Rotations. 
23 
experience has shown that the land had always be better 
kept in tilth for cropping purposes, and the long “ layer ” kept 
out of the rotation. 
Now, where there is a sufficiency of rainfall, the furrow- 
slice cut out of a grass field is better washed down in winter 
time, the extra moisture supplies the roots of the corn in 
summer, and it can get over the trouble of hollow ground and 
wireworm, and thus all the benefits of a “ rest ” from growing 
grass are obtained where there is heavier rainfall without any 
drawbacks. 
2. Arrangement of fields. 
There is another circumstance which indirectly, but never- 
theless very greatly, influences the rotation adopted on a 
particular farm. This is the size, number, and position of the 
fields on a farm. It is obvious that whatever scheme of 
cro])ping is adopted it is a convenience, and indeed a necessity, 
to fit it into the fields of the farm. If there are four fields 
then a four-course shift is the most suitable ; if seven fields 
then a seven-course shift, and so on. A little figuring will 
show that you cannot fit four courses on to six fields or five 
courses on to seven without getting into a muddle as to the 
succession after two or three years. It is, of course, quite 
possible to alter the fields to suit a different scheme, but this is 
not a tenant’s job, while on most farms the fields have been 
arranged as they now are for at least half a century, and it is 
easier to alter a rotation to suit the fields than to alter the fields 
to suit a rotation. Further, the dividing up of a field into 
patches of different kinds of crop is not methodical, though it 
is often done, and therefore the working of a rotation which 
adapts itself to the fields as they already exist on a farm is 
much the best, and this is often an important factor in deciding 
the matter. 
The opposite process— making the fields to suit the 
rotation— was largely carried out, however, some two genera- 
tions ago now. When the era of making large farms set in, 
an important part of the process was the rooting up of 
thousands of miles of fences which divided the small fields 
from one another. Two or three intermediate fences were 
removed so as to make one large field out of several small 
ones, and only those fences were left which were suitable as 
boundary lines for large ones, but the new fields were planned 
out more or less to suit a scheme of cropping, and very often 
that scheme holds to the present day. 
3. Distribution of labour. 
Rotations fit in very well with dividing the work of the 
farm evenly over the year. In a new country like to that we 
