Number of ploughings, times at which they must be given, and number of days it will take.

March

100

X52 Total.

1. 75 Buckwheat for manure.

REMARKS.- The above rotation favors the land very much; inasmuch as there are but three corn crops taken in seven years from any field, and the first wheat crop is followed by a buckwheat manure for the second wheat crop, which is to succeed it, and which, by being laid to clover or grass, and continued therein three years, will afford much mowing or grazing, according as the seasons happen to be, besides being a restorative to the soil. But, then, the produce of the salable crops is small, unless increased by the improving state of the fields.

REMARKS. By the above rotation, 900 bushels of buckwheat. amounting to £75, is added to the proceeds of No. 7, at the expense of 200 days' more ploughing; and no two corn crops follow in immediate succession. Wheat, in one instance, follows a clover lay on a single ploughing; the success of this, though well ascertained in England, may not answer so well in this country, where our lands, from the exhausted state of them, require more manure than the farm can afford, and our seasons are very precarions,

No. 3. 75 ac. in Corn, a. 12 bushels 937 bush. a. 2s. 6d.

£117 3s. Id.

4,6. 150

Potatoes, 12
Clover.

937

1

46 17 6

REMARKS. This rotation, for quantity of grain and the profit arising from it, is more productive than either of the preceding; and with no more ploughing; excepting No. 1. No field gives more than three corn crops in seven years, except the crop of buckwheat; the last of which, with the Indian corn, will be more than adequate for all the demands of the farm. The clover is to be sown with the buckwheat in July; and, by being only one year in the ground, may be too expensive on account of the seed. Nor will the fields in this course receive much manure; and the advantages of sowing wheat on a clover lay, in this country, are not well ascertained. Again, preparing two fields for buckwheat may, in practice, be found difficult. Wheat stubble might be ploughed in here for spring food.

VOL. XII.

48

*

F F

REMARKS. By the above rotation, the quantity of grain is nearly equal to that of No. 3, and the value of it greater; occasioned by the increase of wheat. This rotation is effected with as little ploughing as No. 1, and with less than in either of the other two numbers, 2 and 3. But in this course no green manure is introduced, unless ploughing in clover, is so considered; and the quality of the clover on much reduced land is to be questioned, and the practice of sowing on it, as has been observed in some of the other numbers, not much used, nor the advantages of it well ascertained. Besides, there is the expense of cloverseed for 150 acres every year to be encountered.

EXTRACT FROM AN AGRICULTURAL DIARY.

April 7th, 1785. Cut two or three rows of the wheat (Cape wheat) within six inches of the ground, it being near eighteen inches high, that which was first sown, and the blades of the whole singed with the frost.

8th. Sowed oats to-day in drills at Muddy Hole with my barrel plough. Ground much too wet; some of it had been manured, but had been twice ploughed, then listed, then twice harrowed before sowing; which, had it not been for the frequent rains, would have put the ground in fine tilth. Ploughed up the turnip patch at home for orchard grass.

10th. Began bricklaying to-day. Completed sowing, with twenty-four quarts of oats, thirty-eight rows at Muddy Hole ten feet apart, in the ground intended for corn.

11th.

Sowed twenty-six rows of barley in the same field at Muddy Hole in the same manner, with the drill plough, and with precisely the same workings the oats had adjoining thereto. This was done with twelve quarts of seed. After three ploughings and three harrowings, sowed millet in eleven rows three feet apart, opposite to the overseer's house in the Neck. Perceived the last sowed oats at Dogue Run, and those sown in the Neck, were coming up.

12th. Sowed sixteen acres of Siberian wheat, with eighteen quarts, in rows between corn, eight feet apart. This ground had been prepared in the following manner. 1. A single furrow; 2. another in the same to deepen it; 3. four furrows to throw the earth back into the two first, which made ridges of five furrows. These, being done some time ago, and the sowing retarded by frequent rains, had got hard; therefore, 4. before the seed was sown, these ridges were split again by running twice in the middle of them, both times in the same furrow; 5. after which the ridges were harrowed; and, 6. where the ground was lumpy, run a spiked roller with a harrow at the tail of it, which was found very efficacious in breaking the clods and pulverizing the earth, and would have done it perfectly, if there had not been too much moisture remaining from the late rains. After this, harrowing and rolling where necessary, the wheat was sown with the drill plough on the reduced ridges eight feet apart, as above mentioned, and har

It was his custom for many years to keep a record of the daily proceedings on the farms. This is an extract from a diary of that description for one week.