118 [Senate 



tigation appear. One of the courses already given, — that of corn, 

 wheat, clover, and heavy manuring, — has tripled the products of 

 many farms in the eastern and southern portions of the state within 

 the last thirty years j and some which had been exhausted and aban- 

 doned have been restored to a fertility rivaling the rich districts of 

 the west. It is only the examination of this branch of successful 

 agriculture, and the exercise of the judgment in its application in 

 practice, that is necessary to enable the farmer to guide his multifari- 

 ous operations with clock-work precision and regularity ; and while 

 other departments of husbandry are all essential, — while manuring 

 has been justly styled the sheet-anchor of the farmer, rotation maybe 

 regarded as the compass needle to guide him and prevent shipwreck 

 on a barren waste. To the attention of all, this subject is therefore 

 commended, as one fraught with the deepest and most important re- 

 sults to the agricultural prosperity of this country. 



HOTATION VERSUS SUMMER FALLOWING. 



BY THE LATE WILLIS GAYLORD. 



Considerable diversity of opinion exists as to the necessity and pro- 

 priety of summer fallowing land ; some maintaining that it occasions 

 a useless waste of time in cultivation, and the loss of one crop at least, 

 beside the great additional labor incurred of the several plowings 

 which are necessary where the system of summer fallows is adopted. 

 On the other hand, it is contended, that fallowing is occasionally ne- 

 cessary to give a proper aeration to the soil, pulverize its particles, 

 and break up that adhesion or running together, which is very apt to 

 occur where summer fallowing is not practiced, especially on stiff or 

 clay lands. As usual in such controversies, both parties are partly 

 right, and both are partly wrong, a fact accounted for by the differ- 

 ence in the condition and quality of soils, circumstances which should 

 never be overlooked. 



By fallowing land, or summer fallowing, is meant devoting the in- 

 terval that occurs between the taking off of one crop in one season, 

 and the putting in of one in another, to the repeated plowing and har- 

 rowing of the soil, by which it is cleaned of weeds and made fine for 



