lo. 3. 



Rotation of Crops. — Will you take a Sheep? 



87 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Rotation of Crops iu Backs County. 



In your August Number, I threw together 

 a few observations on the wheat crop of 

 Bucks county; and particularly of the Medi- 

 terranean variety, and promised some addi- 

 tional remarks upon the rotation of cropping 

 adopted by its intelligent farmers. That 

 which is now called the American system, 

 probably originated among them, and is con- 

 tinued with but little change to the present 

 time. On this system the green sward is 

 broken up, either in the autumn or spring, 

 but generally the latter, and planted with 

 Indian corn, without disturbing the sod. In 

 the autumn, the corn is either topped, or cut 

 at the ground, and shocked in the field, 

 where it stands till the proper season arrives 

 for it to be husked and housed. 



In the following March this ground is deep- 

 ly ploughed and sown with oats. When the 

 oats are taken off, the manure is hauled upon 

 the stubble, and completely turned under by 

 a pretty deep furrow. In a few weeks, the 

 oats which shattered out while gathering the 

 crop, spring up and soon cover the ground, 

 and about the last week in September, they 

 are ploughed under by a narrow furrow, and 

 the manure and stubble, which have now be- 

 come perfectly rotten, are completely mixed 

 with the soil, and brought near enough the 

 surface to give the wheat an early start. — 

 The wheat being sown from the 1st to the 

 lOtii of October, gives the best chance for a 

 good crop of red chaff-bearded wheat; and 

 when it escapes the fly and rust, perhaps 

 tiiere is none better. At the time the wheat 

 is sown, about half a peck of timothy is also 

 sown, and lightly covered with the second 

 harrowing. In the latter part of March, or 

 beginning of April, from six to eight quarts 

 of clover seed are likewise sown upon every 

 acre of wheat. After the wheat is harvest- 

 ed, the grass is generally sown with plaster, 

 at the rate of about a bushel to the acre ; and 

 about the middle of September the stubble is 

 mown, and the hay being well salted, serves 

 the young cattle for their winter provender. 

 The next season the grass is mown for hay, 

 which is principally clover; the second crop 

 is either pastured, or mown for hay, or kept 

 for seed. The ensuing season the grass is 

 likewise cut for hay — the timothy now pre- 

 dominating, and the second crop pastured. 



This completes a five years rotation ; but 

 where the farm is large, or divided into more 

 than five fields, and the timothy stands well, 

 many farmers continue the grass a third 

 year — either mowing it for hay or keeping 

 it for seed, and in the following spring this 

 ground comes in again with corn. 



Now whether a better course than this can 

 be adopted, we will try to examine in your 

 next number. M. B. S. 



September 6, 1842. 



Will you take a Sheep? 



A valuable old farmer, about the time 

 that the Temperance reform was beginning 

 to exert a healthful influence in the countrv, 

 said to his newly hired man : 



" Jonathan, I did not think to mention to 

 you when I hired you, that I think of trying 

 to do my work this year without rum. How 

 much more must I give you to do without?" 



" Oh !" said Jonathan, " I don't care much 

 about it — you may give me what you please." 



" Well," said the farmer, " I will give you 

 a sheep in the fall, if you will do without." 



" Agreed," said Jonathan. 



The oldest son then said — 



" Father, will you give me a sheep if I will 

 do without rum ?" 



" Yes, Marshall, you shall have a sheep 

 too if you will do without." 



The youngest son, a stripling, then said — 

 " Father, will you give me a sheep if I will 

 do without!" 



" Yes, Chandler, you shall have a sheep 

 also, if you will do without rum." 



Presently Chandler speaks again — 



" Father, hadn't you better take a sheep 

 too?" 



This was a poser; he hardly thought that 

 he could give up what he had long been 

 accustomed to; but the appeal was from a 

 source not to be easily disregarded. The 

 result was, the rum was henceforth banished 

 from the premises, to the great joy and ulti- 

 mate happiness of all concerned. — Selected. 



Espy's Ventilator. 



Whether Mr. Espy has found out the laws 

 which regulate storms on a great scale or 

 not, he has hit upon a little matter by which 

 we think he will make the laws of the wind 

 on a small scale serve the public, and fill his 

 pockets. It is that thing so long sought in 

 vain, a remedy for smoky chimneys, and a 

 general ventilator. It consists of nothing 

 but a metallic cone placed on the top of a flue 

 horizontally with a vane to keep the point 

 of the cone to the breeze. The direction 

 which the wind gets by passing over the 

 cone, produces a vacuum at the large end, 

 which is the outlet, and so creates a draft. — 

 The effect is altogether surprising. Some 

 places which were odious with foul air, have 

 been rendered perfectly sweet by this single 

 apparatus, and chimneys which were given 

 over by the doctors as incurable, have been 

 brought to regular action.— Jour, of Com. 



