SECRETARY'S REPORT. 21 



field the precise amount and kind of plant-food necessary for the 

 particular crop allotted to that field and none other. Different 

 plants require different sustenance. There is a recuperative power 

 in nature which is continually at work to supply the waste of the 

 soil ; it may be slow, but none the less sure, and not the less to be 

 regarded. While a certain crop is drawing upon the earth for 

 what it needs to grow and thrive upon, this power is storing up 

 resources for another and a different growth. An instance of this 

 is seen in the fertility of land when first stripped of forest, and 

 again in the rapidity with which forest growth succeeds to farm 

 crops. This agency is of course in a great part lost if one under- 

 takes to farm without change of products. 



It being granted that a change is necessary, the question occurs, 

 shall it be an indiscriminate change, or a systematic succession of 

 crops recurring at regular intervals, or as it is called, a rotation of 

 crops ? Rotation cannot be used under all circumstances — indeed 

 there are probably few farms in this State, certainly very few in 

 the eastern part, whei'e it can be strictly adhered to over the whole 

 farm. It cannot be used upon new farms, nor upon rough, stony, 

 or wet lands, until such are first cleared or drained. It may be 

 the more an advantage in that it requires these improvements to 

 be made, and where it may not be practicable, may be looked for- 

 ward to as conducive to, and part of, a better system of cultiva- 

 tion. To be sure your amateur farmer, with his ample means and 

 well read brain, can dig stumps, blast rocks, sink drains and build 

 fences, so as immediately to establish such a rotation as suits his 

 fancy ; but the poor man who must make a living and reclaim his 

 farm by the labor of his own hands will be a long time in arriving 

 at the same results. He may often work over the same piece, 

 when if he had more means, a new and tough one would be sub- 

 dued. As for di'aiuing, without abundant capital, it must be a 

 work of time. 



The advantage of a rotation over a simple change of crops is not 

 difficult to perceive. 



The great staple here is the hay crop. We endeavor so to 

 manure and cultivate our lands for one or more j^ears under other 

 crops, as to prepare them to bring grass for a number of succes- 

 sive seasons. Under the ordinary system these lands are mown 

 so long as the crop will pay for cutting. It is considered economy 

 to save all the grass, though the land be run down to utter unpro- 



