Natural History of New York Volume 5, V. 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 Excerpt: ...only it remunerates him better than any other production. Then again, that crop which is profitable near a city or village, is not one which will pay in the country; location and market must, therefore, govern the husbandry of a country to a great extent. When it is once fully felt that land refuses to yield its increase, because an important element has been removed by cultivation; that it is not owing to any injurious substance imparted to the soil by the crop itself; that the whole difficulty, so far as soil is concerned, in raising perpetually any given crop, resolves itself into exhaustion, and nothing else, then the farmers will not be troubled in devising a rotation for the sake of a rotation. The principle which will govern him will be profit. But as profit forbids' a course of husbandry which will end in exhaustion of the soil, or in the growth of weeds, that plan will be pursued with due regard to the preservation of the soil in a healthy condition; and hence, I believe it more probable that the farmer will find it more profitable to use that amount of manure which shall enable him to raise that kind of grain, or stock, or pursue that course of husbandry which his location and position will dictate. But a succession of crops is not an indifferent matter. Wheat will not succeed well in a highly manured field, while maize, or Indian corn, can scarcely be manured too highly. In seeding down a field it is not a matter of indifference what crop is to succeed: oats may be selected as the crop to succeed a grass and clover crop; a hoed crop, as potatoes, is good preparation for wheat, if the tillage has been thorough. But a short course, like the following, is more generally adapted to the soils of New-York than any other: 1. manure: 2. Indian corn: 3. o...