ROTATION OP CROPS. 75 



alent among us. What this was in 1801 may be 

 seen in the answer of an English gentleman and 

 traveller (Mr. Strickland) to certain queries of the 

 British Board of Agriculture in relation to the state 

 of husbandry here. After remarking that New- 

 England was not a corn country, and had little to do 

 with the plough, and that New- York was then, and 

 would continue to be, the granary of America, he 

 proceeds to divert his British readers with the fol- 

 lowing details : " The usual course of crops in this 

 state (New- York), is, first year, maize (Indian* 

 corn) ; second, rye or wheat ; third, flax or oats ; and 

 then a repetition of the same as long as the land 

 will bear anything ; after which it is laid by to rest. 

 A Dutchman's course on the Mohawk is, first year, 

 wheat ; second, pease ; third, wheat ; fourth, oats or 

 flax ; and, fifth, Indian corn. In Dutchess county 

 the rotation is, first, wheat; second and third, pas- 

 ture without seed; and, fourth, Indian corn, or flax, 

 or oats, or mixed crops." Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 Delaware, and Maryland may be classed together, 

 from a resemblance of climate, soil, and mode of 

 culture ; and here we have, " first year, Indian corn ; 

 second, wheat ; third and fourth, rubbish pasture. 

 Clover is, however, beginning to be introduced in 

 some such course as the following: First, wheat- 

 second, Indian corn; third, wheat; fourth and fifth, 

 clover." 



Two exceptions are noticed, however, to this 

 system : 1st. In the German settlements in Penn- 

 sylvania, where, from more attention or more skill, 

 " the wheat crop averages eighteen bushels to the 

 acre, where twenty-five bushels are frequent, and 

 instances of thirty not wanting: and,2d. In the pen- 

 insula of Maryland and Delaware, where the rota- 

 tion of Indian corn, wheat, and rubbish pasture has 

 reduced the average produce to six bushels per 

 acre ; in some instances not more than two bushels 

 are obtained, and much is so bad as to be ploughed up 

 again." 



