SECRETARY'S REPORT. 77 



" Don't know of any." 



0. Sewall, Franklin Co. 



"None practiced." 



A. Archer, Somerset Co, 



"No systematic rotation of crops is practiced worth naming; 

 indeed, none that I know of" 



B. F. Wilbur, Piscataquis Co. 



'None." 



H. HoBBS, Waldo Co. 



"No systematic rotation here." 



L. RiDEOUT, Penobscot Co. 



" Our husbandry does not embrace systematic rotation." 



0. W. Herrick, Hancock Co. 



"There is no systematic rotation of crops generally practiced." 



D. J. FisiiBR, Washington Co. 



"Nothing established in relation to rotation of crops." 



M. L. Gerry, Aroostook Co. 



Let us first inquire, what is to be understood by a judicious 

 rotation, and the reply is, such an one as shall result in obtaining 

 the greatest product from a plot of ground, in a course of years, 

 connected with the least exhaustion. If manure and labor were 

 always, and to sufficient amount, at the command of the farmer, there 

 would be no absolute necessity for alternation of crops,* for he might 

 take from his land the same product, year after year, indefinitely, 

 but it is because these are the two very articles which the farmer 

 has need to economize with utmost care, and make both go as far as 

 possible, that a judicious rotation demands his serious consideration. 

 To determine in any given instance what may be the best rotation 

 to secure this end, is a matter to be definitely settled only by expe- 

 rience ; this experience our formers do not possess ; and they cannot 

 attain the best success until they learn how, so that my present 

 purpose is rather to show the desirableness of such knowledge, and 

 give reasons for diligent inquiry, experiment and observation, than 

 to lay down rules for practice. 



*Boussing;iulf States, that on the coast of Peru are tracts which have produced 

 crops of corn in succession, from a date anterior to the discovery of America, and 

 on the table lamls of the Andes are wheat fields, which have yielded excellent crops 

 annually for more than two centuries. 



