M— AGRICULTURE 249 



Good examples of this system are the arable dairy farming of Denmark, 

 and the rotations practised in Aberdeenshire in connection with beef 

 production. In both cases animal products are the chief concern of the 

 farmers, and the holdings produce at least a good proportion of the 

 winter rations. The mechanised cereal grower may also adopt the arable- 

 grass rotation, primarily with a view to maintaining soil fertility and to 

 making it easier to get on his land during periods of sketchy weather. 

 A typical rotation would be wheat : grass : grass : wheat. 



Grass-Arable Rotation. — In these rotations the majority of the leys are 

 left down for long periods, from four to as many as twelve, or in some cases 

 even more, years. Most usually as much as three-quarters, or even more, 

 of the farm will be in leys at any one time. Ordinary animal products 

 are the major concern of those following the grass-arable rotation, and it 

 is on these farms that dairy bailing, poultry and pig folding are often such 

 important and telling features of the system. Grass-arable farms at a 

 moment's notice can be turned over to cereal production on a grand scale 

 and hence, if for no other reason, the enormous importance of the system 

 and of farms conducted on this system to our national welfare. What is 

 achieved by this system properly conducted is to farm without wasting 

 a gallon of urine or a blade of grass ; it marries the animal to the soil as 

 can no other system, and ensures that the sod performs its maximum 

 function in respect of soil fertility and crop production, and the sward 

 its maximum function in respect of animal production. The nation is 

 under an incalculable debt to Mr. Hosier and his followers, and this will 

 eventually be realised, for it is not so much what the Hosierites do on 

 their own acres as the principles which underlie their activities. 



To the credit of ley-farming as a whole is to be placed the fact that it 

 makes heavy, or at least reasonable, demands upon labour ; it is less 

 dependent upon imported feeding stuffs than most other systems, and it 

 maintains its acres and its practitioners in a condition of maximum 

 flexibility and ready for anything. 



Nondescript. — In so far as acres are concerned the nondescript system is 

 the one I should imagine most generally practised in England and Wales. 

 I mean when a man practises ley-farming or arable-farming on one 

 corner of his farm, and maintains the rest in permanent grass. Such a 

 system is not incompatible with reasonably high production, but it is 

 under this system that we see some of the worst examples of slovenly, 

 negligent and deplorable husbandry. Our nondescript farms stand as 

 a token of the fact that a system of farming by which under present condi- 

 tions a farmer may contrive just to keep body and soul together is likely 

 to be a system completely out of harmony with the needs of the nation. 

 Many nondescript farms are family farms, and the amount of tillage is a 

 function of the size of the family, or of the number of sons willing to stay 

 at home— both dwindling in number. 



Permanent Grass. — The permanent grass farms are those upon which 

 there is no cultivation of any kind : on some it is still possible to find a 

 plough, but only as a museum specimen. The number of permanent 

 grass farms has demonstrably increased ; such farms are apt to be run 

 together, when generally fences will be more than ever neglected and the 

 whole (and too large) unit operated as a ranch. In the national interest. 



