98 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



of corn is grown successively in the same field, full use 

 must be made of artificials if good crops are to be obtained. 

 Last year (1920) 9 quarters of oats per acre were threshed 

 from a field on my farm ; this field had been down to 

 lucerne for five years, and then grew a fine crop of man- 

 golds and three crops of corn before the above very good 

 crop of oats — evidence of the powers for enrichment 

 possessed by lucerne, for the soil itself was by no 

 means good. 



VARIATION IN ROTATION 



Great modifications in the four-year rotation have 

 already been made by our leading agriculturists. I have 

 even heard of a fifteen-year rotation, but I should not 

 like to specify the exact order ! A five-year rotation has 

 been common in Scotland for some time, and Sir Thomas 

 Middleton gives in detail a six-year rotation also in 

 vogue in Scotland {vide page 104). On my arable dairy 

 farm a three-year rotation is practised in the main. It 

 is as follows : — 



First year, roots chiefly mangolds (heavy dressing of 

 farm-yard manure apphed) ; second year, barley ; third 

 year, oats. The land is too light for wheat save in one or 

 two fields. 



Under this rotation, clover (" seeds ") comes every 

 twelfth year ; it is sown in the spring corn. The 

 leguminous area is " made up " with lucerne ; this is 

 left down four, five, or six years, according to the con- 

 dition of the crop. If the land is clean, three or four 

 successive grain crops are grown ; to grow a grain 

 crop after a grain crop greatly cheapens the cost of 

 production. 



As an example of yet another variation Mr. Prout 

 has grown corn, chiefly wheat, consecutively for fifty 



