Rotation Cropping
Cropping by Rotation is a term used in reference to kitchen garden management. It implies that the ground on which a certain crop is grown shall be planted in Rotation, by another crop of, as far as possible, quite a different character. This system is pretty generally believed in and practised in large gardens; in small ones, there is often neither sufficient space nor variety in the crops annually grown to give an opportunity for changing the situation for each. Where plenty of manure can be added for each crop, it is of not so much consequence, as additional nutriment will thereby be supplied to take the place of that which the preceding one will have absorbed. It is undoubtedly a good plan to adopt a system of Rotation Cropping, so far as possible, as one sort of vegetable will not, as a rule, require exactly the same constituent parts of the soil to nourish it as another which is of an entirely different nature and habit. In changing crops, it is best to avoid planting any to succeed others which belong to the same Natural Order, as, for instance, the different representatives of the extensive Brassica, or Cabbage tribe. These should be made to follow such crops as Beans, Onions, Peas, Potatoes, &c. It is invariably a good arrangement to grow Peas on land which has, during the previous year, been planted with Celery. Many other instances might be named, but they would not be generally applicable, as, for various reasons, ground has to be cropped at certain times and seasons, when it is impossible to pay very much attention to planting under such a system as that indicated. Crops grown for the use of their roots should not follow one another, if it can be avoided; such, for instance, as Carrots, Parsnips, and other plants of the order Umbelliferae. Onions may follow and be followed by plants of the Brassica tribe.