6& AGRICULTURAL ES3AfS. 



and also prepare the soil for a crop of wheat with less barn Gi 

 vegetable manure, the best method, and that which is most 

 practised at the present time, both in Europe and some parte 

 of the United States, is by a change of crops. That is, by 

 sowing wheat after certain other crops, which from their na- 

 ture are calculated to prepare the soil for the culture of wheat. 

 There is no doubt but that the land which is fallowed for a 

 wheat crop in the month of June, in the usual way, might, by 

 being ploughed early in the spring, and sowed with peas, or 

 planted with potatoes or beans, be made by such culture not 

 only to produce to the farmer a clear saving of either of those 

 crops for that year, but also prepare the soil so as to render the 

 success of the crop of wheat thereon the next year much more 

 certain. — The adrantages of this mode of culture for wheat 

 result from two considerations — first it has been found by 

 ehemical analysis of these plants, that the bean, the pea, and 

 the potato, contain a large portion of the same soluble and 

 nutrative substances that are contained in wheat. The vines 

 if those plants, therefore, when ploughed under the surface of 

 the soil, furnish a useful manure for wheat ; and by the culture 

 of these plants, the w^eeds of eveiy description are more effec- 

 tually destroyed, than by the summer fallow. It may there- 

 fore, be correctly calculated, that the barn or other vegetable 

 manure which is usually applied to the soil after a fallow for 

 wheat, will, if first applied to those preparatory crops^ become 

 jnuch more useful to the crop of wheat. 



The changes of crops which are best calculated to affect 

 the success of the wheat crop, as well as many others, will de- 

 pend on the soil and other circumstances which may attend the 

 condition of the farmer. In a fertile sand, sandy loam, grav- 

 elly loam, or other dry warm soil, it has been found profitable 

 by some practical farmers to adopt the following rotation of 

 orops ; to begin the first year with corn and potatoes, first 

 ploughing in all the barn dung made that spring ; the second 

 year corn, which will then receive the greatest benefit from 

 the rotten dung, and the previously fermented state of the soil ; 

 the third year barley, and clover sown with it ; the fourth clo- 

 ver; the fifth clover, one crop, and then the sward after the clo- 

 ver has grown considerably again, well turned over, and harrow- 

 ed in with wheat; the sixth, wheat sown as before mentioned 

 ^ith clover ; the seventh and eighth with clover ; and then the 

 sward torn up again in the fall for potatoes the next year. 



It will be seen that in this rotation, if the soil is well fertiliz- 

 ed and prepared the first year for the corn and potatoes, it may- 

 be kept in good condition for any of the succeeding crops of 



