324 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



extent, the commonly-received opinion as to tlie necessity of 

 rotation, are extremely interesting. But it will be well to 

 remember, should an attempt be made to practise these experi- 

 ments, that the first and most important consideration is that 

 the land is to be kept entirely clean, and that no method of 

 ploughing, hoeing or manuring will enable a farmer to raise 

 together upon the same soil full crops of wheat and weeds for 

 an indefinite period. Upon the necessity of rotation, conunon 

 observation and experience will enable the cultivator to deter- 

 mine upon the changes that good husbandry demands, and a 

 thorough acquaintance with the nature and strength of his soil 

 will be as suggestive as ordinary experiments. 



If it be true that the growth of plants year after year upon 

 the same soil, and the removal from the same of the entire 

 produce, impairs the general fertility of the land, then it is nec- 

 essary that the elements of fertility abstracted by the crops 

 should be duly and adequately restored, which, as a general 

 rule, can be most advantageously done by consuming the larger 

 portion of the produce upon the soil. But however it may be 

 obtained, the collection, preparation and proper use of manure 

 is to the farmer a most important duty. The attention of the 

 agricultural class has been for several years devoted to this sub- 

 ject, and a decided and successful change in the manufacture 

 and preservation of manure is manifest. Still, of the mass of 

 our farmers it may be safely asserted that but little more than 

 half of the manure within their power of acquisition is applied 

 to their soil. The importance of cellars to the improvement of 

 solid, and to the preservation of liquid manures, is well under- 

 stood, and the economy of compost has been too -generally 

 proved to require even a recommendation. But it may well be 

 questioned whether the wastes of the house have received that 

 attention from the farmer that their worth and his wants de- 

 mand. The value of manure that may be collected around the 

 house, from bones, vaults, drains and other wastes, and which 

 has been to a very great extent neglected, exceeds in the aggre- 

 gate the value of any crop grown in 1850, save that of Indian 

 corn, and is not supposed to be over-estimated at $115,000,000. 

 Enough of this might be saved to add materially to the im- 

 provement of our soil, and to render the importation of foreign 

 fertilizers as unnecessary as it is unprofitable. 



