_First year._--Oats are sown about the end of February, or beginning
of March. These are cut green toward the end of April, or beginning
of May, and given to the cattle for food, which they eat with great
pleasure. It is found that this crop, as it is not allowed to throw
out the ears, does not exhaust the soil, or take anything from the
subsequent crop.[12] Winter potatoes are now sown for a _second_
crop; previous to which the land is dug and manured. When of a
middling size the potato is planted whole, but if very large, the
eye only is used.
[12] It is well known, that vegetables will grow in pure sand, by
watering them, and that it is not till they blossom, or rather till
they produce seed, that they perish. It is mentioned by Bracconnot,
in the _Annales de Chimie_, for February and March, 1808, that he
sowed the seeds of various plants in pure river sand, in litharge,
in flour of sulphur, and even among metal, or common leaden shot;
and in every instance he employed only _distilled water_ for their
nourishment. The plants throve, and passed through all the usual
gradations of growth to perfect maturity. The author then proceeded
to gather the entire produce, the roots, stems, leaves, pods, &c.
These were accurately weighed, dried, and again weighed; then
submitted to the ordinary means used in a careful analysis, when
he obtained from these vegetables, all the materials peculiar to
each individual species, precisely as if it had been cultivated
in a natural soil. "Oxygen and hydrogen, (says this writer) with
the assistance of solar light, appear to be the only elementary
substances employed in the constitution of the whole universe: and
Nature in her simple progress, works the most infinitely diversified
effects by the slightest modification in the means she employs."
_Second year._--Wheat forms the first crop; and scarcely are the
sheaves removed from the ground, when the farmer promptly turns up
the earth, and sows spurry. Sometimes carrots are sown with the
wheat.
_Third year._--Rye; which is followed by Turnips.