THE EOT AT J ON OF CEO PS 



4° 5 



First Year. Corn. Whenever possible part of the crop is grown to furnish 

 corn and the storer (stalks and leaves) are fed to steers and young cattle. The 

 present high price of grain is forcing the farmers to grow more concentrated feeds 

 on their farms. 



town of Kells, in Ireland, owns 1,700 acres, which was farmed by the 

 community. About 130 acres were broken up at a time, and were 

 cropped for four years with wheat, beans and fallowed and then seeded 

 to grass and another 130 acres were plowed. Stock was grazed on the 

 untitled land, each citizen having the right to put a certain number of 

 stock on the common. The town of Lauder, in Berwickshire, Scot- 

 land, had a similar custom- These examples illustrate some of the 

 methods in use when the Pilgrim Fathers sailed for America, and the 

 rotation of wheat, beans and then a fallow remained the most common 

 in Britain until 150 years ago. 



Xenophon speaks of a two years' cropping of wheat and fallow, and 

 Roman writers remarked on the value of growing a leguminous crop 

 before sowing wheat, a fact which remained almost unused until 150 

 years ago and unexplainable until the close of the last century. Now 

 it is a maxim that at least one leguminous crop shall be grown in a 

 rotation, because such crops have the power of gathering nitrogen from 

 the air in the soil, and their roots and stubble when plowed under 

 enrich the soil in humus to a greater extent than most other crops. 



In the early days of this country and in newly-occupied places it 

 was customary to grow one crop, either wheat, corn, tobacco or cotton, 

 as circumstances required, for a number of years upon the same land, 

 until the yield from the crop was reduced to such a point that it became 

 unprofitable. More land was then taken and treated in a similar 



