Rotations, 
25 
these farms to suit these special crops. The same principle 
applies as regards many local markets where there may be a 
good demand for one product like potatoes or hay, which the 
farmers lay themselves out to supply and adapt their cropping 
to suit accordingly. 
6. Rotation of live stock. 
Following on the changing of the crops there is a corres- 
ponding change of the live stock on the fields, and this is not 
only desirable but necessary. On pastures we do not always 
see this where there is a great extent per head, but we know 
that they get “ tainted ” from perpetual sheep-feeding, they 
get “sick” of horse-feeding, and so on, and the same thing 
applies to arable land where, say, sheep are folded, or live 
stock grazed on temporary pastures. Further, the droppings 
of the animals, especially from sheep folded on the land, are 
one of the important means of keeping up the fertility of the 
soil, and consequently feeding the live stock on different fields 
in succession is a necessity from this point of view. The 
rotation of the live stock, if possible, is just as necessary as 
that of the crops, and of course depends on that of the latter, 
and is important from a health point of view as well as from 
that of the use of the crops or the manuring of the land. 
It is quite impossible to give a list of all the rotations that 
have been, or are, practised throughout the country, and a 
selection will be offered later on by way of illustration of the 
various systems in vogue. But we may remark that while 
the shortest rotation may be taken at two years, the longest 
one appears to be eight years — at least the writer has not 
come across one of greater length. Where the land is left 
down for an indefinite number of years in “ seeds ” or in 
lucerne, &c., the rotation cannot be defined, of course, and in 
the same way any rotation can be lengthened by leaving the 
grass alone. 
It is not possible to plan an ideal rotation, or rather, we 
find that an ideal rotation would never fit in with all the 
manifold circumstances — such as soil, climate, labour, markets, 
&c. — which influence and control these matters. An American 
authority gives an ideal rotation for the United States as 
maize, potatoes, wheat, clover. The clover sod is manured 
heavily in preparation for the maize, and the two corn crops 
alternate with roots and clover. The objections to it from a 
British point of view is that the clover comes too often — as it 
is merely another version of the Norfolk four-course — and 
something else would have to be substituted every second 
series. This liability to fail is not confined to clover, and we 
are sometimes compelled to depart from a hard and fast rule 
