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cereal grasses, gives the farm sufficient fodder for his cattle. Here I shall 

 take the opportunity of saying a few words about the sowing of grass. 

 Grass cannot be included in the rotations and for this reason. Perrenial 

 green fodder has a very long root-system even extending to several 

 fathoms. All that thickness of soil must hold useful water, otherwise the 

 roots will not develope. Meanwhile in our soil at a depth of about 3'/2 

 to 4' 'J feet the intermediate dry layer commences, about 2','-.' to 3' ■.> feet 

 thick which stops the developement of the roots profoundly. And the only 

 v.'ay of distinging the immediate dry layer is to moisten it that is to 

 leave the field under bare fallow (fig. 18). Therefore the only method 

 which will guarantee success in cultivating perennial green fodder in 

 places with a small quantity of atmospheric deposit, is to sow it on bare 

 fallow. The most suitable fodder for the extreme south must be reckoned 

 lucerne and for the more northerly esparcet. In culture of green fodder 

 all depends upon the quantity of water held in the deeper soil horizons 

 accessible to roots in the 2-nd, 3-rd and subsequent years, and this 

 circumstance shows, how many years the fodder will keep preserving 

 the farming thickness of grass when standing. In favourable conditions 

 lucerne can remain on one place 5 or 6 years. On the Odessa experi- 

 ment field there were occasions when it remained 9 years giving in the 

 first four year 1 or 2 mowings of hay and in the last five years-yearly 

 mowings for grain and, if when it was possible also for hay. 



In view of all these considerations, perennial grass cannot be in- 

 cluded in rotations. It is more practical to sow it on field part outside 

 the rotation, which at any moment when the grass begins to thin out, 

 may be used for rotation and a new area can be put under grass. 



An increase of fodder matter in farm is undoubtedly necessary for 

 our south, where cattle breeding has always meet with unsurmountable 

 obstacles in the shape of the lack of fodders. 



And so a correct seed rotution based not onty on a seed chanp:e 

 but also on root chang,e, is a great remedy for contending against dro- 

 ugfit, as it averts tlie perrennial drying up of tfie root-infmbited soil layer. 



The extirpation of weeds on the whole space of the land possession 

 and a correct rotation of crops with a persistent alternation of cereal 

 grasses and thourough ploughed plants, are measures of fighting against 

 drought which are accessible to every farmer and their accomplishment 

 is not dependent upon the nearest neighbours. 



But for all that the quantity of atmospheric deposits in steppe 

 black-soil districts is so small that its increab-.ig is only desirable. If 

 the adoption of the above technical measures and the organization of 

 seed rotations depend only upon the wishe^' of separate farmers and are 

 under the power of every separate person, a change in the climatic 



