FARMERS' REGISTER, 



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manure crop, or partly of both, according to the 

 wants of the hind, or of the proprietor. 3. If 

 deemed too costly, orlijr any other reason, tliis pea 

 crop might be omitied, and then, without cost, it 

 would be substituted by the usual volunteer growth 

 of carrot-weed which ibllows wheat, and would 

 be an intervening, though poorer vegetable manure 

 crop for the corn crop of the next year. 



A four-shift rotation might be made of the 

 foregoing, adding, as the Iburth year's crop, clover 

 sown on the wheat of the third year. This 

 would be 



1st year — 1. corn — 



2nd " 2 & 3. clover — first crop mown, se- 

 cond ploughed under green — 



3rd " 4. wheat— 



4th " 5, 6. clover, first crop mown, second 

 ploughed under, dry. 



This scheme gives six crops in four years. 



The great objection to this would be the clover 

 of the fourth year preceding corn, and nourishing 

 insects to feed on the latter crop. 



If the plan of sowing clover among corn cannot 

 be relied on, then the ordinary three-shift rotation 

 (of 1. corn, 2. wheat, 3. rest or clover,) might per- 

 haps be relieved of its greatest delect, by sowing 

 peas among the corn at the last tillage, and 

 ploughing them in green, for wheal. This would 

 interpose a broad-leaved leguminous manure crop 

 between the two grain crops, and yet without sepa- 

 rating them by more time. 



A more extended, and seemingly better rotation 

 (though still comprised in four years,) would be 

 the following, provided green crops are certainly 

 profitable to be ploughed under lor manure. 



1st year, 1st crop, corn — 



2. secondary crop, peas sown broad- 

 cast m June or July — 



2nd " 3. wheat (or partly oats) — clover 

 sown — 



3rd " 4. clover mown — 



5. clover turned in for 



4th " 6. wheat (and oats) — 



7. secondary crop, peas broad-cast — 

 to be followed by the return of 

 corn again. 



This rotation offers seven crops in four years, of 

 which three are of grain, one of hay, and three 

 of green manure. Perhaps buckwheat, or some 

 other broad-cast crop, might advantageously vary 

 the succession, by occup3'ing part of the space al- 

 lowed lor peas. 



In this last scheme, the reader may not imme- 

 diately perceive that in its general plan it is noth- 

 ing more than the Ibur-shift rotation long Known in 

 one or another form. If the two secondary crops 

 of peas (of 1st and 4lh years) be omitted, the 

 rotation l)ecomes that heretofore in use on Curies', 

 Shirley, VVestover, &c., and described as the (bur- 

 shift fallow rotation. If, in addition, the fallovv- 

 ing-^and the wheat crop of the fourth year be 

 omitted, it is then the four-shift rotation of Col. 

 Taylor. Thus, besides other substitutions which 

 might be made, either of these changes may be 

 made to any desired extent, without any alteration 

 of the general plan or frame-work of the rotation. 



The following scheme for a five-shift rotation, 

 has also the great merit of permitting many 

 changes in minor points, and substitutions of its 

 crops, without altering the main features and plan 

 of the succession. Its most obvious delect is, that 

 Vol. VlII-2 



it has too many and successive green manure 

 crops, and that its entire value rests upon the (per- 

 haps yet doubtful) profit of manuring with green 

 crops of annual?. 



1st year, 1st crop, corn — and with its last tillage, 

 2. peas sown broad -cast, [or buck- 

 wheat on part,] and ploughed 

 under, in autumn, and rye sown; 



2nd " 3. r3'e, ploughed under in blossoiT), to 

 sow 

 4. peas broad-cast, turned under in 

 autumn — [or, on part, rye not 

 sown, and the ground used for 

 vines and early planted roots ;] 



3rd " 5. wheat, [or part in oats] — clover 

 sown — 



4th " 6. clover, mown — 



7. do. turned in, to precede wheat; 



5th " 8. wheat— 



9. secondary crop, peas sown broad- 

 cast, [or part in turnips, and late 

 planted Irish potatoes.] 



This scheme offers 9 crops in 5 years ; that is, 

 3 crops of grain, 1 of clover hay, and 4 crops of 

 green and 1 of dry manure. The last one, the 

 peas in the fifth year, may be made a forage in- 

 stead of a manure crop, if desired. Early planted 

 roots and vines, to any extent desired, might be 

 substituted for part of the corn crop ; and late 

 planted roots for part of the secondary pea crop in 

 the fifth year. 



If the frequent recurrence of green manure crops 

 be objected to, it is easy to omit or substitute them, 

 without affecting the general plan of the rotation. 

 Thus, if a part of the field be too poor to bear a 

 good and profitable crop of broad-cast peas or 

 buckwheat, for green manure, in the first year, 

 then that crop, and even the rye and the peas of 

 the next year, might be omitted, and the land suf-. 

 fered to cover itself with the cheaper manure of 

 annual weeds instead, which would be ploughed 

 under in autumn for wheat. The crop of mere 

 weeds, thus interposed between the corn and wheat, 

 would still be an improvement upon the usual 

 course, of the one grain crop following the other 

 immediately. In this case, more labor would be 

 required to plough for sowing wheat, but the crop 

 would be so much better as to much more than 

 compensate the greater cost. So the secondary 

 pea-crop of the filth year, may be omitied on poor 

 land, and its place will be cheaply il'not more pro- 

 fitably supplied by annual weeds. And if the 

 land be too rich to need so many manure crops, 

 this crop of peas may be harvested as a forage 

 and seed crop. Also, on the richest parts of the 

 fields, one or more of the green crops, of the first 

 and second years, may be harvested lor forage, or 

 partly grazed. Thus, the details of the rotation 

 maybe so much altered f()r different circumstances, 

 that it may be made to suit the richest land, or the 

 poorest, on which both corn and wheat can be pro- 

 fitably raised. 



Another defect (at least according to the long 

 established mode of thinking and cullivatincr in 

 lower Virginia,) is that too little corn, or space of 

 the land cultivated, (one-fifth,) is allowed for this 

 now all-important, and on some farms, the almost 

 sole crop. But this defect, (if it be one,) is greatly 

 lessened by the quantity of food for stock provided 

 in roots and green crops, which will serve in place 

 of much of tiie corn now used. Further, the corn 



