?)<^^ Repoet of Faemers' Institutes 



The seasonal and climatic conditions surrounding the farm must 

 play an important part in the selection of any given rotation. 



The market to which farm produce must be taken should be 

 carefully studied; for surely no wise man would grow crops 

 which he could not profitably market. 



Before the farmer makes his choice of the crops he will grow and 

 the rotation he will follow, he should make a very careful stud}' 

 of himself. Conditions must be terribly out of balance if a 

 farmer succeeds in any line of farming which he does not like. 

 For greatest success the farmer must be in love with the line of 

 work he attempts to follow. 



If a man will carefully study his farm, climate, markets and 

 his own likes and dislikes, he alone may be the best, judge of the 

 kind of plants and the length of rotation which will be best for 

 him to adopt. 



A few examples may be given and reasons therefor, which will 

 be helpful to some farmers. Let us consider a farm of two 

 hundred acres located in Southern New York. There are por- 

 tions of the farm which are wetter, steeper, or further removed 

 from the barn, than other portions. Those lands may w^ell be 

 put under a long rotation, and the. lands which are dryer, more 

 level, and closer to the buildings may be put under a short 

 rotation. 



If such a farm carries a dairy, the lands wdiich are wet, steep, 

 or far removed from the barn may be seeded with a mixture of 

 red and alsike clover, timothy and redtop. They may remain in 

 meadow for several years and produce well, if top-dressed occa- 

 sionally with manure or commercial fertilizers, or both. It would 

 be a wise practice to keep such land in grass as long as good paying 

 crops of hay can be secured from it annually. The gi-ain crops 

 on this portion of the farm may be buckwheat, followed with rye, 

 the above grass seed mixture being used to seed with the rye. 



On the land better adapted for cultivation, a three- or four-year 

 rotation may be adopted. If the land needs drainage it would be 

 economy to lay tiles so that a regular rotation could be followed 

 without interruption from too much moisture, such as we have 

 had the past season. 



