CHAPTER V. 



OF THE DIFFERENT GRASSES, AND OTHER PLANTS, ADAPTED FOR 

 THE ALTERNATE HUSBANDRY. 



The grasses, and other plants, best fitted for alternation, 

 are such as arrive at perfection in the shortest space of time, 

 or within the compass of two years; such as have their 

 leaves broad and succulent, and that do not quickly run to 

 seed. Plants of this description are supposed to produce 

 the orcatest weight of herbao-e at the least expense to the 

 soil. 



It is a curious and well-known fact, that any species of 

 plant that has continued till its natural decay on a particular 

 soil, cannot be again immediately reared with equal success 

 on the same spot, till some other crop intervene ; but that a 

 different species of vegetable will there succeed better, for its 

 peculiar period of life, than it would on a soil naturally better 

 adapted to its growth, where it Had just attained to perfect 

 maturity. This holds good with respect to annual plants, as 

 well as to those that continue to live many years. But it is 

 better seen in the former, as their habits and duration in tlie 

 soil are oftener and more directly within the reach of common 

 observation. 



On this antipathy of plants seems to depend the theory of 

 alternate cropping with green crops and grain — varying in 

 some measure according to the circumstances of soil and 

 climate ; but the principle appears to remain the same. 



On analyzing a soil immediately before and after producing 

 an impoverishing crop, the results of such analysis do not 

 point out any diminution in the weight or proportions of its 

 constituents, sufficient to account for the weight of vegetable 

 matter produced. The decomposing animal and vegetable 



