CROPPING SYSTEMS FOR THE BLACK LANDS OF TEXAS. 9 



Thougli some cotton was iirodiiced in tlie black-land counties in 

 the forties and fifties, it did not become an important crop until 

 along in the sixties. Since then it has been the cliief money crop, 

 and the acreage has steadily increased. While it is more suscepti- 

 ble to root-rot than legumes, it has been successfully grown by 

 shiftmg it from place to place on the farm. It is planted either 

 in uninfested fields or after such crops as com, wheat, or oats, 

 which have been shown by experience to be immune to this dis- 

 ease. One farm was found upon which a definite 3-year mixed 

 rotation, including wheat, oats, mUo, corn, sorghum, and cotton, 

 has been maintained for a third of a century. During this time 

 no material loss has been sustained from root-rot, though it is pres- 

 ent in all the fields. 



Legumes have been growTi to only a limited extent on the black 

 soils. Census statistics show that though cowpeas have been grown 

 to a limited extent in the black -land counties no material increase 

 in their acreage has occurred since 1849, The acreage devoted to 

 alfalfa is not largo, because it does not have the permanency as a 

 meadow that it assumes in other sections. It thrives usually from 

 two to five years, then begins to die out in spots as a result of root- 

 rot, and soon becomes unprofitable, Cowpeas and alfalfa being prac- 

 tically the only leguminous crops with which the farmers were 

 familiar, they came to the erroneous conclusion that this class of 

 crops could not be profitably grown, mth the result that the legumes 

 are by no means as extensively grown as their well-known value 

 for grazing, hay, and soil-improvement purposes in other sections 

 would seem to justify. 



ROOT-ROT IN THE BLACK-LAND REGION. 



The Texas root-rot is a fungous disease which attacks the roots of 

 cotton, fruit trees, sweet and white potatoes, and, so far as known, 

 all leguminous crops and many other cultivated plants. The grains 

 and grasses arc not affected by it. Apparently, its most favorable 

 habitat is the heavy, black, waxy soils, especially those in poor 

 physical condition. It is most conspicuous in fields that have been 

 planted to cotton contmuously or devoted to alfalfa for some time. 

 It apparently becomes more destructive in its effects as the arid 

 region is approached. That not all fields are infested with it is 

 evident from the fact that here and there we fuid cotton fields and 

 alfaKa meadows wliich show no signs of the disease. An alfalfa 

 meadow on the stiff black upland, near Howe, Tex., said to be 11 

 years old, is still in perfect condition. 



The disease is seldom found established in all the fields of any 

 given farm. Usually it does not affect a cotton crop planted in a 

 field which has been devoted to grain for two or three years imme- 

 9418°— Cir. 84—11 2 



