INTRODUCTORY 17 



for that purpose should be brought under cultivation early in 

 the season. 



SHORT ROTATION OF CROPS. 



To keep farms free from weeds, few methods give such good 

 results as a systematic short rotation of crops, with regular 

 seeding down to grass or clover at short intervals. 



Weeds are most in evidence in districts where the pro- 

 duction of cereal grains predominates and where the systematic 

 alternation of crops is not generally practiced. Many weeds 

 ripen their seeds with cereal grains and the seeds are scattered 

 during harvest. When a cereal crop is followed by early clover, 

 the weeds in the clover may be cut before they are mature. 

 The hay crop of the second year after seeding is not infested 

 with weeds because a fresh supply of the seeds has not been 

 brought to the surface by cultivation. The removal of the 

 hay crop of the second year affords an opportunity for a summer- 

 fallow, preparatory to the production of a hoed or some other 

 cleaning crop. 



The following short rotation is recommended for the eastern 

 provinces by J . H. Grisdale, Agriculturist of the Central Experi- 

 mental Farm: 



''To destroy weeds, probably the best rotation possible is 

 one of three years duration including clover and mixed hay, 

 followed by roots or corn, the land shallow-plowed in fall and 

 sown to grain the next spring with ten pounds of red clover and 

 twelve pounds of timothy per acre. (When the land is heavy 

 or clayey, the ten pounds of red clover may be replaced by six 

 pounds of red clover and two of alsike.) If a portion of the arable 

 land must be used for pasture, then the land might be allowed 

 to remain under grass or hay for two years instead of one year, 

 the second being used for pasture, thus extending the three- 

 year into a four-year rotation. The pasture land in the four- 

 year rotation, or the hay land in the three-year rotation, should 

 be broken up early in August and cultivated at intervals to 

 destroy the successive growths of weeds as they appear. The 



