REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURIST 89 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



The variety of crops grown and the varymg areas under each crop each year, 

 make it quite difficult to make a comparison of the returns of the different years, so 

 to simplify matters I would suggest that a fixed valuation be put upon the products 

 and the return of each year valued accordingly. 



Fixing prices as follows: — Grain, $1 per 100 pounds; roots and ensilage, $2 per 

 ton; hay, $7 per ton; summering cattle, $8 per season; and an area used as pasture 

 for pigs, $15 per acre ; the returns from the ' 200-acre farm ' for the years mentioned 

 may be said to have been worth $2,776.66 in 1899; $4,110.21 in 1900; $4,434.72 in 1901; 

 $4,787.14 in 1902; $4,148.19 in 1903; $4,741.09 in 1904; $5,714.32 in 1905; $4,669.16 

 in 1906; $4,931.94 in 1907, and $4,631.33 in 1908. 



Prices for all kinds of forage in 1908 were so very high that, had market prices 

 been allowed for the crop of 1908, the total value would have been much higher. 



EEMARKS ON ROTATION EXPERIMENTS. 



The true farmer will ever have two objects in view when managing his farm: to 

 so manage as to gradually but surely increase the margin of profit and, at the same 

 li.me, render his farm more productive. Many factors will necessarily unite to produce 

 such desirable results, but of one feature we may be certain, there will be followed on 

 such a farmer's farm a regular rotation of crops, for no other single practice in farm 

 management can compare with this in importance. The rotation or rotations adopted 

 will, of course, depend upon the line of farming followed, and to some extent upon the 

 character of the soil and the physical peculiarities of the farm as a unit, but a rota- 

 tion there will be. 



Crop rotation means a certain succession of crops which regularly repeats itself 

 each time the course is run. It really means further, that the crops follow each 

 other in such order as to insure each having such supplies of plant food of such a 

 character as to aid in securing good returns from each particular crop. 



Hence, in arranging a rotation, it is very necessary to have some knowledge of 

 the food requirements of different crops and to know something of the values of the 

 residues from the different crops included. Certain forage crops such as corn, roots, 

 potatoes and hay require an immense amount of food for stem, leaf and roof produc- 

 tion — that is an abundance of nitrates, as is found in clover or other sod turned 

 down, and in well-manured lands. Other crops, such as cereals, can get along best 

 with a lighter supply of nitrates but need more phosphates, hence do welPafter som.e 

 forage crop has taken up the superabundance of free nitrates found after sod. It is 

 evident, therefore, that a good rotation will include (1) meadow or pasture, (2) roots 

 or corn, and (3) some cereal crop. 



Various combinations of these three classes are possible, and the natural aim of 

 experimental woi'k with rotations will be to determine (1), the comparative vali;es of 

 the rotations as soil improvers, and (2) their relative suitability for difl"erent lines 

 of farming. 



Five or six years' experience with a rotation of five years' duration showed such 

 remarkable results here, that in 1904 it was decided to begin an experiment that would 

 include a variety of rotations. 



ROTATION ' A.' 



First year. — Land ploughed in August, well worked, ribbed in October, seeded next 

 spring to oats, and 10 pounds clover sown per acre, allowed to grow one year and 

 turned under as fertilizer for corn. 



Second year. — Corn. Manure applied in winter or spring. Shallow ploughed, 

 com planted. 



Third year. — Grain seeded down, 8 pounds red clover, 2 pounds alsike, 10 to 12 

 pounds timothy per acre. 



Fourth year. — Clover hay, two crops expected. 



Fifth year. — Timothy hay. 



