COMPARATIVE YIELDS OF GRASSES. 201 
the land restored and retained, and a permanent home as- 
sured. Plow your sod. Ifthe pressure of work is such that 
it cannot be done the second or third season let it beregarded 
as an error, to be remedied at the first opportunity, but 
never think of land seeded down as ‘‘taken care of”’ indefi- 
nitely. 
On the Experiment Farm sod has never been allowed to 
lie over three years. On the lighter soil the second crop of 
_ clover has often been plowed under or the sod fall plowed 
the first year. The only field that has lain three years is a 
low rich piece of bottom land. The first year it yielded 2.9 
tons of clover in the first crop, and a good 2ndcrop. The 
next season that of 1900, the drought cut down the yield of 
timothy to about 1 ton peracre. In 1901 the field gave 1.91 
tons timothy per acre and was then fall plowed for corn- 
fodder. On other fields the yield of timothy the second year 
has dropped to 1 ton or as low as .75 tons per acre, and if 
not plowed, would sink still lower. One of the poorest fields, 
rocky and partly swampy, which gave in ’97 a good crop of 
clover, yielded in ’98 .75 tons timothy. The following year 
this was pastured, and fall plowed. Grass and clover was 
sown with oats in ’00, and in ’01 the average yield for the 
whole field including bad spots was 1.47 tons clover per acre. 
_It was pastured in the fall, and in ’02 gave 1.02 tons per 
acre. It is safe to say that more grass was produced on this 
field than if it had been left in grass continually and the oat 
crop was raised inaddition. Timothy will seldom exceed two 
tons per acre, whileclover, with bothcrops will often go over 
four, but only when newly sown. A meadow fall plowed 
and sown to oats and clover will produce as much hay the 
second year as if leftin grass for the two years, and will 
also give an oat crop, and the ground will then be richer for 
the clover, and the meadow renewed. Examples of clover 
yields have been given in general averages. The best fields 
have gone as high as three tons for the first, and one ton for 
second crop. In’98 asmall field yielded 3.33 tons per acre. 
The second crop was fall plowed. In ’02 a field of 10.3 
acres gave 25.8 tons of cured clover, which would have been 
heavier if the hay could have been cured more rapidly. This 
field in the fall cut 10.3 tons of well cured second crop clover 
