SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



95 



corn, beang, roots, &c. ; and also from the other fiehl fence off one- 

 third, which WIS mowed last year, to be turned into pasture ; hvy 

 down with wheat or barley, not tbri^etting the bone, that whicli was 

 tilled, and mow what was in wheat last year. Next year divide and 

 chan<'-e ao-ain, and so on around, as shown in the annexed sketch : 



The product of this seventh year may fairly be set at one hundred 

 bushels corn, one thousand bushels roots, beans, pumpkins, &c., 

 fifty bushels wheat, twelve tons hay, four tens straw, corn fodder, 

 and pasturii^e for eight cows. 



Tiie first three years will require all the spare time to build 

 division fences; after thai;, the spare time may make drains." 



I In concluding upon this topic, it may be remarked that if an 

 examination of the subject of rotation of crops by our farmers at 

 large, should result in nothing further than a reduction of the 

 number of successive hay crops, so as to retain a tolerable degree of 

 fertility in the land, with which to commence anew their series of 

 crops, there would be an immense gain — for it is very certain that 

 one of the most active agencies which has effected the exhaustion of 

 soil, from which we now suffer, is the practice so lamentably common 

 of cropping fields for hay, so long as a scythe in being swung over 

 them meets with perceptible resistance. 



Perhaps the easiest way to accomplish this, would be to reduce 

 the number of acres under cultivation, either by selling off, or turn- 

 ing out to pasture, or allowing to giow up to wood, so much as would 



