114 [Senate 



ment on the others. But it was materially opposed to the principles 

 of good husbandry in several respects. It furnished vegetable ma- 

 nure only to the land. A large portion of the value of this vegeta- 

 ble growth was lost, by dissipation into the air, during its decay. 

 The returns from the land were necessarily small, as only two years 

 out of four produced crops for harvesting. And it greatly increas- 

 ed the labors of tillage, by the increase of noxious weeds. 



In the preceding specimens, it will be perceived that the shorter 

 courses are the worst, and the longer ones — the three and four course 

 systems — the best. But the mistake must not be made by supposing 

 that the number is by any means an index to the excellence of the 

 rotation ; for a good two-shift system may be devised and executed 

 which may be better than a bad eight-course system. For instance, 

 an alternation of wheat and clover, with the application of manure, 

 and especially if the clover crop continues two years, and is plowed 

 into the soil, would be far superior to a course consisting of wheat, 

 corn, barley, oats, wheat, oats, wheat, and oats, without manure or 

 seeding, which would be eminently exhausting, all of these crops be- 

 longing to the first class of plants given a few pages back, designa- 

 ted as cereal grasses. 



Good systems of rotation must differ materially with the nature of 

 the soil and other circumstances. Where from necessity, grazing en- 

 ters largely into the husbandry of a particular region, the course will 

 vary from that adopted on a rich and mellow soil. An excellent far- 

 mer in Macedon, Wayne county, N. Y., has long pursued the follow- 

 ing, and his superior success over his equally hard working neighbors, 

 is ascribed by them to " extraordinary good luck :" 



1st year — Wheat after clover. 



2d year — Corn, potatoes and ruta-bagas, with all the manure. 



3d year — Barley. 



4th year — Wheat, sown with clover. 



5th year — Clover, pastured. 



The chief part of the farm is regularly laid out in ten acre lots, 

 and each lot, in its turn, regularly subjected to this system. A piece 

 of low ground is kept in meadow, and occasionally top dressed, rare- 

 ly broken up, and supplies the hay. A rougher part of the farm, 

 which could not be well brought into the regular course, is occupied 

 with the summer fallow, wheat, and clover, and grass for pasture. 

 After long trial, the owner of the farm is satisfied that the manure 



