28 



The BultvEtin. 



5. Lands repeatedly put in crops that receive no cultivation after seeding are 

 apt to become weedy or foul. 



6. The rotation of crops renders possible the keeping of more live-stock, and 

 thereby prevents the sale of plant food or soil fertility. 



7. Crop rotation lessens the probability and extent of damage by insects and 

 diseases. A constant supply of suitable food is essential to the rapid increase of 

 insect enemies, and likewise fungus and other diseases peculiar to a certain crop 

 are increased by the growing of such a crop year after year on the same land. 



8. Clean cultured crops tend to deplete the supply of humus in the soil; 

 therefore, a proper crop rotation which tends to add humus to the soil is a 

 most important factor in soil fertility or soil improvement in this State; for 

 there is no other need of our soils that is so great or essential as the need of more 

 humus. 



9. Many of the lower forms of plant life produce in the media in which they 

 grow toxic or excrementative materials which prevent their further growth or 

 multiplication. It is thought by some that this same principle or fact applies 

 to higher forms of plant life. Tliat one kind of plant growing on a soil year 

 after year prodvices in that soil conditions or poisons detrimental to the best 

 growth of that kind of plant. 



There are at least two main facts or rules which should receive careful consid- 

 eration in adopting a system of rotation for any farm. 



1. When practicable, clean cultured crops like corn, cotton, and tobacco 

 should not follow each other in the rotation, especially on land having a 

 tendency to wash badly. 



2. A leguminous or nitrogen-gathering crop should come between each nitro- 

 gen-consuming crop, such as corn, cotton, wlieat, oats, etc. 



No one rotation can be given that will suit all farms nor all the lands on any 

 one farm, but the above facts ought to show clearly the necessity for some sort 

 of a rotation, and much study should be put on the subject by every farmer in 

 order to put into operation the best one possible for his conditions and the 

 needs of his lands. 



The following are the rotations used by three successful farmers of this State. 

 None would fit some farms, nor is perhaps any of them above criticism, but all 

 have increased the productive capacity of the farms, three and fourfold, and 

 meanwhile the owmers of these farms have made money. 



The first is a three-year rotation used by Dr. W. J. INIcLendon. of Anson 

 Countj'', and leaves little to be desired in the way of a rotation for a cotton farm: 



A. Three -YEAR Rotation foe a Cotton Farm. 



The peas are sowed after the small-grain crops are harvested, while the rye 

 is sowed in the cotton and the peas in the corn at the last working. 



The second is a five-year rotation used by R. W. Scott of Alamance County. 

 It is very faulty, in that three nitrogen-consuming crops (wheat, corn, and oats) 

 and two nitrogen-gathci'ing crops (clover and cowpeas) come in succession; but 

 it has certain advantages in that the clover-sod may be broken for the cowpeas 

 when it is too wet to cultivate the crops, and it also gives an excellent prepara- 

 tion for wlioal", which is the chief money crop on this farm. 



