Cheraw gazette and Pee Dee farmer. [volume] (Cheraw S.C.) 1838-1839, August 30, 1839, Image 1
CHERAW GAZETTE
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?* - . . * AND
PEE DEE FARMER.
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VOLUME IV. CHERAW, SOUTH-CAROLINA, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 30, 1839. NUMBER XLII.
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EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
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sieaUoqs^ 4i r <
giaB B r",i eg _
fittfrtrettent of Wern?Ovt Land.
To the Editor of the Chetaw Gazette.
Sir?With jour permission I will occasionally
occupy a small space in your paper with such
hints and sugg stions as may from time to time
occur to me, and may be deemed interesting to
your Agricultural read. rs. It may be a trite,
hut it it nevertheless a very true remark, that
every man knows something which it would
profit others to learn. In confirmation of this I
have heard it affirmed of a very distinguished
individual* of this section of country, that he
had never conversed with any man upon tho sub.
jeot of Agriculture, that he did not learn some,
thing from him.
Emboldened by such authority, I will suggest
what seems to me a very economical mode of
improving worn out land, and ameliorating, in
the highest degree, that which is stiff and unkind
of culture. Sometime between the first and
middle of October, sow down with Ryo at the
rate of about a neck and a half ner acre. dIoupIi.
? ' c m
ml is oven, to a food depth. If it be stubble land
and has lain out for several years previous, it
should be first thoroughly cle nsed of all roots,
briers, &c. and then burnt. Land in this con
dition should have two ploughing ; the first a
very deep one about a month previous to the
owing of the rye; when it is in full bloom, then
sow on tho common cow peas, and turn all un- ?
der carefully and thoroughly. In the fall before
fructification has commenced with the peas, it
should be laid off with a ten inch shovel plough,
Ihe distance required for the rows, (whether for
corn or cotton) and well bedded with the dagon
or cutter. Early the next spring, reverse theee
beds and plant upon them. This process won Id
certainly yield a profitable return upon any land,
however poor it might be, and upon some of our
stiff and impermeable claps the production would
be double. The enriching qualities of these two
green crops would bo very great, if turned under
when they ought to be; that is, before the period
of fructification. Chaptal says in an article "on
the effects of plants upon the soil,** that "it is
well known to farmers, that ploughing in a
green crop of any kind whatever, prepares the
oil for producing well without any other manure
; since, by this process, all that the aoil
has yielded is returned to it with some additions,
resulting from the decomposed principles of air
and water, which are contained in me pi&nis."
The reasons why I have selected rye and the
cow pea aro, that they grow upon any soil, pro.
duce succulent vegetation, transpire but little,
and henoe make an entire return to the soil.?
Every planter, whether groat or small, could
manure at least a portion of his lands in this
way, which would enable him to use more freely
his compost in other places. ABATOR.
The late Gov. David R. Williams.
From the American Farmer.
NEA T CA TTLE ?Different breeds
adapted to different circumstances? Which
best suited to the Atlantic States ??At some
more leisure moment, we will submit, more in
detail than we have time to do now, our imnrpssiocK
in resoect of the different races of
cattle, and the better adaptation of one or
another, to different circoms ances nnd different
parts of the country, it is a subject on
which we profess to have read much, to have
reflated not a little, and to have had some
experienr e ; and without stopping now to
give all the reasons which lead to it, we will
yet express, for what it is worth, our opinion,
that for tho tide-water, slave.holding,
corn, wheat and cotton country,
with its indifferent pastures and not very
careful management, what in England is
called the North Devon cattle aro best
suited. This is probably, the popular opinion,
but with us truth, we trust, or what we
believe to be truth, will always have pre.,
cedence of popularity?Value so often con. '
sists in quantity, that in the public estimation
it is too frequently confounded with it?
Laigeat and best areBpplied synonimously
in many cases where it would be nearer the
truth to say the larger is the worse, and this
is emphatically true in numerous instances
with reference to domestic animals. To
peak particularly of cattle?meaning neat
cattle, there are various points of view in
which the subject is to be considered; and
chiefly; the principal uses the breeder has
in view, and the kind, quantity and value of
his means of subsisting and rearing them.
In Kentucky or Ohio for instance, the
breeder's object is almost exclusively beef,
or at least in very large proportion to the
capital invested in his cattle?With a herd
of one or two hundred, sometimes more,
be has occajion for no more oxen and no
more milk and butter, than has the planter
of Maryland, Virginia or the Carolines, who
keeps not more than twenty or thirty head.
With the former the great, the almost ex. 1
elusive object is, to turn his redundant crops
of corn and grass into the greatest quantity j1
of meat, in the shortest possible time; to be
barreled up or sent on the hoof to market;
and for that object it must be conceded that '
the improved short horn, commonly called 1
the Durham breed, or the half breed between 1
the Durham &u/?and the best common stock,
is the best. They, with abundance of rich
food, will give much more beef ofgood quality
in much shorter time, than any other race;
hut with the planter and farmer of the tide*
water slave.holding region, where grass is
not so abundant and corn too near to market
and too high to warrant its being turned
into beef; ihe case is essentially different?
Hence their herds are comparatively small,
and more equally divided if we may ray so,
in the uses we make of them between the
yoke?the shambles?and the dairy?and
tor these three purposes, taken logctner, in
reference to the importance of each respectively,
in the economy of a tide-watej
idave-holding estate, we consider tto? Devon
as having decided claims to preference over
the short horn, and think it probable that the
Ayrshire, which we apprehend may be re*
garded as the short horn in miniature, is en.
titled to rank next to the Devons under like
circumstances.
The short horn may be considered an
artijicial made up breed, manufactured with
great care, after many years, and with strict
and we may add scientific reference, to all
points and properties external and internal.
To keep them up to the same degree of ex.
cellecce to which they have been thus
brought by great skiil in the choice of breed,
ing s ock and high feed, will require great
vigilance, extraordinary judgment, and the
best keep. Under any falling off in these
guarantees and precautions, it may well be
expected that deteriora ion will immedi.
ately ensue.?The coarse points of the large
boned fill.pail thin.n.iik Holstein race, relied
on by the milk-sellers of London, and form*
ing principally the basis of the improved
breed, afn*r having been worked out, or
mode to dip as it were under so much
care and skill, will, when these are relaxed,
reappear on the surface in all their deformity.
Nothing but a continuance of that assiduous
attention and nice selection to refine
the breed, can keep it from, as it were,
fying to ptece*; whereas the Devon is of
itself a dts. inct race, uniform and beautiful
in its colour, and marks of middling size,
head and limbs bony and delicate, giving
very rich milk, next aftor the AlJerney, but
not often in extraordinary quantity, fattening
very kindly, giving beef of fine quality, and
fur ihe yoke excelling all others, as lo quickness
and docility.
We sometimes read, it is true, of great
quantities of milk given by improved short
horns* For ImUhuwThe
Philadelphia U? S. Gazette gives as
the result of the milking of a short horned
Durham cow, during the week commencing
27th May and ending 2d June, 7 days, 194
quarts, being within a fraction of 28 quarts
per day, ana from which were made 251b.
butter of the fiat s! quality.
And still better are the good doings of the
Dairy Maid,' the property of Jas. Go wan,
of German to <vn, who gave in 7 days, from
5th to 11th June, 198 12 quarts, being an
average of more than 28 quarts per day?
butter net yet ascertained. The next week's 1
milk was expected to be greater, from improved
feed ; tho feed of the past week was
pasture, with a basket of grass morning and
evening cut from a head land of a grain field,
except on the evenings of the last three days,
when a handful of chopped corn, with shorts
from the hny.mow was added Dairy Maid
is a beautiful rosn, of the improved shorthorn
Durham stock, bred by Mr. Whitaker,
of Yorkshire?imported last fall, and in point
and proportions is said to have no superior.
Her pedigree, which may be found in the
3d volume of the Herd Book, is inferior to
no cow on record.
When it is considered that the short horn
cows gonerully cost upwards of $500, it
may be taken lor granted, that they are not
put off with any thing like the commoo keep i
that wou'd be given to ordinary country
cows that would cost not more than $40 or I
$50, or Devon cows that may be had for an
hundred?yet as to mere quantity of milk,
we have known a small red and white cow 1
orthe "country breed" from Adams Uounty,
Pa., property of Mr. Gregg, of Franklinstreet,
Baltimore, to give thirty-two quarts n
day, and have heard of a cow of no extraordinary
family pretensions, belonging to
Mr. T. F. B. of Upper Marlbro,' giving
even more than that; and there are cows
in the herd of Devon Cattle on thf* estate of
George Patterson, Esq. near Sykesville,
(perhaps the most uniformly alike fat sleek
deep mahogany red coloured and beautiful
pon of cows to be found in any country,)
which have this summer given 12 and 13
quarts at a milking.
To sum up, in a few words, the grounds
of preference of the Devon over all other
cattle for all the country east of the mountains,
it may be said, that for size, hardiness,
and dairy properties, they are
at least equal to our country cattle, while for
beauty they are fer superior, being all of
the same deep rich morello cherry colour,
with a clear white handsomely tapering
horn, and white brush to the fail, with sometimes
a little white on the udder, while for
richness of milk they are superisr to our
common cattle, and for easiness to be broke,
and qnick motion under th**yoke they are
proverbial. Finally they fatten early and
quickly, and will keep up to the mark with
c*.erseer and negro treatment and short rations,
under which the pampered short horn
bo early to maturity and so valuable on the
rich prairies of the west, would degenerate,
and a8 we said before, soon By to pieces !
Advantage of Soiling Horses.
With respect to the advantages of soiling
horses on green food, in th** yard or stable,
it seems to be now generally understood
that, with proper management, they can now
be supported with great vigor; its economy*,
however, must depend on the proportion
which it bears to the price ofdry food, and
its convenience to the quantity in which it
can be spared for other cattle.
It is a very old, though by no means a
universal practice,* and the experience of
hundreds of farmers proves that horses
maintained in that manner for years have
neither lost flesh nor strength sufficient for
all farming purposes, although there wa?no
pulpable saving of their work, and
though afterwards placed on dry food tWing
the winter, they continued in peHpct
health. It is an excellet plan to give soft?
green food along with the corn and
bofore the usual period of feeding on dry
fodder ; the change from ary to green, and
again from green to dry food, should be
gradual. In its commencemen , theclov?*r
or tares should be cut, and mixed in small
portions with straw* and a proportionate
quantity of corn should be reduced. The
green food is insensibly increased, until the
rnrn is pntirelv omitted, and the QUBntitV of
green meat is supplied without limitation:
it should, however, be cut overnight* and
given only in smuil quantities gradually in.
creased, to guard as much as possible from
accidents, which may arise from its
succulence by hoving. When horses are
soiled, they never should get much at a time,
a practice far too prevalent among servants.
The summerfeeding of hones wus form,
erly confined to pasurage ; but of late
years the practice of soiling has become
very general. The bonefit of grazing consists
in its requiring little attendance; and
being tiie most natural, and therefore the
most healthful, it is preferable for all youog
cattle which can be spared from constant
labour, and on farms which contain a con.
siderable portion of rough pasture. But for
horses at regular work, these advantages
are counterbalanced by the time lost in getting
them up t'rom the field ; the indisposition
to labour which they acquire by being
at large; and the annoyance they suffer
from heat and flies when turned out in the
day-time. The value of their dung and
urine is also in a great measure destroyed
by being scattered upon the surface of the
ground, and exposed to exhalation from the
sun and wind ; and there is much waste of
grass, and injury done to the mellowness
of the soil, if it be valuable land, by the
treading of all heavy stock, but especially
the horses. Th*? muling Consists
imm More economical consumption ofgrass,
whether natural or artificial, than by graz^
ing ; in the accumulation of manure, and
in the quiet and coolness which the cattle
enjoy under sheds, or in the stabh', during
mid-day, as well as their being always ready
when wunted ; the only disadvantage is the
xpense of cutting and carrying home the
grass, against which may be fairly set the
inrrpn&p nf manure, if exDense be really in
...v.?^ - I ?
curred; but as, during lumiser, there isusunil!y
long interval of rest' between the
morning and afternoon work, the carters
can then cut the necessary quantity, which
may be drawn to the homestead by one of
the team horses, if there should not be a supernumerary
one left for odd jobs.
When, however, the economy of thp
practice is not the chief consideration, horses
on summer work may be both grated and
soiled. They may be put on dry clover
in the middle of the day, between yoking*
arid turned out during the night int > a well
sheltered meadow or enclosure. In being
kept under cover during the heat of the day,
they will be sheltered (rom flics, and will
feed more at ease ; and in being pastured
out during the night, they will also have an
opportunity of selecting those grasses which
act as condiments and arc most agreeable
to their palate. All animals like variety of
grasses, selecting always what is most palstable,
which they cannot do when soiled,
particularly if fed on cut clover or tares.
Exposure to the night air is also found to
be highly favourable bo:h to their health and
appearance.
The economy of soiling, wherever jt can
be conveniently adopted, is. indeed, too generally
admitted to need the support of argument
; and particularly oa soils on which
turnips are entirely consumed on the ground,
Dr on which they cannot be grown, and
where consequently there is difficulty in con
verting the straw into manure during the
-- - o
winter, it cannot be too strongly recomnwnJed.
But it requires a succession of green
crops; and as only the artificial grasses are
resorted to in England?though in many
wrts of the continent the meadows are
mown for that purpose?it is necessary that
winter and summer tares should be sown
*t different periods, so as to afford a conitant
supply, both before clover comes in,
ind after the first crop is off. This is a
sjreat impediment to the practice in Scotland,1
ind some of our northern counties, where
ares are an uncertain crop ; though cattle
ire certainly soiled with great advantage,
^>oth there and in other places, on clover
ilone. In other situations too, farms, on
itrong clayr frequently contain a large por.
;ion of meadow, und grazing being combined
with tillage, the whole of the straw is
consumed in the winter ; in which case one
j( the chief advantages of summer soiling
would be lost, ns yard dung, without the,
addition of straw, is of very little value. But J
even in this instance, or ioothers where the
* It is mentioned in a treatise on Agriculture
jntitled uHarlib,a Legacy," so long ago as 1650,
?. 245.
distance of the fields from the homestead
may be opposed to the carriage of the grass,
it is better to cut it daily, and give it on the
ground in pens, or small enclosures hurdled
off, so as to prevent the cattle from injuring
the growing crop, tnan to allow them to
range over and trample it. By confining
them in this manner to a small space and
moving the hurdles forward as the grass is
eaten, the fertilizing properties of the dung k
and urine, which would otherwise be lost,
are in a considerable degree preserved ; and
if the land be immediately ploughed, it will
be nearly as much benefitted as if it were
more regularly manured.
The artificial grasses used for soiling are
the same as those already enumerated as
hay, but here tares take the lead, both be*
cause the winter species is earlier ready
than any other, except rye.grass, and affords
u ?<ught?r crop. In most seasooa, tare*
*tl% ready lor the scythe to Wards the middle >
of May, for if left tilUhey are quite ripe
they will become unfit for soiling before the
crop can be used ; and although there may
be some loss in using them so soon, it will
be compensated by the saving at the latter
end, as well as by commencing the soiling
sooner than would be othorwise practicable.
Before thev are off. clover will be
ready ; the tares still standing may then be
made into hnyf and by the lime the clover is
becoming strawy, and losing its succulence,
spring tares will come in, which, if they have
been sown at intervals of ab< >ut a fortnight
each, will last until the second cut of clover;
or, if spring-tares be not sown, the growth
of part of the clover may be checked by
light early feeding. There is also an excellent
fashion regarding soiling in Dorset*
shire, which consists in saving a portion of
rye alone, to be cut green ; then another
portion of rye with tares ; and afterwards
the remainder entirely with tares : the rye
comes first into use, and assists in raising
the earlier tares,-?while those of latter growth
do not require any such nursing* Thus
horses may be kept upon a succession of
green herbage, without touching the meadows,
throughout four months of the sum*
mer and autumn, and while thus fed, require
very little corn ; when stirring the fallows,
and during tne hurry of harvest, a couple
of feeds u-day may be serviceable, but
more is unnecessary, and at other times
should be wholly omitted.
The mention of/uceme has been omitted,
although extremely valuable for soiling, be*
cause it requires a peculiar quality ol land,
and is not commonly cultivated. In the Essex
report, it is and, that two horses have
< supported during four months upon a
quarter of an acfc, with scarcely any thing
given to them besides ; and that six horses,
on hard work, have been kept on lucerne
instead of hay. but with an allowance of
oats and chaff for twelve weeks?six from
the first cut; four from the second ; and two
from the third ; which, vulumg the hay saved
at 3s. per horse per week, woul 1 amount to
10/. 16s.* A paper in the communications
'to the Board of Agriculture also states that,
in one year, twenty-three horses have been
X&iJt.weofy weeks, and in the next, twenty*
oiffht horses durfnt? eighteen *c?k>. urmn
o o * v ?r ""j
eleven acres alone , which gives an average
of three roods per horse in nineteen
weeks, f It is also extensively used on the
coast of Normandy, and in the neighbouring
islands of Guernsey nnd Jersey ; but it
is there said that horses, particularly those
used for the saddle, require more precaution
from overworking, when first going out of
of the stable, than when fed on other hay ;
and, wlia' is singular, that, when soiled on
green lucerne, there is not the same danger.^
In Holland and Flanders, where the feed,
ing of cattle is supposed to be better understood
than in most places the summer soiling
of larm horses is limited to half an acre
of m ado w grass, cut nnd carried to the sto..
hies, from the middle of May to tho middle
of June ; from which lime to the end of August
one sixth of a.i acre of clover is added,
with 2lhs. daily of beans ; and from thence
(o November, when the winter feeding
commences, the clover is replaced by an
equal qnantity of carrots. From the number
of horses stated, in this instance, to be
kept in proportion to the tillage?11 to 150
acres of alluvial soil?their labour can however
be only light; though a pair is said
to draw a ton and a half of manure in the
field, and three tons upon pavement.}
Accounts have been also published, show,
ing that horses may be regularly worked
mrougnout ins summtT, 111 uns cuuui?\,
without any corn ; thus greea crops, consumed
by soiling, are said to go four times
as far as when grazed ; and that, in this
manner, one acre of clover is equal to six
of meadow pasture. But many of these
statements rest only on opinion, or upon
insufficient data, and in a'l, so much depends
on the state of the crop, the size and health
of the animal, and the work performed, of
which the account is generally imperfect,
that no safe conclusion can be drawn from
them : it is therefore unnecessary to reter
to them ; nor is the cause which they are
meant 10 promote assisted by being advocated
upon any other than its real merits. A
* Young's Surrey of Essex, vol. ii. pp. 71, 72.
+ Vol. vii. Art. 25, "Part I.
t Quayle's Surrey of the Islands en the Coast
of Normandy, p. 117.
? Radcliffo's Report of the Agriculture of East
and West Flanders, p. 216. Another farm of 200 j
acres mentioned in the same Repo** is cultivaltd j
by eight horses, each of which get daily, in win- j
ter, 15 lbs. of hay, 10 lbs. of straw, and 8 lbs. of
oats; and aflor every feed a bucket of water
'richly whitened with tyo or oatmeal;* in summer
clover issubstituted for hay, but the other feeding
Domains the same, end the 'white water* is never
omitted, p. 54. ,
medium-steed farm-horse, at customary labour,
consumes from 84 lbs. to one cwt. of
green food daily, with an occasional allowance
of corn. Now a good acre of tares,
or of broad clover, will weigh twelve tons
(that is presuming the tares to be cut only
once, and the clover twice ; * for although
winter tares may be cut again, it is more
usual to get them ofT the land as soon as
possible, either in order to sow turnips, or
to form a bastard fMlow); and taking that
weight as the average of both, and the consump'ion
at the highest rate, half an acre
of either would support a horse during four
months. This nearly accords with some
instances in the county surveys; in o'hers,
more have been consumed, and, for the reasons
already stated, it is neat to impossible
that any two accounts should ngree ; but,
upon a rough estimate, it may be affirmed,
Uhat about a perch per day will be required
for each horse in most seasons, and *on
most kiijds of land, if soiled, and that double
that quaiajfty will be necessary if pastured.f
It must however, be borne in mind that
the difference in the degree of succulence
contained in various grasses, must necessarily
have a material influence on the state
of the cattle by which they are consumed.
Of this farmers are generally pretty well inAithos
tk*/M1?vk tkni'a A am.
lUllliruy Ciuroi UllUUgll llicift UW(| UUoDI va*
tion, or by the experience of others; but an
accurate acquaintance with the subject was
not attained until the experiments made at
Woburn. by which Mr. Sinclair has been
enabled to ascertain the quantity of soluble
nutritive matter afforded by all those grasses
which constitute the produce of the richest
ancient pastures, as well as those of artificial
growth.
The custom of giving corn along with
green meat is unprofitable; for the grain,
thus mixed, passes rapidly off the stomach,
and is never properly digested. When,
however, increased exertion demands an
addition of more substantial food, and that
corn is also allowed, it should be given only
in the morning and night, accompauied with
a sufficient quantity of chaff to afford it consistence,
and green meat should only be
given at mid?day. Farmers very generally
omit that precaution, and it is a common
custom among them to allow half the usual
quantity of corn, without regard to the effuci
>f the watery juices of grass upon the dL
gestion ; but they may be assured that a
great portion of the nutriment contained in
the grain is thus wasted.
British Husbandry.
* From an experiment made at Wobant, th<
green weight of an ecr j of broad clover was fount
to be 49,005 lbs*a21 tens, 17 cwt. 2 qrs, 5 lbs.
but the soil is described as rich clayey loam, ant
the crop cannot be assume 1 as an average. Set
Sinclair's Hortus Gramineus Wobernensis ; ant
the Appendix to Sir H. Davy's Elements of Agri
cultural Chemistry.
tin one instance it is stated that twenty horsei
have been supported :or three months on 6 acre*
ef tores (Rutlandshire Reperts, p. 71); and it
another, that 51 head of cattle?cowp, oxen anc
horses?were kept during that period, on 15J
acres of mixed hetbage; or, in each about hal;
a perch per day. [Comm. to the Board of Agri
culture, vol. via. part 1, art. 1J. A third mentioni
that 12 horses and 5 cows, which, together, ma]
be considered equal to 18 horses, consumed in tta
same time, or 3 qrs. and k. 32 of a pereh eacl
daily (Middlesex Report, p. 257); and a fourtl
states the allowance of pastured tares, for 1!
horses, to be an acre per week, or nearly 2 percl
each day. (Essex Report, vol. ii. p. 354.)
From The Cultivator.
On the Application of manures.
Fredericksburg, Va. June IBM, 1839
J 13uel?Dear Sir?In your paper foi
the present month, I have read the following
intimation ; "asubscriber wishes Mr. Garnet's
opinion of the best method of applying
manures to landand presuming that J
am the p< rson meant, I avail myself of the
earliest opp-rt unity io evince my w.lling.
ness to graiifv him. But as no man's mere
opiuion on such subjects, is worth any thing
without the facts and reasons upon which
it is founded, I shall take it for granted, thai
he desires to hear both, and will therefore
state them together.
Whether your subscriber means by the
'term "manures" all things commonly sc
called, or only putrescent substances, I
I have had but one opinion for a long time
in regard to their application, and this hai
been confirmed all my subsequent experience,
each year adding something tc
the great mass of constantaneous facts.?
When my attention was first turned to this
subject, some thirty-five or forty years ago,
I hud adopted, but without examination, the
notion then most common amongst us, thai
II was oesi tu ici an puircstcui uiuuui^o ?
well rotted first, and next, to bury then
deep, either by the plough, spade, or hoe.
This notion, like the common law, was sc
old, that44 the memory of man extended not
to the contrary but happily for us all
the revolution had broken the entail ol
opinions as well as of landed estates, and lef
us at liberty to think and act for ourselves.
The natural consequence of this increased
freedom was, the introduction of many new
practices in the arts, as well as in govern*
ment; and agriculture came in for some
small share of these benefits. Among
them, was the application of putrescent
manures to the surface, and in a much less
fermented state than had ever been tried
before. But so dreadfully afraid were the
first experimenters of the formidable laugh
of that onco numerous family, 44Tii?
Goodenoughs," that they made their trials,
as it were, by stealth ; and consequently,
jhe results remained, for a long time, unknown,
except to a few. I happened te
be among the number, and could noi
long resist the evidence of my own Moses,
although I must confess, that f* fir#* it
-ft
teemed to me a tort of sacrilege, even to
doubt, and still more to act, io direct opposition
to an opinion which, for aught I k. ov,
bad descended from Triptolemus himaeiC
By degrees, however, my courage waxed
stronger and stronger every year, until I
fe)t myself brave enough to commence the
following experiment, which several eld
farmers in whose veracity I perfectly confided,
had assured me they had often tried,
and always with the same result, as (hat
which I am about to report in my own
case. '
I began penning my cattle late in the
spring, and continued it until frost, in pens
of the same size, moped at regular intervals
of time, and containing the same number
of cattle during the whole period. These
pens were alternately ploaghed, and left unploughed,
until the following spring, when
all were plaoted imcorn, immediately followed
by wheat. The seperiurity of both crops
on all the pens which had remained un*
ploughed for so many months, after 'be
cattle had manured them, was just as dts
J ? J? % / | 1
linctiy maritea as 11 ine,omain^|iencM naa
continued standing . it was too plain tp ad.
mit even of the slightest doubt. A near
neighbor, a young farmer, had made die
samo experiment, on a somewhat different
soil, the year before, but with results pre*
cisely the same. Similar trials | myself
have made and seen made by others with
dry straw, alternately ploughed in as soon
as spread, and left on the surface uritil the
next spring. In every case the last method
proved best, as far as the following crop
would prove it. The same experiment has
been made by myself and others of my acquaintance,
with manure from the horsestables
and winter-farm pens, consisting of
much unrotted corn offal; and without a
, soli'ary exception, either seen by me, *
, heard of, the surface application, after the
corn was "planted, produced most manifestly,
the best crop. Upon these numerous,
concurrent, and undeniable facts my opm?
ion has been founded, that it is best to apply
manures on the surface of land; and "|
guess," (as bro'her Jonathan would say,)
that is not likely to change, unless indeed,
1 I should hear still greater number, equal,
ly well authenticated, on the opposite side j
although I must say, that up to the present
time t have not heard a solitary one. True
1 it is, that I have read many ingenions, fine
1 spun arguments in opposition to the opinion
which I hold in common with numerous
other agriculturists, but no proofs whatever
have accompanied them, and therefore I
? must remain aninfidel,until they are sustajn.
1 ed and corroborated by such facts, as should
| always be deemed mdispen#*bhr to caub.
, lith any practice whatever, in any of the
I various branches of husbandry. To col.
iect these facts is a slow, and most tedious
process, not very flattering to that pride of
[ opinion who delights in speculative theories
, of our own elucidation, and sickens at (he
I mere thought of the labor necessary to make,
t to watch, arid to record accurate experif
m.al. in Dltripilltnm ?n nn other wnv. f
II It'III <9 III u^iiwui'uri --w ? , |
think, can we account for those differences
, of opinion as to matters of practice, found.
b among Tour brethren, where all the facts are
1 on one side. But to refuse to believe in
2 that which we cannot explain, unless m
, some way that tickles our own vanity, gave
rise ro the sect of sceptic philosophers, and
it is to be feared, will keep up the breed as
long as the world stands. Let me not be
here misunderstood. Far be it from me
. to object to theory and speculation, provrr
ded the sole object in concocting and main.
r taming them, be to arrive at truth. As this
. should be the aim of all, I am in favor ef
r the utmost latitude of discussion in the hon[
est pursuit of it. But 1 do, and will forever
j protest against that practice which i* far
. too common amongst us, of regarding plaui
stble scientific conjectures, so much mo'e
; than the actual resui * o experiments fairiy
i and accurately made, as not onfrequently to
t indulge our fancies with the former, even in
) direct opposition to the latter. Take, for
example, the two conflicting creeds as to-the
i best mode of applying manures, and test
> them by the uniformly concurring results
! of the several experiments which I have stai
ted. Ail these results undeniably prove,
i (hat the surface application was best; al.
. t ough the kinds of manure differed considi
erably. And what have we m opposition.
any facts whatever ? Not one ; end only
t the conjecture, that the evaporation from /
, surface spread manure must carry off the
i greater and best portion of the food of plants
t therein contained. But that such evaporai
tion cannot thus act, seems to me to he tini
questionably proved by every fact J have
, mentioned : lor, if tt did, then the land pf
i summer cowans ploughed up at soon as
t removed, would, in evety case, have pro,
duced better crops, lhaii that of the tinF
p/ouhed, instead of doing it in none. 8iml
ilar results too must have followed in the
, other cas? a I have stated, although J have
I never seen nor heard of their doing it iojfany.
- The effecis however, which rtdVp hove
token place (iacts though th? y undeniably
\ are,) happen to contradict, as plainly as
we see the nose on a man's face, certain
preconceived fictions, or ingenious theories
if you please to call them so?quoad maI
nures?in the propagation of which much
i paper and 'nk has already been consumed,
i much head work is siiH employed; and
( what is to be done f ShaHaH this labor,
, all the ponderous volumes eh bo rated by it,
, all the cpgit. tions in support of thoee theories,
which are now taking'the rounds m our
i agricultural papers?shall wM be discarded
l as things serving only ioehosr how much
, fonder men are of their own-speculatioes,
tj than of facts the occurrence pf which hrtngs