ROTATION OF CROPS. 289 



*' CLOVER-SEED CROP. 



*' As soon as the hay has been removed from the ground, the 

 " clover starts a new growth ; and as gypsum is applied and warm 

 " rains come, by the middle of the month of September there will 

 " ordinarily be a fine crop of seed matured and ready to cut. 

 " This seed crop has varied with us from one to seven bushels to 

 " the acre. It is not the custom here to cut this seed crop close 

 " to the ground, but to leave a very considerable proportion 

 *' standing. We do not wish to get much more than the heads, 

 " preferring to leave most of the stalks on the ground. Of 

 " course, in doing this, we do not get all the seed. 



" In the seed crop the timothy shows but little, but it has 

 *■'■ helped make a good sod, and was of considerable value in the 

 *' hay crop. The crop of hay should not average, for a series of 

 *' years, less than two tons to the acre, weighed the next winter, 

 "and the seed crop should average three bushels to the acre. 



" This is the way we manage the first year of our rotation, 

 " taking two valuable crops. 



" Second Tear. — This year is devoted to pasture, with the ex- 

 " pectation that each acre will abundantly feed one cow in an 

 " ordinary season. 



" Gypsum, sown about the first day of May on this pasture, 

 *' brings forward the white clover, which abounds, self-sown^ in 

 " our pastures ; and the timothy and natural grasses will make a 

 " dense sod several inches thick, and the red clover roots will get 

 " to their greatest depth and size, such of them as are left. 



'■'■Third Tear — Indian Corn. — About the tenth day of May plow 

 " the land in the most perfect manner possible, and deep enough 

 "to bring on top of the reversed sod a sufficient supply of soil 

 " that is not held too firmly together by the grass roots to allow 

 " of harrowing and marking without disturbing the sod. The 

 " roots of the red clover will be either cut off by the plow or 

 *' drawn out by it. Six or seven inclines will be about the least 

 ** depth to give the plowing. 



