98 [Senate 



ed for the wheat crop, if not losing in its qualifications to produce, 

 for any length of time, a certain and profitable return. 



Another course, pursued by equally judicious farmers, is to take a 

 four-year course rotation, by allowing all the seeded ground to lie. 

 two full years in clover. The first year it is mowed and pastured, 

 and the second year it is mowed or pastured till about the first of 

 June, then plastered, and at the proper time cut for clover seed; the 

 year after, mowed or pastured till the first week in June, when it is 

 turned under for the summer fallow, for wheat. This course, on 

 large farms, with a heavy stock of cattle and sheep, (as it allows 

 more hay andpasture than the three-year course,) is a very successful 

 method ; and even for those of a medium size, may suit w^ell for some 

 particular soils ; and perhaps in those cases where the management 

 for saving and increasing the manure is not skillfully and judiciously 

 performed, this is a safe course, if one-quarter of the arable land gives 

 a sufficient quantity of acres in wheat: 



Jhe three-year course in three divisions — Field A. 



1S4 1 in wheat seeded. 



1842 in meadow, pasture and summer crops. 



1843-4 in wheat. 



The four-year course in four divisions — Feild A. 



1840 in wheat seeded. 



1841 in meadow and pasture. 



1842 in meadow, clover-seed and summer crops. 



1843-4 again in wheat. 



But whatever course an enterprising and thinking farmer may pur- 

 sue, if he has a system and plan of proceeding, and pursues it con- 

 stantly, he will soon come to a result as to what process is best adapt- 

 ed to his soil. Without regularity, system, and a code of rules and 

 reasons, no course will succeed, nor any valuable result be reached. 

 It is said, that bad habits regularly followed, are not so pernicious to 

 the human system as an irregular and mixed course of life ; and the 

 remark is peculiarly applicable to the arts of husbandry. We say — 

 system I system ! system ! and follow it, good or bad, and conviction 

 must follow, by comparison with others pursuing a different course. 



The committee can conceive of no better system of farming than 

 that of 100 acres of arable land, (or double or treble that amount, if 

 you please,) of which one-third, say 33 acres, is put into wheat, pro- 

 ducing from 800 to 1,000 bushels; with 100 to 150 fine-wooled 

 sheep, producing from 300 to 500 pounds of wool, worth from 40 to 

 50 cents per pound ; and the balance of the land in grass and sum- 

 mer crops, every item of which should be consumed on the farm, to 

 subsist the family, hired help, and farm stocks, and perhaps, to help 

 to pay mechanics ; all the offal, hay, straw and roots, going to in- 

 crease the manure heap, which, with a plentiful use of plaster and 

 clover, will more than compensate for the wheat and wool subtracted 

 from the soil, and sold. 



The committee, in awarding their premiums, have selected those 



