818 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



iinnecespary for us, as we intend to fall back squarely on facts, 

 we come to this point, that in market gardening, as practised in 

 Massachusetts, there cannot be any systematic rotation of crops 

 adopted -that would be practical, however desirable, owing to 

 the limited number of acres cultivated by each individual, and 

 the demand for certain varieties of produce in our markets 

 which springs up suddenly, crops which it would be desiral^le to 

 grow, and the want of which could not before seen in time to 

 be arranged in any system of rotation. 



Still there are rules, governed by facts, that must be observed 

 to be successful in the change from one crop to another on the 

 same piece of land. 



Or to speak more to the point, experience and facts have 

 taught the best gardeners that cabbages, turnips and pease cer- 

 tainly should not be grown on the same piece of land without 

 an interval of at least two or three years ; and although in some 

 cases they have been grown successfully for a number of con- 

 secutive seasons on the same land, that would be the exception, 

 and not the general rule ; and tliis interval should be occupied 

 by some species of plants entirely distinct from each of them. 

 This rule probably would apply to all garden vegetables, some 

 perhaps to a greater degree than others. Onions may be an ex- 

 ception to this rule, but that is doubted by some of the best 

 gardeners. Br. Daubeny (see " Book of the Garden," pub- 

 lished by Mcintosh) has put this to test by causing plants to 

 grow on the same land and on different plots in successive years, 

 and noting the results, which were as follows, taking an average 

 of five years : — 



