SPECIAL FARM TOPICS 219 



nate with occasional resting years, when the land is given over to 

 weeds and bushes. The result, of course, is a very poor yield of corn. 

 However, with an adequate rotation system, including soil-improving 

 crops, especially the legumes, it would be much better to include 

 the corn in the general rotation unless there is sufficient river 

 land unsuited for tobacco culture to grow all the corn necessary. 

 By placing the corn crop in the general rotation on the better land 

 of the farm the yield secured will necessarily 'be greatly improved ; 

 and, with the introduction of an intensive rotation system, together 

 with a much heavier use of fertilizers on the tobacco, it may be 

 found beneficial even to the tobacco iby reducing excessive organic 

 fertility, which would tend to make the tobacco coarse. (Y. B. 

 1908.) 



CROPPING SYSTEM FOR DAIRY FARMS. 



Dairying is now the leading industry on many farms, especially 

 in New England. In the main dairying has been a profitable bus- 

 iness in New England. Taking the Northeastern States of the Union 

 as a whole, owing to climate and topography the land is in general 

 adapted to the growth of grass and trees. The fact that grass is so 

 much at home in those States has led to a serious fault in New Eng- 

 land dairy farming, namely, the mismanagement of grass lands. 

 This consists in the main of a lack of proper treatment for permanent 

 grass lands and of suitable rotations for other land, as well as the 

 use for grass growing of land which does not give profitable returns 

 from grass and which should rightfully be devoted to tree growth, 

 either as woodland or orchards. Another frequent and widespread 

 fault is the habit of cutting the hay crop entirely too late in the sea- 

 son, which of itself shortens the life of the meadow and results in an 

 inferior quality of hay for dairy feeding. 



Closely associated with poor management of grass lands is the 

 failure to utilize other crops available for this section, especially com. 

 In southern New England there is little difficulty in growing good 

 silage corn, but as one travels northward there is evidence of a lack 

 of suitable varieties of corn for silage. This difficulty is not insuper- 

 able. There are varieties of corn that can be grown for silage in all 

 but the most northern counties in New England. What is most 

 needed is that sufficient attention be given to the selection of seed in 

 order to develop strains of corn fitted to the requirements of the 

 different sections. 



A good cropping system for most of the New England dairy 

 farms is the following rotation: Corn one year, peas and oats for 

 hay one year ; clover for hay two cuttings, one year ; potatoes to sell, 

 one year; Hungarian millet for hay, one year; timothy for hay to 

 sell, two years, and then one year for pasture. This is virtually two 

 good rotations, one following the other, the two covering eight years. 



Another cropping system that has been highly recommended by 

 good dairy farmers is corn for silage, one year; a mixture of peas, 

 oats and barley for grain, one year; and hay, two years. The mix- 

 ture of peas, oats and barley is threshed and ground and fed to any 



