ROTATIONOF CROPS. 61 



cessful application, a knowledge of the soils to be operated upon, a 

 mature experience, sound judgment, and a skilful appliance of means. 

 A judicious rotation of crops, therefore, lies at the very foundation of 

 good field husbandry, and no farmer should be satisfied with himself, 

 until he has put into practice a system, suitable to his land and re- 

 munerative to his purse. No -where, ]3robably, has this branch of 

 Agriculture been carried to such perfection as in England, Scotland, 

 and perhaps some of the continental states. A full persuasion of the 

 necessity of improvement in this respect, among our Massachusetts 

 farmers, must be my apology for this essay. I have remarked that 

 our common practice is deficient in method, pernicious in its opera- 

 tion, and unsatisfactory in its results. These are grave charges, it 

 must be confessed. Perhaps, before proceeding further, it may be 

 well to examine them. For one, I believe a careful investigation of 

 the facts of the case would clearly sustain them. In regard to the 

 first, for instance — a want of method. If we go through the town 

 or county and inquire of the farmers whether they have adopted a 

 regular system of rotation ; one, that they are confident is best 

 adapted to the soil ; or, that varies, so as to accommodate itself to 

 the diff'erent kinds of soil the farm may contain — how many of them 

 would answer in the affirmative ? Judging from personal observa- 

 tion, and from other sources, I venture to say, not one-fourth part. 

 Many of us are altogether too much infljaenced by the fluctuations in 

 the price of any article, we are accustomed to raise. If, this year, it 

 brings a good price — farewell to all our resolutions to be more me- 

 thodical, if we have ever formed them. Next year money must be 

 made, and every spare rod of ground, that will produce it, is devoted 

 to the profitable crop. 



So common is this feeling, that it is matter of every-day observa- 

 tion, that any unusual rise in the price of a staj)le product, is almost 

 sure to be followed in the course of a year or two by as unnatural 

 a depression ; and it afibrds a most striking proof of our want of 

 method. 



Again, if some men are fortunate enough to raise a crop, which 

 has more than answered their expectations ; instead of endeavoring 

 to ascertain the causes that produced so favorable a result, in order 

 that it may be applied to other fields, they will require the same land 

 to produce the like again, and so, from year to year, until the re- 

 sources of the soil are exhausted. 



This is one kind of method, it is true. It is methodical severity, v 

 and methodical ruin, but it is no economical method. The very 



