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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
I have also, as one might say, carried the rotation of crops to its furthest limits. I have divided the whole cultivated land into two portions, and on one of these planted potatoes, beets and other vegetables, on the other grain; each year alternating. I have referred to this system in my " Field Sermons,” as the most efficient of all in use and capable of yielding the greatest returns.
This is clearly shown by the farm of Franzenshof. Here I introduced this double rotation immediately after the close of the leases in 1866-67, and obtained a greater yield than on any of the other farms, which were going through a rotation With ten or twelve changes of cultivation, being also left fallow and then sown with clover cut for two years in succession.
Clover had not flourished well at first, but only during the last three years. On this account, and since, the sugar-works at Kolin, now built three years, required a larger supply of beets» and afforded a large amount of residue as food for the cattle. I selected the better fields from the other four farms in the year 1872, and cultivated them on my system of rotation, while the remaining inferior fields went through ten and twelve changes, with one year of clover only and lying the same time fallow. I was led to make these changes also through the fact that Franzenshof had not only produced the most beets of all the farms, but had given the greatest return in money, and felt confident also of retaining the soil in its full vigor by artificial manuring.
Sowing with clover-seed for only a single year was introduced on the estate of Kolin, as an exception and contrary to my principles of agriculture, for the reason that the mild climate there prevalent allows of a double crop, and also of fully preparing the land for winter-seed, while the use of the clover- land in the second year for beets renders an extensive culture of the latter possible, and they are my most profitable crop, now that the sugar-works are established.
This latter method of cultivation places but a slight strain on the soil, and will be continued until the other sandy stretches are strengthened with clay, and the clayey tracts receive their proper supply of sand.
On account of the dissimilarity of the methods of cultivation practised, and in the fertility of the various fields, arising