SECRETARY'S REPORT. 23 



The particular succession which should constitute a rotation may 

 be different in different localities, and depend somewhat upon the 

 character of the farm to which it is to be applied. A simple rota- 

 tion and one that has been tried successfully is, first, potatoes or 

 other hoed crop, well manured, with clean cultivation ; then a 

 grain crop with grass seed, hay for three years, the hoed crop 

 again, and so on. The land is gone over once in five years, and 

 though one dressing may seem scanty for five crops, it is probably 

 oftener than three-fourths of our fields are manured under the old 

 system. 



Perhaps on largo farms it would be better to take off a crop of 

 oats next after breaking up, then a hoed crop ; corn where that 

 succeeds well, then seeding down with barley, v/heat, peas or 

 buckwheat — the last, if sown sparsely with a light coat of manure 

 is a capital crop to seed down with. The grass crop may look 

 slim when the grain comes off, but the ground is left light, and if 

 the buckwheat is taken off tolerably early, the grass will come on 

 afterward and be sure to give a good account of itself when haying 

 comes round; then, after three years of hay, introduce two years 

 of pasture. If no pasture, then, especially upon clay loam, more 

 than three crops of hay may profitably be taken off. By applying 

 a dressing of bone dust, guano or fish pomace at seeding down, the 

 field may hold out five seasons in grass. Pasturing is advisable 

 even if it come after that. It is a notorious fact that the old pas- 

 tures are fiist becoming perfect barrens. They have been drawn 

 upon largely and there is no ready way to restore the lost fertility. 

 Now, if our fields can be pastured alternately, much of what is now 

 used as pasture can be devoted to raising wood, as promising a 

 rotation as any one can go in for. The forest growth of a country 

 is universally allowed to affect the fall of rain — so much so that 

 travellers believe that the only reason why Palestine has lost its 

 ancient fertility is that fires have stripped the country of woods, 

 and it is often swept by fires, which prevent the growth, so that 

 there is no rain in summer, and vegetation dies for want of mois- 

 ture. The summers of Maine certainly appear to be becoming 

 dryer every year. If restoring a growth of wood to barren hill- 

 sides will bring refreshing showers to parched fields, it will be the 

 best of rotations. The feed upon cultivated lands is of for superior 

 quality, particularly for dairy stock. The trouble of scouring 

 height and hollow, fell and forest to bring home the cows each 



