SUMMER-FALLOWING . 



Summer-fallowing as an agricultural practice, although not now fol- 

 lowed to the same extent as formerly in the older provinces, owing to the 

 more general adoption of mixed farming with a short rotation, in which hoed 

 crops are most useful in cleaning the land of weeds, is essentially necessary 

 in those parts of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, where the conser- 

 vation of moisture in the soil is of great importance, the farms are large, 

 labour is scarce and the time forxultivating the land in autumn and spring 

 is limited. 



The method of summer-fallowing recommended is : to plough deeply 

 (so as to get a suitable seed bed) early in summer as soon after seeding as 

 possible; harrow the same day the ploughingjs done, so as to hold in the 

 largest amount of moisture, and then prevent a growth of weeds on this land 

 by three or at most four cultivations before winter sets in. This may be done 

 with any kind of cultivator or a disk harrow. 



It is recommended for most parts of the West to summer-fallow land 

 once in three years. Plough and cultivate the first year. Grow grain 

 the second year and, except in the driest districts, take one crop more off 

 stubble. Then summer-fallow again. One ploughing of summer-fallow gives 

 the best results, because in wet years a second deep ploughing will tend to 

 produce too much growth and delay the ripening of the grain. Crops grown 

 on stubble do not yield quite so well as on summer-fallow, but the grain 

 ripens earlier and in windy sections tliere is less danger of the soil drifting. 

 A second crop should never be sown on stubble. There has been a tendency 

 in some parts of the West to put off the ploughing of land to be summer- 

 fallowed, as long as possible, so as to reduce the subsequent labour of har- 

 rowing and cultivating. The danger, however, of ploughing down seeds of 

 several kinds of winter annuals, which in the dry climate of Manitoba and 

 the North-western Provinces are sufficiently developed to ripen after being 

 ploughed down, is so great that, as recommended by Mr. Angus Mackay, 

 the work should be begun directly after seeding is finished. 



SHORT ROTATION OF CHOPS. 



As a means of keeping farms free of weeds there are few methods of 

 working land which give such good results as a systematic short rotation of 

 crops with regular seeding down to grass or clover at short intervals. 



In the Prairie Provinces mixed farming has not yet been very widely 

 adopted. This has been largely due to local considerations, such as inade- 

 quate transportation facilities, lack of farm laborers, and the small amount 

 of stock kept on farms, added to the undoubted attractiveness of the quick 

 returns from growing wheat for a man with limited capital, who does not 

 think enough of the rapid exhaustion of his soil from growing one kind 

 of crop year after year. The increase of weeds, however, is Nature's pro- 

 test against a one-year system. Nevertheless, at the present time great 

 progress is noticeable in the West, in seeding down more land to hay and 

 pasture and in increasing the number of cattle, horses and sheep, necessary 

 to consume crops of a mixed nature. The following short rotation is 

 recommended for the East by Mr. J. H. Grisdale, Agriculturist of the Cen- 

 tral Experimental 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-ploughed 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 



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