ROTATION, OB CHANGE OF CROPS. 117 



necessary material. The process is the very basis of 

 evolution. In advanced farming practice, by rotation, the 

 land is cleaned from weeds, and many enemies of one crop 

 are starved out of the soil, not finding what they require in 

 the next put in as a succession, belonging as it does to a 

 different family. The process also allows of such heavy 

 manuring as is necessary for potatoes, corn, &c., and which 

 are all the better of such treatment, to be followed by 

 others which do not require manure supplied to them 

 direct. Labor and outlay are saved in this way, and 

 heavier and healthy crops secured. But comparatively 

 little has been done in the warmer sections of the country 

 in the way of rotation. In the wheat districts the aim of 

 the farmer may be to have a fifth of his cultivation land 

 under wheat ; another fifth under maize, potatoes, beans, 

 &c., or under lucerne, prairie, or rye grasses, which 

 do exceedingly well, the remainder in indigenous pasture. 

 Yet knowledge of the different crops which may succeed 

 each other profitably on the same land is of as great 

 importance to the skilled colonial as the European farmer, 

 who always works on some system of rotation. All aim at 

 a judicious change, so as to obtain the most valuable 

 produce from any given soil in as quick succession as 

 possible. Thus wheat, potatoes, grass, and maize, might be 

 alternating crops in suitable districts. In other parts, maize 

 might take the place of wheat; and again, wheat, sheep, and 

 grass form a rotation. A usual course is to plough one of 

 the cultivated grass sections for wheat, and the wheat- 

 ground is either allowed to go to grass, under sheep for one 

 or two seasons, or it is ploughed up as soon as the crop 

 is off', and worked for the next crop of beans, potatoes, &c. 

 Lucerne is seldom profitable after seven or eight years ; it 

 may then be broken up and the piece sown with wheat. It 

 would not be advisable to re-sow the same paddock witli 

 lucerne during a full course of rotation, say seven years. It 

 is found advisable to dress the lucerne land with quick-lime 

 before ploughing for wheat ; the same with the prairie grass. 

 Beans (kidney or haricot) are great bearers, and do well 

 planted with maize in alternate hills. They can be put in 

 with the corn-planter, are convenient for cultivation and 



