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Rotation of Crops. — Take off your Potatoe Blossoms. Vol. V. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Rotation of Crops. 



Sir, — All the volumes of the Cabinet have 

 just come to hand. I have not had an oppor- 

 tunity to examine more than the last three or 

 four numbers, but I am happy to say I have 

 read them with considerable interest ; and 

 having hastily glanced over all the volumes, 

 I consider them an acquisition to my library, 

 and expect to derive much satisfaction and 

 useful information from their pages. Our 

 country ought to be justly proud of such 

 a well-conducted work ; I am much pleased 

 with the portraits of distinguished animals 

 given in each number ; they do great credit 

 to the artist and the breeder, as well as to 

 the Proprietors of the Cabinet. For intro- 

 ducing them into your truly valuable work 

 you have my thanks; and I have no doubt 

 that the many agricultural journals of the 

 present day will be of more benefit to the 

 fartners of the West, than all the other 

 "Journals" combined. 



I commend these lines for the purpose of 

 asking your advice on the subject of a rota- 

 tion of crops. I would first observe that this 

 country is very different from Eastern Penn- 

 sylvania; it has only been a few years since 

 the war-whoop of the savage, the hooting of 

 the owl, and the howling of the wolf were 

 the only sounds commonly to be heard ; ag- 

 riculture is in its infancy ; our soil is natu- 

 rally rich, and the settlers have seldom 

 thought of preserving the fertility of their 

 land, much less of improving its quality. My 

 land, for which I ask your advice, has been 

 recently reclaimed from the forest; it is of a 

 rich vegetable mould resting upon a clay sub- 

 soil, generally dry and sufficiently porous; 

 the stone in the neighbourhood is a grey lime- 

 stone ; I do not understand analyzing soils, 

 therefore I am not able to give you full infor- 

 mation as to its different and constituent parts, 

 as I would wish, but I will give you my pro- 

 posed plan of management, and hope that 

 you and your very numerous and intelligent 

 readers will give me advice as to its adoption 

 or alteration, and that unreservedly. 



I propose, then, to lay off my farm into 

 eight fields of equal dimensions, and to adopt 

 the following rotation of crops, viz: 



First year, cultivated roots, potatoes, ruta 

 baga, sugar beets, turnips, cabbages, &c., &c. ; 

 second year, corn; third year, oats; fourth 

 year, fall wheat; fifth year, rye; sixth and 

 seventh years, clover, one year to mow, one 

 year to graze; and the eighth year, wheat 

 again ; then to break the stubble in the fall 

 preparatory to the commencement of the same 

 course, commencing with roots, &c. Now, 

 would you advise any alteration in the above, 

 inasmuch as it is intended both for a grazing 



and a mowing system"? and would you ad- 

 vise any mixture of grass seeds at the time 

 of laying down — timothy or other varieties? 

 Clover seed is high in ])rice, and difficult to 

 be obtained here in tlie West ; and as I wish 

 to save my own seeds, would you advise mow- 

 ing for lliis purpose the first or the second 

 year? And to what crops ought the manure 

 of the farm to be applied, so as to produce the 

 most lasting advantage? 



Now, if you would be so good as to pro- 

 cure me information on these several subjects, 

 it would be very thankfully received and 

 highly appreciated, my sole object being to 

 obtain information, and to practise it. 

 Yours, with esteem, 



John M. Johnson. 



Hannibal, Missouri, 30tli January, 1841. 



W^e beg to call the attention of our numerous read- 

 ers to the above very interesting letter of inquiry. 

 Here is a fine farm divided into suitable compartments 

 to their hand— will they go to work and cultivate it 

 upon paper, and favour the pages of the Cabinet with 

 the results? Assuredly, nothing can be more interest- 

 ing than such an opportunity ; and we hope to be ho- 

 noured with full particulars, for publication, from many 

 of our practical friends. — Ed. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Take off your Potatoe Blossoms. 



A LITTLE LABOUR WELL PAID FOR. 



It has long been known that crops of any 

 kind, which perfect and ripen their seeds be- 

 fore they are removed, take up and appropri- 

 ate a vast deal more nutriment (which they 

 derive from the soil), than those crops which 

 are removed before the seeds are perfected. 

 This conclusion looks reasonable at first 

 sight; for the seeds which are the most nutri- 

 tious part of the plant, can't be formed with- 

 out much food being forwarded from the earth 

 for that purpose. Hence the exhaustion of 

 the soil by the ripening of the crop; when a 

 crop of grass is cut before the seeds are fully 

 developed, the ground will be found to have 

 parted with a much less portion of its fertil- 

 ity ; and this is the reason of a grain crop 

 exhausting the soil so much more than a grass 

 crop. 



The following curious and important ex- 

 tract, from a foreign journal, is a practical 

 illustration of the above principle. " M. Zel- 

 ler, director of the Agricultural Society of 

 Darmstadt, in 1839, planted two plats of 

 ground, of the same size, with potatoes. 

 When the plants had flowered, the blossoms 

 were removed from those in one field, while 

 those in the other were left untouched, to 

 perfect their seed. The former produced 476 

 pounds, the latter 37 pounds." 



C. 



