APPENDIX. 445 



found exhausted and unfit for others. Generally speaking, we conceive 

 thai one of the most important points in husbandry is a judicious ro- 

 tation of such crops as are most profitable for culture, and ai the 

 same time, best adapted for the particular soils which are to be culti- 

 vated. Lands seem naturally to require a change of growths. Where 

 the oak has disappeared, after it iiad hfied its head to the Springs of 

 ages, another oak will not naturally rise, but some other trte. In- 

 stances have been known of lands covered solely witli trees of deci- 

 duous growth, where the knots of the pitch pine were still to be 

 founa ; u proof thai pine was once a tenant 01 the soil. In the South- 

 ern Stales, where lands have been exhausted with injudicious crop- 

 ing, and then thrown out to common, they soon become covered with 

 grow Uis of trees different from those they originally bore. 



Some pta.its are so unfit for long- continuance in any particular 

 place thai nicy me endowed with migratory powers, either by their 

 wmgeu ic-cvio, winch are wafed abroad i;y tne winds; by their roots, 

 by v.iuch ui.y change tueir places ot growth beneath the surface; or 

 by their vines, by which they travel above ground, and thus locate 

 themselves in different situations. Of the first description are the 

 varieties of tne thistle, the milkweed, and the fireweed: of the 

 second, the potatoe and some other bulbous-rooted plains; of the 

 third, ihe strawberry, the blackberry, the dii erent species of the 

 gourd-tribe. The stalks of erect plants fall when they ripen, and 

 thus the seed reaches the ground at a distance from the roots which 

 produced them. There seems, indeed, to be generally a disposition 

 in the earth to require changes in the plants it nourishes, in order 

 that it may impart the food that is best adapted for each; and Provi- 

 dence, in his infinite wisdom, has endowed these, while growing in a 

 state of Nature, with such properties as are best calculated to effect 

 the changes. Let the Cultivator, therefore, study Nature, and follow 

 her dictates, if he wishes either success or applause in his em- 

 ployment. 



In regard to changes of crops, a general rule has been recommend- 

 ed of alternate growths of leguminous and cuimiferous kinds, and of 

 green-crops and grain-crops; but perhaps it would be quite as philo- 

 sophical to insist upon alternate growths of fibrous, and taprooted 

 plants; the former deriving their lood from the surface of the earth, 

 the latter from greater depths. But the value of crops, and the ex- 

 pense of raising each, should be duly estimated, in making selections 

 for rotations. Let us say, for instance, that the average crops of 

 wheat, barley, and Indian corn, at the greatest extent, may average 

 fifty dollars in value to the acre, after the grain is ready for market; 

 crops of r\e, oats, and peas, not more than two-thirds of this amount; 

 buckwheat, considerably less. From lands suitable for ruta-baga, or 

 mangle-wunzel, it would seem that from five to six hundred bushels 

 to the acre may be expected, with good culture ; which, at eighteen 

 cents per bushel, a price certainly not beyond the proportionate value 

 we have just given to the grain-crops, will average about one hun- 

 dred dollars as the value of an acre. The entire expense of either of 

 these crops of roots, when ready for use, is not essentially greater 

 than the expense incurect in producing grain-crops; of course, it 

 must be evident that these afford from thirty to fifty dollars an acre 

 less of clear profit than a crop of either of the roots just mentioned. 

 \Vith a proper application of the requisite quantity of manure to 

 ruta-baga, it may be successfully grown on almost any dry soil, when 

 well and deeply mellowed, from the sandy to the deep rich loams. 

 Soils of the latter description are best adapted for mangle-wurtzel. 

 Either of these roots, when steamboiled, and especially with the ad- 



