1098 



Gardening for Amateurs 



Rotation of Crops 



R)TATION is a system whereby crops 

 are so arranged that a certain kind 

 of plant is only grown in the same 

 soil at regular intervals, and in which a 

 certain rational order of cultivation is 

 followed out. Experience goes to prove 

 that regular systems (there are many 

 recognised systems of rotation) bring 

 reliable results, and the soil does not 

 deteriorate in the same degree as it would 

 under haphazard cropping ; in fact, with a 

 good rotation and judicious manuring soil 

 is kept at a very high state of efficiency. 



The advantages derived from a good 

 rotation of crops are many. One particu- 

 lar plant demands different food "ingredients 

 from another, although it is generally found 

 that plants of one order are much alike in 

 that respect ; by changing the crop every 

 year, then, certain particular ingredients 

 are not drawn upon in excess, and so a more 

 economical balance is kept up in the soil, 

 not a dearth of some things and an excess 

 of others. Deep-rooting plants remove much 

 of the fertilising richness of the lower strata 

 of soil, while a fibrous surface-rooting crop 

 to follow would find the upper layer quite 

 rich in plant foods ; a full use of the whole 

 ground is thus made, and the soil is not so 

 quickly exhausted. Some plants of the 

 Pea and Bean family enrich the soil by 

 adding to the store of certain plant foods, 

 and continuous cropping with them would 

 cause a wasteful excess, whereas by chang- 

 ing the crops these materials bestow benefits 

 on future plants. Now that insect, fungoid, 

 and bacterial pests have become so power- 

 ful in the garden, everything must be done 

 to see that they are not allowed to secure 

 a strong hold. Continuous cropping with 

 the same plants nurses diseases, and so 

 they increase in virulence while the vigour 

 of the plants decreases through the inability 

 of the soil to keep up supplies of food 

 material. Variation checks these pests, and 

 diseases may, with careful work, disappear 

 entirely. Some crops are thin-leaved or of 

 an erect habit of growth, and weeds are 

 able to sprout up and usurp the light and 



food which should fall to the plant, but if a 

 good succession of broad-leaved and narrow- 

 leaved plants is kept up the weeds never 

 cause much trouble. For these reasons and 

 for others of minor importance it will be 

 seen that cropping with one plant year 

 after year, or even with plants of the same 

 botanical order, tends to lessen the value 

 of the soil, while variation and judicious 

 changes bring many advantages. 



Conditions modifying Rotation. While 

 rotational work may be based on rules and 

 regulations, it must be perfectly obvious to 

 everyone that conditions over which the 

 gardener has little control may modify his 

 system and bring about a distinct break 

 in his chain of scientific work. The owner 

 of the garden occasionally upsets routine 

 work by mere fastidious taste, and by his 

 changing demands or whims ; but even the 

 amateur who rules his small plot in undis- 

 puted sway finds difficulty at times in 

 standing firmly by rules. The kitchen de- 

 mands often fix the year's cropping, and it 

 may be that large supplies of one or two 

 particular plants upset the balanced system 

 of work. Soil, too, determines the ultimate 

 cropping, for one kind of land will not grow 

 certain crops at all, or with such poor returns 

 that the work is far from being economical ; 

 rich soils stand exhausting rotations, while 

 poor land requires careful nursing ; heavy 

 land grows some plants well, while others 

 fail entirely. The chemical aspect of the 

 matter determines much of the practice ; 

 a limy or calcareous land may suit many 

 crops, yet others will not succeed there ; 

 peaty loam is too sour for some plants, while 

 others grow there rampantly. Climate is a 

 factor not to be neglected, and dry districts 

 require different treatment from those 

 having a heavy rainfall. Cool areas may 

 not offer the congenial habitat that certain 

 varieties demand, while the peculiar train- 

 ing and experience of the gardener himself 

 may render his judgment more or less 

 biased in some respects. Minor details 

 occasionally spring up for consideration ; 

 weedy soils must have crops which will 



