PART II 



BUILDING UP THE LAND 



CHAPTER V 



THE ROTATION OF FARM CROPS 



The rotation of crops is one of the best established prin- 

 ciples of modern agricultural science; also, one of the most 

 important. 



It would seem that the early settlers on the rich virgin 

 prairies of the Central "West gave little or no thought to the 

 possibility that the wonderful fertility of the land would ever 

 be exhausted. Crop after crop of corn planted on the same 

 fields for many seasons in succession did not, for a long time, 

 diminish the yield. 



After fifteen or twenty years of such cultivation, the lands 

 failed to respond as at first. Yields fell off and lands that 

 formerly produced from sixty to seventy bushels of corn per 

 acre dropped in yields to as low as twenty-five and thirty 

 bushels per acre. Insects began to multiply in alarming num- 

 bers and attacked crops. The land also became "corn sick" 

 and in times of drouth, corn fired from lack of moisture. 



More progressive farmers began to see that the growing 

 of corn year after year on the same land was a losing game, 

 so short rotations of corn and oats were tried. These rota- 

 tions, while giving increased yields for a time, were soon 

 found to be lacking since the soil continued to grow less 



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