DOTATION OF CROPS. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



vents increase, or even their continuance; 

 which otherwise, as is the case, for instance, 

 with the wire-worm, might for 4 or 5 years be 

 a pest to the soil. See BKETLE. 



The ordinary course or rotation of crops 

 under which the light lands of England are 

 commonly cultivated, is either on what is de- 

 nominated the four-course or shift system, or 

 the five-course or shift. 



The four-shift system commonly consists of 

 fallow, manured; 1, turnips, fed off; 2, oats or 

 barley; 3, grass seed; 4, wheat. 



The five-shift system, which is in many situa- 

 tions a much more advantageous course of hus- 

 bandry, is commonly fallow: 1, turnips; 2, 

 oats, or barley; 3, clover; 4, peas ; 5, wheat. 



On clays the course varies : on some kinds 

 of heavy clays it is usually fallow, with ma- 

 nure; wheat; beans; wheat, manured; clover; 

 oats, or wheat. 



On other clays the system pursued is fallow, 

 with manure; wheat, or oats ; clover; beans; 

 wheat. 



The variations, however, are of necessity ex- 

 ceedingly various. Thus, on some of the infe- 

 rior adhesive clays of the midland counties, 

 they adopt the four-course system. 



Another system of moderately heavy soil 

 husbandry is : 



1. Turnips - 

 Fallow - 



2. Barley - 

 Oats 



3. Sofids - 

 Tares fed off 



4. Wheat - 



Acres. 

 20 

 20 



40 



There are endless variations, however, of 

 this system, varying in their course from that 

 practised in some of the heavy, rich Essex 

 soils, of a two-shift system; viz., 1, wheat; 2, 

 beans; 3, wheat; with an occasional fallow. 

 And that more extensively used in the hun- 

 dreds of that great agricultural county, of a 

 five-shift system of fallow: 1, oats; 2, clover, 

 dunged; 3, wheat; 4, beans; 5, wheat. To the 

 nine-shift system of husbandry, sometimes prac- 

 tised, which is about the longest course with 

 which I am acquainted, viz.: 



20 acres fallow, or turnips manured. 



20 acres oats or barley. 



20 acres clover. 



20 acres wheat, well hoed. 



20 acres winter tares, sheep-fed. 



20 acres wheat, hoed. 



20 acres seeds, sheep-fed. 



20 acres, 15 of beans and 5 of peas, dunged. 



20 acres wheat, hoed. 



The following course, which takes in every 

 valuable crop, without in any instance violat- 

 ing the rules that science directs, seems to me 

 the best, and is recommended by a Norfolk 

 farmer for most clays not too wet. Say for a 

 farm of 350 acres 100 acres of green crops, 

 such as cabbages, turnips, rape, and tares, 

 adapting the green crops to the nature of the 

 land ; 50 acres of peas or beans ; 50 acres of 

 barley or oats, laid down with clover; and 100 

 acres of wheat. 



You will by this course have every year 200 

 acres of wheat and other corn, 50 of clover, 

 and 100 of green crops, thus saving your land 



960 



I 



from exhaustion by too frequent repetition of 

 crops of the same genus. And white crops 

 will in no instance succeed each other. The 

 wheat stubbles are in this way sown with green 

 crops, to be followed by 50 of barley and 50 of 

 beans or peas ; the barley sown with clover 

 and followed by wheat, which will thus be 50 

 acres on clover, and 50 on the bean or pea 

 stubble, taking care that the 50 acres of green 

 crops, followed by beans or peas, when next 

 coming in course for green crops, shall be 

 sown with barley and clover, as by this means 

 the clover comes only once in 7 years. 



In whatever point of view, therefore, the far- 

 mer examines the rotation of crops best adapt- 

 ed to his land, the more highly interesting does 

 the investigation appear. Long observation 

 and the practice of ages have convinced the 

 best English cultivators that sooner or later the 

 soil is tired of or exhausted of something essen- 

 tial to its luxuriant produce by a repetition of 

 the same crops; that the richest meadows gra- 

 dually decrease in their produce ; other soils be- 

 come "clover-sick;" and it is now even pretty 

 generally suspected that the land is in many 

 districts gradually getting tired of turnips. To 

 the examination, therefore, of this great question, 

 let every farmer contribute his mite of practical 

 observations : it is a theme whose investiga- 

 tion has long yielded a rich harvest to English 

 agriculture; for amongst its fruits must be 

 numbered the introduction of turnips, of man- 

 gel-wurzel, and other green crops ; its exami- 

 nation led to the adoption of the four-shift sys- 

 tem, and the banishment of that which for ages 

 rested on the miserable plan of one crop and 

 a fallow. It is idle, therefore, to contend that 

 nothing more is to be effected by change of 

 crops ; for the experience of all periods is 

 against so indolent and so erroneous an as- 

 sumption. Let the farmer only remember 

 what has been accomplished by the mere in- 

 troduction of the turnip plant; what thousands 

 of acres have been brought into cultivation by 

 its means, and how many mouths are fed by 

 the increased fertility of the land produced by 

 the adoption of that four-shift system of rota- 

 tion of which it is the first crop. Let him 

 bring to mind what superior crops are now 

 produced by the adoption of new seeds and 

 novel courses, to those which a century since 

 tenanted the lands of merry England; and he 

 will then see abundant reason for hope, and 

 for an energetic perseverance in a course of 

 discovery, which has already rendered such an 

 abundant harvest to the excellent cultivators 

 of our soil. See M. Bousingault on the " Ro- 

 tation of Crops," Quar. Jour. dgr. vol. x. p. 251; 

 Liebig's Organ. Chem. of Jlgr., &c. 



To prevent the depreciation of soil and im- 

 prove its productive capacity, a proper rota- 

 tion of crops is indispensable. The same 

 general principles upon which these objects 

 may be most judiciously accomplished will 

 apply to all countries, but the manner of car- 

 rying out these principles must vary with lo- 

 calities and peculiarities of climate and soil. 



It was once thought that, after culture, it was 



necessary to allow the land to remain for one 



j or more years at rest and idle, or fallow and 



