170 



wIhmIkm- tliis be in tlic fonii of a i)r(M-(Hlini; crop of cow- 

 peas, velvet beans, niclilotus, liairy vetch, or crimson 

 clover, or in an ai)pli(Mtion oi' stable niannre, cotton 

 seeil, cotton seed meal, or nitrate of soda. 



KOTATIOX OF CKOI'S TIIH FlIiST STHI' l\ SoiL iMrUOVE- 



MENT. 



The <i('neral statement may be safely made that 'any 

 ordinary crop (except jx^annts, cowpea-s and most other 

 leuiimes) can nsually be prodnced with far greater 

 profit when it follows some leguminous plant than when 

 its predecessor is some non-leguminous plant, as cotton, 

 corn, the small grains, etc. It may also be added that 

 many, if not most, poor tracts of land can be cultivated 

 in the usual farm crops at a profit only when a legume 

 is occasionally grown to supply the necessary nitrogen, 

 vegetable matter, and improvement in texture and re- 

 sistance to drought. 



A more general use is urged of some rotation that re- 

 quires all the cultivated upland of the farm to bear 

 €OA^^)eas or other soil-improving plant every second, 

 third or fourth year or oftener. The growing of legumes 

 constitutes the cheapest means of obtaining nitrogenous 

 fertilizers, and on farms where a large proportion of the 

 land is devoted to legumes, the fertilizer bills can be re- 

 duced by the discontinuance of purchases of cotton seed 

 meal and by the substitution of high grade acid phos- 

 phate for the higher priced ammoniated guanos. 



A hii»hlv satisfactorv rotation for cotton planta- 

 tions, which has been widely tested, consists of the al- 

 ternation in the order named of cotton, corn, and any 

 one of the small grains, with cowpeas between the corn 

 rows and also immediately following the small grains. 

 This three-year rotation gives one- third of the land 



