

ROTATION OF CROPS. 



unused, in order that the soil might thus have ! 

 its strength renovated. It has, however, been J 

 found that with judicious management land ! 

 need never be suffered to lie idle, but cultivated 

 every year in one or more crops with profit, 

 and even with improvement of the soil. In 

 other words, the system carried out on a small 

 scale in gardens may be extended to farms. A 

 large portion of Europe is at present cultivated 

 without naked fallows, which are unknown in 

 the vast productive agricultural operations of 

 China. 



In the United States, the rotations of crops 

 vary considerably in different sections. In 

 Massachusetts, one of the oldest settled por- 

 tions of the Union, and the usages of which 

 may perhaps represent those prevailing through- 

 out the New England States, it would appear 

 from Mr. Colman, that little of what may be 

 called systematic husbandry prevails, the suc- 

 cession of crops being dictated rather by acci- 

 dent or convenience than by any well-con- 

 sidered principles. The following details from 

 his 4th Report on Agriculture, will show how 

 things are managed in different parts of Massa- 

 chusetts. 



The rotation of crops in Franklin county is 

 very limited, as the crops cultivated are few. 

 In Buckland, the first year the land is broken 

 up, corn is planted and manured : the second 

 year, oats are sowed without manure, and the 

 land laid down to grass. It is continued in grass 

 five years and then broken up, and the same 

 course repeated. The first year of grass the 

 produce is about two tons per acre, and when 

 it yields not more than 1500 Ibs. it is consider- 

 ed proper to break it up again. In Shelburne, 

 on one of the best farms in the state, the course 

 is, first year, Indian corn on green sward, ma- 

 nured; second year, spring wheat, and laid 

 down to grass; the grass-seed sown with the 

 wheat; one peck of herd's grass and one of 

 red-top to the acre. The land remains in grass 

 ordinarily five years. The average yield of 

 grass is estimated at three tons to the acre, 

 which I think must be an over-estimate, and 

 the cost of getting the hay at $2 per ton. For 

 spring wheat, in the second year of the course, 

 is sometimes substituted rye, or oats, or oats 

 and peas, or oats and wheat. 



In Whately, first year, Indian corn ; second 

 year, oats, and laid down with herd's grass 

 (timothy) and clover, and remains in grass 

 three years. 



On much of the meadow land in Deerfield, 

 the first year the land is in corn; the succeed- 

 ing year peas and oats, and so on continually. 

 The corn is manured in the hill. The land, 

 after the corn is gathered, is sometimes sown 

 with winter rye. 



In some parts of Deerfield, the usual rotation 

 is, first year, corn, usually manured in the hill; 

 the second year, spring wheat, or wheat and 

 oats, or peas and oats, or rye with southern clo- 

 ver ; third year, clover; and then plough again. 



The best farmers universally advise to sow 

 the southern or June clover with grain, to be 

 ploughed in with the stubble where the land is 

 not to remain in grass, with a view to enrich 

 the land. If the grain is winter grain, the 

 121 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



clover is usually sown in the spring before the 

 snow has left the ground, at the rate of a bu- 

 shel of clover chaff or clover-seed not cleaned, 

 or else at the rate of 6 or 7 Ibs. of cleaned seed. 

 One of the most experienced farmers in the 

 town has been accustomed to sow rye and 

 clover together on the same land for a succes- 

 sion of years; in which case the clover and 

 stubble were always ploughed in together for 

 the purpose of enriching the land for the suc- 

 ceeding crop, and in this process he states that 

 the condition of the land was continually grow- 

 ing better. The crops, however, at best were 

 not large. 



I think proper here to mention the statement 

 of another farmer, a man of much intelligence 

 and experience, in confirmation of the expe- 

 rience of two other farmers referred to in a 

 former report, that it is much better that the 

 clover should be withered or dead when it is 

 ploughed in, rather than in a green or succu- 

 lent state. 



In some instances, as in Sunderland, for ex- 

 ample, broom-corn is repeated several years in 

 succession on the same land, and, as it is 

 stated, without a diminution of product. In 

 these cases, the crop is manured in the hill 

 every year ; and the corn-stalks, after the brush 

 is gathered, are burnt upon the land. 



In the oldest cultivated sections of Penn- 

 sylvania, the rotations seem to have been 

 conducted with much good judgment, as is 

 evinced by very successful results generally 

 obtained. These, as well as the system highly 

 approved by many of the most judicious far- 

 mers, are set forth in the following communica- 

 tion in the Farmers 1 Cabinet (vol. v. p. 94). 



The example to which I refer, says the cor- 

 respondent, is that of an old, practical, hard- 

 working farmer, who commenced in the world 

 as a day-labourer, and who is now worth at 

 least $100,000, not taking in the account many 

 heavy pecuniary losses he has, at various times, 

 sustained. This man, when 30 years of age, 

 by the avails of his industry, added to 'a small 

 legacy, was enabled to purchase and pay, in 

 part, for a farm of 130 acres of land, 100 of 

 which was under cultivation, but in a very low 

 state. This farm is altogether upland, with a 

 soil composed of lime, clay, and sand, in the 

 chief of which the latter preponderates, the 

 former being least considerable. When he 

 commenced farming, he adopted a particular 

 system of rotation, to which he has implicitly 

 adhered from that time to the present, which is 

 40 years, and his success is the best comment 

 on the worth of his experiment. His mode was 

 as follows : having divided his farm into eight 

 fields of equal size, as nearly as possible, three 

 of these fields are sown with wheat each year, 

 one with rye, one planted with corn, two in 

 clover, and one an open fallow, on which corn 

 had been raised the year previous. One of the 

 two clover-fields is kept for mowing, the other 

 for pasture, both of which are ploughed as 

 soon after harvest as possible, and prepared 

 for wheat in the fall. All the manure which is 

 made on the farm for one year is hauled, in the 

 spring, on the field intended for open fallow, 

 which is then ploughed, and after one or two 

 4 M 96' 



