208 



for its base a sand or gravel subsoil, may be plowed so deep as to 

 reach a bottom which has uo capacity to hold either water or manure. 

 Thus should that question be settled everywhere. The earth that is 

 plowed the deeper will receive the most and retain the longer the rain 

 that falls ui)on it, and of course furnish a greater space in which plants 

 may feed and grow; and besides this, it affords a reservoir into which, 

 in freezing weather, the rain may settle from the immediate root of the 

 growing plant, which thus escapes from being embedded in ice, and 

 spewed or frozen out, as clover and wheat often are in the Middle, West- 

 ern, and j!!^orthern States. But the whole subject of deep and shallow 

 idowing is one which every farmer must study in connection with the 

 character of the soil he cultivates, and govern his practice accordingly; 

 keeping in view, however, that a fresh, uncultivated soil, brought to 

 the surface for the first time, may disappoint his expectations in its 

 capacity for fruitfulness, until it shall have received the benefit of 

 manure, and especially the amelioration of light and heat. 



The subject of rotation of crops is one which deserves especial atten- 

 tion, and which must be considered with reference to the locality where 

 it is practiced ; but that it is an essential principle which must enter 

 into the successful operations of the farm, is as certain as that a diver- 

 sity of food conduces to the health, strength, and mental capacity of 

 man. The analogy is by no means an imperfect one. What can be so 

 plain, if we but reason from natural cause and effect, as that bringing 

 into requisition again and again the same means of production, the 

 same muscular powers of locomotion, the pursuit of the same train of 

 thought, serves but to exhaust the soil, as it debilitates and exhausts 

 the capacity of man ? The earth will certainly cease to yield a product 

 of the constituent parts of which it has already given all it has. And 

 here let us consider the result and effect of continual restoration of the 

 soil by the application of superphosphates, guano, and other commercial 

 manures. Will not this supersede the necessity of rotation! All these 

 may contain many of the component parts of production, and most of 

 them are soluble in water, and, therefore, more immediately convertible 

 into plant-food, stimulating in its character, quickly bringing into re- 

 quisition the powers of the earth, and consequently in the same degree 

 exhausting those powers ; and like spirits habitually administered to 

 the body, requiring an increase of quantity to i^roduce a like effect; and 

 eventually increase loses its power, and the earth, like the body, dies 

 from exhaustion. There is an active, living principle in a diversity or 

 rotation of crops, which nature dictates, as is exhibited in the practical 

 oi)erations of the farm. Dig up an old apple-tree, and a young one will 

 not grow successfully upon the same ground, and no manure will make 

 it grow. It is vain to theorize upon the subject, and we may as w^ell 

 conclude that there is no substitute for a rotation of crops in a i^roper 

 management of the farm. 



But what shall the rotation be? Here we must recur to the idea 

 that while it is indispensable, it must be regulated b}" circumstances. In 

 the J\Iid41e and some of the Western States the usual routine is clover, 

 corn, oats, or spring barley, wheat, and with it timothy and clover; the 

 former sown with the wheat in the fail, at the rate of about three quarts 

 to the acre, and clover in the spring, about one bushel to five acres. 

 This grass is mowed and n)ade into hay the second year, and often the 

 third; then the manure of the farm should be put upon the sod, and 

 again it goes into (-orn. By this rotation the laud continues to grow 

 better and more productive from year to year. 



There are points at the South, and also in the West, where this rotation 



