Talks on Manures: A Series of Familiar and Practical Talks Between the Author and the Deacon, the Doctor, and Other Neighbors, on the Whole SubjectHarris, Joseph
Science
Talks on Manures: A Series of Familiar and Practical Talks Between the Author and the Deacon, the Doctor, and Other Neighbors, on the Whole Subject
Harris, Joseph
Fertilizers; Manures
I have heard good farmers in Western New York say, that if they had a
field sown with wheat that they were going to plow the spring after the
crop was harvested, they would sow 10 lbs. of clover-seed on the wheat
in the spring. They thought that the growth of the clover in the fall,
after the wheat was cut, and the growth the next spring, before the land
was plowed, would afford manure worth much more than the cost of the
clover-seed.
“I do not doubt it,” said the Deacon; “but would it not be better to let
the crop grow a few months longer, and then plow it under?”
“But that is not the point,” I remarked; “we sometimes adopt a rotation
when Indian-corn follows a crop of wheat. In such a case, good farmers
sometimes plow the land in the fall, and again the next spring, and then
plant corn. This is one method. But I have known, as I said before, good
farmers to seed down the wheat with clover; and the following spring,
say the third week in May, plow under the young clover, and plant
immediately on the furrow. If the land is warm, and in good condition,
you will frequently get clover, by this time, a foot high, and will have
two or three tons of succulent vegetation to turn under; and the farmer
who first recommended the practice to me, said that the cut-worms were
so fond of this green-clover that they did not molest the young
corn-plants. I once tried the plan myself, and found it to work well;
but since then, I have kept so many pigs and sheep, that clover has been
too useful to plow under. But we will not discuss this point at present.
“What I wanted to say is this: Here we have a field in wheat. Half of it
(A) we seed down with 12 lbs. of clover-seed per acre; the other half
(B) not. The clover-seed and sowing on A, cost, say, $2 per acre. We
plow B in the fall; this will cost us about as much as the clover seed
sown on A. In the spring, A and B are both plowed and planted to corn.
Now, which half of the field will be in the cleanest and best condition,
and which will produce the best corn, and the best barley, or oats,
afterwards?”
“I vote for A,” said the Deacon.
“I vote for A,” said the Doctor.
“I vote for A,” said the Squire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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