The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1857-03-25
ROTATION OF CROPS.

Il
II is always better to prevent special ex-
haustion of land than to cure IT, 1t is often
| difficult to discover what the land really re-
quires, and, therefore, TO cure the evil when
it exists. The only method Of preventing
it with which we are yet acquainted, is by
the introduction Of skillful rotation or al
formation Of unlike crops. In adopting such
rotation, we only copy from nature. In
the wide forest, many generations Of broad
leaved trees live and die, and succeed each
other; but the time comes at last when
general pestilence seems to assal them I;
their tops droop and wither, their branches
| fall off, their trunks rot. They die out, and
a narrow -leaved race succeeds them. This
race again has its life, of centuries, perhaps:
but death seizes it too, and the expanded
leaf of the beech, tie ash, and the oak,
again cheer the eye--playing with the pass
ing zephyrs, and glittering in the sun. So in
the broad meadow, the old pasture changes,
and new races Of humble grasses succeed
each other as the fields increase in age.
The alienation Of crops, therefore, asserts to
itself something Of the dignity Of natu-
raj law, and man is evidently in the right
course when he initiates nature IN prOce-
dure like this. But upon what do its good
effects depend: Why do the broad leaves
alternate with the narrow in the ancient
forest. Why do the grasses change in the
old meadow. Why does the farmer obtain
larger produce, ard Tor d greater number
of wears, By growing unlike crops alternately,
than by continuing year after year 10 grow
the same The reason is not merely that
one crop carries of more, and another ! -,
Of all those which all our crops derive from
the soil, but that one crop carries of more
Of one thing, another crop more Of another.
The grain carries oil phosphorus, the straw
silica, the bulb alkaline matter.
/ After, perhaps, fifteen or twenty success
siye crops of the same kind, the surface
soil through which the roots are spread be-
comes 50 poor in those substances which the
crop especially requires, that the plant can
Z not obtain from II a sufficient supply to
nnurish and bring 10 maturity the ull-grown
plant, within the time allotted to it in our
climate for lis natural growth. The roots
do their best they collect as diligently az
\ thew can, but winter comes on, and the
growth ends before the plants fully matured.
4 In the case OF corn. the first effect Of a
scarcity, say Of Ih0sphoric acid, Is TO make
/ the ear smaller and the number uf grains
/ less; tile next to continue the growth into
the winter, and only when line season
occurs to ripen The ear at all. But suppose
we alternate the corn crop. which in it, grain
carries oil phosphoric acid, with hay crop,
which requires much silica, or root crop
10 which much alkaline matter Is necessary
then the one crop would live upon aud re-
move what the other had left in great album
dance. Instead OF rcbbing the soil every
wear uf the same substance, we should be
exhausting il more equally Of all, aud We
should be able, for double the time al least,
to crop il without The risk Of is ceas'ng en-.
tirely to give us a profitable return. We
should gradually work up every asilable
substance in the soil, whether such as are
naturally present in il, or such as We have
ourselves added in the form Of manure
What is true Of the simple alterations oi
corn with green crop. is more true stu o
a longer aud more complicated rotation
The greater the variety Of crops We grow
the more perfectly do We avail ourselves Q
the benefits which an obedience to the sug
gestions Of this principle is fitted TO conlei
upon us. No rotation, il Is true, however
siilllul. will alone prevent the land from be
coming ultimately exhausted. Nothing bu
regular and generous manuring will do this
unless there be, in springs from beneath. o
ID tie dccaying fragments Of rock mike.
with the soil, or in substances brought dow
! from higher grounds. or in the nature Of ID,
rains that fall upon the land. some pcrennla
!, source Of those substances which the crop
|, always carry oil from the soil. But IN
skilliul rotation there is this virtue, that lan'
. which is subjected to it cannot be ruined u
{ 80 short time. Farm Journal.