THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 83 



will admit, should be sown with wheat, after 

 the crops come off ; if any lays over, it may be 

 sown the next spring with peas or barley, and 

 followed with wheat. 



The manure which was applied to the sum- 

 mer crops, is now in the best possible state for 

 producing wheat, having lost its fermentative, 

 quality, and, by rotting, ploughing, and work- 

 ing, has become thoroughly divided and mixed 

 with the soil, and is in a better state to promote 

 the production of the wheat berry than in any 

 other shape that it can be applied. So much 

 of the summer crop and enough of the grass in 

 pasture to make about one-third of the arable 

 land, comes into wheat each year. This course 

 of cropping gives but a small portion of mowing 

 land, after providing pasturage for the sheep and 

 neat stock ; yet, with the jud,icious use of the 

 root crops, and the straw from the wheat and 

 .oats, a very small quantity of hay need be used 

 before the first of April, and yet the whole farm 

 stock be kept in as good order as those to which 

 is fed a ton and half per head ; by which course 

 a great amount of land is relieved, for the grand 

 desideratum of the wheat crop. 



The meadows and part of the pasture of this 

 year, become the summer fallow of the next ; 

 and this year's stubble, properly seeded, becomes 

 the meadow and pasture of the succeeding 

 season. 



This course your committee consider the best, 

 safest, and most profitable, taking into considera- 

 tion the importance of keeping the soil in good 

 heart and productiveness, and in a state of im- 

 provement, rather than impoverishing it. Yet 

 there are some good and judicious farmers who, 

 occasionally, where a field throws heavy to straw, 

 follow with two or more crops of wheat alter- 

 nately. When clover succeeds well, and the 

 ground is free from weeds and foul grasses, we 

 have known this course to succeed well, even 

 with once ploughing, but it is a course, gener- 

 ally speaking, more to be deprecated than praised. 



Another course is pursued, by some of our 

 best farmers, who prefer to let all the manured 

 summer-crop land lie over to the next season, 

 and take off a crop of barley or peas, and fol- 

 low with wheat. The committee incline to the 

 opinion, that this course must nearly or quite 

 exhaust and neutralize all the virtue of the pre- 

 vious year's manuring, and have a tendency to 

 keep the land in a situation not improved for the 

 wheat crop, if not losing in its qualifications to 

 produce, for any length of time, a certain and 

 profitable return. 



Another course, pursued by equally judicious 

 farmers, is to take a four-year course rotation, 

 by allowing all the seeded ground to lie two full 

 years in clover. The first year it is mowed and 

 pastured, and the second year it is mowed or 

 pastured till about the first of June, then plas- 

 tered, and at the proper time cut for clover seed ; 



the year after, mowed or pastured till the first 

 week in June, when it is turned under for the 

 summer fallow, for wheat. This course, on large 

 farms, with a heavy stock of cattle and sheep, 

 (as it allows more hay and pasture than the 

 three-year course,) is a very successful method ; 

 and even for those of a medium size, may suit 

 well for some particular soils ; and perhaps in 

 those cases where the management for saving 

 and increasing the manure is not skilfully and 

 judiciously performed, this is a safe course, if 

 one-quarter of the arable land gives a sufficient 

 quantity of acres in wheat : 



The three-year course, in three divisions — Field A. 



1841 , in wheat, seeded. 



1842 in meadow, pasture and summer crops. 



1843-4 in wheat. 



The four-year course, in four divisions — Field A. 



1840 in wheat, seeded. 



1841 in meadow and pasture. 



1842 in meadow, clover-seed, and sumer crops. 



1843-4 . . . : again in wheat. 



But whatever course an enterprising and 

 thinking farmer may pursue, if he has a system 

 and plan of proceeding, and pursues it constant- 

 ly, he will soon come to a result as to what pro- 

 cess is best adapted to his soil. Without regu- 

 larity, system, and a code of rules and reasons, 

 no course will succeed, nor any valuable result 

 be reached. It is said, that bad habits, regularly 

 followed, are not so pernicious to the human 

 system as an irregular and mixed course of life ; 

 and the remark is peculiarly applicable to the 

 arts of husbandry. We say — system ! system ! 

 system! .and follow it, good or bad, and convic- 

 tion must follow, by comparison with others pur- 

 suing a different course. 



The committee can conceive of no better sys- 

 tem of farming than that of 100 acres of arable 

 land, (or double or treble that amount, if you 

 please,) of which one-third, say 33 acres, is put 

 into wheat, producing from 800 to 1 ,000 bushels ; 

 with 100 to 150 fine-wooled sheep, producing 

 from 300 to 500 pounds of wool, worth from 40 

 to 50 cents per pound ; and the balance of the 

 land in grass and summer crops, every item of 

 which should be consumed on the farm, to sub- 

 sist the family, hired help, and farm stocks, and, 

 perhaps, to help to pay mechanics ; all the offal, 

 hay, straw, and roots, going to increase the ma- 

 nure heap, which, with a plentiful use of plaster 

 and clover, will more than compensate for the 

 wheat and wool substracted from the soil, and 

 sold. 



For the Southern Planter. 



Ridgway Depot , Warren Co., N. C. ) 



February 8, 1845. / 



Mr. Editor, — In looking over an old number 

 of the American Farmer, a short time since, I 

 stumbled upon an excellent table, showing at a 



