TJiR ACRTCin/ri'iJAr, FrTrinc of tiik hk(!1on, 



35 



I.")!) to 200 acres should be broken and the rest used for pasture. 

 'I'hese figures must be taken as only suggestive. It will appear to 

 many that tlio area here ahowed for the pasturing of one animal is 

 excessive, but it is none too much. It will also be suggested that 

 cultivated grasses can be sown whicli will very much reduce this area; 

 but experience has not yet proved it advisable to make a general 

 practice of plowing up the native grass with the expectation of making 

 a ])etter pasture b}' sowing somethuig else. It must be remembered 

 that the higher rate of evaporation in the southern portion of the 

 territory makes the conditions there more severe and the acreage 

 requu'ed larger than is necessary with the same rainfall farther north. 



On the heavier lands it now seems that the most promising system 

 of management is about as follows: Leave a large portion of the farm, 

 probably three-fourths, or all but 100 to 200 acres, in native pasture, 

 and keep all the thial-purpose cows the pasture will carry, along with 

 the young cattle, horses, and colts. Butter or cream is one of the 

 surest sources of income and })rofit. There should be pasture enough 

 to feed one animal for every 1 to 2 acres of land under cultivation; 

 in the best portions of the region, however, the farmers have not 

 always found it most profitable to keep so much stock. There should 

 always be a large flock of poultry. Hens will lay hi dry seasons as 

 well as in wet. One of the first objects on the farm land, then, must 

 be to raise feed for the 3tock. In seasons of good crops the farmer 

 must stack feed to carry over and to tide him through dry years. He 

 nmst reverse the old adage learned in his youth, "Lay by something 

 for a rainy day," and in this country must learn, both with regard to 

 himself and his stock, to lay by something for the dry day. Of the 

 farm land one-fifth to one-third should be summer-tilled each year for 

 winter wheat and potatoes for money crops, these to be followed with 

 corn or some fodder crop, and the third year with s])ring grain or 

 summer fallow. 



Assuming that the farm contains 640 acres, one-fourth of which is 

 under cultivation, the foregoing plans would call for one of the follow- 

 inir rotations on each field : 



Rotation fnffann of 640 acres, one-fourth under cultirafioii. 



!15 



