Norwich bulletin., 1915-01-09
LAYING PLANS FOR FUTURE FARM WORK

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 cwritten Specially for The Bunetin.)
 wonder how many of us "prac- tIcaI farmers plan out our caul- paigus?
 Of course we have our rotations three. four or five years to each. as the case may he and as our opinions dictate. Those we keep up and fol- low. But I mean something more than
 How many of us take the whole farm into consideration and plan out for 1t 8 system of cultivation and cropping to cover long series or wears and to include 1t all?
 The seed catalogues fer 1915 are be- ginning to come in, and they are my usual signal that it is time to start my garden diagram for the year.
 When l began gardening tentative ". without any experience at the trade and without any land specially well tltted for that sort Of work used to blow the round when ! could in the spring. spread on such manure as l had all over j+ and then put in my seeds in a. sort of helter- -Skelter way, wherever it seemed haudiest and most promising. at the time.
 But 1t didn't take rue more than two seasons of experiment to find that this sort of thing kept nc all summer stubbing my toes oyer my own mis- takes.
 For Illustration: have oue rather long strip of ground. i. e., long in proportion to It's width. Its longest axis runs east and west. One end is pretty good corn land; the other is just & gravel bank which will grow beans. but little else in the way of a crop. So I decided to put corn on the good end and beans on the poor end. Of course, I wanted rnY rows to run north and South,-my rows of beans, that is. They are sOwed In drills and cultivated but one way, while the corn Is in check-rows and cultivate both ways I planted the corn first. but put in the beans before the corn came up sufficient to see the rows.
 We'll when both crops got into sight T found that my north and south bean r0W6 cut SGua~~ against my horse s path, when l came to Cultivating that way. l had either to stop the horse inside the corn and turn him around on 1t, at th cost of many trampled down hills, or drive across two rows of beans and turn him on them to their complete destruction.
 Next year I planned ahead. a little, and put n.y. bean-roWS SC they run east and west. Tn that way am able first to cultivate the short rows of corn across the long patch and then, when I turn and go lengthwise, to keep right on through the rows of beans, as we'll
 l'lI admit that really long headed chap would have foreseen this, before he ever planted 8 bean. But I'm not specially gifted that way. The plant ing had to be done in a hurry, as weather permitted. The thought of cultivation wasn't in my mind at the time; just the necessity of getting those seeds in and getting them in right off without any fussinE or de- l7N fp consider TYyTnTa aX-pn+11a Iit5az
 We'll. that was only one small item in the line Of nv early mistakes. There were others which cost me more trou- bie and reduced my profit more So got Into the habit of taking the com paTatlve leisure Of winter time to make rough sketch-maps of the gar dens and plan out every crop which was going into them.
 In making this map, I consider all sorts of things-al1 sorts of contin- gencies. I have found, for instance that certain small crops do better if rotated from one place to another each year. ! have also found out that certain other crops do better, with me- on land which Is naturally suited tO them, regardless of rotation. So ] begin my map by first marking out the shape and area of the plots which are going into onions and beets and SWeet-COTl and extra early peas and one or two other things that go year after year, in the same place. Please don't imagine that Pm suggesting that non-rOtatiOn is q good rule for others to follow in all or any of these crops. I'm simply telling what I've found advisable, in my local condi- tions.
 Then take u@ earlv potatoes. Those I have to rotate because Eve found that, in such highly manured ground aks mine has to be. potatoes are almost sure to become scabby if raised a second or third time on the same patch. It seems to make no difference whether they are soaked in fornalin manure or commercial fertilizer: whether they are soaked to forrnalin solution or not: the scab. Last sea son I simply had to plant potatoes for the third time on the same plot. As a result ] had to sell nearly half the bulk of my crop to q neighboring chicken grower for chicken-feed. at len cents Q bushel. Which wasn't half what it cost me to raise them.
 Having decided on a new place for potatoes then come cabbage. That also, can't raise successfully two years in succession on the same ground. If I attempt ft club-roof ap- pears, the heads grow slowly and small, q great percentage refuse to head at all So new place has to be planned out for the cabbage, cauli- flower Brussels sprouts, etc
 And so 1t "oes. Before a single seed