ROTATION OF CROPS. 115 



support five hundred sheep, besides the crop in the above rotation. The oats and rye will 



feed them during the winter nearly or entirely, without injury to the grain. Five hands 

 would be sufficient to work such a farm and take care of the live-stock.&quot; 



During the first year with this practice, the same authority thinks the following results 

 might be expected from an ordinary farm. 



25 acres in cotton, 12 bales at $ .15, . . . $900. 



25 &quot; corn, 250 bushels &quot; 1.00, . . . 250. 



50 &quot; oats, 500 &quot; &quot; .80, . . . 400. 



25 &quot; rye, . 200 &quot; 1.00, . . . 200. 



25 &quot; wheat, 150 &quot; &quot; 1.50, . . . 225. 



Increase and mutton sales of 500 sheep, . . . 500. 



&quot;Wool, 3 pounds per head at .33 per lb., . . . 495. 



Manure at $1.00 per head, 500. 



Total, $3,470. 



When taken separately each of these estimates in production is small; they however 

 result in the aggregate to more than $600 per hand employed. Yet this is about three times 

 what was estimated to be the average product per hand in the cotton states, that of Georgia 

 having been estimated to be $209; South Carolina, $202; Virginia, $211, and North Caro 

 lina $214; these being the lowest averages. 



In the case above supposed, the amount given is the result of the first year of the rotation. 



&quot;The next year the cotton and corn would be more than double by penning 500 sheep at 

 night on 50 acres. It is the writer s experience that ten sheep regularly penned will manure 

 well, one acre in a year. Five hundred would, therefore, manure well fifty acres. The appear 

 ance of the ground would not indicate this high manuring; but it should be remembered 

 that the liquid manure, which is equal in value to the solid, is not visible. If, in addition, a 

 stock of cattle is kept and penned on the same fifty acres, their fertility would be increased in 

 proportion. It should never be forgotten that accumulating, saving and applying manure, is 

 as important a business of the farm as making corn or cotton. At the end of the fifth year of 

 this rotation, the change in the farm would be equal almost to a transformation, the crops being 

 doubled or trebled, without (which is a most important point) any material increase of labor 

 or other expense. 



&quot; This improvement of the soil, accompanied at first by moderate profits, and with a 

 great diminution of vexatious and unreliable labor, should be the great end of the Southern 

 planter. It involves a double profit from increased production and increased salable value of 

 the soil.&quot; 



Prof. Peiidleton, one of the leading agricultural authorities of the Southern section, recom 

 mends for the warm lands of the South, a rotation of cotton for two years, followed by corn 

 on the most productive portions, and wheat or oats on the rolling lands, with a fourth year 

 of rest, the land to lie fallow. According to his opinion, cotton will give better results for 

 two successive years, providing the soil is not very deficient in vegetable material, than if an 

 intervening crop is made to occupy it. For lands badly exhausted by constant cropping 

 without sufficient manure to return an equivalent for the elements exhausted, this fallow 

 system may prove quite beneficial; but as a general rule it is thought by most writers on this 

 subject, that the plowing under of green crops, such as clover, peas, etc., combined with the 

 application of an abundant supply of manure will prove more beneficial to most soils than 

 fallowing. 



&quot;Wherever practicable, pasturage may form a part of the rotation with profit. Especially 

 so on farms where the live stock interest is one of the principal features in the management. 

 By using a portion of the farm for keeping cattle and sheep a few years, and afterwards till- 



