Notwithstanding his many acres, he felt himself growing
"land-poor," as country people phrase it. He was not a reader, and looked
with undisguised suspicion on book-farming. As for the agricultural
journals, he said "they were full of new-fangled notions, and were kept
up by people who liked to see their names in print." Nevertheless, he was
compelled to admit that the Cliffords, who kept abreast of the age,
obtained better crops, and made their business pay far better than he
did, and he was inclined to turn his neighborly calls into thrifty use by
questioning Leonard and Webb concerning their methods and management.
Therefore he remarked to Leonard: "Do you find that you can keep your
land in good condition by rotation of crops? Folks say this will do it,
but I find some of our upland is getting mighty thin, and crops uncertain."
"What is your idea of rotation, squire?"
"Why, not growin' the same crop too often on the same ground."
"That is scarcely my idea. For the majority of soils the following
rotation has been found most beneficial: corn and potatoes, which
thoroughly subdue the sod the first year; root crops, as far as we grow
them, and oats the second; then wheat or rye, seeded at the same time
with clover or grass of some kind. We always try to plow our sod land in
the fall, for in the intervening time before planting the sod partially
decays, the land is sweetened and pulverized by the action of frost, and
a good many injurious insects are killed also.
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