THE DAIRY FAEMSTBAD 129 



five tons of hay. This will be enough for the horses 

 and cattle, supplemented as it is by silage. 



This is a sort of empirical made-on-paper scheme 

 but it is at least the outline of a cropping system 

 which is fundamentally sound and which will work 

 out well in the dairy belt of the northeastern 

 states. At the same time it may be greatly modi- 

 fied. If the farm is so fortunate as to lie in the 

 limestone country where alfalfa is at home, the 

 area of meadow may be reduced and two crops of 

 oats may be grown in succession before re-seeding. 

 If this is done it wUl double our acreage of oats 

 and we may expect to have enough to help out con- 

 siderably in making up the grain ration. Some- 

 times if hay is scarce, an acre or two of very rich 

 land sown to millet and cured for hay may take 

 the place of two or three times that area of ordi- 

 nary meadow. It may be the wisest plan to follow 

 the practice of some dairymen who have found that 

 the easiest way to grow grain is to plant potatoes 

 and exchange them for mill feed. 



In a general way over most of the dairy belt of 

 the United States, the business is founded on three 

 great crops, (1) grass and the hay legumes (alfalfa 

 and the clovers), (2) com to be harvested mainly 

 through the silo, (3) and a small -grain crop, oats, 

 or better, a mixture of oats, barley and peas sown 

 together. 



It must not be forgotten that the largest single 

 factor in crop production is the weather. There 



