Proceedings of Seventeenth I^ormal Institute 301 



The rotation wliich will best meet the conditions under con- 

 sideration may be made up in several different ways. If the 

 land suitable for tillage is limited, a three-year rotation is best, 

 and may be made of clover, corn and oats. If enough land can be 

 used for cultivation to permit, and it is desirable to grow potatoes 

 as a cash crop, a four-year rotation may be adopted, made up of 

 clover, corn, potatoes, and oats. This is a very common rotation 

 in southern ISTew York and can scarcely be improved upon, if the 

 soil and market conditions are suited for it. If a four-year rota- 

 tion is desired and potatoes are not wanted, the rotation may be 

 corn, oats, and grass two years, the second year of grass being 

 used as a cash crop. 



Through the central portion of the state where dairying is not 

 extensively carried on, and where the soil is well adapted for the 

 culture of alfalfa, beans, wheat an,d other cereals, an entirely dif- 

 ferent rotation will be found best. Alfalfa is not generally used 

 in a rotation, but it is often used as a cash crop and should receive 

 mention. 



A good rotation under such conditions may be clover, corn, 

 beans and wheat. Clover is an excellent crop to grow before corn 

 or potatoes. Beans will follow corn well, and wheat after beans 

 does not require plowing the land, which is a saving worthy of 

 consideration. On such farms animals are not usually kept in 

 large numbers, and the amount of manure made is not suiScient 

 to keep up the organic matter in the soil as it should be. In such 

 cases the farmer should resort to green manuring. For that pur- 

 pose, twenty pounds of winter vetch seed sowed in each acre of 

 corn just before the last cultivation, and plowed under in the 

 spring, will fit the land well for beans. If desired, potatoes or 

 cabbai2re mav follow corn instead of beans. In some cases the 

 rotation may better be clover, corn, oats and wheat. 



In many cases wheat or rye may be used to seed with instead 

 of oats. Oats require so much more water to bring them to matur- 

 ity than most other plants, that if the season is dry, and they are 

 allowed to fully ripen, the young grass plants are apt to die for 

 want of moisture. Barley has not been mentioned, but it is a 

 good crop to grow and seed with, and may take the place of oats 

 in the rotation. More plant food is needed to grow the average crop 



