96 



DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 



With this plan of rotation practiced successfully, 

 each of the eight fields in the farm will have been 

 in alfalfa four years and in grass four years at the 

 end of sixteen years of cropping, and in this period 

 the entire farm will have been manured twice. 

 Meanwhile four fields should have produced, each 

 year, large crops of corn and grain. There is 

 little question that a farm thus managed may be 

 even more fertile at the end of the sixteen years 

 than it was at the beginning. 



Rotation Plan No. 3. 

 The farm plan, showing crops on all fields for one year. 



Rotation plan, or order of crops on each field. 



First year Grass. 



Second year Pasture (manured). 



Third year Corn plus 



Fourth year Com. 



Fifth year Small grain. 



Sixth year Wheat (seed to | 



The above is a six-year rotation and cannot be 

 well adapted to eight fields; it is given to show 

 how crops may be arranged for a smaller number 

 of fields. 



Rotation Plan No. 4. 



A Sixteen -year Rotation with Alfalfa, Small Gkain 

 AND Corn on Four Fields. 



* It is assumed that this farm has h^en cropped largely with corn and small grains and 

 has received little rotation of crops. No alfalfa is growing on the farm in 1906, when field 

 "A" is seeded. The rotation really h'egins in 1907. 



+ Observe that this is a repetition of 1907 crops: viz., this rotation is repeated every six- 

 teen years, each of the four fields having received a rotation of four years in alfalfa. 



{S)=Seed to alfalfa in fall. (B)=Break alfalfa sod, (This should he done in the spring 

 when the new catch of alfalfa by fall seeding is assured.) (CO)=Catch-crop, or green-manur- 

 ing crop, planted in the stnbblo after the small grain is harvested. (M)=A dressing of barn- 

 yard manure applied in the fall and winter on alfalfa as a surface dressing, or on corn-stubble 

 land and plowed under previous to planting the following crop of corn. 



This plan of rotation is more readily understood in 

 this way: It is really a three-year rotation on three 

 fields, one of the four fields being kept continually 

 in alfalfa, as shown in the plan. The order of the 

 rotation on each field is corn, followed by corn, 

 followed by small grain. Thus, two fields of corn, 

 one of small grain and one of alfalfa are grown on 

 the farm each year. At the end of four years the 

 field in alfalfa, which has not been included in the 

 three-year rotation, is plowed and planted to corn 

 the succeeding season, while one of the three fields 

 which has been in the regular rotation is seeded to' 

 alfalfa and comes out of the regular three-year 

 rotation plan, remaining in alfalfa for four years, 

 when this field is plowed and planted to corn and 

 becomes one of the fields in the three-year rotation 

 series; then another field that has been seeded to 

 alfalfa is thrown out of the regular rotation sys- 

 tem, and so on. It will be observed that such a 

 plan may be followed with five fields, six fields, or, 

 in fact, any number of fields. With four fields, by 

 the method described, one-fourth of the farm is 

 kept continually in alfalfa. With five fields, one- 

 fifth of the farm would be in alfalfa each year, and 

 it would take twenty years for the alfalfa rotation 

 to be carried out on all the fields. With three fields, 

 one-third of the farm would be in alfalfa all the 

 time and the rotation system would be completed in 

 twelve years. 



Manure and fertilizers. 



There is no waste on the farm which is so wanton 

 and inexcusable as the too common waste of stable 

 and barnyard manure. It is true that it is neces- 

 sary to have well-drained 

 yards, yet a side-hill barn- 

 yard may result in a great 

 loss of the soluble ele- 

 ments of the manure un- 

 less provision is made for 

 spreading the drainage 

 from such yards over 

 meadows or pastures. 

 Also, in an open barnyard 

 a liberal use of straw or 

 other absorbents will 

 often save in manure 

 much more than the value 

 of the bedding. 



Probably the most eco- 

 nomical method of hand- 

 ling manure is to haul it 

 directly to the fields as 

 fast as it is made and 

 spread it at once. This is 

 practicable in the hand- 

 ling of stable manure, 

 but not with manure in 

 open yards and sheds. 

 However, if barnyard ma- 

 nure is exposed in open 

 yards, the sooner it can 

 be removed to the fields 

 after the winter's feeding 

 the better. The manure 



