ROTATION OF CROPS. 265 



the vegetable matter in the soil has passed into a putrid, or 

 dissolving state. Then it will be easily taken up and used bj 

 the minute spongioles of the grass roots, and so assimilate itself 

 with the plants. But more of this hereafter. 



A tliird general principle mentioned above was, that due 

 regard should be had to the place that each crop occupies in 

 the course. This is a point of some importance. For instance, 

 it has been observed that oats rarely do well, coming the next 

 year after the turf is broken, being liable to blast ; probably 

 owing to the peculiar condition of the soil at the time. Corn 

 hardly ever produces well after buckwheat ; while, on the other 

 hand, it is well known that potatoes and broomcorn are excel- 

 lent preparatives for wheat and rye. 



I am now prepared to state, affirmatively, what I should con- 

 sider the proper course to be pursued with a reasonable pros- 

 pect of success, making no claims, however, to infallibility, but 

 bespeaking a candid consideration. Actual experiment, it may 

 be truly said, is the only sure test of the views presented, and 

 to that ordeal I am willing they should be submitted. Our 

 situation in the Valley of the Connecticut, occasioning, as it does, 

 some peculiarities in our agricultural practice, will lead me to 

 speak of three diflFerent systems of rotation, applicable to differ- 

 ent soils and localities. I shall begin with meadow lands, 

 meaning by this, of course, arable meadows, or those that are 

 seldom or never flooded. Probably no one crop occupies so 

 much of these lands as broomcorn. This is an important 

 staple with us. The brush generally finds a ready market at a 

 remunerating price, while the seed constitutes a valuable 

 provender, and the crop is not an exhausting one. Its natural 

 home seems to be upon alluvial flats ; and here, accordingly, we 

 find it in its greatest perfection. Evidently, then, it must 

 occupy a large space in these localities. At any rate, owing to 

 the natural fertility of the soil and to the ease with which they 

 are tilled, hoed crops of some kind will always occupy a large 

 proportion of our lands. Thus much I am willing to concede ; 

 but I maintain, notwithstanding, that there is injury often done 

 in keeping these lands up too long. I have in mind one marked 

 instance, in which a lot had been kept so long under the plough, 

 that a heavy dressing of manure failed to produce what might 

 34* 



