Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-03-11
For the Standard.
Rotation of Crops.


The subject of rotation of crops ba
engaged the attention of the reflective
and scientific farmers for many years.
In older countries--as England, Scotland
France, and some parts of the Unitet
States, there have been some approache
to regular system. Clover and III,
grasses, wheat, oats, barley, the differen
roots, take their turn in order, depending
upon the location and soil. The wisdom
of this management has been fully estab-
lished, as different crops draw differen
Ingredients from the soil and some actu-
ally contributing TO its productiveness.-
But to sustain proper rotation it is ne
cessary that variety Of crops be nearly
equally adapted to the soil and climate
This happy state of affairs is usually
found between the extremes of heat and
cold. In the warm countries where the
cotton, sugar cane, sweet potatoes and
bananas flourish, the climate and soil is
SO favorable to vegetable growth that the
same crop is cultivated continually. In
the north the vegetables are so few that
mature with certainty that a rotation can
hardly be practiced, the barley, buck
wheat, peas and beans, will not perhaps
appropriately follow each other.
We now ask the question, is Vermont
too far north to admit OF profitable 70
tation Of crops? Indian corn is not a
sure crop and it is one that requires a
rich warm soil. On this account il is
seldom seen in large quantities, the most
prosperous farmers knowing that each
year il is an experiment nearly as likely
to fail as succeed, and unless care is ia
ken in the selection and preparation of
the ground is likely to fail Wheat tho
occasionally profitable is so often failure
it is not safe crop. Oats are quite a
sure crop, often cultivated to an extent OF
from five to fifty acres; the yield is good
which is from 30 to 100 bushels per
acre; the straw for fodder is equal to
poor hay the grain is excellent for al
kinds of stock and commands a ready
market; it is so highly esteemed that Of
ten three or four crops are raised in sue
cession upon the same piece of ground.
Potatoes are a sure crop bat could not
follow oats to an equal extent on account
of the uncertain market and their per
ishable nature. Barley aud buck cheat
are not sufficiently different from oats in
their action upon the soil and manner Of
cultivation to make a profitable rotation
Roots are not cultivated to such an ex-
tent as they should be; turnips, beets,
wurtzels and carrots, might al
most be said to be the right arm Of Brit
sh husbsndry, which are marketed in the
shape of excellent beef and mutton, ma
king it possible for thickly settled coun-
try TO produce its>own meat and sustain
The fertility of its soil.
We conclude therefore that on a small
scale rotation Of crops can be successfully
1racticed, and in the rotation have the
ground occupied one year by hoed crops
md two years by grain, then grass as
many years as it yields satisfactorily
But in more extensive farming there is
40 crop that commends itself to so gen
9ral cultivation as oats. The yield is re-
liable and varies according to the soil
and its preparation, and while large
extent Of ground is sown to this grain,
'ur chief care should be to "rest land
before it is weary and feed it before it is
lungry.' I. Z. J.
Irasburgh, March 6.