26 BULLETIN UO, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE, 



three-crop rotation more grew corn and wheat one year each and then 

 seeded to grass, which remained for an indefinite nnmber of years, 

 depending upon the nnmber of years the grass maintained a good 

 stand. 



None of the farmers reported a definite time period for the two- 

 crop rotation of corn and grass. Their main object is to keep a field 

 in grass as long as possible. On the several fields used for the rota- 

 tion, the one with poorest stand of grass is broken and planted to 

 corn. In the fall, after the corn is cut, the land is prepared, in the 

 same manner that land in corn was usually prepared for wheat, and 

 seeded to grass alone. Usually cloA'er is sown on this land the spring 

 following. This practice seems to be just as successful in obtaining 

 a stand of grass as when seeding with wheat. 



A few farmers grew oats in their rotation, making a four-crop 

 rotation of corn, oats, and wheat one year each, and grass for an 

 indefinite number of years, usually two or more. 



Some of the farmers reported no rotation, meaning that there was 

 such irregularity in the succession of crops on their farms that no 

 definite rotation prevailed. Following a crop of corn the land might 

 be seeded to wheat or grass, or it might be bare over winter and 

 seeded to oats the following spring. On individual farms with sev- 

 eral rotation fields in grass, it frequently happened that there was a 

 greater acreage with a poor stand of grass than the farmer cared to 

 put in corn, in which case he sometimes put part of this acreage in 

 oats and then seeded again to grass, and sometimes sowed wheat, 

 followed by gTass. 



In all these rotations the grass crop was usually composed of 

 timothy and clover mixed, although sometimes timothy was seeded 

 alone, and occasionally redtop or bluegrass was seeded with the 

 timothy or with the timothy and clover. In the three- and four-j^ear 

 rotations mentioned, the grass crop was invariably cut for hay, but 

 in those rotations extending over an indefinite number of years, after 

 being cut for hay from one to three years, it was sometimes pastured a 

 few years. 



The fact that practically one-fourth of the crop land was in corn, 

 one-fourth in small grains (mainly wheat), and nearly one-half in 

 hay, would seem to indicate that a four-year rotation of corn and 

 wheat, one year each, and hay, two years, was a standard for this 

 area. However, from a study of the individual farms, it by no 

 means appears that a majority of the farmers practiced such rotation. 

 Yet the farmers who practiced this rotation have accomplished more 

 in the last five years than those who did not. There was more imi- 

 formity in the amount and variety of ci'ops they produced; they 

 accomplished more per man and per horse; they had better crop 

 yields ; they made more money. 



