24 
Rotations. 
see on the wheat plains of the Far West, the growth of one 
kind of crop year after year means that there is a great burst 
of work at, say, two periods of the year, and then there is 
nothing to do in between. In our own country, where the 
cropping is more intensive, and we want to keep a gang of 
farm workers regularly employed all round the year, a 
divergence of cropping is necessary so that the work done in 
connection with one will dovetail in with the seasons and the 
work done with others. This of course does not necessarily 
imply a rotation of crops, but it enforces growing a variety of 
crops which suit a rotation. 
4. Supply of labour. 
Outside of the influence of soil and climate on the kinds of 
crops and the order of rotation, there is another factor to be 
taken into account. This is the supply of labour. The 
ordinary crops in the shape of corn, roots, hay, &c., can be 
handled by the regular staff of the farm, and the work 
belonging to these can be conveniently dovetailed in, the one 
with the other, round the different seasons. With such crops, 
however, as potatoes, green peas for picking, &c., &c., a great 
crowd of “ casuals ” or women and children are required for a 
few weeks at certain seasons of the year for harvesting 
purposes. If workers of this description cannot be procured, 
or if the horse labour on the farm is insufficient for this 
purpose, then it is obvious that these and similar crops cannot 
be grown, and therefore the rotation must be modified to leave 
them out accordingly. Often one hears a farmer explain, for 
instance, that his farm would suit potato growing or some 
other crop very well, but that he does not grow such because 
he has not a command of labour for the few critical days or 
weeks when it is needed, and the rotation has to be adjusted 
accordingly. 
5. Varieties of crops required to suit markets. 
As all kinds of crops are required to supply the markets as 
well as the demands of the stock on the farm, we have in this 
another reason which enforces the growing of different 
varieties. In addition to this, local markets may demand 
some special product or an extra quantity of some one of the 
ordinary crops, and it pays the local farmers to meet the 
demand. In seed-growing districts this is specially the case, 
and crops are grown for seed which are not met with in 
ordinary farming for this purpose at all. Corn, beans, potatoes, 
&c., have all of them their seed produced in the course of 
ordinary farming. Clover, turnips, mangolds, mustard, &c., 
only have their seed produced in certain favourable districts, 
and thus the system of crop growing has to be modified on 
