. Fresh-burnt lime absorbs it rapidly ; and earth that has been freshly stirred absorbs it in a much greater degree, at night, than that which is crusted and compact. Hence the impor- tance of stirring the soil among tillage crops, in time of drought. Bishop Watson found, that even when there had been no rain for a considerable time, and the earth was dried by the parching heat of summer, it still gave out a consid- erable quantity of water. By inverting a large drinking- glass on a close-mown grass plat, and collecting the vapor which attached to the inside of the glass, he found that an acre of ground dispersed into the air about 1,600 gallons of water in the space of twelve hours, of a summer's day. Lavoisier has explained solidity thus: "The parti- cles of all bodies," says he, " may be considered as sub- ject to the action of two opposite powers, repulsion and attraction, between which they remain in equilibrio. So long as the attractive force remains stronger, the body must continue in a state of solidity ; but if, on the contrary, heat has so far removed these particles from each other as to place them beyond the sphere of attraction, they lose the cohesion they before had with each other, and the body ceases to be solid." Aeriform substances (gases and vapors) are called elastic, because they are all capable of being reduced into a smaller compass by pressure, and of expanding again to their usual volume whenever the pressure is removed. Thus atmospheric air may be so compressed, that 128 volumes may be forced into a space usually occupied by one volume, and the greater the compression the more will its elasticity be increased. It is on this principle that the air-gun is constructed. — Parke. COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 289 Fluidity is owing to the matter of heat being interposed between the particles of the fluid ; which heat would dis- sipate all fluids into the air, were it not for the pressure of the atmosphere, and the mutual attraction which subsists between those particles. Were it not for this atmospheric pressure, water would not be known in any other states than those of ice and vapor ; for, as soon as ice had ac- quired caloric enough to give it fluidity, it would evaporate, and be dispersed into the regions of space. This may be proved by direct experiment. The constitution of the- world in this respect exhibits a beautiful instance of the harmony of Nature, and of the exquisite contrivance of its Divine Author. On the other hand, could we totally abstract the matter of heat from any fluid, no doubt this fluid would by that means be changed to a solid, the lightest vapors being nothing more than solids combined with heat. Not only fluids, but all those substances which are soft and ductile, owe their properties to the chemical combination of caloric. Metals owe their malleability and ductility to the same cause ; for in very intense artificial cold, the most ductile metals, such as gold, silver, and lead, lose their malleabil- ity, and become brittle, as Van Mons has shown. — An- nals de Cliimie. Take, for instance, mercury. This metal is a fluid body in our climate, but by cooling it to 30 degrees below the zero of Fahrenheit's thermometer, it becomes solid ; and if it be heated to 660 degrees, it will be volatilized and converted into vapor. The elasticity of air and steam arises from the caloric being chemically combined with the solid substances of which they are composed. I say solid, because we have abundant evidence that oxygen and nitrogen [the principal elements of the atmosphere] are both capable of taking a solid form, and actually do, in many instances, exist in a state of solidity. Nitrogen is a component part of all ani- mal substances, and exists in a solid state in all the ammoni- acal salts. Oxygen takes the same state when it combines with metals and other combustibles ; and in the composi- tion of the nitrous salts, they both take the same state of solidity. These facts surely evince that atmospheric air owes its fluidity to caloric. — Parke. Whenever a body changes its state, it either combines with caloric, or separates from caloric. — Dr. Black. 25 XIII. 290 APPENDIX. It is an axiom in hydrostatics, that every substance which sivims on water, displaces so much of the water as is ex- actly equal to its own weight ; whereas, when a substance sinks in water, it displaces water equal to its bulk. Take a piece of hard wood, balance it accurately in a pair of scales with water, and then place it gently in a vessel on the surface of water which will flow over the top of the ves- sel. If the wood be now taken out with care, it will be found that the water in the scale will exactly fill the va- cancy left by the wood. — lb. The specific gravity of bodies is denoted in chemical writings by comparing it with the specific gravity of pure water, in decimal figures, water being always considered as 1.000. Thus the specific gravity of the strongest sul- phuric acid (oil of vitriol) is 1.850, or nearly nine tenths heavier than water. Iron is 7.650, or more than Tj times heavier than water ; that is, a cubic inch of iron, if put into a scale, would require 7| inches of water to balance it ; silver is 10.470 ; gold 19.300 ; and platina 23.000, or 23 times heavier than water. All substances that float upon water are specifically lighter than it, as oils, alcohol, &c. There are various instruments which, when dropped into liquids, indicate, upon a graduated scale, their specific gravity, be it heavi- er or lighter than water, as the areometer, hydrometer, 8lc. Thus the juice of the apple or grape is heavier than water in proportion to the quantity of sugar which it con- tains ; and after fermentation, it becomes specifically lighter than water in the same ratio, the sugar, which was heavier, being converted into alcohol, which is lighter than water. The tendency of wine or cider to run into the acetous or vinegar fermentation, is in proportion to its lightness before, and heaviness after fermentation — the lighter the must, the heavier the liquor, and the less sugar in the former, and less alcohol in the latter. The specific gravity of apple-juice varies from 1.000 to 1.091. Some we lately tried, from mixed fruit, indicated 1.063 by Bau- me's areometer. — Co7i. A pint measure of atmospheric air weighs nearly nine grains ; whereas a pint measure of hydrogen gas weighs little more than half a grain. The same measure of pure water weighs upwards of one pound avoirdupois. It may be remarked, that the Creator has endowed at- mospheric air with the property of preserving its own COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 291 equilibrium at all times, and in all places. Its elasticity is such, that, however it may be consumed by respiration or combustion, its place is immediately supplied with a new portion, and though, by a mistaken policy, the doors and windows of our habitations may be constructed so as to exclude it as much as possible, it will have admission ; it forces its way through every crevice, and performs the important office assigned it, in defiance of all exertions. — Parke. PHILOSOPHICAL FACTS. The change of properties which takes place when chem- ical attraction acts, is not confined to metals, but is a gener- al result in every case, where different bodies are brought into this state of combination or chemical union. Fre- quently we find that the properties of each body are totally changed ; and that substances, from being energetic and violent in their nature, become inert and harmless, and vice versa. For instance, that useful and agreeable substance, culinary salt, which is not only harmless, but wholesome, and absolutely necessary to the well-being of man, is com- posed of two formidable ingredients, either of which taken into the stomach proves fatal to life : one of these is a met- al, and the other an air ; the former is called sodium, the latter chlorine. When presented to each other, the vio- lence of their nature is manifested by their immediately bursting out into flame, and instantly they are both deprived of their virulence. Can any thing be more striking than the change of properties in this case ? and who could have supposed that culinary salt is composed of a metal united to an air ? The medicine called Glauber's salts is another instance ; it is composed of two caustic poisons of differ- ent kinds ; one called oil of vitriol, and the other barilla or soda. There are also two substances known to chem- ists, which are disgustingly bitter liquids ; one is called nitrate of silver, and the other hyposulphate of soda ; when mixed they form a compound of considerable sweetness. But the atmosphere which we breathe is the most extraor- dinary of all instances : it must be surprising to those who are unacquainted with the fact, that atmospheric air, indis- pensable as it is to life, is composed of the same ingredi- ents as that most violent and destructive liquid called aqua fords, or nitric acid. This powerful acid being made to 292 APPENDIX. act upon sugar, the sweetest of all things, produces a sub- stance intensely bitter to the taste. Charcoal is, of all known substances, the most difficult to convert into vapor ; so much so, indeed, that the conversion has never yet been decidedly effected ; it is also a very solid substance ; and diamond, which is nothing but crystallized charcoal, is one of the hardest bodies in Nature. Sulphur, in the solid state, is also a hard substance, and to hold it in vapor re- quires a high temperature. But when these two substan- ces, carbon and sulphur, are made to combine chemically so as to form the substance called bisulphuret of carbon, their properties are strikingly changed. Instead of the compound being hard, it is a thin liquid, and is not known to freeze or solidify at any degree of cold that can be produced. Instead of the compound being difficult to va- porize, it is, of all liquids, one of the most evaporable. Charcoal is the blackest substance with which we are ac- quainted — sulphur is of a most lively yellow hue ; but the compound is as colorless as water. A new smell and taste are acquired, and, in a word, there is not one point of re- semblance with the constituents. These facts are strikingly illustrative of the change of properties which follows on the exertion of chemical attraction between the ultimate parti- cles of bodies. — Donovan's Chemistry. O (H S =3 S ^ "" 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 JVumher of bushels of marl necessary to give one per cent, of carbonate of lime to an acre, for a ploughed depth of soil of 3 inches. 875 437 291 218 175 145 125 109 97 87 4 inches. 5 inches. 6 inches. 7 inches. 1166 1458 1750 2041 583 729 875 1020 388 486 583 680 281 364 437 510 233 291 350 409 194 242 291 340 180 208 250 291 145 182 218 255 129 162 194 226 116 145 175 204 8 inches. 2833 1166 777 583 466 388 333 291 259 233 COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 293 Breadths and Lengths of an Acre, in rods or perches and feet. Breadth. Length. Breadth. Length. Perches. Perches. Feet. Perches. Perches. Feet. 10 16 28 5 \\\i 11 14 . 9 29 5 Hi 12 13 51 30 5 51 13 12 5tV 31 5 2|| 14 11 7-j.V 32 5 15 10 11 33 4 14 16 10 34 4 nil 17 9 6f|- 35 4 9f 18 8 14| 36 4 7i 19 8 6i| 37 4 5if 20 8 38 4 3t^ 21 7 ^0^ 39 4 lA 22 ^ 41 40 4 23 6 15^1 41 3 14f| 24 6 11 42 3 13^ 25 6 6} 43 3 ll^i 26 6 2/^ 44 3 101 27 5 15,-V 45 3 9i Comparison of the American with the Scotch and Irish Acre. American. Scotch. Irish. Acre. Acres. Roods. Perches. Acres. Roods. Perches. 1 3 14.4 2 18.7 2 1 2 28.9 1 35.5 3 2 2 17.3 1 3 16.3 4 3 1 17.8 2 1 35.1 5 4 32.2 3 13.8 6 5 6.7 3 2 32.6 7 5 3 21.1 4 1 11.4 8 6 2 35.5 4 3 30.2 9 7 2 10 6 27.7 10 8 1 24.4 6 27.7 20 16 3 8.9 12 1 15.5 30 25 3 33.3 18 2. 3.2 40 33 2 17.8 24 2 2.1 25* 294 APPENDIX. A Table, to show at a glance the number of hills or..plants each other, from 40 feet by 40, Feet. Feet. 1 Per acre. Feet. Feet. ( Per acre, i Ft. In. Ft. In., Per acre. 40 by 40 1 27 16 by 15 175 8 by 8 , 680 39 . . 39 28 16 . . 10 272 8 0. . 7 777 38 . . 38 30 16 . . 5 544 8 . . 6 905 37 . . 37 31 15 . . 15 193 8 . . 5 1089 36 . . 36 33 15 . . 10 290 8 0. . 4 1361 35 . . 35 35 15 . . 5 580 8 0. .3 1815 34 . . 34 37 14 . . 14 222 8 . .2 2722 33. . 33 40 14 . . 10 311 8 . . 1 5445 32 . . 32 42 14 . . 5 622 7 . . 7 888 31 . . 31 45 13 . 13 257 7 . . 6 6 957 30. . 30 48 13 . 10 335 7 . . 6 1037 29 . . 29 51 13 . 5 670 7 . . 5 6 1131 28 . . 28 55 12 . 12 302 7 0. . 5 1244 27 . . 27 59 12 . 10 363 7 0. . 4 6 1382 26 . . 26 64 12 . 5 720 7 0. . 4 1555 25. . 25 69 11 . 11 360 7 0. . 3 6 1777 24 . . 24 75 11 . 10 396 7 . . 3 2074 23 . . 23 82 11 . 5 792 7 0. .2 6 2489 22 . .22 90 10 . 10 435 7 . .2 3111 21 . . 21 98 10 . 9 484 7 . . 1 6 4148 20 . . 20 108 10. 8 544 7 . . 1 6222 20 . . 15 145 10. 7 622 6 0. . 6 1210 20. . 10 217 10 . 6 726 6 . . 5 6 1320 20 . . 5 435 10. 5 871 6 0. .5 1452 19 . . 19 120 10. 4 1089 6 . . 4 6 1613 19 . . 15 152 10. . 3 1452 6 . . 4 1815 19 . . 10 229 10. 2 2178 6 0. . 3 6 2074 19 . . 5 458 10. 1 4356 6 0. . 3 2420 18 . . 18 134 9 . . 9 537 6 0. . 2 6 2904 18 . . 15 161 9 . . 8 605 6 0. . 2 3630 18 . . 10 242 9 . . 7 691 6 0. . 1 6 4840 18 . . 5 484 9 . 6 806 6 0. . 1 7260 17 . . 17 150 9 . . 5 968 >5 6 . . 5 6 1417 17 . . 15 170 9 . . 4 1210 5 6 . . 5 1584 17 . . 10 256 9 . . 3 1613 5 6 . . 4 6 1760 17 . 5 512 9 . . 2 2420 5 6 . . 4 1980 16 . 16 170 9 . . 1 4840 5 6 . . 3 6 2272 COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 295 contained in to 1 foot bij an acre of land, at any 1 , omitting fractions. given distance from Ft. In. Ft. In. Per acre Ft. In. Ft. In. Per acre. Ft. In. Ft. In. Per acre. 5 6 by 3 2640 3 9 by 3 3872 3 Oby 1 14520 5 G . 2 6 3168 3 9 .2 9 4224 2 9 . 2 9 5760 5 6 .2 3960 3 9 . . 2 6 4646 2 9 . 2 6 6336 5 6 . . 1 6 5280 3 9 . 2 3 5162 2 9 . 2 3 7040 5 6 . . 1 7920 3 9 . 2 5808 2 9 . 2 7920 5 0. . 5 1742 3 9 . . 1 9 6637 2 9 . 1 9 9051 5 . . 4 6 1936 3 9 . . 1 6 7744 2 9 . 1 6 10560 5 . . 4 2178 3 9 . . 1 3 9272 2 9 . 1 3 12672 5 . . 3 6 2489 3 9 . . 1 11616 2 9 . 1 15840 5 . . 3 2904 3 6; . 3 6 3555 2 6 . 2 6 6969 5 . . 2 6 3484 3 6 . . 3 3 3829 2 6 . 2 3 7740 5 . . 2 4356 3 6 . 3 4148 2 6 . 2 8712 5 . . 1 6 5808 3 6 . . 2 9 4525 2 6 . 1 9 9956 5 . . 1 8712 3 6 . .2 6 4978 2 6 . 1 6 11616 4 6 . . 4 6 2151 3 6 . . 2 3 5531 2 6 . 1 3 13939 4 6 . . 4 2420 3 6 . . 2 6222 2 6 . 1 17424 4 6 . . 3 6 2765 3 6 . . 1 9 7111 2 3 . 2 3 8604 4 6 . . 3 3226 3 6 . . 1 6 8297 2 3 . 2 9680 4 6 . .2 6 3872 3 6 . . 1 3 9956 2 3 . 1 9 11062 4 6 . .2 4840 3 6 . . 1 12445 2 3 . 1 6 12906 4 6 . . 1 6 6453 3 3 . . 3 3 4124 2 3 . 1 3 15488 4 6 . . 1 9680 3 3 . . 3 4818 2 3 . 1 19360 4 0. . 4 2722 3 3 . .2 9 4873 2 0. 2 10890 4 0. .3 9 2904 3 3 . .2 6 5361 2 . 1 9 12445 4 0. .3 6 3111 3 3 . . 2 3 5956 2 . 1 6 14520 4 0. . 3 3 3350 3 3 . .2 6701 2 0. 1 3 17424 4 0. . 3 3630 3 3 . . 1 9 7658 2 . 1 21780 4 0. . 2 9 3960 3 3 . . 1 6 8935 1 9 . 1 9 14223 4 0. . 2 6 4356 3 3 . . 1 3 10722 1 9 . 1 6 16594 4 0. . 2 3 4840 3 3 . . 1 13403 1 9 . 1 3 19913 4 . .2 5445 3 . . 3 4840 1 9 . 1 24454 4 0. . 1 9 6222 3 . . 2 9 5289 1 6 . 1 6 19360 4 0. . 1 6 7260 3 0. . 2 6 5808 1 6 . 1 3 23232 4 0. . 1 3 8712 3 . . 2 3 6453 1 6 . 1 29040 4 0. . 1 10890 3 . . 2 7260 1 3 . 1 3 27878 3 9 . 3 9 3097 3 . . 1 9 8297 1 3 . 1 34848 3 9 . . 3 6 33181 3 . . 1 6 9680 1 . 1 43560 3 9 . . 3 3 3574 3 . . 1 3 11616 296 APPENDIX. AN ACRE OF LAND CONTAINS 4 Roods, each rood 40 rods, poles, or perches. 160 Rods, 304 yards each. 4,840 Square yards, 9 feet each. 43,560 Square feet, 144 inches each. 174,240 Squares of 6 inches each. 6,272,640 Inches, or squares of one inch each. A Table of various Foreign Coins, Sfc., with their value in Fed- eral Money, as established by an act of Congress. $ Pound sterling, 4 Pound of Ireland, 4 Pound of the Canadas, 4 Pagoda of India, 1 Mill-rea of Portugal, 1 Rouble of Russia, Rupee of Bengal, Guilder of the Netherlands, Mark Banco of Hamburgh, Livre of France, Real of Spain, A Table of the weight and value of certain Foreign Coins. Names. Standard weight. Federal value. Gold. dwt. gr. E. $ d. c. m A Johannes, 18 17 6 4* A Half Johannes, 9 8 5 3 2 ADoubloon, 17 9 15 5 3 5 An English Guinea, 5 9J 057 7 5 Silver. English or French Crown, 19 110 The Dollar of Spain, Sweden, or Denmark, 17 6 10 An English Shilling, 3 11 2 2 2 d. c. m. 8 7 5 1 9 4 2 4 6 6 5 5 3 9 3 4 4 1 8 5 1 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS USED IN AGRICULTURE. Aer if or 7)1, ha.\ing the form and nature of an elastic invisible fluid, like air. Agriculture, the cultivation and management of the soil, on the scale of a farm, by animal and manual labor and steam-power, for the production of materials useful for the food and service of man, and for various purposes in arts, manufactures, and civilized life. Aliment, that which nourishes animals or vegetables ; the nutritive quality of food, dissolved and blended with the juices of the stom- ach, or the moisture of the soil, and converted into chyle or sap, by the digestive process, and taken up by the lacteals or spongioles, (chyle or sap carrying vessels.) Alkaline Earths, so called from their possessing most of the qualities of alkalies, as lime, magnesia, strontia, baryta. Alluvial Soils, formed by the action of water, as river flats, com- posed of various and heterogeneous materials. Anbury, a disease of turnips and cabbages — tumors upon the roots, caused by insects. Animalcule, in its general acceptation, a little animal, but since the invention of the microscope, the term is particularly applied to the myriads of insects, too small to be seen by the naked eye, which are discovered by that instrument. Animal Manures, all dead animal matters, as fish, bone, horn. Ve~ geto-animal Manures, stable and yard dung, partaking of vegetable and animal matters. Annual Plants, such as flower, seed, and die, the year they are grown. Antiseptic, a term applied to those substances which check or resist putrefaction, as salt, &c. Aquatic Plants, plants growing in water. Arable Husbandry, where the raising of grain is the main object of the cultivator, as in wheat-growing districts. Arborculture, or planting, is the cultivation of useful trees and shrubs, and is another term for rural embellishment. Assimilation, in animal and vegetable economy, is that hidden, natu- ral process by which living animals and plants are enabled to con- vert such bodies as have a certain affinity for them, or at least after having undergone some preparation, and change of properties, into their own substance and nature. Biennial Plants, such as flower and seed the second year and then die, as the carrot, cabbage, onion. 298 DEFINITIONS OP Brairding well, a Scotch term, denoting, in young grain, a foliage which promises an ahundant product. Calcareous Soils, such as will effervesce with acids. According to Sir Humphrey Davy, they contain at least seven eighths of sand. Cereal Grasses, those raised for bread-corn ; wheat, &c. Clayey Soils. This term, Sir Humphrey Davy says, should not be applied to soils which contain less than one sixth of impalpable matter. They are called argillaceous, and often aluminous soils. Composts, mixtures of various earthy and vegetable materials, as peat earth, lime, dung, loam, &c. Convertible Husbandry, mixed husbandry, which implies frequent change, in the same field, from tillage to grass, and from grass to tillage — an alternation of dry, root, and grass crops. Corn, in Europe, embraces every crop that is convertible into bread, as wheat, barley, oats, &c. In the United States, the term is partic- ularly applied to maize, or Indian corn. Cotyledons, seed-lobes, or seed-leaves, the fleshy parts of seeds, or the two halves, which separate in the act of sprouting, and rise above the ground. Cropping, the raising, cutting, and carrying off the crop ; generally applied to tillage crops. Culinary Vegetables, such as are raised for the table. Culmiferous Crops, consist of the grains and the grasses which have smooth, jointed stalks, (culms,) and seed contained in chaffy husks, as wheat, timothy, &c. These have generally fibrous roots. Dry Crops, are those which mature their seeds before they are gath- ered, as wheat, rye, barley, &c. They are considered the most exhausting crops. Earth, as applied to the ground, lime, clay, sand, or one or more earthy materials, in a friable and divided state, and either alone or mixed, but without the addition of much organic matter. Farmer, one who cultivates a farm, be he proprietor or tenant. On the old continent, the term is only applied to such as pay rent. As our cultivators are generally proprietors, we give to the term its broadest, though perhaps not its legitimate definition. Ferruginous Soils, are those which abound in iron, the presence of which is generally indicated by a red or yellow color, in the soil and the waters which pass through it. Floriculture, is that branch of gardening, which has cognizance of flowers, of ornamental shrubs, and forcing and exotic gardening, so far as respects plants of ornament. Foliage Grasses, plants cultivated for their leaves, to be used green, as the cabbage, spinach, lettuce tribes, &c. Furrow Brains, parallel drains, made at intervals of sixteen to thirty feet, generally in the furrows between ridges, on flat and retentive soils, constructed like under drains. Geine, of like import with Humus, which see. Germination, the act of sprouting ; the beginning of vegetation in a seed or plant. Grass Crops, are the grasses cut for hay, or fed off in pasturage. AGRICULTURAL TERMS. 299 Grass Husbandry, where the principal object is the dairy, the rearing of domestic animals, &c., as in grazing districts. Green Crops, are clover, buckwheat, or other growing crops, buried by the plough to enrich the soil — considered improving crops. Herbage Plants, clover and other plants cultivated chiefly for the herb, to be used either green or to be made into hay. Horticulture, is to the garden, what agriculture is to the farm, — the application of labor and science to a limited spot, for conve- nience, for profit, or for ornament — though implying a higher state of cultivation than is common in agriculture. It includes the culti- vation of culinary vegetables and of fruits, and forcing or exotic gardening, as far as respects useful products. Humus, or Geine, the product of organic niatter, and the food of plants. Husbandman, one who farms generally ; that is, who produces both grain and cattle, and attends to the dairy, the poultry, and the or- chard. A farmer, says Loudon, may confine himself to grazing, or to breeding, or to haymaking, or milking, or raising green crops for the market, &c., but in none of these cases can he with propriety be called a husbandman. The term farmer is therefore not exactly synonymous with husbandman. Husbandry, is here used as comprehending all that belongs to agricul- ture. Inorganic Matter, devoid of organs ; not formed with the organs or instruments of life ; pure earths. Insoluble Matters, matters which cannot be dissolved by the waters of the soil. Landscape Gardening, is the art of so arranging the external scenes of a country residence, as to render them ornamental, both as do- mestic scenery, and as a part of the general scenery of a country. Latter math. After math, Rowen, are all terms which express the sec- ond crop of grass. Lay, Ley, Lea, different terms applied to meadow, pasture, or sward. Leguminous Crops — peas, beans, and the like — having a seed-vessel with two valves, in which the seeds are fixed to one side only. Liquid Manures, those that are applied in a liquid form, as urine, the liquids of the cattle-yard, soap-suds, &c. Manures, every species of matter capable of promoting the growth of vegetables. See Animal, Mineral, and Vegetable. Mechanical Manures, are those which serve to improve the texture of soils, as sand applied to clay, clay to sand, and marl or mild lime to both, when they are deficient in calcareous matter. Mineral Manures, such as serve to dissolve the organic matters in the soil, to induce new soluble compounds, or to stimulate the organs of plants, as quicklime, gypsum, ashes, salt, &c. Mould, organic matter in a finely divided and decomposed state, with a little admixture of earth, as vegetable mould, leaf mould, peat mould, &c. Organic Matters, animal or vegetable matters in a greater or less state of decay. Organic Remains, are the remains of living bodies either petrified or imbedded in stone. 300 AGRICULTURAL TERMS. Peaty Soils, are those of morasses, swamps, &c., and to be entitled to this application, should consist, according to Sir Humphrey Davy, of one half vegetable matter. Perennial Plants, those that do not generally flower the first year, but die down to the ground, and grow up again the next spring, and so on for a number of years, as rhubarb, horse-radish, &c. Primitive Soils, such as exist in primitive or early formations of the globe, destitute of organic remains, as most of those of New- England. Professional Gardener, one who has served an apprenticeship to gardening, and understands the processes of culture, propagation, and forcing. Root Crops, are potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, &c., which divide and p'ulverize the soil by their roots, and keep it clean from weeds. These are called ameliorating crops. Saline Soils, are those which become impregnated with marine or common salt, by being flooded with sea-water, or from other causes. Sandy Soils, are those which contain, according to Sir Humphrey Davy, at least seven eighths of sand. These are denominated sili- cious soils. Secondary Soils, belong to secondary or more recent formations, and abound more or less in organic remains. Soil, earth either of one or of several sorts, mixed with decomposed orgaaic matter. Soils, see Alluvial, Calcareous, Clayey, Ferruginous, Peaty, Prim- itive, Saline, Sandy, Secondary. Soluble Matters, organic matters which can be dissolved by the wa- ters of the soil. Stolons, roots that produce suckers or fruits ; as of the potato, which produce tubers, or of the quack or June grasses, which send up shoots or suckers. Strata, the plural of stratum, beds or layers of earth or other sub- stances. Stratum, a bed, or layer, naturally or artificially formed, distinct from the adjacent matter. Under Drains, drains for the conveyance of water, made of stone, tile, or other materials, and covered with earth. Vegetables, plants, organized bodies, generally deriving their nour- ishment from the soil. Vegetable Manures, vegetable matters which have not undergone the process of animal mastication, as green crops, straw, &c. Vegeto-animal Manures, see Animal Manures. A GLOSSARY OF CHEMICAL TERMS. Absorptio/iy the conversion of a gaseous fluid into a liquid or solid. Acetate, salt formed by the combination of any base with the acetic acid. Acetate of lead, sugar of lead. Acetic acid, concentrated vinegar. Acids, compounds of bases with oxygen, hydrogen, &c. JEEther, a volatile liquid, formed of alcohol and an acid. Affinity, a force by which substances oi different kinds unite. Alkali, (fossil, or mineral,) soda. Alkali, (vegetable,) potash. Alkali, (volatile,) ammonia. Alcohol, rectified spirits of wine. Alluvial, depositions of soil made by water. Alum, a compound of sulphuric acid, alumine, and potash, or ammo- nia. Alumine, earth of alum ; pure argillaceous clay. Anthracite, mineral coal containing no bitumen. Areometer, a graduated glass instrument with a bulb, by which the specific gravity of liquids is taken ; an hydrometer. Argillaceous, of the nature of clay. Aroma, the odor which arises from certain vegetables, or their infu- sions. Azote, nitrogen ; the basis of atmospheric air, of ammonia, nitrous acid, &c. Barometer, an instrument which shows the variation of atmospheric pressure. Bell metal, an alloy of tin and copper. Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. Calcareous, partaking of the nature of lime. Caloric, the chemical term for the matter of heat. Caloric, (free,) radiant heat, or that which is not in chemical union with other bodies. Caloric, (latent,) the matter of heat in a state of combination ; not perceptible. Carbon, the base of diamond and of charcoal. Carbonate of lime, the compound of carbonic acid and lime, under the names of marble, limestone, calcareous spar, chalk, &c. Carbonate of potash, common potash ; pearlash ; salt of tartar. Carbonic acid, carbon combined with oxygen. Chalybeate, the term applied to mineral waters impregnated with iron. Citric acid, the acid of lemons. 26 XIII. 302 GLOSSARY OF Cohesion, a force inherent in all the particles of bodies, by which they are prevented from falling to pieces. Concentration, the act of increasing the specific gravity of bodies. Decomposition, separation of the constituent principles of compound bodies. Effervescence, an intense motion which takes place in certain bodies caused by the escape of a gaseous substance. Efflorescence, the pulverulent form of saline bodies produced by expo- sure to the air, in consequence of losing their water of crystallization. Elements, are, properly, the simple constituent parts of bodies, in- capable of decomposition, or further division. Essences, the essential oils obtained by distillation from odoriferous vegetable substances. Evaporation, dissipation of fluids by heat ; evaporating fluids into vapor by heat. Fermentation, a peculiar spontaneous motion, which occurs in vege- table substances, if exposed to proper temperature, under certain circumstances. It is usually divided into the acetous, vinous, sac- charine, and putrefactive stages. Fluidity, a term applied to all liquid substances. Solids are con- verted into fluids by combining with a certain portion of caloric. Gallic acid, the acid found in gall-nuts. Gas. All solid substances, when converted into permanently elastic fluids by caloric, are called gases. Gelatin, a chemical term for animal gelly. Gluten, a vegetable substance allied to gelatin. Gravity, that property by which bodies fall to the earth. Gravity, {specific,) is the weight of any solid or fluid body, compared with the same measure of distilled water. Hydrates. Those substances which have formed so intimate an union with water as to solidify the water, and render it one of its compo- nent parts, are called hydrates. Hydrate of lime, lime slaked in water. Hydrogen, the base of water ; inflammable air. Hydrometer , see Areometer. Incineration, the converting of vegetables to ashes, by burning. Laboratory, a room fitted up with apparatus for the performance of chemical operations. Lime, quicklime ; calcareous earth ; oxide of calcium. Lute, a composition for closing the junctures of chemical vessels, &c. Maceration, softening a solid body in a fluid, without impregnating the fluid with it. Malic acid, acid of apples. Malleability, that property of metals which gives them the quality of being extended and flattened by hammering. Menstruum, the fluid in which a solid body is dissolved. Mineral, any natural substance of a metallic, earthy, or saline nature. Mordants, substances which have a chemical affinity for particular colors, as alum. Mucilage, a vegetable principle allied to gum. Muriates, salts formed by the combination of any base with muriatic acid. CHEMICAL TERMS. 303 Muriatic acid, spirit of sea-salt. Muriate of soda, common salt. JVttrate of potash, saltpetre, nitre. JVitrates, salts formed by the combination of any base with nitric acid. JVeutral salt, a substance formed by the union of an acid with an alkali, an earth, or a metallic oxide, in such proportions as to sat- urate both the base and the acid. Oxalic acid, the acid found in sorrel. Oxide, any substance combined with oxygen, in a proportion not sufficient to produce acidity ; rust of metals. Oxidize, to combine oxygen with a body without producing acidity. Oxygen, a simple substance, being one of the component parts of water and of atmospheric air ; vital air. Oxygen gas, oxygen converted into gas by combining with caloric. Pellicle, a thin skin which forms on the surface of saline and other liquids, when boiled down to a certain strength. Pyrolignic acid, an acid obtained from wood by burning. Sal, a salt. Saturation, the act of impregnating a fluid with another substance, till no more of it can be received or imbibed. Silicious earths, natural substances which are composed chiefly of silica ; as quartz, flint, sand, &c. Simple substances, synonymous with elements ; not divisible. Smelting, the operation of fusing ores, to separate the metal from the sulphur, arsenic, and other matters with which it is combined. Solution, the perfect union of a solid substance with a fluid. Sulphates, Sulphats, Sulphites, salts formed by the combination of any base with sulphuric acid. Sulphate of copper, blue vitriol ; blue stone. Sulphate of iron, copperas ; green vitriol. Sulphate of lime, gypsum. Sulphate of soda, Glauber's salts. Sulphate of zinc, white vitriol. Sulphate of potash, a chemical salt, composed of sulphuric acid and potash. Sulphur et of potash, sulphur and potash fused together. Sulphate of magnesia, Epsom salts. Sulphuric acid, oil of vitriol ; vitriolic acid. Super-tartrate of potash, cream of tartar. Subacetate of copper, verdigris. Sulphurets, combinations of alkaline earths or metals with sulphur. Tartaric acid, the acid found in the grape. Tartrates, Tartrites, salts formed by the combination of any base with the acid of tartar. Thermometer, an instrument to show the relative heat of bodies and of the atmosphere. Trituration, the pulverizing, or uniting of bodies by friction. Torrefaction, roasting of ores. Vacuum, a space unoccupied by matter. THE SCHOOL ADVERTISER NO. H. AUGUST, 1839. THE SCHOOL LIBRARY. MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB, 109, Washington Street, Boston, Are now publishing, under the sanction of the Mas- sachusetts Board of Education, a collection of ori- ginal AND selected WORKS, ENTITLED, ' ThE ScHOOL Library.' The Library will embrace two series of fifty volumes each ; the one to be in 18mo., averaging from 250 to 280 pages per volume ; the other in 12mo., each volume con- taining from 350 to 400 pages. The former, or Juvenile Series, is intended for children of ten or twelve years of age and under; the latter for individuals of that age, and upwards, — in other words, for advanced scholars and their parents. The Library is to consist of reading, and not school, class, or text books ; the design being to furnish youth with suitable works for perusal during their leisure hours ; works that will interest, as well as instruct them, and of such a character that they will turn to them with pleasure, when it is desirable to unbend from the studies of the school room. The plan will embrace every department of Science and Literature, preference being given to works relating to our own Country, and illustrative of the history, institutions, manners, customs, &c., of our own people. Being intended for the whole community, no work of a sectarian or de- nominational character in religion, or of a partisan char- acter in politics, will be admitted. The aim will be to clothe the subjects discussed, in a popular garb, that they may prove so attractive, as to lure the child onwards, fix his attention, and induce him, sub- sequently, to seek information from other and more re- condite works, which, if put into his hands at the onset, would alarm him, and induce a disgust for that which would appear dry and unintelligible, and of course, un- interesting. The intention is not to provide information for any one class, to the exclusion of others, but to disseminate knowl- edge among all classes. The Publishers wish the children of the Farmer, the Merchant, the Manufacturer, the Me- chanic, the Laborer, — all to profit by the lights of science and literature, that they may be rendered the more virtu- ous and happy, and become more useful to themselves, to one another, to the community, and mankind at large. To accomplish this desirable end, the Library will em- brace so wide a range of subjects, that every child may find something which will prove useful and profitable to him, whatever his situation, circumstances, or pursuits, in afterlife may be. The project is one of great extent, and vast importance; and, if properly carried out, must become of inestimable value to the young. Whether the anticipations of the Publishers, with regard to it, will be verified, time must determine ; but from the intellectual and moral, theoretical and practical character of those who have engaged to aid in the undertaking, they have good grounds for presuming that much will be accomplished, and that by their united efforts many obstacles, now existing to the mental, moral, and physical improvement of youth, will be removed, or at least be rendered more easily surmountable. Among the individuals already engaged as writers for one or both Series, may be mentioned — the Hon. Judge Story, Jared Sparks, Esq., Washington Irving, Esq., Rev. Dr. Wayland, Professor Benjamin Silliman, Professor Den- nison Olmsted, Professor Alonzo Potter, Hon. Judge Buel, Dr. Jacob Bigelow, Dr. Robley Dunglison, Dr. Elisha Bartlett, Rev. Charles W. Upham, Rev. F. W. P. Green- wood, Rev. Royal Robbins, Rev. Warren Burton, Ar- thur J. Stansbury, Esq., E. C. Wines, Esq., Robert Ran- toul, Jr., Esq., Professor Tucker, and Professor Elton. Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Mrs. E. F. Ellet, Mrs. Emma C. Embury, Mrs. A. H. Lincoln Phelps, Miss E. Robbins, Miss E. P. Peabody, Miss Mary E. Lee, Miss Caroline Sedgwick. No work will be admitted into the Library, unless it be approved by every member of the Board of Education ; which Board consists of the following individuals, viz.. His Excellency Edward Everett, Chairman, His Honor George Hull, Rev. Emerson Davis, Edmund Dwight, Esq., Rev. George Putnam, Robert Rantoul, Jr., Esq., Rev. Thomas Robbins, D. D., Jared Sparks, Esq., Hon. Charles Hudson, and Hon. George N. Briggs. The following works, have been printed, and constitute the first ten volumes of the l^mo. series, viz. LIFE OF COLUMBUS, by Washix-^gton Irving, a new edition, (revised by the author,) including a Visit to Palos, and other additions, a portrait of the Great Naviga- tor, a Map, and several illustrative engravings. PALEY'S NATURAL THEOLOGY, in two volumes, with selections from the Dissertations and Notes of Lord Brougham and Sir Charles Bell, illustrated by numer- ous wood cuts, and prefaced by a Life of the Author ; (with a portrait;) the whole being newly arranged and adapted for The School Library, by Elisha Bartlett, M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic and Pathological Anatomy iii Dartmouth College. LIVES OF EMINENT INDIVIDUALS, CELEBRA- TED IN AMERICAN HISTORY, in three vols., with portraits of Robert Fulton, Sebastian Cabot, and Sir Henry Vane, and autographs of most of the individuals. Vol. I. WILL CONTAIN Life of Major-general John Stark, by His Excellency Edward Everett. " David Brainerd, by Rev. William B. O. Peabody. " Robert Fulton, by James Renwick, LL. D., Professor of Natural Phi- losophy and Chemistry, in Columbia College, Neiv York City. " Captain John Smith, by George S. Hillard, Esq. Vol. II. WILL CONTAIN Life of Major-general Ethan Allen, by Jared Sparks, Professor of History in Harvard University. " Sebastian Cabot, by Charles Ilayward, Jr., Esq. " Henry Hudson, by Henry R. Cleveland, Esq. " Major-general Joseph Warren, by Alexander H. Everett, LL. D. " Major-general Israel Putnam, by O. W. B. Peabody, Esq. " David Rittenhouse, by Professor James Renwick, L L. D Vol. III. WILL CONTAIX Life of William Pinkney, by Henry Wheaton, LL. D., Author of History of the Northmen. " Sir Henry Vane, by Rev. Charles W. Upham. " Major-oenekal Anthony Wayne, by John Armstrong, Esq. " William Ellery, by Edward T. Channing, Esq. " Major-general Richard Montgomery, by John Armstrong, Esq. THE SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEASONS, illustrating The Perfections of God in the Phenomena of the Year. In 4 vols. By the Rev. Henry Duncan, D. D., of Ruthivell, Scotland; with important additions, and some modifications to adapt it to American readers, by the Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood, of Boston. The great value and interesting nature of these volumes, to every class of individuals, vv^ili be seen, at once, by a perusal of the following Table of Contents. The w^ork contains a paper for every day in the year. VOL. I.— WINTER. I. Sunday. — Goodness of God to his Rational Creatures. The Character im- pressed on Nature — Compensation. Contrivance. COSMICAL arrangements. Globular Figure of the Earth. Circulation in the Atmosphere and Ocean. The Atmosphere. Ignis Fatuus. ii. Sunday. — General Aspect of Winter. Phosphorescence. Aurora Borealis. Meteoric Showers. Variety of Climates. Practical Effect of the Commercial Spirit produced by a Variety of Climates. Adaptation of Organized Existences to Seasons and Climates, in. Sunday. — The Omnipresence of God. Adaptation of Organized Existences to the Tropical Regions. Adaptation of Organized Existences to Temperate and Polar Climates. The Balance Preserved in the Animal and Vegetable Creation. Night. — Its Al- ternation with Day. Sleep. Dreaming, iv. Sunday. — The World a State of Discipline. the starry heavens. General Remarks. Gravitation and Inertia. The Planetary System. The Sun as the Source of Light and Heat. Motions of the Planets. Resisting Me- dium, v. Sunday. — Divine and Human Knowledsre compared. TheSatellit.es. Relative Proportions of the Planetary System. Distance of the Fixed Stars. Immensity of the Universe. Nebulae. Binary Stars. the microscope. VI. Sunday. — Discoveries of the Telescope and Microscope compared. Won- ders of the Microscope. — Infusory Animalcules. hybernation of plants. Plants and Animals compared. Adjustment of the Constitution of Plants to the Annual Cycle. Physiological Condition of Plants during Winter. hybernation of insects. Instinct, vii. Sunday.— On Seeing God in his Works. Reason in the Lower Animals. Eggs. Various States. Bees. The Snail. The Beetle, viii. Sun- day. — Greatness of God even in the Smallest Things. migrations of birds and quadrupeds during wintep.. Birds. Birds which partially migrate. Quadrupeds. Christmas-Day. No Season Unpleasant to the Cheerful Mind. ix. Sunday. — Proofs of Divine Benevolence in the Works of Creation. MIGRATION OF FISHES. The Sturgeon, the Herring, the Cod, &c. Cetaceous Animals. Migration from the Sea into Rivers. Migration of Eels. New-Year's-Day. Migration of the Land-Crab, x. Sunday.— 7fm Under Glass, Plate Glass, Moulding, Pressing, Cutting, Stained Glass, Enamelling, Artificial Gems, Devitrification, Reaumur's Porcelain, Crystallo-Ceramie, Glass Thread, Remarks. CHAPTER XXII. Arts of Induration by Heat. Bricks, Tiles, Terra Cotta, Crucibles, Pottery, Operations, Stone Ware, White Ware, Throwing, Pressing, Casting, Burning, Printing, Glazing, China Ware, European Porcelain, Etruscan Vases. A FAMILIAR TREATISE ON THE CONSTITU- TION OF THE UNITED STATES, by the Hon. Judge Story, L L. D., Author of ' Commentaries on the Constitu- tion,^ <^'C. LIFE OF DR. FRANKLIN. SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF FRANKLIN, by Jared Sparks, L L. D., Professor of His- tory in Harvard University, Author of ' the Life and Writings of Washington,'' ' the Lfe and Writings of Franklin, ' Sfc ,Sfc. CHRISTIANITY AND KNOWLEDGE, by the Rev. RoYAL ROBBINS. The design of this Work is to show what Christianity has done for the human intellect, and what that has done for Christianity. 13 THE LORD OF THE SOIL, OR, PICTURES OF AGRICULTURAL LIFE; by Rev. Warren Burton, Author of' The District School as it Was,'' S^c. '^. ^''^. ^