82 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March 



with any other grass. Clover, indeed, never forms an imper- 

 vious sward. Tliere may be other reasons, but they are alto- 

 gether matter of conjecture. If clover is to be ploughed in, 

 however, it is advisable that it should be done after it has been 

 killed by the frost, rather than while in a state of greenness 

 and luxuriance. 1 do not undertake to assign any reason for 

 this ; but actual observation of the comparative effects of the 

 two methods of ploughing in the crop green, or ploughing it 

 in after being killed by the frost on the same field, has sat- 

 isfied me which is to be preferred. The superior ease with 

 which the crop turned in is covered by the plough after it has 

 fallen, is another circumstance which recommends the practice. 

 It is a remarkable fact, already referred to in page 64, that in 

 a conclusion so different from the popular opinion, two highly 

 intelligent farmers in the State, situated many miles from each 

 other, and without any intercommunication, should have 

 strongly coincided.* There is a strong objection to waiting 

 for this perfect maturing of the clover crop where winter wheat 

 is to be sown, because it would carry the time of sowing too far 

 into the autumn: but this objection does not apply to the 

 ploughing in of clover for spring wheat. 



It is, after all, questionable whether any other crop^'should 

 be sown with the wheat. There can hardly be a doubt that two 

 crops of any kind on the same land abstract from each other. 

 With our habits of sov/iug not more than one and a half bush- 

 els of winter, and two of spring wheat, to an acre, it is not so 

 objectionable to sow grass seed, as if we followed the practice 

 of many of the English farmers and sowed three and four 

 bushels of wheat to an acre. 



Rotation of Crops. — -The change or rotation of crops, is a 

 subject, which among our farmers has received little attention ; 

 but if any truth is well established in husbandry, it is that two 

 crops of the same kind should not be allowed to perfect their 

 seed in succession on the same land. It is well ascertained 

 that a change even of the kind of wheat sown is preferable 

 to no change, 



" Appendix E. 



