METHODS OF PRODUCTION 00 



years. The fact is that the good farmer who keeps his 

 land clean is master of, instead of slave to, his rotation ; 

 and he can vary his cropping to suit the needs of 

 the year — provided certain underlying principles arc 

 observed. The main object must be not only to have a 

 heavy yield in this or that field, but to see that no part 

 of the farm is producing only half crops ; also to see 

 that the grass land is producing the maximum amount 

 of which it is capable. 



The four-year rotation is still adhered to by our 

 indifferent farmers — it is their sheet-anchor — and were 

 it suddenly abolished they would find themselves in great 

 difficulties. 



Nevertheless the time has come to recognize that, 

 for the industry as a w^hole, the four-course system 

 is no longer necessary ; and that a radical change, 

 gradually and scientifically introduced, would improve 

 our agriculture and increase the yield from the soil. 



GRASS versus .'arable land 



Coming now to the main apportionment of the whole 

 farm : in the eastern or corn-growing counties two-thirds 

 was supposed to be under plough and one-thirtl under 

 grass, and in the west and south of England one-third 

 under plough and two-thirds under grass. This gives 

 only a ver)' rough idea of the proportion of arable to 

 grass, for there were infinite variations according to the 

 nature of the farm. But this is definite, even when the 

 area of arable is largest : the proportion of grass land 

 to the whole is larger than on the Continent. And here 

 we come to the root of the whole matter ; not only arc 

 there methods of handling arable land which will 

 profitably produce more food than the four-year shift, 



