26 BULLETIN 116, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
three-crop rotation more grew corn and wheat one year each and then 
seeded to grass, which -remained for an indefinite number of years, 
depending upon the number 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 clover 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 b}^ grass. 
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-year 
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 uni- 
formity in the amount and variety of crops they produced; they 
accomplished more per man and per horse ; they had better crop 
yields ; they made more money. 
