SPECIAL CROPS. 259 



Our advice to farmers is: Never, wlaen avoidable, put any am 

 mal to a grade male, but always to a thorouglibred. 



Sheep will often, be more valuable than ueat cattle on the 

 farm. A farmer can take care of sheep with less labor and ex- 

 pense, and will get annual returns for wool and mutton, whereas 

 neat cattle must be kept three or four years. Sheep will eat 

 coarse grain and fodder, which for cattle should be ground. 

 Neat cattle and sheep should not be pastured together, as the 

 sheep will take advantap^e of them and get most of the fine, ten- 

 der grass. Pigs should always form a part of this system of 

 mixed husbandry, as they work over and make into valuable 

 manure a great deal that would otherwise be lost. 



Consuming the productions of the soil on the farm is the key 

 note of our system of agriculture, and the only system to be 

 recommended for universal adoption. Neglect of this principle 

 is one of the reasons why farming pays no better. " A mixed 

 husbandry is a system of farm management, in which raising 

 grain constitutes only a portion of a farmer's employment, while 

 raising stock of some kind is a chief part of his busincbS. In 

 other words, raising stock and growing grain on the same farm 

 posesses decided advantages over that system of husbandry in 

 which nothing but grain is grown or stock reared. A system 

 of mixed husbandry includes all the good practices to which we 

 have made allusion in this chapter. Every farmer must judge 

 for himself what stock to keep, what crops to raise, and what 

 system of rotation to pursue, we shall therefore only indicate 

 briefly some of the systems of rotation, and the proper place of 

 the principal crops in the same. 



The farm is divided into pasture, meadow, and tillage laud, 

 the latter into four, five, six, or seven fields, according to the 

 number of crops to be raised. As a rule, none but the pastures 

 should be fenced off. (See " Fences T) The seven field system 



