12 CROPPING SYSTEMS FOR THE BLACK LANDS OF TEXAS. 



in a luimid climate. Shallow cultivation (2 to 4 inches) is given 

 as often as is necessary to maintain a mulch and keep down the 

 grass and weeds throughout the growing }3eriod of the croi)s. 



This rotation has enabled the owner to produce cotton Mith 

 practically no loss from root-rot (though it is present in all his fields) 

 and to i)roduce sufficient crops from year to year, regardless of 

 droughts, to meet his needs. lie has so managed that it has not 

 been necessary to buy hay, grain, lard, or bacon, and his cash income 

 has been sufficient to meet all obligations incident to pro\ading 

 for and educating a family of 18 children. 



The chief defect in his rotation is the absence of legumes. None 

 haA'e been used because in his early experience the owner was 

 unsuccessful in growing cow^peas and other legumes which are 

 commonly found in rotations, and he decided that it was useless 

 to make further attempts. However, in contrast to most black- 

 land farms, the need for legumes w^as met by a rigid rotation, includ- 

 ing forage crops and the maintenance of enough stock to convert 

 the roughage produced into manure, which was returned to the 

 land. In this way the productiveness of the soil was maintained, 

 while under the prevailing types of farming it gradually falls. In 

 a later paragraph it will be shown that the owner of this farm is 

 now testing several legumes which he plans to use in improxang his 

 cropping system. 



ALFALFA IN SHORT ROTATION.^ 



The fact that alfalfa is naturally adapted to the black soils when 

 unaffected by root-rot and that even when root-rot is present it 

 remains one of the most profitable crops of the region for two or 

 more years (fig. 6) led up to the idea that alfalfa could be grown 

 profitably in short rotations with other crops. This was actuall}^ 

 being done in a rather indifferent way by farmers who had been 

 forced to plow up their alfalfa and follow with grain. In thus 

 compelling farmers to plow up their meadows in tw^o to five years 

 root-rot in one respect has served a useful purpose. After the 

 alfalfa has yielded hay in abundance for three or four years, they 

 have followed it with corn, cotton, wheat, and oats and secured 

 increased yields varying from 50 to more than 200 per cent. 



On similar soils in the black belt of Alabama, William Munford 

 planted alfalfa on land that produced an average of not over 18 

 bushels of corn per acre. When the meadow w^as two years old he 

 plowed up and planted a part of it to corn, wiiich yielded 45 bushels 

 per acre, an increase of 150 per cent. Another portion of the same 

 field was allowed to remain in alfalfa three years and then })1 anted 



1 It should be noted that alfalfa to be successful, here as elsewhere, must be planted on land that is fairly 

 rich in huinus. The most successful farmers either give the land a good dressing of stable manure before 

 plant ing or turn under a green crop of some kind. 



|('ir. S41 • . 



