182 
ROTATION OF CROPS. 
under different circumstances, will rarely meet with 
the same satisfactory results. Hence it cannot he 
presumed to establish one system, as best adapted to 
all situations. 
The atmosphere of Long Island from its maritime 
situation is strongly impregnated with salt, while 
in the northern and western portions of the State 
which are more inland, nitrogen prevails in the 
air, and different applications are required as fer¬ 
tilizers to the soil. For instance, the application 
of plaster (which has but little affinity with the 
marine atmosphere) to land on Long Island is at¬ 
tended with no good results, while in the interior, 
from its affinity with nitrogen, it attracts from the 
atmosphere, or absorbs and retains it until required 
by the plant,and consequently is highly beneficial, (a) 
Owing to the early settlement of the island and a 
uniform course of cultivation, a large portion of 
the natural soil has long since been exhausted, and 
is now only made productive by the most liberal and 
large deposits. Consequently a proper rotation 
of crops requires a far more diligent study with the 
farmer than where the land has had less cultiva¬ 
tion, as on the rich bottom lands of Ohio and the 
West, where wheat is reputed to have been sown 
for twenty successive years without any apparent 
exhaustion of the soil. 
On Long Island, after a field of grass has been 
mowed for three years and pastured one or two 
years (according to the strength of the soil), it re¬ 
quires cultivation and manure. It is plowed in 
April, and from twenty to thirty cart loads of stable 
manure per acre are spread upon it, which costs 
seventy-five cents a load, or about the same quan¬ 
tity of the sweepings of the streets of the city of 
New York, which costs about fifty cents per load. 
The former is preferable after it is well harrowed 
in. Corn is planted upon the field early in May, 
which requires three courses of plowing and hoe¬ 
ing during the summer, and produces from fifty to 
seventy-five bushels of shelled corn per acre. The 
following year, during the month of March, the 
corn stumps are harrowed out, the field plowed, and 
two bushels of oats per acre are sown early in 
April. No manure being added for this crop—a 
portion of the field is generally reserved for pota¬ 
toes, which are planted in drills, in which a good 
coating of manure is placed before the potatoes are 
dropped, and then covered with the plow. In about 
ten days, or a short time before the sprouts appear 
on the surface, a few green twigs of hickory or 
other wood, are twisted among the teeth of a har¬ 
row with which the ground is brushed lengthwise 
of the drills; the result of which is, the early 
weeds are destroyed and the ground partially lev¬ 
elled. They subsequently require two courses of 
plowing and hoeing before they appear in blossom, 
and the produce of potatoes is about two hundred 
bushels per acre. The product of oats is about 
fifty bushels per acre. As soon as practicable after 
the oats are harvested the field is again plowed, 
when the oats that have been left in the field ve¬ 
getate very early and afford pasture until the early 
part of September. The field is again plowed, on 
which about thirty loads of stable manure per acre 
(costing as before stated seventy-five cents per 
load), are spread and well harrowed under, and 
two bushels of wheat and four quarts of Timothy 
seed per acre are sown, after which the ground is 
well harrowed and roiled. In the March follow¬ 
ing ten pounds of clover seed per acre are sown 
upon the field, which completes our system of 
rotation of crons. The field being now properly 
seeded for grass and prepared after the wheat is 
harvested for mowing the succeeding three years. 
The produce of wheat is about twenty-five bushels 
per acre. 
For a few years past some of our farmers have 
adopted the system of sowing ten pounds of clover 
seed per acre, with, and at the same time of, sowing 
their oats, the growth of which affords good pas¬ 
ture after the oats are harvested; and the follow¬ 
ing year until after mowing time, when the clover 
is permitted to grow to be plowed under in Sep¬ 
tember, when the usual quantity of manure is 
spread upon the field, and the wheat and grass seed 
sown. This plan has been attended with satisfac¬ 
tory results to those who have attempted it, the soil 
being in much better order for the wheat crop and 
laying down to grass, than -when cultivated under 
the old system. It has another advantage of au¬ 
thorizing the farmer in mowing as many acres of his 
pasture ground as he pastures of the clover. 
Below I give a statement or table of a low ave¬ 
rage of our different products per acre, the largest 
product ascertained, and the general average price 
of each. 
Variety 
of 
products. 
Average crops 
tmshels 
per acre. 
Largest crops 
bushels 
per acre. 
Average 
value. 
Wheat, 
20 
1 40 
1.00 
Rye, 
Oats, 
15 
35 
62i 
30 
80 
35 
Corn, 
Barley, 
40 
122 
60 
20 
35 
70 
Buckwheat, 
20 
40 
50 
Timothy seed, 
4 
8 
4.00 
Flax, do. 
10 
15 
1.25 
Clover do. 
2 
4 
10 
Potatoes, 
100 
400 
37 i 
Ruta Bagaf 
400 
700 
25 
Mang’l Wurtz’l, 
700 
1,100 
25 
Carrots, 
600 
1,150 
25 
Hay, 
1 ton. 
31 tons. 
10.00 
Flax, 
300 lbs. 
10 
The cultivation of rye and barley is limited, the 
former being occasionally sown on light or sandy 
soils in the place of wheat—the latter on rich or 
strong land instead of oats. Flax has also a small 
cultivation, and is sown on a portion of the oat 
field. Ruta baga, mangel wurtzels, and carrots are 
cultivated in the same field with corn. 
Fixed rules can be laid down, practised, and 
profitably adopted for a rotation of crops, for cer¬ 
tain varieties of climate and soil, or where there is 
a similarity, and where, too, the same manures can 
be obtained, which rules have been derived from 
previous experience. It would be a useless waste 
of time and labor to apply green manures to a soil 
a large portion of which is composed of vegetable 
matter—lime or marl, where the calcareous sub¬ 
stances are in sufficient quantities—charcoal, where 
other substances capable of absorbing all the am¬ 
monia are present, and coming in contact with them, 
or any fertilizing or absorbing substances where 
there is a sufficient quantity of both for the luxuri¬ 
ant growth of the crops desired to be grown ;—and 
