ROTATION OF CROPS. 413 



process would result in a few years in such an improvement in fertility, that 

 30 bushels of wheat would be averaged per acre, 80 bushels of corn, four 

 tons of hay and so on. Add to the large increase in the feeding crops, shel- 

 ter for the stock and an economic and scientific method of feeding, the farm 

 would be enabled to keep 300 head when now it only half keeps 100 or less. 

 '■'The benefits to be derived from a system like this are numerous. First, 

 it divides the work throughout the year. With only 20 acres of oats to put 

 in in the spring on land plowed in the fall, it is a short job, and out of the 

 way in time to get the corn planted in prime shape. So it is with all of the 

 crops ; each is out of the way of the other, and no hurry to get through. 

 Then with the large amount of feed to handle and stock to care for in the 

 winter the help needed in the summer is needed in the winter, and thus the 

 men are retained in service from year to year." 



EOTATION OF CROPS. 



BY PROF. J. W. SANBORiT, OF THE MISSOURI UlflVERSITY. 

 [From the Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science.] 



This paper will give the results of a practical test of the influence of rota- 

 tion of crops. It will not be without its interest to men of science, as a 

 confirmation of profound scientific reasons favoring crop rotation in com- 

 mercial farming. 



That it does not cover soil analyses at the start of the trial, and at the 

 end of the first rotation period, nor analyses of the products, and further 

 critical inquiry, is wholly due to the fact that the trials were made from the 

 revenue of a poorly equipped farm, without any outside resources whatever. 

 The actual crop results of a rotation were believed to amply justify such a 

 trial ; for if it could be shown that applied science is practicable and econom- 

 ical in its relations to our system of crop growth, scientific agriculture would 

 be aided thereby. 



The rotation carried forward and to be reported was not either a good 

 scientific or a good practical rotation, yet of some merit in each direction. 

 Its character was determined by the purpose and apparent necessity to start 

 with wheat for all of the five plats, and to limit it to a four years' course. 



In any good rotation in Missouri, into which wheat enters, clover should 

 precede wheat. The test of the efficacy of the rotation to be related was to 

 be found in the fifth crop, when all plats again start the second rotation 

 round with wheat; this fifth year crop of wheat to be the measure of the 

 efficacy of rotation. 



The principles of rotation, which rest upon the diverse root areas occupied 

 by the various plants; upon the character for soil solution of the acids 

 secreted by their roots ; upon their leaf characters ; upon the various pro- 

 portions of plant-food elements used in growth; upon the various parts of 

 the season in which they mature; upon the relation of rotation to insect and 

 fungus enemies, and to several other essential points or laws involved are 

 such that almost any rotation may be safely counted upon to give larger 



