320 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
the number of fields must always correspond with the number 
of courses in it. For Wisconsin, when wheat, corn and oats 
are the main staples, the following one would be found excel¬ 
lent : 
First Year —wheat. 
Second Year —corn and roots, or oats. 
Third Year —oats, or corn and roots. 
Fourth Year —wheat, sown with clover or timothy or both. 
Fifth Year —hay. 
Sixth Year —pasture. 
According to this system, there would be every year, two 
fields of wheat, one field of corn and roots, one field of oats, 
one field of hay, and one field of pasture. Supposing the 
quantity of land under the plow to be 120 acres, there would 
continually be 80 acres of it in crops, and 40 acres in hay 
and pasture ; and if we suppose further, each field to be w T ell 
manured when in grass, the whole farm, or 120 acres of it, 
would be manured once in six years, which as far as my expe¬ 
rience goes, would keep it in good heart, and capable of satis¬ 
fying all reasonable conditions. In its turn, every field should 
receive thirty loads of well rotted compost to the acre ; there 
must be no sham about this matter, as there often is. “ Be 
generous to your soil,” was the maxim of a good New York 
farmer, to the observance of which he attributes his own suc¬ 
cess in farming. 
MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF MANURE. 
Though rotation may teach the farmer to diversify his crops, 
and to give his land occasional seasons of rest, it cannot give 
back to it those substances which the growth of the different 
crops is continually abstracting from it. Manuring, therefore, 
becomes a subject of prime importance to the farmer, and ought 
to lead him diligently to the consideration of the best means of 
converting all the straw and refuse of the farm into suitable 
matter for the nourishment of his fields. 
