158 



Rotation of Crops. 



Vol. IX- 



tion from the West, and in much better 

 condition than that from the South, as it is 

 seldom requisite for grain to remain in the 

 vessel more than ten or twelve days, and 

 frequently it is discharged in the Eastern 

 ports, in a week from the time it is taken in 

 here. 



As an evidence of the importance of the 

 Eastern market, we will state that on the 

 23rd of September, 1842, 72,000 bushels of 

 corn arrived at Boston in one day. 



When we consider the advantages of lo 

 cation, in connection with the salubrity of 

 climate, now admitted to be equal to any 

 other, and much less subject to the acute 

 and fatal diseases prevailing further North, 

 we have great cause to be tliankful that 

 our lot has been cast in a land offering so 

 many advantages. 



The committee on crops award to J. Jones, 

 the premium ofi'ered by the Society for the 

 best crop of timothy hay, he having cut, as 

 he alleges, over two and a half tons to the 

 acre, from a lot of three acres. 



Signed, B. Jackson, 



J. Carr, 

 J. N. Cleland, 

 J. Smith. 



They also award to Dr. Noble, the premi- 

 um offered for the best five acres of wheat, 

 he havijig taken 75 bushels of wheat, Medi- 

 terranean variety, from two acres, [see the 

 Doctor's letter, page 105, last No. of Farm- 

 ers' Cabinet.] This land was purchased 

 about five years ago, for .$15 per acre. It 

 has since received a dressing of 40 bushel 

 of lime, and also a dressing- of about eight 

 loads of his j^eculiar Philadelphia compost 

 to the acre, and was sown with Pennock's 

 Drill upon a clover lay. 



J. Jones, Chairman. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Rotation of Crops. 



In offering a few remarks on this interest- 

 ing subject, 1 have no apology to offer, other 

 than its comparative neglect by the many 

 valuable correspondents to the "Farmers' 

 Cabinet." If this should be the means of 

 preventing one individual from experiment- 

 ing as I have done, with loss too, my end 

 v/ill be answered. 



I have observed that where oats, winter 

 grain and grass have been grown among 

 young trees, the grain and grass have inva- 

 riably flourished under the branches of and 

 around the young trees, apparently drawing 

 the food and nourishment from them, and 

 thus preventing in the trees any more than 



a very stinted growth. And, when corn, 

 potatoes, vines, and buckwheat, have been 

 grown among young trees, the trees have 

 flourished, and have invariably checked the 

 growth of the above named crops, when so 

 near as to get in contact with their roots. 

 That on a repetition of any kind of grain 

 crop on the same land for years, without a 

 change or extra manuring, the crops have 

 diminished in quantity and quality too. And 

 by a judicious change of crops, they have 

 been made to increase in quantity and quali- 

 ty too. The course of crops adopted in this 

 country by a majority of tlie farmers, is to 

 plant corn after grass, — the following spring 

 to sow oats on the stalk ground (some plant 

 two years — in such cases they sow the se- 

 cond spring,) the fall following they sow 

 wlieat and grass seed on the wheat. There 

 have been many changes and departures 

 from this rule observable among us, but after 

 a few experiments by the farmers, they have 

 generally returned to the course as men- 

 tioned above, which seems to be the best, as 

 neither crop injures the productiveness of 

 the soil for the succeeding, but rather in- 

 creases it. 



I have also known com and rye to be 

 grown alternately, for years on the same 

 land without any apparent diminution of 

 either crop. And wlien any two kinds of 

 vegetables have grown togetlier or near 

 each other, the kind that overpowers and 

 stints the growth of the other, is the poorest 

 crop to succeed and flourish after the other 

 has been removed ; and on the other hand, 

 tlie crop that has been stinted in its growth 

 by the other, is the best to succeed it. This 

 as a general rule, no doubt will hold good. 



In the spring of 1842, I planted peach 

 seeds on a wheat stubble, the trees from 

 which without any manuring, by the time 

 of transplanting, or within two years, had 

 reached the height of five to ten feet, with 

 heavy branches; and on removing the trees 

 in 1844, I planted corn on the same land, 

 which grew and flourished beyond any I had 

 ever seen on land of the same quality and 

 state of cultivation, except about an acre 

 adjoining which had potatoes grown on it the 

 previous year. 



I cleared another piece of land of peach 

 trees about the same time — some of which 

 were more than ten feet high above ground 

 — on which I sowed oats, and at harvest 

 time, although the land was of the first 

 quality for oats, and had produced such large 

 trees, yet I found it very difficult to gather 

 them, they were so short — except on a small 

 strip along the fence, that I had used to turn 

 on. 



One of my neighbours a few years ago, 



