ROTATION OF CROPS, 



-'J 



ADAPTED TO THE CLIMATE AND SOILS OF NEW-YORK. 



PRIZE ESSAY — BY J. J. THOMAS. 



Little attention, in comparison with its real value, has yet been . 

 given in this country to a good system of rotation of farm crops. This 

 is the more to be regretted as a large share of its resulting benefits are 

 to be derived, not from additional labor or increased expenditure, but 

 from a mere exercise of thought and judgment, in arranging and adopt- 

 ing a proper system, to prevent a needless waste of the riches of the 

 soil. While other parts of farming — as manuring, for instance — may 

 be equally important, rotation possesses the peculiar advantage of 

 consisting merely in the direction and guidance of the exerted force 

 of the farm. Manuring is the great prime mover ; rotation the guide 

 of this moving force. The former may be compared to the engine 

 which propels the vessel ; the latter to the rudder which directs all 

 this exerted power to a beneficial end. 



The practice of all ages has been teaching a lesson, which, though 

 we may have been slow to read, has forced itself irresistibly upon us. 

 This is, that exclusive husbandry, except in rare cases, is eminently 

 unprofitable ; that a farm wholly and perpetually devoted to raising 

 wheat, or to raising grass, or any other single crop, can never be at- 

 tended with profit. The various departments of agriculture must be 

 mixed. Domestic animals must be raised for the production of ma- 

 nure ; hay and grass, grain and roots, for their food ; straw as a sponge 

 to hold the otherwise wasting manure they yield. Thus the one be- 

 comes an increased means for the other — cattle and other animals, by 

 manuring and enriching the soil, increase the amount of the crops ; 

 and this increase in crops again supports an increased number of ani- 

 mals, and a mutual augmentation is thus the consequence. Manure 

 is applied to cultivated crops only j but alternation soon brings these 

 enriched portions into grass for pasture, and the full benefit of the 

 improvement is thus obtained. 



But the continued cultivation of the same land with similar crops. 



I 



