Roads, lanes, fences, shade trees, drains and irriga tion ditches.
The plans for rotating crops proposed in this article call for the gradual fencing of a new farm, by which the expense may be distributed over sev eral years at no serious inconvenience to the farm ing operations. The purpose is each year to fence the pasture, that being made a part of the crop rotation system. In this way an eight-year rotation on eight fields, in which a field is seeded to grasses each year and another grass field is broken up, will require eight years to fence the farm. It is not desirable to have too many permanent division fences between the several fields. Rather, the field division fences may be made temporary and easily movable. A permanent fence is a nuisance in the tilling of the land and the cultivation of the crop ; it makes a harbor for weeds and throws good fer tile soil out of use for cropping. However, it is not the purpose of this article to discuss the fence question. [See Vol. I, Chap. VII.] From the plans already mentioned it is clear that, so far as possible, all roads and lanes that are neces sary in getting to and from the several fields should follow the natural division lines of the land. In laying out new fields and in building permanent fences, this rule should be observed also. This is an element of handiness in measuring the area of fields, in keeping records, and in having an easy and accurate means of describing and locating each field in a farm. Permanent lanes with permanent fences should be established, leading from the barns and building site to the center of the farm, and from thence to the pasture and to every field that is included in the regular crop rotation system. By such an arrangement the live-stock may be sent to pasture without a driver, and if properly treated the cows will be at the bars hi the evening when the farmer is ready to milk them. In certain sec tions of the country it is very important, and often necessary, to plant hedges and shade trees for the purpose of protection against wind and storms.
Usually it is not desirable to have many hedges around the fields ; and, although shade trees are necessary in the pasture, it is not best to distribute them over the field, but to have a group of trees in one corner or in some spot which takes little of the tillable land and does not interfere with the farm ing operations.
As regards drainage and irrigation ditches, the natural lay of the land will determine largely where they must be placed. In every well-regulated farm a careful survey should be made and a thorough system of drainage established, so that the surface water may be readily removed from the yards and fields and carried to the natural drainage channels, and not left where it may damage the land and growing crops and form cesspools for the breed ing of diseases. It is desirable in some sections of the country to build artificial ponds and lakes for catching the drainage water. Such places should not be made the wallows for cattle and swine, but should be surrounded with dry, grassy banks and kept clean and wholesome, otherwise they may be come the breeding places for injurious germs and thus the source of disease.
A map of the farm.
An outline map of the farm is valuable and handy. It may often save steps in the directing of workmen and others to different parts of the farm. On a very large farm a map is almost a necessity. By means of a set of outline maps, very condensed records of the cropping of the different fields on the farm may be kept each year. The map should be large enough to note not only the crops growing on each field, but the dates of planting and harvest ing, yield per acre, date of plowing, and other records of importance. A better plan still is to have a map small enough to be bound in book form, introducing with each map several blank pages on which the notes relating to each field may be writ ten. Such maps may be readily printed at small expense from a zinc etching prepared from an orig inal inked line drawing.