102 Bulletin ITi. 



or liiimns. The tniiiks finally decay and pass into the soil. The 

 work is effectively done, but it consumes time; and man is in a 

 hurry. When the forest is removed, the land is usually productive. 

 It is called "virgin soil," notwithstanding the fact that an enormous 

 crop of trees has just been taken from it, and that it may have 

 grown hundreds of such crops. The real virgin soil is the barren 

 soil. But however rich this forest soil may be when the timber is 

 first removed, it generally soon looses its exuberant fertiHty. The 

 pigmy crops of the farmer seem to be harder on the soil than the 

 gigantic crops of Nature. Some of this loss of productivity is due 

 to the loss of humus. 



A rotation diminishes the exhaustion of plant-food, supplies nitro- 

 gen in leguminous crops, one crop leaves the land in better con- 

 dition for another, the roots and stubble improve the texture of the 

 soil, it keeps weeds in check, provides for continuous labor because 

 stock is kept. 



The rotation should differ with the kind of soil and general style 

 of farming. The Cornell rotation is : 



Wheat, 



Clover and timothy, 1 year, 



Maize (corn), 



Oats. 

 A good rotation for weed infested land is : 



Sod, 1 year. 



Maize, 



Potatoes, or some other tilled crop, 



Oats or barley. 

 On fruit farms, rotations are not so practicable as on grain farms ; 

 but the fields which are not in fruit can often be worked in rota- 

 tion to great advantage. The general tendency of friiit-farmers is 

 to keep too little stock. If stock cannot be kept, the humus can be 

 maintained by catch-crops and cover-crops. 



7. The fertility of the land is its power to produce crops. It is 

 determined hy three things : the texture of iflie soil, its richness in 

 ^^lantfood, and its availahU moisture. — The texture of tlie soil is 

 its physical condition, — as to whether it is mellow, loose, leachy, 

 cloddy, hard and the like. A rock or a board will not raise corn, 



