88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



when in blossom, before the seed is formed, and selling all to 

 the liveryman as straw, can be commended, as it makes a 

 profitable cash crop, used in this way. 



We are experimenting this year with wheat sown on a small 

 portion of our fields, and if we find the spring-sown clover in 

 this crop will come out successfully, after harvesting the 

 wheat for grain, we shall adopt that plan, and depend on 

 clover alone for our summer silage. The price of wheat and 

 the need of it in poultry feeding makes this plan worthy of 

 a trial, and we hope to make a success of it in this connection 

 in our crop system. 



We now come to the last year of our rotation system. We 

 have one-third of our tillable area in clover, one-third in rye 

 and clover or wheat and clover, if the latter proves successful, 

 and the balance of our fields we need for corn. In the fall or 

 winter, or as early in the spring as possible, we spread 10 loads 

 of manure per acre on our clover fields, and late in April or 

 early in May we spread 15 loads of manure per acre for the 

 corn crop. After we have once gone over our fields with this 

 three-year rotation, we have a clover sod to plant our corn on, 

 and this makes an ideal soil for our corn crop. We plant 

 about May 15, if the season is right, with Eureka or some 

 other large-growing corn, using 12 to 14 quarts to the acre, 

 planted with a two-row planter. We advise applying at this 

 time 150 to 200 pounds of a high-grade fertilizer, with the 

 planter. This starts the corn along with a rush, and makes 

 easier the work of keeping the weeds down early in the season, 

 before the rush of other work. After the corn is harvested we 

 again sow with rye or wheat, using one-half ton of lime, as 

 previously stated, and make all snug for the winter. This 

 completes our three-year system, and we then go on the follow- 

 ing seasons planting corn on the second-year clover sod, and 

 so on each year until we find some better way. 



If alfalfa could be grown on these tillable fields, we could 

 extend our rotation s_ystem two or three years, and also ]>rovide 

 the most valuable of all forage crops for our dairy herds. I 

 think we can apply to our crop system the philosophy of Saint 

 Paul to the Thossalonians, where he said, " Prove all things; 

 hold fast that which is good." Lot us study fen- a moniont the 



