MIOHIGAX LIVE STOCK IN 19)0. 379 



this aud other causes to which we have called attention, there was poor 

 wheat in that neighborhood where a failure had not occurred within 

 the remenibi-ance of the oldest citizen. The failure came because clover 

 was the only method adopted, of any consequence, for restoring the fer- 

 tility of the soil. \\'hen that failed the land became poor very rapidly. 

 No stock of any consequence was kept and hay and grain were sold in 

 the markets of the neighboring cities. For years the bulk of the straw 

 was sold to the i)aper mills, tho)isands of tons going there at prices 

 that paid very little more than the cost of hauling. Time and again 

 had they been warned that such farming did not pay, that intentional 

 soil robbery was just as bad as highway robbery, and the last t- 

 crops, yielding from one to four bushels per acre, with hundreds of 

 acres not cut at all, were simply object lessons indicating the wrath 

 that is to come wherever the people willfully violate the laws of nature. 



The farmer, who makes a specialty of growing potatoes, finds that a 

 three years' rotation of clover, potatoes and wheat is advantageous. 

 The clover enriches the soil and keeps it loose so that the potatoes 

 can grow and develop uniformly; the wheat is sown at a slight expense, 

 thus materially lessening the cost of production. The most satisfac- 

 tory crop of wheat that I ever grew was after potatoes. The crop was 

 dug so that the wheat was sown on October 9. This is rather late, 

 but the plant got a fair start. In the spring the wheat looked even, but 

 was small, and there was not a visible sign to denote that a good crop 

 was in sight. The straw at harvest time was just right to cut nicely, 

 so that the fifteen acres were easily put in the shock in one day, and, 

 being well headed, yielded thirty bushels per acre. In an adjoining 

 field was a crop of twenty-five acres on clover sod. The ground was so 

 hard that it needed a sulky plow to turn it. It was so cloddy that 

 much time was spent in ])reparing the seed bed, which in fact was never 

 what it ought to have been. The crop grew good, though, so that at 

 harvest time it was a great mass of tangled grain. It was slow and 

 hard work to harvest it, and when threshed onlv vielded twentv-flve 

 bushels per acre. I doubt if there was much profit in the crop, since 

 nearly every stage in the production cost from two to five times what it 

 did when wheat was sown after the potatoes. 



Many farmers follow beans with wheat, using a four-years' rotation 

 of clover, corn, beans and wheat, with occasionally a crop of rye for 

 fall and spring pasture in between the corn and beans. By thus adopt- 

 ing a short cut, wheat can be successfully grown in this State if the 

 price is low. No other crop fits so nicely in many different rotations. 



Many farmers have dropped special grain farming in Michigan, and it 

 would be well if others would follow in their footsteps. The day is at 

 liand again when it is profitable to produce beef and mutton, and when 

 the time comes in which farming is so diversified in Michigan, that we 

 sell meat and wool, and flour, and butter, articles containing the least 

 possible quantities of the fertility of the soil, and feed on the farm the 

 liay and grain, the milk and bran, instead of selling them in the open 

 market, eventually taking back to the soil the elements it gave up, then 

 will it be possible to again grow successfully fields of golden grain 

 year after year; and every farmer stuclying the laws of the universe 

 and abiding by their mandates, will build better than he ever hoped 

 \w could, bringing prosperity and contentment to those of his own time, 

 and leave a rich inheritance indeed to succeeding generations. 



