DlVISIOy OF FIELD HLSBAXDRY 205 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Maiij- seed^ of wild oats r ^laiu doniiant during the summer-fallow, but grow with the 

 following crop . f wheat. In the mixed farming rotations, in operation nearby, no such 

 diiiiculty is experienced. 



ROTATIOX " F " (five YEARS' DURATION). 



First year. — ^Vhcat. 



Second I'rar. — Wheat. 



Third year. — Corn or roots. Manured preceding fall. 



Fourth year. — Oate or barley. Seeded with grass and clover. 



Fifth year. — Clover hay. 



Five fields of 8^ acres each, are used for this rotation. 



The S(i;l is a black loam, mostly het^T, but wuth a lii;hter ridge running across 

 each held. It was laid dcjwn in 1910 and 1911 and has been in full operation since 

 that time. " F 2 " and " F 3 " were partially flooded, and as they were seeded with 

 wheat before the flood, the wheat was thinner and later than it otherwise would have 

 been. 



Rotation '*' F •' is a mixed farming rotation, suited to conditions where it is 

 desil-ed to grow both a considerable quantity of wheat, and a large amount of 

 fodder for stock. It pre-supposes a sufHcient area of permanent pasture outside the 

 rotation. It eliminates the summer-fallow. 



This rotation is proving a decided success on the Experimental Farm. In a 

 country wh . e summer- fallowing is generally considered essential, it demonstrates 

 the possibility of producing a profitable crop every year. The substitutes for the 

 summer-fallow are: First, corn or roots; and secondly, clover hay. While thrso 

 crops do not show in themselves any very great profits, they moJre than pay for the 

 operations they involve and for the overhead charges counted against them, and 

 they leave the land in such'^a eondition that the following crops of grain are more 

 j)rofitable than any grown in the straight grain-growing rotations. The wheat, 

 grown on clover sod which is ploughed in July and well cultivated thereafter, 

 is usually equal in every way to the best summer-fallow crop on the farm. More- 

 over, the crop of clover hay, which replaces the summer-fallow, has paid its own 

 way and. added to the bumus of the land in addition. Similarly corn may be sub- 

 stituti^'d for the 'summer-fallow to advantage, for, while the corn shows a very 

 s;mall profit in itself, the grain (usually barley) that follows is the most cheaply 

 grown on the farm. 



Brandon. 



