FARM MANAGEMENT PRACTICE OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 83 
seven groups are all above the average in labor income. Undoubt- 
edly, a good deal depends on the quality of the live stock kept. A 
farm having a large herd of cows of very high quality could probably 
afford to ignore the matter of diversity of business to a much greater 
extent than one having a herd of medium quality. In other words, 
quality of business may, within limits, compensate for lack of di- 
versity of business. 
THE STANDARD ROTATION. 
We have already seen that as early as the latter part of the eight- 
eenth century there began to be practiced in Chester County a crop 
rotation consisting essentially of corn the first year after sod; flax, 
oats, and barley the second year; wheat the third year, followed by 
grass, usually clover or clover and timothy. This rotation is said 
to have become quite general as early as 1820. Essentially the same 
rotation is described as being common in 1853. This general form 
of rotation persists to-day, and is quite commonly practiced, though 
_ with some modifications. The more usual form of it as now prac- 
ticed is: First year, corn; second year, part corn, part potatoes, and 
part oats or a combination of any two of these; third year, wheat; 
fourth and fifth years, hay, usually clover and timothy. Some far- 
mers omit potatoes, some the oats (replacing them usually by corn), 
while there is considerable variation in the length of time the meadow 
is maintained before plowing it up for corn again. In previous 
tables the acreage of these crops has been given in percentage of the 
entire crop area on the farm, including miscellaneous field crops and 
orchards. In Table XLIX the percentages are reduced to the basis 
of the crops mentioned. 
TABLE XLIX.—The standard rotation. 
Average Suggested rotations. 
: acreage 
Year. Crop. on 378 
farms.@ 5-year. 6-year. 
‘ Per cent. Per cent. Wear: Per cent. 
BERS Gee eft oe oe eee Cornseney- 2050) |i CORE eee 20)| First-<= =<: Corns 32--- 162 
Cormmeste 340) || Comin. -555- 14 
2G Potatoes . 6.2 | Potatoes. . 6 
Oats...... 6.6 Second==-2| Cornse—e- 163 
; Potatoes . 6 
ind, Wheat.... 18.8 | Wheat.... 200 | Rhind sss. Annual 
hay crop 102 
Fourth and fifth b...... aye A5eAa| Elan eer 40 | Fourth....| Wheat.... 162 
Fifth and 
Seether ELA yee eee 334 
a Counting only the crops mentioned in this table. 
b Sometimes sixth also. 
