8.2 FALLOWING. 



the ground ahvays in heart, and yet to draw out of it 

 the greatest protit possible. In many parts of the Uni- 

 ted States, it is very little, if at all attended to. In 

 new settled districts, the extreme fertility and abun- 

 dance of the lands lessens the necessity of an attention 

 to rotation of crops, but in any situation, the farmer 

 will tind, if he takes the trouble to make a comparative 

 experiment, that some crops are much more abundant 

 when they succeed certain grains and roots, than when 

 put in at random. Some kinds of vegetables extend 

 their roots near the surface, others penetrate deeper in- 

 to the soil, some by overshadowing the earth with their 

 broad leaves render it soft and mellow ; others, w^hose 

 naked stalks admit the free circulation of the air, con- 

 solidate the soil ; some derive the greatest part of their 

 nourishment from the juices lodged in the earth ; others 

 draw a considerable proportion from the atmosphere ; 

 some, having a longer period of existence, continue long 

 to demand nourishment; others arrive more quickly at 

 maturity, and must be easier supported. Besides, among 

 the various tribes of insects so feeble in themselves, but 

 so formidable and destructive by their numbers, each 

 has some vegetables which it prefers to others for its 

 food, and resorts to the places where such food is pro- 

 duced ; and as they propagate their kinds where their 

 food is found, they must become more numerous, and 

 consequently more destructive, where the cultivation of 

 the same plant is often repeated. Rozier^ in his diction- 

 ary of agriculture remarks — Every tap-rooted plant suc- 

 ceeds very well after a crop of plants with fibrous roots, 

 and thus alternately. That is the grand art of agricul- 

 ture — when the nature of the soil is well understood. 

 The cultivator never swerves from these data or posi- 

 tions, without paying dearly. 



Whatever may be said to the contrary, all soils cer- 

 tainly suffer some degree of deterioration by long, un- 

 remitted tillage. When divested of that clothing with 

 which nature always defends it if undisturbed, and when 

 turned up naked to abide the force of the blast, the 

 happy medium of consisience is deranged, its best par- 

 ticles carried away in 'orrents, and it is left a feeble 

 skeleton, possessing only the faint semblance of depart- 

 ed fertility. Land also which lies perpetually in gras^, 



