STOCK AND CROPPING COMPLEMENTARY. 



Practical farmers are apt to shudder at the idea of 

 seriously reducing their live stock, so as to be able to increase 

 their production of crops, because, generally speaking, it is 

 the farmers who keep the largest head of stock that produce 

 the largest crops. The one is complementary to the other, 

 and the balance and interdependence between stock and 

 crops needs to be constantly kept in mind, if the maximum 

 amount of food is to be produced in the country. The great 

 difficulty lies, not with the farmers who carry a large head 

 of stock on their farms, but with farmers who keep a small 

 head of stock, and, generally speaking, produce small crops. 

 Herein lies the crux of the whole problem. They may possi- 

 bly be short of capital, energy, education, or terribly afraid 

 if they improve their farm and grow bigger crops, that they 

 will very soon have to face the alternative between an in- 

 crease of rent or a notice to quit. Be that as it may, from the 

 point of view of maximum production, I r.m sure we shall 

 be well advised to move slowly before adopting any lop- 

 sided systems or so-called emergency systems of farming. 

 Generally speaking, the only safe way in the long run and 

 the end of the war is not yet in sight is to go steadily on 

 with a proper rotation of cropping, which alternates, except 

 in special cases, cereal crops with such crops as roots, pulse 

 crops, clover or temporary pasture. 



With the increasing difficulty in securing artificial 

 manure, and the prospective shortage of farmyard manure, 

 due to the controlled prices for fat cattle, it is abundantly 

 clear that full use will need to be made of the natural ways 

 of increasing the fertility of the soil. One of the most fami- 

 liar ways of doing this is to grow at least one leguminous 

 crop during the rotation, such as clover, peas and beans. 

 A second method on easier working soils is to fold forage 

 crops off with sheep, and thus greatly enrich the soil for the 

 next cereal crop. 



Another very valuable method, which in principle 

 combines the growing of leguminous crops and the folding of 

 stock in one, is to seed the land down to two or, better, three 

 years' temporary pasture instead of the one year lay, so as 

 to give the land a short rest and enable the sward to accumu- 



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