98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



this standard for clover and flax. Chemicals will release us from the 

 strict letter of rotation law, but will uot give the best result when 

 entirely divorced from it. Just what crops shall enter into our rota- 

 tion, each one must judge by his soil and market. I am quite 

 decidedly in favor of corn in the place of the turnip crop in the 

 Norfolk rotation. Tliis may be followed b}' barley for sale, or oats 

 and peas mixed, when sown for stock, then clover followed b}' wheat, 

 or potatoes. If wheat, those who desire can seed to grass for two 

 or three years, or continue some tillage crop ; if potatoes, then 

 some grain crop. In our extended cultivation it will be desirable to 

 have in the rotation some cash crops for direct sale. These must 

 be eitlier crops of high selling value per pound, like wheat or the 

 best barle}', that is rarely less than a dollar a bushel, or a crop that 

 takes but little nutrition from the soil per pound of growth, like 

 potatoes that are sevent3'-five per cent water. Hay and oats are 

 bad selling crops. So much plant food is taken from the soil per 

 dollar of receipt for the resultant crop in these foods. These facts 

 should never be lost sight of in arranging selling crops in our 

 rotation. 



Machinekv Required. 



We are living in an age when intense methods prevail in all other 

 industries. It is sought to reduce muscular toil to its minimum 

 everywhere that metal can replace muscle. The mechanism of the 

 day is propelled b}' either brute foi'ce or some one of nature's agen- 

 cies. It is said that the combined force of the steam engines of 

 the world amounts to 46,000,000 horse-power, equal to twice the 

 available working power of the entire population of the globe. 

 This, and other agencies, has wonderfulh' enlarged the comforts and 

 luxuries of civilized life. Inspired by the rapid and less wearied 

 inarch of other industries, it will be hard to hold our boys and girls 

 to the long dull trial of our machineless farms. Progress is in the 

 air, and it will be harder still for our farmers if they are to continue 

 to pit their brawn against the machinery of the virgin forms of the 

 West, made a close neighbor to us by cheap freight. Our great 

 problem is the production of cheap food b3' as inviting methods as 

 possible. 



Surelv, ours is not to be the onl}' industrv whose motive force is 

 the "sweat of the brow." Not that it is a misfortune to be forced 

 to be industrious, or degrading to toil. It is belittling to an industry 



