i839] 



FARM.ERS' REGISTER 



611 



tried suffioienlly,"' if at all, in practice, but w'hidi 

 eeem better adapted for profitable, easy, and eri- 

 richintr culiiv^atiou. 



Tiie first and most humble attempt at a rotation 

 in this country, and the one which Ibrmerly was ce- 

 neral on the greater part of most larnls, and is even 

 now in extensive use, is the two-shift; which, 

 however, short as it is, had various grades of bad 

 quality. This usually followed the co/iimMoZ cul- 

 tivation of the land, in its newer condition, in to- 

 bacco, while ricii enougli for the crop, and a;lter- 

 ,wards in corn, every year. 



Ths two-s!ii(f was most usually this: 



1st year, corn — 



f wheat— or oats, if on land too light or 



f, , J too poor lor wheat — 



"" ' j after harvest, grazed closely until next 

 1^ spring,vvhen ploughed Ibrcorn again. 

 When too poor to bear any small grain crops, 

 that part of the course was omitted on such poorer 

 spots of the field, and afterwards on all — thus 

 changing the rotation to 



1st year, corn — 



2nd natural cover cf weeds, grazed. 



When not grazed the second year, as was some- 

 times the case, Ibr want of separate fencing, or 

 some other cause, this rotation made a nearer ap 

 proacli to alternate and improving husbandry. It 

 was then 



1st year, corn — 



2nd, weeds not grazed, and which (if not 



burnt off', as was done most usually,) formed a very 

 poor manuring crop. 



The celebrated Eastern Shore rotation, is of 

 fwo-shifis or fields, but of three crops, in the two 

 years. This is 



1st year, corn — 



g ' ^ first crop, oats— 



" ' l secondary crop, JMagothy bay bean — 

 a spontaneous and close cover immediatelj^ succeed- 

 ing the oats, and which remains mostly or eniire- 

 iy untouched by the grazing stock, and is plough- 

 ed under for the next crop of corn. The interpo- 

 sition, by nature, and not ny the design or industry 

 of the cultivators, of this leguminous and manur- 

 ing crop, is a most valuable feature in a rotation 

 which otherwise would be altogether exhausting 

 and destructive. The moisture of the air, no less 

 than the sandiness of the soil, and the cleanness 

 from other plants, give vigor to this bean, and 

 make one-third ol^ the whole course meliorating, 

 to two-thirds of exhausting crops. The same 

 moisture also nourishes the oats, and prevents that 

 crop exhausting so much, as in dryer regions — 

 and also by its greater bulk of straw, furnishing 

 more materials for manure. These circumstan- 

 ces render this rotation, severe and barbarous as 

 it is, less exhausting (or more improving, if much 

 attention is paid to manuring,) than the ordinary 

 three-shift rotation. Except in the chance-made 

 addition of the spontaneous bean crop, this rota- 

 tion offends against every principle and rule which 

 ought to ffovern. 



The three-shift rotation was the next step in 

 the supposed march of agricultural improvement, 

 and even yet is that which many remaining two- 

 shift or no-shift cultivators aspire to reach, as the 

 limit of their farming and improving ambition, 

 and their nepZi/s w7/ra of mild cultivation. This 

 was — 



1st year, corn — 



2od year, wheat, and afterwards the spontaneous 

 grass and weeds grazed — 



3rd " pasture, closely grazed. 



The severity of the second year was generally 

 moderated on the poorer parts, by the wheat being 

 there necessarily omitted — which of course gave 

 to those pans two years rest Iroin tillage, in three; 

 and, while the wheat was growing, a cessation 

 from grazing also. With very i'ew exceptions, 

 such was the general system of the best culuvated 

 farms in lower Virginia, when Taylor wrote; and 

 it is on this kind of three-shift roiaiion that his de- 

 nunciations were so deservedly cast. This rota- 

 tion violates every sound principle and rule, and 

 certainly deserved to be treated without mercy; 

 but many have continued to denounce the three- 

 shift rotation, even Avhen rendered comparatively 

 mild, as if the evil was in (he immher three, and 

 not in circumstances more important than the 

 mere number of shifts. 



But taken in the aspect above described, and 

 which was the hes; then (hat was exhibited, the 

 ihree-shili: rotation had no merit whatever. It had 

 no other than fibrous rooted plants; no other than 

 narrow-leaved crops; no root, leguminous, or even 

 grass crop — for the close grazing merely served to 

 prevent the scanty weeds and grass from growing; 

 and while every year's crop was exhausting, the 

 system furnished but small resources and rnaterials 

 f'lr manure. For the grazing animals were as many 

 as the land could keep alive, fmd scarcely any were 

 liiltened (by grazing alone,) for borne consumption 

 or market — and their support served to diminish, 

 instead of adding to, the fattening or manuring of' 

 the land. At that time it would have been diffi- 

 cult lor a reading farmer to comprehend this un- 

 doubtedly sound maxim of English writers, "the 

 more cattle kept, the more grain or other crops 

 produced." But the English farmer keeps no an- 

 imal except for the profit it will yield; and all that 

 are so kept, give their rich and abundant products 

 of manure, as an additional profit to the soil. But 

 when a stock of cattle, sheep, and hogs, can bare- 

 ly make out to keep alive through the year, and 

 never fatten, except by stall and grain feeding, then 

 keeping them certainly yields no clear profit to their 

 owner, and their close grazing of the fields takes 

 away more of fertilizing materials, than their dung 

 can possibly replace. An English or French far- 

 mer would be no less at a loss to comprehend the 

 object (or even to believe in such a general prac- 

 tice,) of keeping a large stock of animals from 

 which no net profit was obtained, or even hoped 

 for, and he would justly think that it would not be 

 more absurd for a farmer to tend a crop of grain, 

 and then leave it to rot on the field, than to give 

 all his grass through sammer to animals, and then 

 lose the flesh so acquired, by starvalion through 

 the winter. Indeed, the general cattle ninnage- 

 mentofthis country would scarcely he believed 

 in any cood grazing or farming region. On the 

 farms under the usual tliree-shifl rotation, say of 

 400 acres of arable land, there would be from,40 

 to 60. head of grazing cattle, which fijrnishcd an- 

 nunlly to the owner, at most, about as much milk 

 and butter as two well kept cows minht supply — 

 one or two passable beeves, with the aid of grain 

 feeding, a few poor calves for veal — and a pretty 

 large supply of hides from deaths by starvation in 

 the spring. There were hogs enough to furnish 

 the year's supply of bacon; but only by means of 



