CHAPTER Vn. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



A rotation of crops implies not only change, but 

 change in a regular order; that is, that different crops 

 shall be grOwn in something like a regular order 

 through a longer or shorter series of years, finally get- 

 ting back to the starting points The practice is believed 

 to be very ancient. It is said that, hundred of years 

 ago, it was the custom in parts of England to divide 

 the land into three parts, allowing one to lie in bare 

 fallow; having one in fall-sown and the third in spring- 

 sown grain, thus making a three years' rotation. 



Probably the first approach to rotation would be the 

 abandonment of a field after it had been cultivated 

 for some years, thus allowing it to become covered 

 with natural vegetation, the decay of which would 

 tend to increase its fertility. 



Rotation not Essential. — A rotation of crops 

 is not absolutely essential to large harvests or, in some 

 cases, profitable farming. It has been noticed that 

 Sir John B. Lawes has grown wheat on the same 

 ground for about fifty years, and that, even where no 

 manure has been applied, the land still produces 

 a fairly good crop. Like trials have been made 

 with barley and roots, although not for so many years, 

 with similar results. The need of helping the fertility 

 of the soil in some way has been clearly shown in the 

 case of each crop. But where either stable or arti- 

 ficial manures have been regularly applied, it has been 

 shown to be possible to produce large crops for a 



