Dairy Farming in Canada. 473 



It is a means of promoting the activity of forms of bacterial 

 life which are helpful to the growth of crops, and is a means of 

 conserving moisture, the proper supply of which in a large measure 

 determines the abundance or bareness of the yield. I remember 

 the time when at least one lad, harrowing with a pair of colts, 

 knew no more than that harrowing was to get over the largest 

 possible area of ground and to raise as much dust as possible. 

 There are older men still in many walks of life who do not dis- 

 cern that men in harrowing should always have an eye toward the 

 harvest' and not toward raising dust. 



The Rotation of Crops. 



The productiveness of the soil depends upon the substances 

 present in the soil, and still more on the condition of the sub- 

 stances as to availability. That is where and how the rotation 

 of croj)s comes in, and can be of very great benefit to the fanner 

 who understands the underlying principle, or at least follows the 

 practice. Some crops by growing on land not merely give a good 

 return in themselves, but they make available in the soil, the plant- 

 food that the succeeding or some succeeding crop needs and can get 

 in better form through their action. 



It is admitted that the rotation of crops has been the chief 

 means of improving the agriculture of Great Britain and some 

 other parts of Europe during the century. The practice itself 

 consists in growing roots (or some other cultivated green crop), 

 and leguminous crops (such as clover, beans or peas), or grass 

 (or hay crops), alternately with cereal crops ripened for grain. 

 The famous four-course Norfolk rotation was roots, barley, clover, 

 or beans and wheat. The chief point seems to be to make those 

 crops follow each other which have different requirements, as to 

 the time of the season when they benefit most by plenty of avail- 

 able plant-food in the soil and different habits of growth in other 

 respects, particularly in the range of their roots. The rotation 

 for any farm must have regard to the soil, the climate, the markets 

 for rotation crops, and other local conditions. Not only the in- 

 crease in the yield of crops has to be taken into account, but also 

 the value and uses to which the crops can be put when grown. 

 It is for everyone to determine what crops he can raise and sell at 

 a profit, and then to plan a rotation to give each of those crops the 

 best possible chance to yield largely. 



