57 
corn are made, then grain is sown in the fall or spring, clover (mixed with timothy or 
blue-grass where permanent pasture is desired) is sown upon the small grain, if design- 
ated for grain crops subsequently. After two full years’ growth of clover, it is again 
plowed and small grain sown in the fall. Those who are yearly tenants have no sys- 
tem of rotation, but get all they can out of the land by cropping. 
Injurious repetitions of corn and tobacco crops on bottom-lands and 
of small grain or hemp upon uplands are frequently mentioned. 
Of the States north of the Ohio River, considerable portions of Miehi- 
gan and Wisconsin have been settled too lately for the organization of 
any system of rotation or, indeed, for the introduction of any but or- 
dinary methods of cultivation. Even here, however, the rudiments of 
a system of rotation are already discernible. In many of the older 
counties there is a more or less capricious shifting of crops, which some 
term rotation. In other counties however, regular systems are found 
extending through three to five years, and embracing corn, potatoes, 
small grain, and grass. In these States the temptation to repetition is 
mostly in small grain and potatoes; a temptation too frequently yielded 
to. Rotation is the general rule in about half the counties reporting 
from Ohio, while it is considerably diffused through many others. In 
the great river-bottoms fertilized by annual overflow the tendency 
to repeated crops is inveterate. Scioto bottoms, for-instance, after fifty 
years of repeated crops of corn, still yield 60 to 100 bushels per acre. 
The large proportion of this class of landsin the State greatly restricts 
the scope of rotation. Large areas are also devoted to grass-crops, 
stock-raising, and dairying, in which rotation is not practiced. 
In Logan County— 
About three-fifths of the cultivated land is under a varied system of five or six 
years’ rotation. A three-year-old clover-lay is turned under in the spring and planted 
in corn; the corn-stubs are dragged down in the fall, and wheat drilled in the wheat- 
land being seeded to clover in the following February or March, making a five-year 
course of corn, winter wheat, succeeded by three years of clover; otherwise varied in 
a six-years’ course by two crops of corn or wheat—the small amounts of oats, beans, 
potatoes, and buckwheat we grow making but an exceptional variation to the speci- 
fied course. 
In Morrow County, rotation is practiced— 
By about one-half the farmers. Meadow or pasture land is plowed up in the spring, 
sometimes in the fall; when plowed in the latter season a more thorough harrowing 
is required. The most successful ones find it pays best to pulverize thoroughly pre- 
vious to putting in the crop; the first and sometimes the second crop is corn, then fol- 
lows oats, and next wheat. In preparing for oats, as soon as the top of the ground is 
dry enough in the spring, sow the oats on the corn-stubble, and put on a rolling-cutter 
or wheel-harrow. The crop is generally more certain than to wait until the ground is 
dry enough to plow; as soon as the oats are off give the land a deep plowing, from 
seven to nine inches, put on barn-yard manure on the poorest spots, from ten to 
twenty cords to the acre, and on the whole field, if there is manure; during Septem- 
ber harrow the manure in with the soil, usually drilling is the most remunerative. 
This is the course usually followed with soil. Subsoiling and underdressing is but 
little practiced, although it pays to do it. 
Rotation is the rule in about one third of the counties of Indiana; in 
another third it is the exception, while in the remainder it is unknown. 
Non-rotating farmers are found mostly in bottom-lands, but in too many 
cases the rich uplands have been ruined by their destructive practice. 
In Dearborn and Park Counties forty successive corn-crops have been 
gathered. The rotation series generally embraces corn or potatoes, 
small grain, and grass, though wheat frequently is sown upon fresh- 
broken sod. German farmers in Owen County practice a three-fold 
system of duplicate crops—two of corn. two of wheat, and two of clover. 
Of clover, the first crop is generally cut twice, once for hay and once for 
seed. The second crop is pastured till July, and then permitted to run 
to seed, after which it is turned under by deep plowing. 
