The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-03-08
CROP ROTATION.
Too Much limo thy-A Four Years Rota-
tion-Limin& Land.

Too Much limo thy-A Four Years Rota-
tion-Liming Land.
while visiting an old and fertile
agricultural section Of our county was
struck by the Importance attached by
every one to stable manure as prime
requisite In the five years rotation that
included corn, oats, wheat, clover and
timothy. The sod land, broken for corn,
must have its dressing Of manure. The
manure is spread in the fall, If the sup
ply be sufficient, and the sod is then
broken and left exposed to winter frosts.
The undressed sod is broken and top
dressed during the winter. In any event
there must be an application of stable
fertilizer. Such practice calls for the
feeding Of all the corn, oats and hay
upon the farm, and the income must be
got from live stock and wheat. Such
farm methods are exceptionally safe, SC
far as maintenance of fertility is con-
cerned.' In this connection a writer in
Farm and Fireside says:
In this rotation timothy is sown with
the wheat in the fall, and clover is sown
in the spring. The first crop of hay is
usually chiefly clover, although it is
mixed hay, but the hay crop the second
year is practically all timothy. AS none
Of the hay is intended for market it
seems to me that the timothy is too
prominent among the crops of these
farms. The feeding of stock is not al
ways profitable, and the conversion of
all farm products, wheat excepted, into
manure is practioed only for sake of soil
fertility, less price often being realiz-
ed in feeding than could be secured by
direct sales. Timothy is not one of our
best feeds, and it is hard on land. The
question then is, Why not reduce the
amount of this grass, and while thus
reducing the total supply of manure
also cause decrease in the need of it?
When timothy hay is a profitable
market crop. this five years rotation or
even longer one that furnishes more
crops of hay is defensible if means of
maintaining fertility are possible; but
write of men who sell no hay. In such
cases four years rotation seems bet
ter. The year of timothy is dropped
out, and heavy clover sod is rotted in
the soil once in every four years. The
year of timothy exhausts much Of the
strength added by the preceding clover,
and the supply of manure must then be
large The four years rotation brings
III the corn oftener in long series of
years, and that plant furnishes two or
three fold the amount got from timothy.
1t also furnishes more wheat-a cash
article. It maintains fertility more
effectually because it gives a better sod
to the soil and does it at shorter inter-
walls than in the longer rotation.
In such a rotation of crops lime is ap-
Piled every five or ten years, and the
rule seems to be to use about so bushels
to the acre every five years, OF about
double that amount every ten years.
Good farmers say that the lime is effect
i've no matter when applied or to what
crops. This is doubtless true, but it is
highly probable that the most econom-
ical application may be made in the
spring on an inverted sod. This is true
only because light application under
these circumstances may be as effective
as heavier applications at other times.
1t can be mixed with the soil at once
and has store Of organic matter to
work upon. Lime tends to sink, and
hence the objection to blowing it under.
1t costs money just as fertilizer does,
and the smaller the application in Sc
curing certain effect the more econom-
ioal it is