72 Our Farming. 



like it to be. A shows you the narrow road (about 12 feet wide), 

 between two strips, that leads to pasture. The pasture land is of 

 no use for tillage too rough with some clear gravel and some blue 

 clay besides cat swamps with no hard bottom. Here is a point 

 that may be of use to some : The cow lot is a swamp which we 

 were able to drain about 18 inches deep. It cannot be plowed, as 

 when you get through the turf, which is heavy, an animal will 

 go down as in water almost. I have pulled several horses and 

 cattle out of the ditch that drains it. Now when we had this lot 

 open with the other pasture, the stock would eat the upland grass 

 and let this on the lowland go until it got large, and then you 

 could hardly starve them to eat it. I fenced it by itself and put 

 my cow in there (it would keep two) early, and she stays all the 

 season and keeps grass down, and there is never any lack of feed, 

 no matter how dry. I dislike so many fences to keep up, but 

 we can hardly do better. You will notice in studying plan that 

 five of our six strips of cultivated land centre right around the 

 barn. Lot i w 7 as necessarily back and we can see a big difference 

 when drawing in hay or grain, whether it comes from this lot or 

 one of the other five. The road A also answers for getting to 

 and from Lot i. Our small fruit garden is at F. You notice the 

 little acre and a half corner, C, that was mentioned above as tak- 

 ing so long to work ; B is the barn and covered yard ; H the ' 

 house and yard, surrounded with trees and shrubs. There are 

 other points that I will call your attention to in chapters on drain- 

 age. While you are looking at this plan I will refer you to what 

 is said in previous chapter about the lay of the land being partly 

 against me. The north part of Lot No. 3 is a steep side hill and 

 has washed down and made a rod wide of land in cow lot, since 

 I have been here. The north end of Lot 2 is much the same, also 

 south end of Lots i and 4. We never think of putting in potatoes 

 or wheat on these places without having the seed washed out, 

 more or less, generally more. The slopes facing the swamps are 

 sandy loam, and wash badly, and right here I may as well tell 

 you how I have helped this washing considerably. You will 

 remember my first rotation was potatoes, two years, and then wheat 

 and seed down, leaving clover or clover and timothy two years. 

 The, second year these side hills were put in potatoes they would 

 wash much worse than the first. A sod turned over, if heavy, is not 

 inclined to wash so badly as stubble land. This, among other 

 things, led me to change to the short rotation, plowing a heavy 

 sod in the spring and putting in wheat that same fall and sowing 

 clover in the following spring. The grass or clover roots hold 

 the soil fairly well during the summer, or until the earth becomes 

 settled, so it will not run as badly, and then the wheat soon forms 

 a sod, so it will not wash readily. We often get a heavy shower, 

 though, that plays havoc with the surface before the wheat gets 

 well started . But this short rotation is the best we can do practi- 



