THE ROTATION OF FARM CROPS 59 



Higher prices for farm crops have made the building up 

 of worn-out farms very profitable. Better still, higher prices, 

 by increasing the farmer's surplus, are making this restora- 

 tion possible as well as advantageous for the average farmer. 

 If a farmer realizes that he is farming his land to its ultimate 

 ruin he is still unable to make much of an advance along the 

 line of soil conservation if he has only enough each year 

 upon which to live. 



The city man who is complaining about the high cost of 

 foodstuffs should be made to realize that high prices today 

 are giving the farmer an incentive to do better farming and 

 are giving him a working capital with which to build up 

 and improve his farm. The present good prices that the 

 farmer is receiving will do more than anything else toward 

 postponing the day when we may have a serious food shortage. 



Getting back to rotation; most farmers agree that con- 

 tinuous corn culture has no place in progressive farming. 

 As a temporary practice on rich virgin soils it may be all 

 right, perhaps for a few years while the farm is being paid 

 for and some of the comforts are being accumulated about 

 the house; but it a short-sighted policy for any other pur- 

 pose and is a certain money loser on lands which have been 

 long under cultivation. 



ROTATION KILLS WEEDS 



Practiced in an intelligent and systematic manner, crop 

 rotation will serve other purposes than the mere up-building 

 of the soil. Chief among these is the possibility of destroying 

 many troublesome weeds, or at least, of reducing presence 

 to the point where they are of little consequence. 



Most weeds thrive better with some certain kind of crop. 

 When land is devoted to one crop continuously for a number 



