Vermont Phœnix

Fixed Facts.
These may be assumed as fixed facts in
Agriculture :
1. All lands on which clover, or the grass-
es are grown, must either have lime in them
naturally, or it must be artificially supplied.
It matters but little, whether it be supplied
in the form of stone lime, oyster-shell lime,
or marl.
2. All permanent improvement of lands
must look to lime as its basis.
3. Lands which have been long in culture
will be benefitted by applications in the
form of bone dust, guano, native phosphate
of lime, composts of fish, ashes—or in oys-
ter shell lime—or marl—if the land need
liming, also.
4. No lands can be preserved in a high
state of fertility, unless clover and the grass-
es are cultivated in the course of rotation.
5. Mould is indispensable in every soil.
and a healthy supply can alone be preserved
through the cultivation of clover and the
grasses, the turning in of green crops or by
the application of composts rich in the ele-
ments of mould.
6. All highly concentrated animal ma-
nures are increased in value, and their ben-
efit prolonged by admixture with plaster or
pulverized charcoal
7. Deep ploughing greatly improves the
productive powers of a variety of soil, that
is not wet.
8. Subsoiling sound land, that is, land that
is not wet, is eminently conducive to in-
creased production.
9. All wet land should be drained.
10. All grain crops should be harvested
several days before the grain is thoroughly
ripe.
11. Clover, as well as other grasses, in-
tended for hay, should be mowed when in
bloom.
12. Sandy lands can be most effectually
improved by clay. When such lands re-
quire liming, or marling. the lime or marl is
most beneficially applied. when made into
compost with clay. In slacking lime, salt
brine is better than water.
13. The chopping or grinding of grain, to
be fed to stock, operates as a saving of at
least twenty-five per cent.
14. Draining of wet lands and marshes
adds to their value by making them produce
more and better crops—by producing them
earlier—and by improving the health of
neighborhoods.
15. To manure or lime wet lands, is to
throw manure, lime, and labor away.
16. Shallow ploughing operates to impov-
erish the soil, while decreasing production.
17. By stabling and shedding stock dur-
ing the winter, a saving of one-fourth of the
food may be effected—that is, one-fourth
less food will answer, than when such stock
may be exposed to the inclemencies of the
weather.
18. A bushel of plaster per acre, sown
broadcast over clover, will add one hundred
per cent. to its product.
19. Periodical applications of ashes tend
to keep up the integrity of soils, by supply-
ing most, if not all, of the inorganic sub-
stances.
20. Thorough preparation of land is ab-
solutely necessary to the successful and lux-
uriant growth of crops.
21. Abundant crops cannot be grown for
a succession, unless care be taken to pro-
vide and apply an equivalent for the sub-
stances carried off the land in the products
grown thereon.
22. To preserve meadows in their produc-
tiveness, it is necessary to harrow them ev-
ery second autumn, apply top dressings, and
roll them.—North Carolina Farmer.