BOTASION OF CROPS. 65 



This is a point of some importance. For instance, it has been ob- 

 served that oats rarely do well, coming the next year after the turf 

 is broken, being liable to blast ; probably, owing to the peculiar con- 

 dition of the soil at the time. Corn hardly ever produces well after 

 buckwheat ; while, on the other hand, it is well known, that potatoes 

 and broom-corn are excellent preparatives for wheat and rye. 



I am now prepared to state, affirmatively, what I should consider 

 the proper course to be pursued, with a reasonable prospect of suc- 

 cess ; making no claims, however, to infallibility, but bespeaking a 

 candid consideration. Actual experiment, it may be truly said, is 

 the only sure test of the views presented, and to that ordeal I am 

 willing they should be submitted. Our situation in the valley of the 

 Connecticut, occasioning as it does some peculiarities in our agricul- 

 tural practice, will lead me to speak of three different systems of rota- 

 tion, applicable to different soils and localities. I shall begin with 

 meadow lands, meaning by this, of cours3, arable meadows, or those 

 that are seldom or never flooded. Probably no one crop occupies so 

 much of these lands, as broom-corn. This is an important staple 

 with us. The brush generally finds a ready market at a remuner- 

 ating price, while the seed constitutes a valuable provender, and the 

 crop is not an exhausting one. Its natural home seems to be upon 

 alluvial flats ; and here, accordingly, we find it in its greatest per- 

 fection. Evidently, then, it must occupy a large space in these local- 

 ities. At any rate, owing to the natural fertility of the soil and to 

 the ease with which they are tilled, hoed crops of some kind will always 

 occupy the larger proportion of our lands. Thus much I am willing 

 to concede ;' but I maintain, notwithstanding, that there is injury 

 often done in keeping these lands up too long. I have in mind one 

 marked instance, in which a lot had been kept so long under the 

 plow, that a heavy dressing of manure failed to produce what might 

 be considered an ordinary yield ; and this, too, upon land, naturally 

 very favorable to the crop. Five or six years are as many, as ought 

 to be devoted to hoed crops. Then, let wheat, rye or oats follow 

 with grass seeds. After remaining in grass, say three years, it will 

 be again in good condition for the plow. Here is a nine years' 

 course, viz., five in broom-corn, or other hoed crops ; one in rye and 

 three in grass. Let us compare it with nine years of broom-corn 

 alone. I will suppose five hundred fifty pounds to be an average 

 yield with six loads of manure dropped in the hill. This, for nine 

 years, will amount to four thousand nine hundred fifty pounds ; 

 which, at six cents per pound, is two hundred ninety-seven dollars. 

 9 



