58 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



are excited to such a growth of straw, that the juices 

 intended to form the seed are swallowed up and lost 

 in the mass, and a half-filled, worthless kernel, and 

 lodged, half-rotted straw, is the result. A rotation 

 of crops enables the farmer to shun such disasters. 

 He can apply his fresh manures to crops that re- 

 quire them, and will be decidedly benefited by them ; 

 and when the fermentation is over and the decom- 

 position complete, then the grains which require 

 such manures are sown, and reap the full benefit. 

 There can be no reasonable doubt that much of the 

 efficiency of manure is lost by allowing the decom- 

 position to take place on the surface of the earth or 

 in the barnyard ; and some experiments would seem 

 to show, that the loss in this way of treating manure 

 is precisely equal to the quantity of nutriment af- 

 forded by it to a corn or root crop while it is under- 

 going deconjposition in the earth. 



Diflerent soils require a different rotation of crops ; 

 and the time required to complete the course main- 

 ly depends on the richness of the soil. The most 

 simple and short alternation of crops has been adopt- 

 ed by many of our farmers — that of wheat and clo- 

 ver alone ; or one by which a wheat-crop is grown 

 every other year. Clover seeds are sown on the 

 wheat, the ground is pastured in the fall, plastered 

 in the spring, fed through the summer, or mown, 

 and then turned under for wheat. Whether this 

 forcing course (for it can be considered as nothing 

 else) will eventually be found the most profitable, 

 we much question : a course admitting of greater 

 variety, and of longer duration, would be in our 

 opinion preferable. Roots or corn manured ; wheat 

 or barley with seeds ; grass or clover, fed or movi'n 

 for two or three years, would perhaps be better on 

 wheat soils where due regard was had to durable 

 excellence of soil as well as present profit. 



A suitable rotation of crops has a tendency to 

 keep up the increase of cattle and sheep, a part of 



