The Charlotte journal. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1835-1851, 1851-02-12

6sA
improvements i'm Farming.


was any circulation OF kno Wedge among far
mers BY means Of agriculture nesspapers.-
Farmers live necessarily so remote from each
other, that without reading on the suffice,
they cannot be extensively acquainted with
practices and Improvements at distance from
Them. Hence It was long before any other
settled principles were established than those
that were HANDED down from father 10 son.
The editor of this paper can well recoect
hen The knowledge of the advantages derived
from a rotation Of crops was confined 10 We
ry few farmers in this quarter Of the country.
He heard The suhjec, talked Of by old farmers,
bu. i, was no, extensively ptsctised sixty years
ago. The first settlers had their tiiloge land,
their mowing land, aud their pasture land,
separate and distinct from each other. The
lilsge land produced corn and potatoes, aud
sometimes other hoed crops, Is beans, &c,
one year,-and rye, oats, barley, wheat, &c.
the next year.
NJ one though, Of buying grass seed TO lay
down tillage land 10 glass, and on first seed
ing for moving and pastur,og the chat OF the
barn was usually the only seed TO be sown
with The Easlsh gram IN the sPrrns Occa.
s,ona,ly nee farmer would save = sqUa e
rod or two of his herdsgrass TO stand tor seed
GU, this was by no means the general prac'
lice.
II was so usual 10 keep all these lots dis
linc;-some for ,IlIsge. some for moving, and
some for pasturlng-ihat 10 describing farm
for sale a very general practce vas TO repre-.
sent 1t a. suitably divided into moving, hli.
age and pasture land" And 10 thi, day ma.
nv Advertisements of farms for sale are alb.
surdly described to the same ssy-ior all far.
mers a this d,y zee The advantages Of rota.
ton crops. Among good farmers all then
lands near home capable Of iiiage are occa-
sonalI, u'led, end then laid again TO grass
pasture land not Scep'ed when rotation Is
convenient.
This practice Of keeping one lot for llIlsse,
another for moving, aud a third for pas,urng.
was clearly derived, as old Judge Blackstone
would say, :" from our SasoD ancestors" a.
mong whom this division asd special sppfO-
priauon to distinct service was most reh.l.
ously observed. Aud when The Saxon
Eneh.h" farmers changed ths practice snt
recommended rotation Of crops II made quite
stir there and vas looked upon as new era
in Agriculture.
We recoilect, white student OF las, see, :
an Euglish decision Of case in the Court o
Kings Bsnch-a case 10 which tenant "a'
sued FOR converting meadow land"--iha, .
"mo~ng land" into ti.lase. Lord Coke
the Great Lord Coke, vas on The Bench
He declared /, the opinion Of the Court ,hs
The ;enan,, Who had hired the land, for TWEEN
,y.one years, had no right TO convert mo"ln.
cause IT was 10, only material injury TO tn
farm itself, but it changed The description o
he land, which had been leased to him as 8
much moving land, 90 much lllsge land, &c
The practice OF rotation Of crops 10 nov 8
universal, that young farmers can hardly be
Iieve the accounts Of Old ones when they bftn.
up recollectlons Of by gone years though the,
may 60 back no farther than sixty. The pla
Of ploughIng Up the moving grounds and seed
ing down the llllage grounds once every fe.
,ears has had most sensible effect in ID
production Of both grass and grain.
Il is to rotations Of crops that We are pIu
J cipsy indebted for the abundance Of met
ch.nrsble hay tina, i, nov produced on a
our good farms. Thi, abundance enables u
, to keep cur -tock better so as to supply NIL
, through the winter and to make our oxen Iarg
or and stronger. We know Of very man
, farms tina, now produce ten fod more EngI,s
hay than they did hlly years ago
, Farmers are not uniform 10 their course G
, rotation, and there ia no settled term of year
agreed Upon for ,sge or for grass. Niue
depends 90 the nature Of the soil and the cas-
With which change from grass 10 grain, 40
the contrary, may be brought about. 81
, clayey soils are not so easily broken up a
sandy loams, sDd fortunately 1t so happen
tina, those clays have not the sane need OF
frequen, change as tina Ugh, and loose loan
, have. They hold the msnures tina, have bee
applied to them IN tiIsge much longer tbs
The Ugh, loans Do, and they are often PERM,
, led to lie in grass for eight or ten years j