112 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



As some csops require more cultivation than others such as corn and potatoes, for instance, 

 more than wheat or oats which cultivation necessitates the stirring up of the soil at intervals, 

 and permits the air to permeate it more effectually, thus hastening the changes in its mechan 

 ical condition and bringing its elements into a state to supply plant-food, and also clears the 

 soil of troublesome weeds, a rotation with such crops is exceedingly beneficial. Besides, the 

 destruction of the weeds also cuts off, in a measure, the food-supply of noxious insects, and 

 further reduces the numbers of these pests by disturbing them in their haunts, and in autumn 

 exposes them to the frosts, all of which have a tendency to destroy them. 



Still another benefit in rotation may be found in the fact that while some crops are 

 almost wholly removed from the land upon which they have been cultivated, others, like 

 oats or wheat, leave a portion of their product in the form of stubble; or, like clover, leave a 

 wealth of fertility in their long roots, all of which supply more or less organic material to the 

 soil, which, when suitably decomposed, greatly aids in the production of the future crop. 



Schemes Of Rotation. The choice of crops for rotation will differ with different 

 soils, climates, and conditions; consequently, in deciding upon a scheme for any particular 

 farm, various considerations must be regarded, such as the nature and capacity of the soil for 

 production, the demand of the markets which may be accessible for the disposal of the crop, 

 and the quantity and kind of manure to be applied. Each farmer will have to decide these 

 for himself. It is well to have a scheme made out of from four to six of the best crops, and 

 the lands given to the culture of these in successive order. In all cases the best results will 

 be attained when the soil is abundantly fed with fertilizers of some kind for each crop. 



The general rule for a farmer to base his scheme of rotation upon, is to cultivate as 

 large a variety of crops as his soil, circumstances, and the demand of the market will render 

 profitable, and to have the scheme so arranged that the same, or a similar species of plants, 

 shall occupy the same ground at intervals as remote as practicable. In the English practice, 

 called the &quot;four-field or Norfolk system,&quot; which is considered, for that country, one of the 

 best for friable soils of fair quality, in which half the lands are in grain and half in cattle 

 crops annually, a great variety of changes may be introduced, which will bring the interval 

 between the same kind of plants on the same soil, one of eight years, instead of four, for one 

 or two of the more important crops. 



This is described by Thornton in the following, which we insert simply as an illustration 

 of how it may be accomplished : &quot;Instead of a rigid one-fourth of the land being each year 

 under turnips, barley, clover, and wheat or oats respectively, half only of the barley division 

 is frequently in practice now sown with clover-seed, and the other half cropped on the fol 

 lowing year with beans, peas, potatoes, or vetches. On the same set of fields, coming round 

 again to the same point, the treatment is reversed by the beans, etc., and clover being made 

 to change places. An interval of eight years is thus substituted for one of four, so far as 

 these two crops are concerned.&quot; 



Hon. C. C. Andrews gives the following information relative to rotation in agriculture 

 in Italy, based upon personal observations: 



&quot; The system of culture and of rotation of crops is not everywhere the same in the vdley 

 of the Po. The most fertile land is never left in fallow. Above Turin the rotation is usually 

 Indian corn one year, then wheat two years, followed with clover one year. Around Milan 

 the rotation is, first, white-bearded wheat, sown in November, with clover sown the following 

 February. The wheat is harvested in July; the next month some clover is cut, and then 

 cattle are allowed to feed in the field. The second year four crops of clover are cut, the land 

 having been periodically overflowed. In the succeeding winter the ground is manured, and 

 clover is cut the third year. The fourth year the ground is plowed once, harrowed four 

 times, sown with hemp in March, and rolled. The hemp is cut in June, during which month 

 the ground is again plowed once, harrowed once, and planted with Indian corn, which is 



