Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1868-01-01
ROTATION or CROPS.


Tucker u Son;
ROTATION or CROPS.
The rotation Of crops has one great advau-
tage over all other agencies in conducting farm
operations. 1t accomplishes by thought alone,
that which in other directions requires heavy
expeuditures or hard labor. MSnuring Is the
great prime mover rotation the guide Of this
moving force. The former may be compared
to the engine which propels the vessel the
latter the rudder which directs all the exerted
power TO beneficial end.
With few exceptions, the most successful
husbandry is that which includes mixture or
combination Of the different departments.
Domestic animals assist in the manufacture Of
manure. Hay and grass. grain and roots fur
nish their food. The straw serves as sponge
TO hold the otherwise wasting manure, yielded
by these animals. Thus the one becomes
means Of increasing the other animals enrich
the soil and increase the crops this increase
Of crops again supports an increased number
Of animals, and mutual augmentation takes
place.
The continued cultivation Of the same land
with the same or similar crops, is attended
with a constant exhaustion or running down
Of the soil. A crop Of wheat, or Of oats, or Of
corn, raised year after year on the same piece
ofground, yields less each successive year, till
little or nothing is finally produced.
The soil deteriorates in every part, meadows
run out, moss and weeds come ii. Tilage
grounds wear away in fertility, ull they fail TO
produce materials for making manure. The
exceptions are where enriching or non.exhaus-
ting crops are raised, or where heavy manur-
ing is constantly resorted to as in the care Of
permanent pastures in dairy regions. which are
regularly top-dressed Or the market gardens
near cities, kept enriched by heavy menuring
There are several advantages in adopting
rotation. One is the preservation OF the fer
tility Of the soil second is, checking the
spread Of weeds aud third, is an even dis
tribution of labor throughout the season.
|. PRESERVATION OF FERTILITY.
Farmers are sometimes driven AS they sup
pose, in cases Of necessity, to crop hard to
raise money to pay their debts. But in thus
endeavoring to get little increased interest
on their capital, they are making most for
midable draft on the Itincipal. An addition
al amount OF information and planning and
proper arrangement, would preserve the fer
tility of the land, and the crops would soon
be increased more than by hundreds Of dollars
worth of labor without. Where experiments
have been made with different courses of crops
some Of them Bringing wheat often into the
course and other cash-producing but soil-ex-
bausting crops and others with such crops at
greater intervals--tbe ncreaed richness of the
land in the latter cases has been attended with
the greatest profit at the end. A crop Of forty
bushels of wheat from an acre, in four years,
ia far better than twenty bushels once in two
years, for then, three years ofintervening crops
in the former, instead oftwo only in the latter
case. are afforded for other crops, which may
be much heavier besides. Hence those Of the
same kind occurring at remote intervals, prove
most profitable, even though for some of the
intervening crops there may be little demand
in market, Take as example, the results Of a
good course, which on many soils would not
be far different from the following l. A hard