CROPPING FOR MOUNTAIN FARMS 125 



of horses. Another man will in the day mix, spread the 

 artificials, and sow the seed, and if, as in the second 

 year, the crop is winter greens, we have from 20 to 25 

 tons per statute acre of luscious green feeding, at less 

 than the cost of thinning out an acre of turnips. 



In like manner, the cultivation, sowing and manuring 

 of an acre of tares, as in the third year, will scarcely 

 exceed in cost the single operation of ploughing an acre 

 of stubble in preparation for roots. 



A LABOUR-SAVING SYSTEM 



Now, if steep mountain land be tilled on the ordinary 

 system, which means leaving the land idle for a long 

 winter period, when the maximum rainfall occurs a lot 

 of the soil gets washed down the hillside, and one may 

 often see mountain farmers who follow this system 

 carting the soil from the bottom to the top of a field ; 

 — playing at draughts with the land, I call it. 



All this frightful labour is avoided by the continuous- 

 cropping system, because the land is always covered 

 with a crop in winter and need only be idle for a couple 

 of weeks in summer, between the sowings. Hence, just 

 as happens when the land is in grass, washing of the 

 soil is avoided, the growing crop binding the soil 

 together and preventing this. 



Other advantages equally apphcable to any of the 

 rotations mentioned are : — 



1. The land is practically never idle from start to 

 finish of the rotation, and the large amount of fodder 

 grown enables two or three times the number ©f stock 

 to be fed. 



2. More stock means more manure, which increases 

 the humus or vegetable matter in the soil. The fact 

 also that at every cultivation a fairly dense stubble is 

 turned in also helps in this direction. This constant 

 turning in of humus has a marked effect on the physical 



