FARMERS' REGISTER— ROTATION OF CROPS. 



223 



the result of subsequent experiments, which, fronn 

 the success I have already attained, leads me to 

 believe, will prove highly satisfactory. Two or 

 three of the varieties obtained, (but one more espe- 

 cially,) possess excellent properties of growth, fe- 

 cundity and flavor, and differ remarkably from any 

 previous one which has come under my observation. 

 Throughout the vegetable kingdom, it is found 

 that there is a certain point or degree of ramifica- 

 tion, more or less in different individual members, 

 removed from the parent stem, previous to the at- 

 tainment of which, a plant is incapable of putting 

 forth fruit blossoms; the cause o( this it were dif- 

 ficult to explain satisfactorily. Having ascertained 

 the numerical amount of this requisite degree of 

 ramification, in conjunction with a knowledge of 

 the habits of the plants, as to the number of suc- 

 cessive shoots it protrudes in the course of the year, 

 we may form a pretty accurate estimate of the 

 length of time required before it shall attain to a 

 fruit-bearing state. 



Thus, other circumstances remaining the same, 

 the oak, did it not send forth two shoots, the one in 

 spring, the other in autumn, would be double the 

 long period it now is, ere it began to produce 

 acorns. The exact number, however, cannot be 

 ascertained, since all traces by which they might 

 be computed, are, in the older portions of the wood, 

 entirely lost. It is by earlier inducing this degree 

 in the melon, which is generally the second Irom 

 the main stem, that the pruning, or stopping, is 

 effective towards the accelerating of the emission 

 of fruit blossoms. 



In the apple the twelfth, and the pear the eigh- 

 teenth, are about the minimum number of degrees 

 of ramification distant from the parent stem, that 

 are required, ere flowers are put forth ; tjiat period, 

 however, is often protracted. In computing these 

 numbers, a shoot, succeeding after a quiescent pe- 

 riod, whether still projected in a line with the older 

 wood, or at an angle li-om it, is equally considered 

 as a distinct branch; there is, indeed, a knot at the 

 junction, as much of the one as the other; and it is 

 the number of these knots, by retarding the flow, or 

 causing the accumulation of the sap, which would 

 appear to bear some part in effecting a fruitful state. 

 From these circumstances, the inference to be 

 drawn is, that if we can cause the formation of three 

 or four successive shoots in the course of the year, 

 instead of one, or at the most two, (as would be 

 the case, were the tree left to its natural growth,) 

 that we shall thereby anticipate, by a half or two- 

 thirds, the usual period of fructification. 



With this aim, then, it will be necessary to 

 maintain the young seedlings, by due care and judi- 

 cious culture, in a vigorously growing state, and 

 two or three times, or even oftener, as the circum- 

 stances may warrant, nip off or prune back the 

 leading shoot, whereby, at each operation, a new 

 branch will be protruded, which otherwise would 

 not have been the case, until the succeeding spring. 

 By a continued repetition, however, of these opera- 

 tions, an inconvenient number of diverging shoots 

 will also be excited; consequently, attention must 

 be paid to regulating their number, by disbudding 

 the branches accordingly, which will also infuse 

 more vigor into those remaining. It will not be 

 adviseable to continue the stopping far into the sea- 

 son, otherwise the young wood will not have time 

 to ripen ; and the frosts of winter, by killing the 

 new-formed portions^ will counteract the advantage 



obtained. By duly following this method, the usual 

 period of fructification will be shortened with the 

 apple, to and from the fifth to the seventh year, in- 

 stead of the twelfth to the twentieth, and the pear 

 in like proportion. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 



From the Encyclopedia of Agriculture. 

 Growing different crops hi succession is a prac- 

 tice which every cultivator knows to be highly ad- 

 vantageous, though its beneficial influence has not 

 yet been fully accounted for by chemists. The 

 most general theory is, that though all plants will 

 live on the same food, as the chemical constituents 

 of their roots and leaves are nearly the same, yet 

 that many species require particular substances to 

 bring their seeds or fruits to perfection, as the 

 analysis of these seeds or fruits often afford sub- 

 stances different from those which constitute the 

 bodjt of the plant. A sort of rotation may be said 

 to take place in nature, for perennial herbaceous 

 plants have a tendency to extend their circumfe- 

 rence, and rot and decay at their centre, where 

 others of a different kind spring up and succeed 

 them. This is more especiallj' the case with tra- 

 velling roots, as in mint, strawberry, creeping 

 crowfoot, &c. 



TTie rationale of rotation, is thus given by Sir 

 H. Davy. " It is a great advantage in the converti- 

 ble system of cultivation, that the whole of the 

 manure is employed : and that those parts of it 

 which are not fitted fbr one crop, remain as nou- 

 rishment for another. Thus, if the turnip is the 

 first in the order of succession, this crop, manured 

 with recent dung, immediately finds sufficient so- 

 luble matter for its nourishment ; and the heat pro- 

 duced in fermentation, assists the germination of 

 the seed and the growth of the plant. If, after 

 turnips, barley with grass seeds is sown, then the 

 land, having been little exhausted by the turnip 

 crop, affords the soluble parts of the decomposing 

 manure to the grain. The grasses, rye-grass and 

 clover remain, which derive a small part only of 

 their organized matter from the soil, and probably 

 consume the gypsum in the manure, which would 

 be useless to otlier crops : these plants, likewise, 

 by their large systems of leaves, absorb a conside- 

 rable quantity of nourishment from the atmos- 

 phere ; and when ploughed in at the end of two 

 years, the decay of their roots and leaves afford 

 manure for the wheat crop ; and at this period of 

 the course, the woody fibre of the farm yard ma- 

 nure, which contains the phosphate of lime and the 

 other difficultly soluble parts, is broken down : 

 and as soon as the most exhausting crop is taken, 

 recent'manure is again applied. Peas and beans, 

 in all instances, seem well adapted "to prepare 

 ground for wheat; and in some rich lands they are 

 raised in alternate crops for years together. Peas 

 and beans contain a small quantity of a matter 

 analagous to albumen; but it seems that the azote, 

 which forms a constituent part of this matter, is 

 derived from the atmosphere. The dry bean leaf, 

 when burnt, yields a smell approaching to that of 

 decomposing animal matter ; and in its decay in the 

 soil, may furnish principles capable of becoming a 

 part of the gluten in wheat. Though the general 

 composition of plants is very analagous, yet the 

 specific difference in the products of many of them, 

 prove that they must derive different materials 



