220 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



of the live stock as needed. Frequent plowing and the application 

 of manure makes this a very profitable system. 



A short rotation of three or four years, such as described, ac- 

 complishes three things. The first and most frequently recognized 

 is the turning down of a good sod, especially a clover sod, every third 

 or fourth year, a practice which furnishes a large supply of humus 

 and fertilizing material, thereby producing larger yields of corn, 

 small grains, or other crops. Secondly, the frequent breaking up of 

 the sod, growing a tilled crop, and then seeding down again keeps 

 up the yield of grass during such part of the time as the land is pro- 

 ducing a hay crop. This increase in yield of hay is largely due to 

 the clover, which can not be kept in the hay more than two years 

 without reseeding, since it is a biennial. Thirdly, a short rotation 

 permits the growing of some cash crop like potatoes on part of the 

 land, and that without seriously depleting the soil, as is likely to oc- 

 cur when a crop of that kind is grown on the same lot continuously. 



When land is suited to grass growing only, as is frequently the 

 case with land in New England, either on account of being too moist 

 or from having too many rocks at a short distance below the surface 

 to allow frequent plowing, the problem of keeping up the yield is 

 more difficult. The essentials in keeping up the yield of permanent 

 grass land on a dairy farm in New England appear to be, first, the 

 applying annually of small quantities of barnyard manure as a top 

 dressing. Eight or 10 spreader loads per acre each season are much 

 better than 20 or 30 loads every second or third year. If the farm 

 does not have a manure spreader, it is somewhat more difficult to 

 apply so light a coating, but when spread as well as possible by hand 

 a brush harrow will break up the lumps and scatter them satis- 

 factorily. 



The use of a large proportion of clover seed when seeding down 

 gives a better quality of hay for two years at least, and the clover im- 

 proves the yield of the true grasses which are sown with it. Not 

 only that, but it has been shown that the addition of small amounts 

 of clover seed on top of the old sod in the spring is profitable. 



It will be noted that with successful dairymen in New England 

 one of the most general practices is that of cutting the hay crop early, 

 which not only allows the cutting of a second crop, but gives a far 

 better quality of hay for making milk. Two cuttings yield more and 

 better hay than one late cutting. It may be well to explain that by 

 early cutting is meant a time before any of the grasses or clovers 

 in tne mixture have had time to ripen and get dry and hard. 



By practicing the fundamental rules in crop production just 

 described, namely, the intelligent use of manures, tne following of 

 short rotations, and the good management of grass lands, many 

 dairymen are already doing as much as can be done by the individual 

 farmer toward solving the two obvious difficulties of getting the nec- 

 essary concentrated feeds to supply protein in the feeding rations and 

 of meeting the scarcity of farm labor. The first of these difficulties 

 is remedied because the methods practiced result in a far more pal- 

 atable as well as more nutritous quality of coarse fodder in the bright, 



