The Portland daily press., 1871-09-11
ROlniiOn 0f Crans.

Indian Corn, OaLs, Grass.-The succession
of crops that is most generally in use among
our farmers, and that approaches the nearest
regular rotation, is Indian corn the first
year, oats the second, and grass the four, five
or six years following. Alter piece of rand
that is suitably situated, or nearly so, for
crop of Indian corn, has become so exhausted
by long continued cutting OF the grass and
making hay, it will not yield a ton Of hay to
the acre, or, in many cases, even half ton,
then it is thought best to plough it up,manure
it with all the manure that can be spared for
it-six or eight corls-spreading it broai-
cast, either before or after plowing, aid plant
it to corn. The corn is generally planted in
bills, and it is getting to be the general Gus
tom to put part of shovel full OF old ma
nure, or compost, or q table spoonful OF some
one of the so-called superphosphates OF lime,
in the hill with the corn at the time It is
planted, TO give it an early start, and belp 1t
along through the season. After the corn is
up three or four inches high, it is cultivated
with horse cultivator, two or three times In
June and July, and hand hoed as often, to
keep down the weeds. On land that is heav-
lily manured, however, the weeds will not al
ways stay down through the month of August
aud first part of September, but frequently ct
to be nearly as high as the corn itself; some
farmers 90 through the field in August aud
pull up the largest OF the weeds, but generally
corn and weeds are allowed TO gov on to-
gether until harvest, when the Corn is gath
cred in, and the weeds and their seed allowed
TO remain and seed the land for another crop
of their kind. Therefore, the principal object
of a hoed crop-the clearing the ground of
weeds-is not very well accomplished with a
crop OF Indian com after all.
The next year the land is plowed again as
early in the spring as it will do to woI K upon,
the weeds and their seeds all turned under,
and then sowed with oats and grass seed, gem
orally Timothy or herds grass seed, and red
top, with five or six pounds OF clover seed to
the acre. Some farmers leave out the clover
seed, and SOW only the Timothy and red-top.
If the ground is in good condition, aud was
well manfred for the corn crop, the oats will
turn out good crop, ranging fIom 30 to 60
bushels, in some few cases. Ii the season was
favorable one for termination and growth of
the grass seed, the field will be green with
grass in tbe fall, and the next yeaT may give
from one to two tons of hay, according to
the quality OF the land. The next year the
crop of grass will be less, and it will grow less
and less every year till it gets to be too small
to pay for cutting and making into hay, and
repeated.
Now l maintain that this succession of
crops is one of the most injurious that can be
adopted 'Or any soil. 1t can not be called a
rotation in the agricultural sense of the word,
for that implies "the arrangement of a GER
tain succession of crops, by which each shall
follow in such rotation .as shall best
economize the resources of the farm"
A rotation of crops requires that two
or mora of the plants shall belong to
different orders of plants, some one of them
should be root crop, or legumDous one,
where all the rest are grain or grass crops.
Indian corn, oats, and the two grasses, Timo-
| thy and red-top, all belong to one order of
plants, the gremine, or grass family, all have
long, narrow, thin leaves that can not draw
much nutriment from the atmosphere. and
all have very slender, 6brous re OTIS, incapable
OF penetrating hard subsoils; therefore, they
must all find the most of their nutriment
within the lew inches of the surface soil Ioos-
ened up by the plow. This succession, in
stead of being arranged so as to best econo-
mize the resources of the 'arm is arranged
in the best possible way to consume the ma,
nure and impove~ish the soil. The Indian
corn crop, the "King-crop," as it is called, by
agricultural writersi is sure to take the lions
share of the fertilizers, and his consort, the
oat crop, takes the lioness' share, and the tive
grasses take what little is lett, and finally
comes to O premature death nv Starvation