The Portland gazette., 1818-06-30
ESSA No. 81.

Il is again recommended TO the farmers in the
District of Maine to try the experiment of raising
grain on sward land. Is the trial of this expert
nent be intended summer grain, the ground
should be ploughed the season before it is to be
sown, as early as planting and other urgent
spring business will admit unless it be grass
land, when it may be deferred until the crop is
taken off. Some farmers think il advisable TO
plough again in the fall or spring, or both, while
others are of opinion that the latter ploughings
are injurious, the turf which is turned under the
furrow being ploughed up, and thus putrsfaction
is prevented In either case, the ground ought
to be frequently and thoroughly narrowed. If
the situation of the field will admit, the cattle
may be yarded in it during the summer season :
many persons of opinion that greater profits
can be realized from the manure of cattle by so
doing, than if they were kept in the barn-yard.
The grain should be sown about the same time
it is sown on ground which had been previously
cultivated. Perhaps a small dressing of manure
Immediately before sowing may not be aniss, if
it can be spared from other purposes but for a
substitute, plaster of Paris, lime, ashes, &c. may
be applied after the seed has come up. In Great
Britain, they dress their wheat fields with lime,
chalk, and SCOT sometimes with rags, hogs and
cattle's hair, hornshavings and ashes, and
with various other sorts Of manure by which
means, they have fine crops this grain upon
land that has been cultivated for thousand
years for they reckon twenty bushels to the
acre but midling crop. The English farmers
have, of late, made it a point to sow their wheat
on clover land which has been attended with
success. This method has been tried in some
parts of this state, for year or two past but we
learn It has not as yet answered the general ex-
pectation.
For the preparation of the ground for winter
Al i l.. -
ed, only the land should be ploughed in the fall
or early in the spring antecedent to the sowing
time, say in August or the first part of Sep
tember. 1t may be hardly necessary to repeat
that land devoted to this sort of improvement
should be tolerably free from stones, &c. which
mig ht impair the operations ofploughing and har-
rowing It should also be clear of weeds as there
is no opportunity to destroy them by hoeing as
can be done when planted.
The trial of this experiment can easily be
made. with but little trouble and expense. If
it should be found that this method of raising
grain did not yield any great profits for the first
year, repeat it for number on the same ground
as was suggested in one of our numbers some
time since.
It is evident that land intended for planting, is
the easier titled and the more productive, ifgrain
be raised on it the previous season. We would
only observe further at this time, that farmers
would find it attended with much advantage,
were they to plough their ground for tillage the
succeeding year, as soon the crops are harves-
ted this should be particularly observed with
regard to ground on which grain has been raised,
as the soil is greatly enriched by having the stub
bic ploughed in while it is full of fertilsing jul
ces.
Without encouragement Of agriculture, and
thereby increasing the number ofits people. any
country, however blessed by nature must con
tnue poor"