104 fSENATE 



20th of the same month. In this country, the ground can rarely have 

 a crop of roots taken from it, and be sown to wheat the same season 

 with much prospect of success. That part of the corn field, there- 

 fore, occupied by roots, (potatoes, turneps, carrots, beets, &c.) be it 

 three or be it five acres, may be sown with spring wheat and grass or 

 clover seeds, as the other part, so as to give the annual twenty acres 

 of wheat, and not break in upon the regular course of rotation. Ten 

 acres in winter and spring wheat, and ten acres in oats and barley, 

 are yearly seeded to grass. Clover is preferred for this purpose, as 

 a better renovator of the soil than almost any other plant, and fur- 

 nishing more hay or pasture per acre than any other grasses do. 

 There should be a mixture of white clover with the other seeds, as 

 this will give a thicker bottom, and add greatly to the value of the 

 pasture or the hay. In all cases where grass seeds are sown, a dress- 

 ing of plaster, two bushels to the acre, must be given, soon after the 

 plants make their appearance. On the clover, it will act like a 

 charm, giving the young plants a vigor which enables them general- 

 ly to resist drouth and the effects of the first winter on the roots. 

 The stock kept on the farm, will be two span of horses, four cows 

 to furnish milk and butter, and one hundred sheep. Half a dozen 

 good pigs are fattened annually. Sheep, on a wheat growing farm, 

 are preferred to other stock, as scattering their manure more liberally 

 and equally, and trampling dovv^n and cutting up with their hoofs 

 more completely that part of the clover which grows coarse, and is 

 unpalatable to stock generally; thus rendering its decomposition more 

 certain and rapid. Twenty acres of pasture will furnish a supply for 

 this quantity of stock; and the hay, straw, and roots, an abundant 

 supply for winter. Where the soil is clean and free from weeds, the 

 summer fallow may, when the land is brought in good condition, be 

 dispensed with, and some valuable crop be substituted. As this crop 

 is to precede wheat, the pea will be found an excellent substi- 

 tute for a fallow; the clover seed being turned over in the spring, roll- 

 ed; harrowed, and the peas sown upon it. When the peas are remo- 

 ved, a single plowing, well executed, will fit the ground for the re- 

 ception of wheat. There are few farms, however, in which a fallow 

 as a cleaner of the soil, is not required in such a rotation. 



In this course of cropping, each field is in clover one-half of the 

 Course of ^"^^5 receives one dressing of manure and two dressings of 

 Cropping, plaster during the rotation, or indeed more of each if the 

 farmer chooses, and has only one crop of each kind, wheat excepted. 



