ROTATION OF CROPS. 2T3 



given area than is usual in American agriculture, is the following ; 

 First year, Indian corn ; second year, roots ; third year, soiling 

 crops ; fourth year, soiling crops during the first half of the sea- 

 son, seeding down to wheat or rye in the autumn ; fifth year, 

 wheat or rye with clover and timothy ; sixth year, mowing ; the 

 single year's mowing to be followed by corn again. 



It is proper for me to say that, while this rotation has been 

 adopted after a careful consideration of the practices of different 

 regions, and of my own circumstances, it has not yet been so 

 fully tried in practice as to warrant its unqualified recommenda- 

 tion for general use, even where, as at Ogden farm, soiling is to 

 be adopted to the entire exclusion of pasturing ; and it is not 

 unlikely that, after the fertility of the soil has been sufficiently 

 increased, the cultivation of corn and even of wheat or rye may 

 be given up, and their places supplied by crops which, while they 

 will require somewhat more labor, will produce a larger money 

 result. 



In the London Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Ga-zette^ 

 there is an editorial article on the subject of the rotation of crops, 

 in which there appears the following very sensible remark : 

 " Practically, a good rotation should distribute the farm work 

 " equally, and it should give an opportunity for cleaning the land," 

 And it is generally advised that the details of the rotation be^ regu- 

 lated very much more by the prices of products, and by the farmer's 

 demand for food for his cattle, than by any arbitrary rule, the two 

 objects being constantly kept in view, of furnishing, so far as pos- 

 sible, regular employment for men and teams throughout the busy 

 seasons, and of pursuing such a course as shall supply the land 

 with the requisite manure at the proper time. 



As a matter of general advice, it is to be recommended that the 

 bulk of the farm manures be applied to such crops (like Indian 

 corn) as cannot be injured by even the most stimulating applica- 

 tion ; that crops which require a settled fertility of the land, but 

 which are injured by the immediate application of animal manures, 

 (and this is true of most grain crops,) should follow those to which 

 the stable manures were originally applied ; that crops which have 



