No. 1. 



Rotation of Crops. — Large Calf. 



21 



sion, with barley on the most unsuitable soil 

 — a stiff dry clay — without seeds. The plan 

 of winter fallowing, throwing up the land into 

 high narrow ridges to receive the benefit of 

 the winter's frost, is admirable, and ill ac- 

 cords with what follows. Without prejudice, 

 such a man may be suspected of paper farm- 

 ing. 



Perhaps the nearest approach to a regular 

 and judicious course, is that which is proposed 

 in the first article in the Cabinet, number for 

 July, over the signature S. I would not, 

 however, exclude oats from the rotation, for 

 the value of that crop, when cut up in the 

 straw without threshing, as winter food for 

 cattle, and in connection with roots, is almost 

 invaluable, and will one day be properly ap- 

 preciated. They should be sown thickly on 

 land that has been ploughed deep in the au- 

 tumn and left exposed to the winter frosts, 

 harrowing them in without a second plough- 

 ing as soon as the land will work in Februa- 

 ry, permitting them to freeze in, if it should 

 so happen ; the crop will not become ripe the 

 sooner for such early sowing, but will have 

 longer time to perfect the straw before the 

 shooting of the ear ; by such means very large 

 crops may be obtained from suitable soils, 

 which ought to be stiff and cool ; and the 

 straw from these would be of far more value 

 than the whole of many of those crops which 

 are to be met with every year with the com- 

 mon mode of management. Can any one say, 

 why wheat should not follow corn, seeded in 

 the spring with clover and timothy 1 Is not 

 a clean, unexhausted, well pulverized soil, 

 exactly what is desired to insure the most 

 perfect success to our seeds 1 — and if these 

 are top-dressed the next spring and mown 

 twice for hay that summer, there could not 

 be a more suitable seed-bed for wheat, after 

 once ploughing; roots, however, following, 

 with manure; — in short, anything but the 

 " Complete Practical Farmer's" rotation — 

 oats, barley, wheat, or the more common but 

 highly exceptionable mode, corn, oats, wheat. 

 There is no longer any difficulty in clearing 

 off the corn in time for wheat-sowing in com- 

 mon seasons, as the business is so expedi- 

 tiously and easily performed by means of the 

 simple machine described at page 73 of the 

 5th vol. of the Cabinet, which has been in 

 use for this purpose. 



In conclusion, what say our "practical 

 friends" to the following rotation: 1st. An 

 old sward — ploughed deep in autumn or early 

 winter, and left exposed to the frosts — oats, 

 sown in February, if seasonable weather, and 

 harrowed in without a second ploughing. 

 2d. Roots, and green crops, (potatoes, &c.) 

 3d. Corn. 4th. Wheat, seeded in the spring, 

 and the next year top-dressed ; mown twice 

 for hay and broken up for wheat ; or kept in 



grass another year, or perhaps two, for feed- 

 ing ; and then break up for oats 1 E, 

 York County. 



We would suggest to our correspondent the practi- 

 cability of obtaining a crop of buckwheat from the oat- 

 stubble, if it be turned in immediately after harvest: 

 and if it be in contemplation to cut the oats into chaff 

 without threshing, the crop might be harvested a week 

 earlier than usual, with great advantage; the straw 

 will be of better quality, sweeter and more nutritious, 

 the grain suffering no injury whatever. — Ed. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Large Call'. 



Sir, — I send you the weight of the calf 

 " Brandy wine," which you may remember 

 seeing at the exhibition of the Chester-Coun- 

 ty Agricultural Society last October, his dam 

 "Ellen," a three-fourth blood cow, taking the 

 premium as the best cow of " improved 

 breed." He is this day one year old, and on 

 the platform scales at Marshallton, balances 

 exactly 1056 lbs. I had weighed him previ- 

 ously when eleven months old, and found his 

 weight to be 956 lbs., so that his increase has 

 been 100 lbs. in thirty days — a gain perhaps 

 unprecedented, his food being the common 

 grass of the pasture, which, however, is of 

 good quality — and not having tasted meal of 

 any kind since he went to grass in April last. 



Need I say, this superb animal was sired 

 by Mr. Paschall Morris's bull " His Grace," 

 whose stock is winning golden opinions 

 throughout the country ; showing most con- 

 clusively the truth of the axiom, long admit- 

 ted and practised in England, that the male 

 should be finely formed, rather than large, 

 the dependence for heavy cattle being placed 

 rather on the dam than the sire. 



I see, by the last number of the Cabinet, 

 that Mr. Morris, having a young bull sired 

 by "His Grace" — Henry Clay, which took 

 the first premium at the last Philadelphia 

 Society's exhibition — will be induced to dis- 

 pose of " His Grace" the present season : I 

 would willingly believe that he will not be 

 permitted to go far from this part of the coun- 

 try, where the improvement from his get is 

 so manifest, that it is not difficult to point out 

 his calves from others, on first entering the 

 pasture. 



It is long since last we saw you here ; on 

 your next visit we shall be prepared to show 

 you some of the most elegant full-blood and 

 half-bred animals in the state, several of which 

 will, in all probability, find their way to the 

 Philadelphia exhibition, to be held at the Ris- 

 ing Sun, on the 29th and 30th September 

 next, and where I hope to meet you. 



John H. Kelly. 



East Bradford, Chester Co., 

 July 20, 1841. 



