No. 85.] 109 



tively minor importance in arranging a rotation, as most plants throw 

 down roots as far as cultivation extends. 



As a general rule, broad leaved plants derive, comparatively, less 

 from the soil and more from the air, than narrow leaved plants ; 

 hence, when buried as manure, they restore most to the soil. 



4. Some plants favor the growth of certain weeds more than others. 

 Cockle and chess flourish with wheat, alyssum with flax, and most 

 sown grain crops are attended with an increase of grasses. These 

 weeds multiply greatly where a single crop is raised on the same lands 

 for many years successively ; but rotation prevents this evil, and thwarts 

 their increase. The same remarks will apply, in some degree, to cer- 

 tain destructive insects, as, for instance, the grub and the wire worm. 



5. Some plants admit of a heavier application of manure than oth- 

 ers. — Such are generally broad leaved succulent plants, as beets, turneps, 

 and corn ; and, indeed, most plants whose value depends mainly on 

 the quantity of green growth, as grasses for meadow and pasture. 

 But the smaller grain crops, as wheat, oats, and barley, may be so 

 heavily manured as to promote too luxuriant a growth of leaf and 

 stalk, at the expense of the seed. Hence, in a rotation, the manure 

 should be given to such as are most immediately benefited by a heavy 

 application. Its decay and subsequent intermixture by tillage, gradu- 

 zJly fit the soil for the more delicate crops. The manure should be 

 always applied as soon as practicable after breaking up from grass, 

 that thorough admixture may take place before seeding down. The 

 latter is of much more consequence than most are aware of; for by 

 leaving fresh manure in lumps, unpulverized and unmixed, plants not 

 only derive little comparative benefit from it, but by aiding in drying 

 the soil in times of drouth, it has actually lessened, instead of in- 

 creased, the products of the land. 



Many other rules growing out of the preceding principles, will sug- 

 gest themselves to the reflecting cultivator. From these principles it 

 will be perceived, that Farming is a continued system of exhaustion 

 and return^ where properly conducted ; and not a continued system 

 of exhaustion only, as when badly managed ; or, rather, exhaustion 

 without any system whatever. The best way of making, most ef- 

 fectually, this return, should in all cases whatever, be considered the 

 great leading object in all rotations, and the immediate profit from 

 sales, the second great object. And hence, in all good husbandry, 

 the crop which gives the greatest immediate return in money, is not 



