THE FARMER'S MANUAL. 



tine of crops, if ploughed in when in Ml bloom, be- 

 fore a wheat, or rye crop ; but before corn it will 

 not answer. I have generally done best with buck- 

 wheat, by selecting some particular piece of land, 

 (unfit for the winter grains,) and devoted it to the cul- 

 ture of buck-wheat, successively, for many years. 

 To illustrate my ideas of the succession of crops a 

 little more clearly, take the following : viz. 

 1st Yr. Barley, oats, flax, or spring wheat, or rye 



with clover, or clover and timothy, &c. 

 2d do. Clover, or clover and timothy, or orchard-grass. 

 3d do. do. do. do. 



4th do. Wheat or rye upon the clover-sward, with I, 

 2, or 3 ploughings, with clover again, with 

 or without a potatoe fallow, &c. as at the 

 first. 

 5th do. Corn, or potatoes upon the timothy-sward, 



then barley, oats, &c. as at the first. 

 Silicic. Or corn, or potatoes again, or beans as fal- 

 lows for wheat or rye ; or for the spring 

 crops, as at the first. 



Under this management, every farmer can appor- 

 tion his farm so as to have an equal portion of each 

 successive crop, and never exhaust his soil. 



It is common for farmers to argue thus : This land 

 must bear corn again ; this ground tills easy, and bore 

 good crops the last year, and the year before : without 

 reflecting, that after the third crop, the land will have 

 sunk one half of its value for the next year's tillage, 

 or will require a length of time, or an expense of ma- 

 nure to restore its fertility, which will greatly reduce 

 the value of the preceding crops. The same farmer 

 would not say, Take such a horse from my stable to 

 perform such a journey, he has just returned from a 

 ^econd of the same length, and he has done well ; but 

 he would rather say, Feed such a horse with particu- 

 lar care ; for he has just performed two long journeys, 

 and take a fresh horse for the next long journey ; the 

 other horse -with proper care, will do the business Q( 



