241. AGRICULTURE, Rotation of crops.—[further continued] .
It has been said that no
rotation of crops will keep the earth in the
same degree of fertility without the aid of
manure. But it is well known here that a
space of rest greater or less in spontaneous
herbage, will restore the exhaustion of a
single crop. This then is a rotation; and as
it is not to be believed that spontaneous herbage
is the only or best covering during rest,
so may we expect that a substitute for it May
be found which will yield profitable crops.
Such perhaps are clover, peas, vetches, &c.
A rotation then may be found, which by giving
time for the slow influence of the atmosphere,
will keep the soil in a constant and
equal state of fertility. But the advantage of
manuring is that it will do more in one than
the atmosphere would require several years
to do, and consequently enables you so much
the oftener to take exhausting crops from the
soil, a circumstance of importance where
there is much more labor than land.—
To—. Washington ed. iv, 225.
(Pa.,
1798)
