If the sod were broken the following spring, giving to the soil all the after-math and the mass of roots, its reputation with us would be far better than it is. This would be true even if it had received little fertilizer when seeded or during its existence as a sod, not taking into account any manure spread upon it during the winter previous to its breaking for corn. But the rule is not to break a grass sod when it is fairly heavy. The years of mowing are arranged in the crop-rotation to provide for as many harvests as promise immediate profit. On some land this is two years, and not infrequently it is three. Where farms are difficult of tillage, it is a common practice to let timothy stand until the sod is so thin that the yield of hay is hardly worth the cost of harvesting. Then the thin remnant of sod is broken for corn or other grain, and the poor physical condition of the soil and the low state of available fertility lead to the assertion that timothy is hard on the soil. This is a fair statement of the treatment of this plant on most farms. Object of Sods.--The land's share of its products cannot be disregarded without loss. The legumes and grasses come into the crop-rotation primarily to raise the percentage of organic matter that the land may appropriate to itself within the rotation. Some of the crops usually are for sale from the farm. Most of the crops require tillage, and that is exhaustive of the store of humus. A portion of the time within the rotation belongs to a crop that increases the supply of vegetable matter, unless manure is brought from an outside source. Sods lend themselves well to this purpose because they afford some income, in pasturage or hay, while filling the soil with vegetation. The tendency is to forget the primary purpose of sods in the scheme, and to ignore the requirement of land respecting a due share of what it produces. Attention centers upon the product that may be removed. The portion of the farm reduced in productive power for the moment goes to grass, while the labor and fertilizers are concentrated upon the fields that are broken for grain and vegetables. The removal of all the crop at harvest, and probably the pasturing of after-math, are the only matters of interest that the fields, depleted by cultivation and seeded down to grass, have for the owner until the poor hay yield and the need of a sod for corn draw attention again to them.