4:50 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[December, 
es deep, will not be immediately benefited by 
the crop of leaves. Leaves, if gathered, used for 
bedding, and composted with the manure, will 
bring valuable returns the next harvest, and 
show their influence in subsequent crops. We 
recently visited a farmer who classes forest 
leaves as one of the best fertilizers afforded 
bv his farm. He gathers large quantities in 
the fall and early winter, stores them upon the 
floor above his stables and sties, and through a 
shute drops them upon the stable floors as they 
are wanted. Leaves make clean, warm bedding 
for all his animals, and add to the bulk and val¬ 
ue of his compost heap. They furnish remuner¬ 
ative work to his men when the harvests are 
gathered, and thus are an advantage to labor¬ 
ers. They make good bedding, and thus allow 
him to sell straw. This is an important item 
where straw is worth $15 a ton and upwards. 
Leaves are somewhat difficult to handle, but if 
gathered in heaps a week or two before carting 
they become quite compact, and, with a large 
basket and rake, are readily loaded upon the 
cart. A rack, with flaring boards extending 
about two feet beyond the sides and ends of the 
cart body, is a very convenient article for cart¬ 
ing the leaves. We give an engraving, figure 
ip* 
Fig. 2. —SLED RACK. 
1, of a rack in use upon the farm of Reisig & 
Hexamer, of New Castle, N. Y. The two end 
boards upon which the rack is built just fit into 
the wagon box. The rack is made entirely of 
4-inch strips of l’lj-inch pine, fastened together 
by cheap iron bolts with nuts, and has a spread 
of nearly 7 feet. The leaves are loaded and 
unloaded with dung-forks, and, of course, trod¬ 
den down as they are thrown into the wagon. 
Where the way from the woods to the barn¬ 
yard lies over grass fields and lanes on which 
there is but little bare ground and few stones, a 
rack, or hopper-shaped rack, such as is shown 
in fig. 2, made to fit a wood-shod sled, will be 
found very handy, on account of its being so 
low and easy to load. It is fastened on by low 
stakes in the place of the ordinary sled stakes. 
Rotations for New England and the East. 
One great desideratum of Eastern farming is 
a good system of rotation. It is not desirable 
to have all farmers adopt anyone system, for 
there are circumstances in the condition of every 
farmer, which make some one or two crops 
profitable for him, which would not pay in 
another’s district. There are certain character¬ 
istics common to New England, New York, and 
parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which 
make a rotation desirable for them, which 
would not be at the West or South. They are 
dairy regions naturally, and the grasses reach a 
high degree of excellence there. Hay, under the 
system which now prevails, pays as well as any 
other farm crop. These regions are quite thick¬ 
ly settled, and there is a large city and town 
population to be supported, making excellent 
home markets. In such localities the demands 
of these home markets will very naturally de¬ 
termine the character of the husbandly. We 
suggest a few rotations which will work well in 
the districts indicated. No. I, 1st year, corn on 
sod, heavily manured; 2d, pota¬ 
toes; 3d, oats, seeding with clover 
and Timothy; 4th, clover; 5th, 
6th, and 7th, Timothy and other 
grasses in meadow. This is the 
old-style rotation in New Eng¬ 
land, but never very rigidly fol¬ 
lowed. Tiie land frequently lay 
in meadow six or eight years, long 
after it ceased to yield remunera¬ 
tive crops. The clover, too, was 
frequently omitted. No. II, 1st 
year, corn on sod heavily manured; 2d, same; 
3d, potatoes; 4th, barley; 5th, clover; 6th, 
7th, and 8th, Timothy and other grasses. This 
extra year of corn is employed in lands full 
of weeds, and the extra manure given the land 
would probably make another year or two of 
grass profitable. Land should not be kept in 
grass where the yield of hay gets essentially be¬ 
low two tons to the acre. It should either be 
plowed or top-dressed immediately. No. Ill, 
1st year, potatoes on sod, with ashes, plaster, or 
lime in the hill; 2d, corn heavily manured; 3d, 
rye; 4th, clover; 5th, 6tli, 7th, grass. Where 
potatoes are put upon sod, the land should be 
plowed the previous September, so as to give 
time for the sod to rot. In the spring it should 
be cross-plowed, to make the seed-bed as mellow 
as possible.- A good, rich sod usually gives a 
large yield of potatoes without disease. No. IV, 
1st year, corn upon sod heavily manured; 2d, 
oats or barley; 3d, clover; 4th, early potatoes; 
5th, winter wheat or rye; 6th, clover; 7th and 
8th, grass. In this rotation there are two years 
of clover, which is desirable for light soils, or 
for farms a good deal run down. No. V, 1st 
year, early potatoes on sod ; 2d, winter wheat 
or rye, with manure; 3d, clover; 4th, ruta¬ 
bagas; 5th, clover; 6th, 7th, and 8th,'grass. 
Near seaports where there are good facilities 
for marketing, ruta-bagas are a very profitable 
crop. The turnip should always have manure, 
and the concentrated fertilizers applied in the 
drill have very marked effect. Grass is promi¬ 
nent in all these rotations, for butter making is 
profitable in all this region, and other animal 
products of which grass is the basis are high. 
Clover is always present, for it is the best reno¬ 
vator of the soil from its own resources with 
which we are acquainted. Potatoes, when they 
do not rot, pay better than most crops, and we 
think it quite possible to avoid the. rot by se¬ 
lecting new varieties and avoiding fresh ma¬ 
nures. Corn pays moderately on a dairy farm 
if the stover is properly cured, notwithstanding 
the competition of tiie West and South. No. VI, 
a good, heav/soil rotation is as follows : 1st, corn 
on sod manured; 2d, potatoes with ashes'and 
plaster, or some concentrated fertilizer in the 
hill; 3d, oats or barley, without manure, seeding 
with clover, plastered after harvest; 4th, clover 
plowed under in July after mowing or feeding- 
off in June;' 5th, winter wheat with guano, 
seeding with grass, and clover in the spring; 
6th, clover; 7th and 8th, grass. If the soil be 
weedy, three hoed crops in succession would 
probably pay, thus : No. VII, corn and potatoes 
as in No. VI, then, 3d year, on light laud, white 
beans; on heavy land subsoiled, roots, (mangels, 
or ruta-bagas,) with fine manure and thorough 
tillage; 4th year, spring grain, followed by, 5th, 
clover; 6th and 7th, grass; or 5tli, clover and 
wheat sown outlie limed sod; 6th, wheat, top- 
dressed; 7th, clover; 8th and 9th, grass. If 
potatoes are well cultivated and kept clean, and 
especially if the land be pretty free from weeds, 
they may be put on two years running, thus:: 
No. VIII, 1st, potatoes on sod ; 2d, potatoes witlr 
fine lime, muck, and bone-dust compost; 3d, 
white beans; 4th, rye; 5th, clover; 6th and 7tli, 
grass. This rotation is especially adapted to a 
father thin, gravelly soil, not retentive of ma¬ 
nure. We offer these rotations to stimulate tiie 
thoughts of our readers, and to lead them to 
devise the system adapted to their peculiar wants. 
Potatoes on Clover Sod. 
We tried potatoes on a clover sod for the first 
time this year, and like the results. The land 
was a heavy, gravelly loam, in good heart, and 
the clover was turned under the last of April, 
after it was well started. The piece was im¬ 
mediately planted with the Early Goodrich and 
Cuzco potatoes, in drills. Tiie crop was hoed 
twice, as well as the long-continued rains of 
summer would permit. We anticipated rot, on 
account of the excessive moisture, but a large 
crop of sound potatoes was harvested in Sep¬ 
tember. Tiie quality of the Early Goodrich is 
excellent, and even the Cuzco is a fair table po¬ 
tato. Clover furnishes a large amount of veg¬ 
etable matter to the soil, keeps it loose and mel¬ 
low, and is probably quite as good a prepara¬ 
tion for potatoes as for wheat. As clover is 
usually followed by Timothy kept in meadow 
for several years, this experiment is not often 
tried. If it will give us a large crop of sound 
potatoes it will be worthy of general adoption. 
A Good Wooden-toothed Harrow. 
Wooden harrows are convenient articles on 
most farms, but almost indispensable on those 
with light sandy or gravelly soils. They are, so 
far as we are aware, always home-made, and 
are.usually of the square or “A” forms. The 
teeth should be not less than an inch and a 
quarter in diameter, and eight inches long; if 
needed longer they.must be larger. The beams 
must therefore be strong, or the holes will weak¬ 
en them. Mr. Sidney Penn 3 r , of Suffolk Co., 
L. I., has had in use for many years a form of 
wooden-toothed harrow which he highly com¬ 
mends, and which strikes us as useful, because 
the teeth are arranged so that the ground is all 
harrowed twice, 'which is a better operation 
than if the same number of teeth passed at once 
through the soil—that is, in a single rank, as in 
the common “A” harrow. This makes fewer 
holes through the outer beams, also, and these 
