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DISCUSSION OP FARM MANAGEMENT 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



By A. M. Teneyck 



Farm management is the application to personal 

 farming of all the facts, principles and sciences 

 related to agriculture. It includes the conducting 

 or organizing of the farm, not only as regards 

 present success and profits, but also with refer- 

 ence to the future fertility of the land. It is the 

 crowning study in agricultural practice. A knowl- 

 edge of the natural sciences and good judgment as 

 to their applications, and skill in producing large 

 crops and fine herds are important factors, but 

 proper executive management of the farm and the 

 farming business is the essential feature which 

 largely determines success. 



The discussion of many subjects may properly 

 be included in a treatise on farm management. The 

 proper consideration of this subject is a study of the 

 farming business in all its wide variations of class, 

 character and place, and it is possible in a short 

 article to discuss briefly only some of the important 

 phases of the subject. 



The subject of crop management and rotations 

 is likely to have strong local color, depending on 

 the region in which the writer lives; but the 

 nature of the problem is similar everywhere and 

 many of the principles can be elucidated by any 

 system. It is probably needless to say that this 

 article is written from the prairie-states point of 

 view. 



Laying out the fields. 



The first essential in introducing a definite sys- 

 tem of soil management and crop rotation is that 

 . the farm be laid out uniformly in fields of nearly 

 equal area. So far as possible the division lines of 

 the several fields should follow the natural division 

 lines of the land, which separate quarter-sections, 

 sections, eighties, forties and so on. The size of 

 the fields will be determined largely by the size 

 of the farm and the kinds and number of crops. 

 Often the average farm is cut up into many small 

 fields, irregular in size and shape, while with large 

 farms sometimes the fields are very irregular in 

 size, some being very large and others small, mak- 

 ing a regular system of crop rotation impossible. 

 Figs. 130 to 133 illustrate practical plans for lay- 

 ing out the fields, and also show how the fields of 

 a badly managed farm may be rearranged and made 

 more uniform in size and shape, thus making it pos- 

 sible to rotate crops in a systematic way and to pre- 

 scribe some definite system of maintaining the soil 

 fertility. When possible, the fields should be laid 

 out in rectangular form, with the longer distance 

 extending east and west in order to give the crop 

 as much protection as possible from the sun and 

 wind. Small grain drilled east and west breaks the 

 force of prevailing southern and northern winds 

 more than the grain drilled north and south ; also, 

 the shading of one row by another seems to be of 

 some benefit to the crop. The writer has observed 

 that wheat drilled north and south rusted and 

 blighted worse than that drilled east and west, 

 and it is often remarked by farmers that larger 



yields of wheat may be secured by planting in drills 

 east and west, than by drilling north and south. 

 Also with corn, in dry, hot climates, there is an 

 advantage in rowing east and west when the corn 

 is planted in drill rows, as is the practice through 

 a great part of the West and South, because the 

 greater shading of the ground, when the corn 

 is planted in this way, prevents to some extent the 

 excessive heating and drying of the soil. 



In some instances, as on sloping land, it may be 

 advisable to lay out the fields with the longer dis- 

 tance extending north and south, in order that the 

 tillage and cultivation of the crop may be across 

 the slope, rather than up and down the slope, and 

 other factors may make it desirable to lay out 

 irregularly formed fields ; but as a rule the prac- 

 tice should be to follow natural division lines of 

 the land in dividing the farm into fields. 



The sketches and diagrams and the discussion 

 refer particularly to the laying out of new farms, 

 or the rearrangement of farms that have not been 

 improved to any extent, but many of the suggested 

 features may be adapted successfully to the remod- 

 eling of old farms. 



Roads, lanes, fences, shade trees, drains and irrigor 

 tion ditches. 



The plans for rotating crops proposed in this 

 article call for the gradual fencing of a new farm, 

 by which the expense may be distributed over sev- 

 eral years at no serious inconvenience to the farm- 

 ing operations. The purpose is each year to fence 

 the pasture, that being made a part of the crop 

 rotation system. In this way an eight-year rotation 

 on eight fields, in which a field is seeded to grasses 

 each year and another grass field is broken up, will 

 require eight years to fence the farm. It is not 

 desirable to have too many permanent division 

 fences between the several fields. Rather, the field 

 division fences may be made temporary and easily 

 movable. A permanent fence is a nuisance in the 

 tilling of the land and the cultivation of the crop ; 

 it makes a harbor for weeds and throws good fer- 

 tile soil out of use for cropping. However, it is 

 not the purpose of this article to discuss the fence 

 question. [See Vol. I, Chap. VII.] 



From the plans already mentioned it is clear that, 

 so far as possible, all roads and lanes that are neces- 

 sary in getting to and from the several fields should 

 follow the natural division lines of the land. In 

 laying out new fields and in building permanent 

 fences, this rule should be observed also. This is an 

 element of handiness in measuring the area of fields, 

 in keeping records, and in having an easy and 

 accurate means of describing and locating each 

 field in a farm. Permanent lanes with permanent 

 fences should be established, leading from the barns 

 and building site to the center of the farm, and 

 from thence to the pasture and to every field that 

 is included in the regular crop rotation system. 

 By such an arrangement the live-stock may be sent 

 to pasture without a driver, and if properly treated 

 the cows will be at the bars in the evening when 

 the farmer is ready to milk them. In certain sec- 

 tions of the country it is very important, and often 



