Corn Growers' Association. 171 



of rye in this case if desired and it makes even better hog pasture. 

 Wheat and rye can also frequently be used to cover corn land in 

 winter and spring and thus prevent washing, saving nitrogen and 

 building up humus. 



A rotation which we have found of special value as a soil 

 builder on many of the worn uplands of the State is as follows: 

 Corn the first year with early cowpeas sown at the last plowing 

 with a five-hoe drill, and pastured off with hogs and sheep. If 

 the pasturing is done early, rye or wheat may be sown after the 

 cowpeas are off and pastured until May, when the land is broken 

 for a regular crop of cowpeas the second year. The peas are cut 

 for hay to be fed back on the land or they may again be pastured and 

 the land prepared for wheat with disk and drag harrow. The third 

 year the land is in wheat, the fourth year in clover, while the fifth 

 year it may either be returned to corn, or if timothy has been sown 

 with the wheat it may stand the fifth year as a mixed hay or 

 pasture. The value of this system, however, depends absolutely 

 upon the returning of the crops to the land by pasturing or feed- 

 ing, and since all legumes add nitrogen the more often they occur, 

 providing they are fed back, the more rapidly will the land be 

 built up in its nitrogen and humus supplies. In other words, if a 

 liberal use is made of legumes, all crops fed on the farm and the 

 manure scrupulously saved, the farmer is independent of the ferti- 

 lizer dealer so far as his supply of nitrogen is concerned, while his 

 humus supply will likewise be maintained. 



PHOSPHORUS IS PROFITABLE. 



Attention has already been called to the fact that the soils 

 of Missouri are almost universally low in phosphorus and high in 

 potassium. It has also been shown that in feeding crops only 

 about 75 per cent, of the phosphorus is returned in the manure, 

 while practically 95 per cent, of the potassium is thus brought 

 back. Evidently, then with a proper system of feeding and manur- 

 ing, the need for potassium, at least on all soils heavy in clay, will 

 probably never be felt, but in the case of phosphorus, the very best 

 system of animal farming that can be devised, unless it be one in 

 which considerable amounts of feed are purchased from outside 

 sources, allows of an appreciable loss of phosphorus each year 

 through the bones of animals, or more rapidly through the sale of 

 grain. Hence we are losing to an appreciable degree the very 

 elements in which our soils are naturally deficient. The result will 

 be that sooner or later we shall be driven to the purchase of some 



