ROTATION OF CROPS 



ROTATORIA 



819 



mixed grass seeds ; ( 2 ) wheat or, in many parts 

 of Scotland, oats; (3) turnips, swedes, mangolds, 

 potatoes, or bare fallow ; ( 4 ) barley. The details 

 of this system are generally as follows. The clovers 

 or grasses are mown or grazed ; when cut they are 

 either used green or are dried for hay ; the second 

 crop is carted home for the cattle or horses ; near 

 towns it is sold off; or it is consumed on the ground 

 in racks by sheep, which on most highly cultivated 

 farms receive besides a daily allowance of cake or 

 corn. In districts where the town-manure can be 

 obtained a top dressing is applied as soon as the 

 first crop of grass is cut. On the poor and worse 

 cultivated soils the grass-crop occasionally remains 

 down for two, or even three years, thus extending 

 a four into a five or six years rotation. The clovers 

 or mixed seeds are ploughed up in autumn, and 

 followed generally in England by wheat, and in 

 Scotland r>y oats. These crops are now often 

 drilled, to admit of horse and hand hoeing. After 

 harvest the stubble is, if possible, cleaned by the 

 scarifier, grubber, or plough and harrows ; or, where 

 the management for several years has been good, 

 any patches of couch-grass or other weeds are best 

 forked out by hand. The land, especially if heavy, 

 or intended for mangolds drilled on the Hat, as prac- 

 tised in the drier parts of England, may then be 

 manured and deeply ploughed : the grubber and 

 harrows, in April or May, suffice to prepare for the 

 drilling of mangolds or swedes. Heavy land, in- 

 tended either for roots or barley, should, in spring, 

 be disturbed as little as possible. In Scotland, 

 and the cooler moist climates of the north 

 and west of England, turnips and potatoes are 

 grown on raised drills or balks, in which the 

 manure lies immediately underneath the plant. 

 Frequent horse and hand hoeings should ensure 

 the thorough cleaning of the crop. Unless in the 

 neighbourhood of towns, where it is greatly more 

 profitable to sell off the whole of the root-crop, part 

 of the swede or mangold crop is taken home for the 

 cattle, and the remainder consumed by sheep in 

 the field. After the fallow or cleaning crop another 

 cereal crop is grown ; under the Norfolk system 

 this is general!)' barley, with which the clovers or 

 seeds are sown out. Where sewage or tank water 

 is available Italian rye-grass is often used, and on 

 land in high condition early large and repeated cut- 

 tings are obtained ; but rye-grass has the disadvan- 

 tage of being a worse preparation than clover for 

 the wheat-crop which usually follows. The chief 

 failing of the four-course system consists in the 

 frequent recurrence of clover, which cannot be 

 successfully grown oftener than once in six or 

 eight years. To obviate this difficulty one-half of 

 the clover quarter is now often put under beans, 

 peas, or vetches, thus keeping the grass or clover 

 seeds eight years apart. 



The Norfolk four-course system is unsuitable for 

 heavy land, where a large breadth of roots cannot 

 be profitably grown, and where their place, as a 

 cleaning crop, is taken by bare fallow, vetches, or 

 |iulsf;. Bare fallows are, however, much less fre- 

 quent than formerly, being now confined to the 

 most refractory of clays, or to subjects that are 

 so hopelessly full of weeds as to require for their 

 extirpation several weeks of summer weather, and 

 the repeated use of the steam or horse ploughs, the 

 scarifier, grubber, and harrows. In such circum- 

 stances winter vetches are often put in during Sep- 

 tember or October, are eaten off by sheep and 

 horses in June or July, and the land afterwards 

 cleaned : this practice is extensively pursued on 

 the heavier lands in the midland and southern 

 counties of England. In such localities the follow- 

 ing system is approved of : ( 1 ) The clover leas are 

 seeded with (2) wheat ; then come (3) beans, pulse, 

 or vetches, manured, horse or hand hoed ; ( 4 ) on 



good land wheat succeeds ; ( 5 ) oats or barley often 

 follow, but, to prevent undue exhaustion of plant- 

 food, this system requires considerable outlay in 

 artificial manures, cake, and corn ; (6) a fallow, or 

 fallow crop, deeply and thoroughly cultivated, and 

 well manured, comes to restore cleanness and 

 fertility; (7) barley or wheat is drilled, and 

 amongst this the clover-seeds are sown. On the 

 heavier carse-lands in Scotland the following plan 

 of cropping is practised : ( 1 ) Clover ; (2) oats ; (3) 

 beans : (4) wheat; (5) root-crop, usually including 

 a considerable breadth of potatoes ; (6) wheat ; (7) 

 barley, with which the clovers or mixed grasses are 

 sown. Under this system it is difficult, with so few 

 cleaning crops, to keep the land clean ; roots, be- 

 sides, are not produced in quantities sufficient pro- ! 

 perly to supply either cattle or sheep during the 

 winter. To remedy these defects roots may be 

 introduced after the oats, and would be followed 

 either by wheat or barley. This extends the rota- 

 tion from seven to nine years. 



In most well-cultivated districts, whether of 

 heavy or light land, stock-farming is extending, 

 and a more vigorous effort is being made to raise 

 the fertility of the land. Root-crops are accordingly 

 more largely grown ; indeed, it is sometimes found 

 profitable to grow two root-crops consecutively ; 

 thus, after turnips, swedes, cabbages, or mangolds, 

 well manured from the town or farmyard, and 

 eaten off by sheep, potatoes of superior quality are 

 produced with one ploughing and a dose of port- 

 able manure. Specialities of management occur in 

 almost every locality. Near London, and in other 

 southern districts, early potatoes or peas are grown 

 for market, and are immediately followed by tur- 

 nips. In many parts of England, where the soil 

 and climate are good, rye or vetches sown in 

 autumn are consumed in early summer, and a 

 root-crop then put in. 



Good rotations do not necessarily ensure good 

 farming ; they are merely means to an end. And 

 as agricultural education and enterprise extend 

 fixed rotations will be less regarded. The market- 

 gardener, who extracts a great deal more from his 

 land than the farmer has hitherto been able to do, 

 does not adhere to any definite system of cropping. 

 If the farm is kept clean and in improving condi- 

 tion there can be no harm in growing whatever 

 crops it is adapted to produce. Cropping clauses 

 are requisite during only the three or four last 

 years of a tenancy. The restrictions found in some 

 agreements, preventing the growth of clover for 

 seed, flax, and even potatoes, are inadmissible. 

 Equally objectionable are clauses against the sale 

 of particular sorts of produce, such as hay or roots. 

 The farmer, if he is fit to be entrusted with the 

 use of the land, ought to be permitted to grow or 

 sell off any crop he pleases, provided an equivalent 

 in manure be orought back. On well-cultivated 

 land, in good condition, it is now the practice of 

 the best farmers to take oats or barley after wheat ; 

 indeed, some of the best malting barley in Essex, 

 on the Scottish carse-lands, and elsewhere is now 

 grown after wheat. The frequent growth of 

 cereals, and the heaviest of hay and root crops, 

 even when removed from the farm, may be fairly 

 compensated for by judicious and liberal treatment 

 with town-dung, sewage, or artificial manures. 

 The plant-food disposed of in the more ordinary 

 sales of the farm is economically restored by the 

 use of bones or superphosphate, guano, or nitrate 

 of soda, or by keeping plenty of stock on the farm, 

 and supplying them liberally with cake and corn. 

 See also 'the articles AGRICULTURE, FALLOW, 

 MANURE, SOILS, and those on the various crops. 



Rotatoria, or ROTIFERA, a class of minute 

 aquatic animals, popularly called wheel-animal- 

 cules. Most of them are microscopic, very trans- 



