154 Practical Farming 



A Modern In the neighborhood of the larger cities, 



Short Rotation ^j^^^.^ ^^^^^ -g constant demand for timothy 

 for a Wheat , , . i • i i 



Farm ^^Y ^^ good prices, the temptation has al- 



ways been to allow the land to He in grass 

 so long as a moderately fair crop of hay can be made 

 from it. But it is far better to get two to three tons 

 per acre of hay in one year than to get a ton or half 

 a ton for several years. There is no reason why a farmer, 

 who is situated near a good hay market, should not sell 

 hay as well as any other crop grown, provided he takes 

 other means for keeping up the humus-making material 

 in his soil. Whether the rotation shall be a three-year or 

 a four-year one will depend on the conditions and environ- 

 ment of the farmer. If his main object is to get large 

 crops of wheat and corn, and to use up all the roughage 

 of the farm in feeding stock, the three-year rotation and 

 the entire abandonment of timothy will be best. It is 

 hard to rid farmers in the Middle States of the notion 

 that no matter how short the rotation is they must sow 

 some timothy seed when they sow clover. The fact is 

 that only clover is needed in such a rotation. Various 

 circumstances are gradually forcing the Eastern farmer 

 into new methods and shorter rotation of crops. The 

 increasing scarcity of timber, and the consequent cost of 

 fencing is destined to bring about a change which will be 

 of great benefit to the farms. This change is the entire 

 abandonment of pasturing the cultivated fields, and hence 

 the abandonment of fences that pasturing makes neces- 

 sary. The modern grain farm should always have an 

 area set apart as a permanent pasture, on which care is 

 taken to maintain the sod in good order and free from 



