Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1874 — What Crops to Cultivate. [ARTICLE]

What Crops to Cultivate.

There is an extensive laqfe of proper adaptation of crops to tie soil cultivated. Farmers are required to take the soil as they find it, as it /s not practicable to effect any considerable change in .the geological formatim of any plat of ground, unless the tosk.is performed at an enormous expense. Hence, when clay soil preponderates on a farm it will be found more profitable to cultivate such crops as may be adapted to heavy land. OH the contrary, if a mucky or peaty spil prevails, it will be more profitable and satisfactory in every respect to raise such crops as may be produced at the lowest expense, and which will return the most profit. Some farmers will persist in their efforts to raise wheat every season on some part of the farm, when there is not an acre of ground in any field that is at all adapted to this grain. Others will persist in raising barley, when the soil is of such a character that with excellent cultivation the product per acre will not'exceed fifteen or twenty hqshels of marketable grain. There are numerous sections of countrywhere nearly all the soil consists of muck and peat, with only slight traces of argilaceous and calcareous soil. Such land can never be made to produce paying crops of wheat or barley unless a heavy dressing of clay be spread over the land and - ” afterward —thoroughly incorporated with the soil, which would be an outlay that the returns would not warrant. On such land the proprietor should study adaptation. If the soil consists largely of heavy loam, or is composed of several kinds ot soil, with a large portion calcareous clay, grain of all sorts may be raised with profit. Or grass, stock and some grain may be produced at the same time. Heavy land may be used as grass land quite as profitably and often more so than light land. The error consists in attempting to produce certain crops on light land which can be raised with satisfactory profit only on heavy soils. Hence it will be perceived that an excellent rotation of crops for one farm and for one section of country would not be properly adapted to other sections where the character of the soil is different. It will require critical observation on the part of an intelligent tiller of the soil for several successive seasons before he will be able to determine with satisfactory certainty what crops are well adapted to his land and what crops cannot he raised with profit. ’ ' Tr Certain writers have asserted that “ wherever abundant crops of red clover will grow wheat and barley and other cereals will grow.” Wheat, rye and barley will grow, it is true, where red clover will flourish. But the product will not always be a paying crop. Every farmer, by exercising his good judgment in this regard, may soon determine whether he is cultivating such crops as are most congenial to his particular soil. The most successful farmers of our country feel satisfied that a mixed husbandry constitutes the most profitable farm management, especially where the soil is considered rather light for producing fair crops of grain. The question then arises, shall sheep he kept in connection with the cultivation of grain to a limited extent? Or will the land be better adapted to dairying? There is great profit in raising sheep and in producing wool; and so there is satisfactory profit in keeping cows, whether the milk is employed for making butter or cheese or sold to dealers in milk. If one chooses to keep either cows or sheep on light land it will be necessary to plow the ground occasionally for the purpose of developing the fertility, exterminating weeds and reseeding. IlencC it will be advisable to raise grain of some sort. If land will produce abundant crops of good grass, Indian corn, oats and flax may be raised with profit. In numerous instances the oats or corn raised on one acre will be worth more than the quantity of wheat that could be produced on two acres of the same kind of ground. If a man is a judicious managed, and his soil is of a light, mucky and peaty character, sheep of the right sort, in connection. with some corn and oats, will be found the most profitable system of husbandry that can be adopted.— Observer.