ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 243 



Saving of Labor Cost in Alfalfa Growing. — Note 

 in this example tliat on the 320-acre farm only 80 

 acres are plowed each year for corn, and 40 acres 

 more plowed and sowed to alfalfa, only 120 acres 

 of plowing in all. The rest of the land needs neither 

 plowing nor planting; 60 acres of it in permanent 

 pasture, 120 acres of it in alfalfa, already sown, 

 already set, needing only the sun and showers to leap 

 into joyful harvest. The saving of labor is tremen- 

 dous on an alfalfa farm rightly managed. 



A Shorter Rotation. — One can use this rotation 

 with corn and alfalfa; Corn one year, wheat one 

 year, the stubble plowed and sown to alfalfa, al- 

 falfa two years, then corn again. This takes four 

 fields and is in many ways a good rotation, and a 

 labor saver, too. How would it figure out on a 300- 

 acre farm? 



Sixty acres are devoted to corn and as this is al- 

 ways on alfalfa sod and must also have manure, we 

 can not well escape a yield of 90 bushels per acre, or 

 anyway 5,000 bushels. Corn stubble well prepared 

 is a good place for wheat. The 60 acres of wheat 

 then we will say produces 25 bushels per acre, or 

 1,500 bushels. The wheat stubble is plowed instantly 

 when the wheat is harvested and sown to alfalfa 

 which is mown for two years. This gives 120 acres 

 in alfalfa each year which will produce 480 or 500 

 tons of hay. Then there are 60 acres of pasture, 

 orchard and woodlot, as in the preceding example. 

 Summing this up we have 5,000 bushels of corn, and 

 selling 4,000. bushels at 50 cents gives $2,000. The 



