AND II O 11 T I (• U L T U R A L 11 E G I S T E R . 



PDBLISHBD BT JOSEPH BRBCK * CO., NO. 63 NOUTH MARKET STRKBT, (AoiiouLtural Waiihoui>.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



: 



BOSTON, WKPNKsn.W KVKNINC, NOVKMBKR 10, 1841. 



N. E. FARMER. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



In Englisli treatises upon husbandry, a judicious 

 ystoiii ul rotation is inaisted upon as essential for 

 reserving the fertility of the farm. The charac- 

 ;r of our soil and climate differ so imich from 

 lose of England, that we probably should fail of 

 iiccess were we to copy their processes through- 

 iiL But while it may be unwise for us to culti- 

 ilo the same cropa which are there Ibund most 

 ofilable, it by no means follows that the princi- 

 es upon which they establish their rotations, may 

 Dt be valuable hero. It is a rule with them not 



let the si.iie kind of •rop grow upon a field two 

 icceesive years. And the principle may be valu- 

 le in its application here. Our own obscrva- 

 ons are opposed lu taking a crop of Indian corn 

 oni a tield two successive seasons. For though 

 e second crop may be as good as the first, yei 

 e second application of manure is much less ser- 

 ceable on the following crops than the first; in 

 her words six cords of manure applied to in acre 

 r corn in 1841, and six cords to the same acre 



corn in 1p41, will not turn to so much account 

 I the u.\vr cropo tts v,c-!J be .btu.r.cJ froi.i pi:l- 

 ig the six cords in 1841 upon a different acre. — 

 'e have no design to discuss this subject here. 

 It are merely introducing the following extracts 

 am Morion on Soils, which, though rehting to 

 nglish crops, may furnish some iiints at princi- 

 which will be valuable in Yankee liusb.-iiidry. 

 ae author •>! ••'''IrerE'Tij «h? tcurste of Phi'ip Pu 

 y, Esq., M. P., and now President of the Royal 

 gricultural Society. — Ed. 



"The rotation which you adopt is called the 

 >rfolk or four-field course: the first year wheat, 

 [isr one year clover made into hay ; the second 

 ar is turnips after the wheat ; most of your dung 

 laid on for this crop, but part of the field intend- 

 for turnip is sown in September, with winter 

 tches nr rye, or white and yellow clover sown 

 lOngBt the wheat, and these crops are fed off by 

 |» in April, May and June, after which the 

 id is sown to winter turnips ; there is also u part 

 metimes sown to white peas, and when they are 

 nested the land is sown with turnip seed ; the 

 rd year tlie whole is in barley, with clover seed ; 

 Id the fourth year the whole is in clover, »liich 

 made into hay : this I believe is the system of 

 Iture which you strictly adhere to. 

 Now, before we examine the several members of 

 ■ course of cropping, let us see how the ccono- 

 ' of your live stock goes on. They consist 

 lOlly of a flock of sheep, and these piincipally of 

 seding ewes ; (I believe there are very few of 

 n that ever fatten any of your ewes or lambs for 

 butcher;) and that you dispose of your lambs 

 d old ewes in summer and autumn, and that the 

 ice you get for them, with the price of the wool 

 >in your ewes, is the amount of money you year- 

 receive from your sheep ; this is all the return 

 iy make for the whole of the food they co.nsiime 

 twelve months. The only other stock you have 



is working horses ; some of you may breed n colt 

 to keep up his team, others have some cows for 

 the use of the family. (These remarks are not in- 

 tended to apply to the dairy farms.) 



.All your live slock may therefore be said to be 

 your working horses and your flock ot sheep, and 

 all the return they make you is the value of your 

 lambs, old ewes, and the wool from your ewes, be- 

 sides the value of the manure from the sheep when 

 folded on your turnips, or on your land tor wheat, 

 either before or afker it is sown. 



The whole of your wheat, and barley, and peas 

 ynii tnke to market, and the price you get for these, 

 with what we have before mentioned as the return 

 from your live slock, make up the total amount of 

 return from your farm. 



From this system it is evident that the several 

 crops come around in rotation once in every four 

 years ; this quick repetition of the same crop on 

 the same ground, is the greatest objection to the 

 Norfolk systi^in. It has been found thit land soon 

 gets tired of any particular crop, when repeated in 

 so short a period. 



The first member of the course that fails is the 

 clover, which is by no means so sure or productive 

 a crop now ns it used to be ; it is very freriiieiitly 

 a laiiing crop, dying when ii comes up, or blight- 

 ing off in the spring or early part of the summer; 

 indeed, the land seems to be so completely tired 

 of it, that we can scarcely ever see a good crop of 

 clover. A remedy for Ihisevil has been attempted 

 on your stronger land, by dividing the clover field 

 into two, and taking a crop of beans or peas over 

 one iialf of it, and clover on tiie otiier naif, so 

 that if these crops be taken on the alternate sides 

 of the field, that which was beans last turn, comes 

 in course for clover next turn — so that it will be 

 eight years before either the clover or the beans 

 come round on the same ground. This is a great 

 improvement, so far as the crop goes, and it will 

 remedy the evil, and I have no doubt but an in- 

 creased crop of clover will be the result ; but it 

 must be remembered that by this change one fourth 

 part of the green crop, as food for sheep, is given 

 u[), and this fourth pirtt is added to the corn-pro- 

 ducing crop, not to he Consumed on the firm, but 

 to be sold and curried off the land. Tliis is an 

 evil e(|iial in magnitude to the failure of the clover 

 crop: thus a fourth part of the food for sheep is 

 gone, and with it, of course, the means of return- 

 ing the manure it would have produced to the soil, 

 for the reproduction of food for stock. 



That which we have already noticed as to the 

 failure of the clover crop, also takes place with the 

 turnip which is of much more consequence to you : 

 how often do we sec the turnips to be a failing 

 crop ; indeed how seldom do we see a good crop 

 of turnips on the fine turnip soil of which your 

 farms consist. 



This fiiltirc is, we think, partly owing to the 

 same cause hs that of the clover — the too frequent 

 repetition of them on the same land. If the crops 

 were farther apart, say six or eight years, we have 

 no doubt that the crops would not only be more 

 certain, but also more abundint. 



About the first of tliis century the turnip cropa 

 in Norfolk began to fail ; great complaint* were 

 heard in every quarter, that the turnips, instead of 

 producing large bulbs as they used to do, produc- 

 ed roots like fingers and Iocs, without any bulbs; 

 and much was written on the cause of the failure, 

 and on the remedy ; but every rcwiiedy failed, tilL 

 some one by claying a lield a second lime, (that is, 

 putting on a 100 cubic yards of clay or clinlk; 

 marl to the acre,) found that, after this, the sandy 

 soil, having a much greater degree of tenacity or 

 adhesiveness than before produced good crops of 

 turnips, as well as good crops of clover, barley and 

 wheat. 



When I mentioned to some of you this mode of 

 recruiting your land which is tired of turnips, (and 

 which is still continued in the sandy parts of Nor- 

 folk and Suffolk, of claying thoir land every Leight. 

 years,) you expressed your approval of the plan, 

 and stated, ' We have no doubt of it, for if wc lake 

 any earth from the sides of the field or road, and 

 put it on our land in course for turnips, we are 

 sure to see turnips where the earth was laid, if 

 there be any in the field.' Now there is scarcely 

 a field, particularly in Charney, but what lias accu- 

 mulations of earth at th" end o*" the old ridi^es. 

 left by the turning of the plow, and it would be an 

 advantage to the field to have these iicciimulallons 

 removed : and it wouid be of great use if carted 

 over the field, or if mixed with the dung, and forty 

 or fifty cartloads of such a mixture put on the acre, 

 would be sure to secure a good crop of turnips; 

 besides this, there are the sides of the field, the 

 load sides, ano liie sides of liie diicnes wouid fur- 

 nish as much matter as would give a covering to 

 the whole of your arable land, and there is clay 

 within a mile I think of any field on the estate ; a. 

 covering of which would produce os good an effect 

 on the sands of Berks, as it does on those of Nor- 

 folk and Suffolk. , 



But in some instances there may be another 

 cau.'ie for the complete failure of the turnip crop; 

 indeed I have seen very good reasons for believing it. 



Before we attempt the cultivation of any plant, 

 it is quite necessary for us to be well acquainted 

 with the nature and habits of the plant, and liie 

 mode of culture which suits it, to be able to culti- 

 vate the plant with siicci-ss. 



If the nature and the habits of the turnip, and 

 the kind of culture necessary for the developement. 

 of its natural character be unknown or neglected, 

 wc shall very seldom succeed in producing good 

 crops ; but if we know something of the nature and 

 habits of the plant, and attend strictly to the mode 

 of culture necessary, under every circumstance, we- 

 shall seldom fail in producing good crops. 



The turnip seed and the habits of the young 

 plant arc in every way like those of the wild mus- 

 tard and charlock, which is to be seen growing ia 

 the spring very abundantly and luxuriantly, on 

 land which has been pulverized or reduced to a 

 very fine tilth, and is so injurious to early sown 

 barley, or oats, or spring sown wheat on some» 

 soils ; but these plants very seldom grow on tbei 

 same field, if the land be left in a rough or clodd/^ 



