SOIL EXHAUSTION AND EOTATION IN CROPS. 89 



this system was carried on where the farmer had large pastur- 

 age, and little plow-land. The first year, the plow-land was 

 left in fallow, but in tlie autumn was prepared, by what 

 manure and rough tillage could be given it, for a sowing of 

 winter grain, mostly rye, which occupied the second year. 

 The third year the ground was put in summer grain which 

 completed the shift. Then the farmer began again, with a 

 year of fallow and 'manure, a year of winter grain, a year of 

 summer grain ; and so he went on — three years — three years 

 — three years — indefinitely. I suppose there are districts in 

 Europe that could be pointed out where this practice has pre- 

 vailed for nearly a thousand years, and it was early imported 

 into tliis coimtry. It was the subject of legislation in the 

 time of Charlemagne. Some historians think that this mon- 

 arch decreed the adoption of the three years shift ; others 

 think that he merely recommended it, as an improvement on 

 what had been previously the custom among the less advanced 

 peasants, of simply using the plow for a succession of years, 

 without any rest for the land. In the vicinity of cities, where 

 the plowed land increased in proportion to the quantity of 

 pasture, and the supply of dung became i)i adequate to manure 

 it sufficiently, so that the manure and fallow together could 

 not make two good grain crops, forage plants — grass, clover, 

 or roots — were introduced into the course ; and in that way, a 

 great variety of rotations came into use. 



In England, there has been practiced, over a considerable 

 part of the country, what is known as " the Norfolk rotation" 

 — a four years shift. You have all read of it, doubtless. The 

 first year, clover and mixed grass seed ; the second year, 

 wheat ; the tliird year, turnips or rutabagas ; the fourth year 

 barley ; and then the same course again, with, perhaps a httle 

 variation ; perhaps the land was kept two years in clover and 

 grass. In Dorset, Wilts, Essex, Herts, Suffolk, and Cam- 

 bridge, in England, ten or fifteen years ago, this course was in 

 almost universal use. I speak of this matter to bring up one 

 point. There are certain advantages in rotation which being 

 observed or conceived led to its adoption. But farmers, es- 

 pecially in long-settled countries like England, are apt, having 



