of poisonous drugs, are imitated and passed upon the credulous people, as wine, brandy, rum, gin, &c. As the price of grain increases they use less of it, and make up the strength of the liquor by the aid of ingredients which they know to be deleterious to the human constitution, and productive of madness and death in their worst and most disgusting forms. We are satisfied, that it is of no use to ask them to cease this trade, productive of so much evil, as they are governed wholly by self interest, regardless of the cries of want and madness, produced in a great degree by the exercise of this heartless money getting business. They will continue to manufacture and vend the poison, so long as they can find dupes to consume it.

Every one knows that the distillation of such enormous quantities of grain, is one chief cause of the high prices, which it has lately commanded. Is it not then the part of wisdom as well as of patriotism and humanity, that every one so convinced should, for the present at least, desist from the consumption of every kind of liquor produced by the destruction of bread stuffs. For years past the price of grain has been inordinately high, and if the same course is pursued as has been, we have to fear the most dreadful consequen

ces.

Hitherto in this country, the distiller has been suffered to follow without the payment of duty or charge of any kind, his nefarious business. Whether he should be allowed to continue this destructive occupation to the injury of the mass of the people, is a question worthy the consideration of our legislators. In consequence of the extent of this business the price of bread stuffs are not only enhanced, but every article of food rises in proportion. When the price of grain is high, it costs more to fatten pork, beef, &c., and the price of meat is consequently greater, and every thing which contributes to our nourishment rises in proportion. Would it not, therefore, bè proper for congress to take the matter in hand, and by proper enactments put it out of the power of distillers to destroy the food of the country, at a time when there is not sufficient for its consumption. It is their duty to pass laws for the public welfare, and they always do right when their acts are productive of the greatest good to the greatest number of persons. If the distillers should complain, their complaints should, and would be treated with scorn. They are a class of the community, engaged in a business hurtful to mankind, and it is high time they were compelled to follow some other employment.

From the Genesee Farmer.

ROTATION OF CROPS.

The necessity of a rotation of crops is founded on a few simple principles, the force of which and their application, any one may understand. They have been clearly and concisely stated by Chap

tal, and they are so fundamentally important to a correct course of farming, that they should be impressed on the mind of every til ler of the soil. They will of course bear repetition:

Principle 1. All plants exhaust the soil.

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2. All plants do not exhaust the soil equally.

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3. Plants of different kinds do not exhaust a soil in the

same manner.

4. All plants do not restore to the soil the same quantity

or quality of manure.

5. All plants do not foul the soil equally.

From these established principles, the following are legitimate inferences: 1st. No soil can nourish a long succession of crops without exhaustion. There would seem to be no exceptions to this, unless the case of river alluvion, such as the Genesee Flats for example, may be considered such. But in this case the annual overflowing, either entire or partially, renews the deposite of fertile matter, or by permeating the soil divests it of any injurious principles it may have received from previous crops. The inference may therefore be considered sound, and the man who crops continually without making corresponding returns to the soil, will experience its truth in the rapid decrease of his crops grown on such land.

Another inference, and the second would be, that while one kind of crop exhausted the soil by drawing most of its nourishment direct from the earth, and returning nothing of consequence to it, others, deriving a large part of their nourishment from the atmosphere, and returning to the earth much vegetable matter, scarcely, if at all, exhaust the soil upon which they grow. To illustrate this, let us take grains and clover, or grains and roots with large tops such as the beet, ruta baga, &c. The cultivation of white grains, such as wheat, &c., probably wears as rapidly upon land as any crop the farmers of the north can cultivate. This, in part, may be attributed to the ripening of the seeds, but more, we think, to the plants deriving a large part of their nutriment from the earth, and but little from other sources, while at the same time the return they make of vegetable matter is the smallest possible quantity. Clover would seem to derive its nourishment in a different manner; the matter which forms its roots appears to have been elaborated in its rich and succulent herbage, and it is on the leaves of plants that the atmosphere produces its greatest effects.

The 3d inference would be, that plants which draw their nourishment from the earth, and those that are the most influenced by atmospheric causes, should alternate with each other; and that plants that draw their nourishment from the surface should be succeeded by those that seek their food at greater depths. Here is the reason, and a sufficient one it is, why the roots should constitute a more important part of the system of American husbandry The grains are fibrous rooted and spread themselves principally

near the surface; the tap rooted plants, such as clover, turnips, &c. go deeper, and while their luxuriant leaves are employed in aerating the juices, their roots are penetrating the earth beyond the reach of the fibrous class.

A 4th inference would be, that a succession of plants of the same species, when possible, should be avoided, as continued cultivation has a tendency to increase the enemies of that particular plant, and a rotation or change would tend to prevent their increase. Owing to the sowing seed without preparation or precaution, the Hessian fly, in some districts of England and Long Island, became so numerous as nearly to destroy the wheat crop. It was consequently mostly abandoned for a few years in such places, and the insect, lacking its proper nidus for propagation soon disappeared. Such has been the case with the pea bug. The bug had become so numerous in some parts of the western district that the pea was almost worthless; and the culture was generally discontinued. A few years has elapsed, and they are again coming into use as a field crop, and the bug is scarcely known, certainly not to any injurious extent. A brewer at Newburyport in Massachusetts, a few years since imported some barley from Holland, and some of it was used for seed by farmers in the vicinity. It was infested by an insect which spread rapidly, and compelled the farmers to abandon barley as a crop for two or three years. The insect is now extinct, and barley is again cultivated with success.

A 5th inference would be, that crops liable to be infested with peculiar weeds should not be cultivated in succession, but by a rotation exposed to a culture that will eradicate them. The culture of corn and roots that require repeated hoeings, is found effectual in destroying many weeds that get a foothold in grass lands, and by seeding lands in rotation exhaustion is prevented, and the soil kept clean, in good tilth, and prepared for any valuable crop required to be grown upon it. Pernicious weeds oftener obtain a foothold with the grains, than with any other crop, as these shade the ground but little, and afford a chance for vegetation, which thick growing or large leaved plants do not. Farmers find that charlock and redroot are thus disseminated in their wheat fields, and that a rotation of crops is necessary to clear them from these pestiferous intruders. Another important inducement to a rotation of crops, but one which is often overlooked in considering the matter, is the greater advantages that can be derived from manure, where this system is pursued, than where it is not. Every farmer is aware of the fact, that there is a wide difference among cultivated plants, as to the effect produced by the application of manures. Some can scarce

ly receive too much, or have it furnished too directly. They are gross feeders, and appear to devour the elements of nutrition without stint or injury. Corn, and the roots generally are of this class. Others seem to be more delicate, and are either destroyed outright, by too large quantities of unfermented manures, or are excited to such a growth of straw, that the juices intended to form the seed,

are swallowed up, and lost in the mass, and a half filled, worthless kernel, and lodged, half rotten straw is the result. A rotation of crops enables the farmer to shun such disasters. He can apply his fresh manures to crops that require them, and will be decidedly benefitted by them, and when the fermentation is over, and the decomposition complete, then the grains which require such manures are sown and reap the full benefit. There can be no reasonable doubt that much of the efficiency of manure is lost, by allowing the decomposition to take place on the surface of the earth or in the barn yard, and some experiments would seem to show that the loss in this way of treating manure is precisely equal to that afforded to a corn or root crop while undergoing decomposition in the earth.

Different soils require a different rotation of crops; and the time required to complete the course is mainly depending on the richness of the soil. The most simple and short alternation of crops has been adopted by many of our farmers, that of wheat and clover alone; or by which a wheat crop is grown every other year. Clover seeds are sown on the wheat, pastured in the fall, plastered in the spring, fed through the summer or mown, and then turned under for wheat. Whether this forcing course, for it can be considered as nothing else, will eventually be found the most profitable, we much question; a course admitting of greater variety and of longer duration, would be in our opinion, preferable. Roots or corn, manured, wheat or barley with seeds, grass or clover; fed or mown for two or three years; would perhaps be better on wheat soils where due regard was had to excellence of soil, as well as present profit.

A suitable rotation of crops on a farm has a tendency to keep up the growth of cattle and sheep, a part of farming very apt to be neglected where the culture of grain is the exclusive object. Perhaps there is no agricultural maxim more true than the Flemish one-"No food, no cattle; no cattle, no manure; no manure, no grain;”—and when it is remembered that without manures there can be no permanent fertility to the soil, the advantage of such a course is perhaps not overstated.

Since the experiments of Dombasle, Dutrochet, and Macaire, have given some plausibility to the opinion, that plants secrete and deposite substances injurious to succeeding crops of the same kind, the attention of foreign agriculturists has been directed to preventing such succession of the same plant on the same soil, as far as practicable. A writer in a late British Farmer's Magazine recommends the following course as suitable on a dry soil, good for wheat, and on which turnips can be fed off by sheep.

1st. "Turnips: on half the land prepared for this crop, sow white and red, (common or globe,) and on the other half ruta baga, manured, with bone dust, rape cake, or dung; the latter applied in a coarse state, ploughed in and well incorporated with the soil, the last ploughing in preparing the fallow.-2d crop, barley: half chevalier, and half American. 3d crop, seeds; half red clover, with a

mixture of rye grass, and half Italian rye grass, manure the young seeds, cut the first crop for hay, and feed the second. 4th crop, wheat: sow different varieties such as the chevalier prolific, ten rowed prolific, and golden drop. Go through the same course again, except putting on dung where bone dust and rape cake was before applied; ruta baga, where the turnips common and globe were grown; changing the chevalier for American barley; changing the grasses in the same way; and substituting another variety of wheat where the former grew. The above is a four year course, yet the same varieties of grain cannot be grown on the same land oftener than once in eight years. It would be good policy to have a few acres in mangel wurtzel on a portion of the fallow land, instead of turnips, to guard against a scarcity of food in the spring; this root is also very valuable in the lambinger season for ewes, as it forces a great quantity of milk."

The changing of one variety of wheat for another we imagine would be of little consequence; but not so the substitution of the fibrous rooted for the tap-rooted plants, or barley, wheat, and the grasses in succession. If the doctrine of the deposition of noxious matter is correct it must have reference more to species than variety, and it should be to change in this respect that the attention should be directed. But whether this doctrine be true or false, the reasons for a rotation of crops are untouched; and we are confident that no farmer, who views his interests in their true light, will discard the system, or for the sake of a dubious present profit, put at hazard the certainty of permanent productiveness in his soils.

QUERCITRON BARK.

Mr. Editor,

SIR,-Observing an article in your last number, relative to trespases committed on forests, a reflection passed through my mind that has frequently occurred to me during the present and preceding summers, while travelling through the State,-that the number of lauful trespassers on timbered lands is far greater than those who act contrary to law; and that the bark-business as it has been conducted, resembles the system of agriculture unhappily too often pursued, which consists in draining the resources of the country without making an adequate return, a system fraught with serious detriment to the present community, and those who shall succeed. I allude more particularly to the heedless manner of abstracting the quercitron bark, by the indiscriminate massacre of thousands of black-oak trees (Quercus Tinctoria,) whose trunks are suffered to moulder away through lapse of time.

The black-oak bark of this peninsula excels that of any other section of country, and as it is the most abundant among the forest