ROTATION OF CROPS. 291 



*' Whichever of the crops may be selected, the treatment or 

 " the land after harvest is the same. The stubble being raked 

 " clean as possible from all the grain ; if the land is not clear of 

 " weeds plow it, shallow, say four inches, at once, and harrow, so 

 " as to insure the growth of all the grain left on the ground, and 

 " the bringing to the surface the roots of weeds. At this season 

 " of the year the sun is usually hot and the weather dry ; and six 

 " weeks of summer fallowing in August and the forepart of Sep- 

 '^ tember, properly managed, will do much toward freeing the 

 " land from even couch (quick) grass, especially if the roots are 

 " gathered by a strong steel-toothed horse- rake, and then drawn 

 " off the field and destroyed. 



" If the land is free from foul stuff, the best course is to turn 

 " on the stubble sheep or young cattle, and let them pick oft 

 '' what they can, until near the time for sowing wheat, and then 

 *' plow once perfectly, and harrow for the next crop, which will 

 " be wheat. 



'-''Fifth y'ear. — In the fall of the fourth year wheat was sown, 

 " and with it, by a device connected with the drill, six quarts of 

 " timothy-seed. In the spring of the fifth year red clover is to be 

 ^' sown. When the wheat is harvested, the ground should be all 

 " covered with clover and timothy, which are to make the 

 *' meadow or hay crop of the first year of the next rotation. 



" This is the first five-year rotation as practiced by the best 

 " farmers of my acquaintance when no circumstances cause a 

 " modification — such, for instance, as the failure of clover-seed to 

 " take and grow well, or, perhaps, an uncommon demand in the 

 " market for some one crop. 



" Our farmers expect, as the proceeds of this five-year rotation, 

 " from each acre two tons of hay, three bushels of clover-seed, 

 " the pasturage of one cow for a season, fifty bushels of corn, 

 " and the forage produced by the corn crop, forty bushels of 

 " barley, or fifty bushels of oats, as the case may be, and twenty 

 " to twenty-five bushels of wheat, 



" If the ground has previously been well tilled, and is not 

 " infested with foul weeds, each grain crop is raised by one plow- 



