No. 85.] 91 



only makes it the more enduring. By decoction in water, vegetable 

 mold loses a small portion of its weight by solution ; but if the re- 

 maining insoluble portion is exposed to air and moisture a few months, 

 another part may be again dissolved. Thus, peat, muck and all de- 

 cayed vegetable fibre, becomes a slow but lasting source of nourish- 

 ment to plants. 



But it is, when shoveled out and dried, to be mixed with farm- 

 yard manure, as a recipient for its evanescent parts, that peat or 

 muck becomes pre-eminently valuable. Some parts of the State 

 abound with inexhaustible supplies in almost every neighborhood ; 

 many land owners have from twenty to a hundred thousand cubic 

 yards on their farms, lying untouched, while half starved crops are 

 growing in the adjacent fields. There are whole counties so well 

 supplied with it, that if judiciously applied, it would doubtless double 

 their aggregate products. 



All neat farming, all profitable farming, and all satisfactory farm- 

 ing, must be attended with a careful saving of manures. The people 

 of Flanders have long been distinguished for the neatness and excel- 

 lence of their farms, which they have studied to make like gardens. 

 The care with which they collect all refuse materials which may be 

 converted into manure and increase their composts, is one of the 

 chief reasons of the cleanliness of their towns and residences. And 

 were this subject fully appreciated and attended with a corresponding 

 practice generally, it would doubtless soon increase by millions the 

 agricultural products of the State. 



But there is another subject of scarcely less magnitude. This is a 

 systematic 



Rotation or Crops. — If manuring is the steam engine which 

 propels the vessel, rotation is the rudder which guides it in its pro- 

 gress. Unlike manuring, rotation does not increase the labor of cul- 

 ture ; it only directs the labor in the most effective manner, by the 

 exercise of judgment and thought. 



The limits of this paper do not admit of many remarks on the 

 principles of rotation. The following courses, however, have been 

 found among some of the best adapted to our State : — 



1. — 1st year. Corn and roots well manured ; 



2d year. Wheat, sown with clover seed, 15 lbs. per acre ; 

 3d year. Clover, one or more years, according to fertility 

 and amount of manure at hand. 



