260 



Rotation of Crops. — T7ie Garden. 



Vol. VI. 



pie I tried the experiment with was imper- 

 fectly pulverized ; I cannot suppose that more 

 than half the quantity acted on the soil. 



Upon the whole, I conclude, we have much 

 to learn on the subject of lime. I am aware 

 that the productive properties of the land are 

 so influenced by various causes, that no plan 

 can be adopted independent of experiment, 

 but there are few cases in which the labour 

 of analyzing the soil and the manures we ap- 

 ply to it would not be repaid, and therefore I 

 am opposed to this " silent, unostentatious 

 practice of knocking theory on the head." 



B. Webb. 



■ Wilmington, Del., 5M mo. 26, 1842. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Rotation of Crops. 



A PROPER rotation of crops, thorough cul- 

 ture, and adequate manuring, are the three 

 great points for which every intelligent farm- 

 er should strive. In regard to the first, it is 

 admitted by all scientific farmers that the pre- 

 sent, common, and almost universal rotation 

 of corn, oats and wheat in annual succession, 

 without any intervening grass, or root crop, 

 is bad husbandry, and tends to impoverish the 

 soil or keep it in a low condition, unless there 

 is much meadow ground to furnish nutriment 

 for stock, or that manure of some kind is de- 

 rived from an extraneous source. A conse- 

 quence of this rotation is, that the winter's 

 manure remains during the summer season 

 in the barn-yard exposed to great waste, and 

 the benefit which ought to be derived from it 

 during that period is entirely lost. The car- 

 bonic acid gas, which is the product of putre- 

 faction, and is the principal food of plants, is 

 dissipated and lost ; for it cannot be conveyed 

 to the crops in the fields after it formed, but 

 ought to be developed on the spot where it is 

 intended to be effective in promoting the 

 growth of plants. I have met with a few 

 very successful farmers recently, who inform 

 me, that in order to secure the greatest effect 

 from their stable-manure, and at the same 

 time to separate two exhausting grain crops 

 by a crop of grass, they sow clover-seed plen- 

 tifully with their oats, and the following 

 spring top-dress the clover with their winter's 

 manure. This uniformly produces a very 

 abundant crop of grass, which is pastured in 

 moderation, and early in the autumn is 

 ploughed down, and after due preparation 

 eowed with wheat. This is then laid down 

 with grass in the usual way for mowing- 

 ground, and the next season serves for pas- 

 ture alternately with the top-dressed clover- 

 field. The following season corn is planted 

 on the sod, which is followed with oats and 

 clover manured on the surface — then wheat, I 



grass to mow, followed by pasture, and so on 

 round. 



This course requires six fields, three in 

 grain and three in grass, and it is believed 

 that each will produce much more grain or 

 grass annually, than when one-fifth of the 

 arable land is farmed annually as is usually 

 the case, and that the land will, under good 

 management, be rapidly improved; and no 

 person deserves the name of "good farmer," 

 whose soil is not in a state of progressive im- 

 provement, furnishing a larger and larger re- 

 turn annually for the labour and expense 

 bestowed upon it. 



The theory of the application of plaster of 

 Paris recently promulgated by the celebrated 

 Leibeg, corresponds with the practice of J. 

 Taylor, of Virginia, who, more than 30 years 

 since, stated in an essay written by him, and 

 published in the Arator, that he always de- 

 rived the greatest benefit from plaster when 

 he applied it directly on the manure. On 

 this principle it would be well, on top-dress- 

 ing with stable-manure, to sow plaster imme- 

 diately over it to fix the ammonia, as the Ger- 

 man chemist recommends. Of the immense 

 quantity of carbonic aciiT gas developed du- 

 ring the decomposition of a " dung-hill" in 

 the summer season, every ounce is lost, never 

 to be reclaimed again; whereas if this same 

 manure was spread over a crop of clover early 

 in the spring (and it might be hauled out in 

 the winter as it is made), every portion of 

 this most valuable gas, which is much hea- 

 vier than the atmosphere, would be formed 

 where its services were most needed, and 

 washed to the absorbing fibres of the roots of 

 the plants by the descending rains. 



Agricola. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



The Garden. 



The month of March affords most ample 

 employment for the industrious gardener, the 

 utmost diligence to embrace the earliest sea- 

 son for operations being of paramount import- 

 ance. By the early sowing and planting of 

 crops, much of the ill effects of drought might 

 be obviated, as by their growth they will 

 have advanced so as to shade and protect the 

 land by the time the hot weather arrives ; 

 this, and the constant stirring of the soil be- 

 tween the rows, have oftentimes saved whole 

 crops during a season of drought, while those 

 immediately adjoining, late sown and ill at- 

 tended, have totally failed. Additional secu- 

 rity will arise from a top-dressing of compost- 

 ed manure, a mode of management which ia 

 destined to become universal. In the course 

 of this month every thing should be forward- 

 ed relative to the cultivation and preparation 

 of the ground, by levelling, trenching, dig- 



