254 



Rotation of Crops. 



Vol. IV. 



whilst those who appeared to have the start 

 of him in the onset of life, being educated in 

 indulgence and ease, with a prospect of am- 

 ple means and influential triends to set them 

 afloat, will lag behind and finally be lost sight 

 of in tiie distance. 



It is the poor boys of the present genera- 

 tion who are to be the men of business, the 

 rich men of the next ; and the rich boys of 

 tlie present stock, if they don't mind their 

 P's and Q's will be their servants and hire- 

 lings, so argues a thinking old man of my 

 neighbourhood. 



Peter Jones. 



Bucks Co., March 1st, 1840. 



for the Farmers' Cabinet. 



A correspondent of the Farmers' Cabinet, 

 under the signature of " Agricola," vol. iii.. 

 No. 7, requests " any of the readers of the 

 Farmers' Cabinet to suggest a routine of 

 crops compatible with the plan of putting the 

 manure on the Indian corn ground in the 

 spring, so as to make a consistent profitable 

 rotation in the whole." 



The application of manure in the spring, 

 and " a consistent profitable rotation" has oc- 

 cupied much of my attention. That the ap- 

 plication of manure to the corn crop will, as 

 Agricola suggests, double the produce, is I 

 think unquestionable, unless the ground be in 

 high condition. The best evidence I can of- 

 fer is the fact — that such was the case with 

 my crop the past season — the field was not 

 in good order — and something less than one 

 third was manured ; that portion yielded one 

 hundred and fifty bushels, whilst the residue, 

 more than double the extent, gave but one 

 hundred and seventy-five bushels. 



I am therefore decidedly in favour of ma- 

 nuring the corn ground in the spring. The 

 manure should not be harrowed in, but 

 ploughed under a sufncient depth, to prevent 

 it from being washed ofl' by heavy rains. 



But a serious obstacle presents itself under 

 this system, to a proper and profitable rota- 

 tion, unless manure or lime can be had on 

 reasonable terms. As that is not the case at 

 my farm, and as we are obliged to depend on 

 our own resources, 1 intend trying an ar- 

 rangement somewhat different — as the rou- 

 tine I propose, would, in all probability, I'e- 

 quire a second coat of manure, if the first 

 were applied to the corn ground. 



As the great object with Agricola appears 

 to be the application of manure in the spring, 

 X offer tlie following plan, which 1 think will, 

 en the whole, prove as profitable a course, as 

 if the corn crop were doubled by the applica- 

 tion of manure the first year of the routine, 

 and a second coat become necessary. 

 ^ The first year I shall trust my corn to the 



influence of a good sod turned down in No- 

 vember, and to good cultivation, during the 

 proper season. 



The next, or second year of the routine, I 

 purpose applying all my manure in the spring 

 for a root and green crop, viz. potatoes, sugar 

 beets, Swedish turneps, puinpkins, &c., as 

 circumstances may justify. To be followed 

 the— 



Third year — By oats laid down with clover; 

 and Agricola may rest assured, that a good 

 coat of stable manure from which a crop lias 

 been taken will do oats no harm, but insure 

 an abundant harvest, and a fine growth of 

 young clover. At the end of eighteen months 

 the second crop of clover to be turned under, 

 preparatory to sowing wheat for the — 



Fifth year of the rotation — grass seeds to | 

 be sowed among the wheat ; or what I think 

 decidedly preferable, early in August to i 

 plough down the wheat stubble and weeds, ' 

 and then to sow timothy, orchard grass seeds, , 

 &c., &c., as a separate crop, and if desired, . 

 clover the spring following. This will o^ ' 

 casion some additional expense and delay— | 

 but the certainty of having the land well set 

 with grass is so much greater, than if sowed 

 late in autumn, or the following spring, with 

 the seeds of the two first mentioned grasses, 

 liable on the one hand to be injured by frosts, 

 and on the other by the droughts and heat of 

 summer, that I greatly prefer sowing such 

 seeds as a separate crop, than incur the risks 

 mentioned ; laesides winter grain is usually 

 followed by an abundant crop of weeds, which 

 exhaust the soil, and scatter their seeds, if 

 suffered to stand, and the stubble is nearly 

 all lost if suffered to rot on the surface ; but 

 by ploughing both under, as a preparation for 

 grasses, they serve as manure, and I think 

 fully compensate for the labour; the land may 

 also be laid smooth, whereas I strongly in- 

 cline to the opinion, that in addition to the 

 furrows for carrying oft' the water, the ground 

 for winter grain should be left rough, (and 

 consequently less fitted for the scythe,) as by 

 the action of frost and rain, the clods gradu- 

 ally slack down, and assist in covering the 

 roots, which have previously been thrown out 

 by the vicissitudes of the weather. 



Some degree of latitude must nevertheless 

 be allowed, as soils differ, and what may suit 

 one farm pr farmer may not suit another; 

 each must be left to select the time for sow- 

 ing grasses which best suits his case; when 

 this has been done, let the land be appropriated 

 to hay or pasturage, until according to the 

 rotation I have laid down, it shall be again 

 broken up for corn. 



It will be observed that by this rotation the 

 land will each year, the third excepted, re- 

 ceive some addition to its store of vegetable 

 matter — and that but one grain crop will be 



