IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 89 



cently claimed to have proof that the exudations given 

 off in the soil by the roots of certain plants are inju- 

 rious to succeeding crops of the same kind. This 

 would be an added reason for crop rotation. The 

 regions where continuous planting is mostly prac- 

 ticed are those that are dependent on a single crop. 

 One-crop farming is always dangerous, not only from 

 its bad effect on the land, but for economic and busi- 

 ness reasons as well. If a farmer grows but one 

 crop, he is liable to lose his whole year's work 

 through some unfavorable turn of the season, and if 

 he succeeds in making a good crop, his returns from 

 it will depend entirely on the course of the market 

 for this one staple. Diversified farming is much safer. 

 A season that is bad for one crop may be favorable 

 for another, and it is seldom that the prices for 

 all farm crops are unprofitable in any one year. 



Just what crop rotation to adopt and how closely 

 to follow it are questions that will have to be 

 answered differently for different localities and al- 

 most for every farm. It must differ, not only with 

 the locality, but with the kind of business in which 

 the farmer is engaged. The stock raiser must adopt 

 one rotation, the grain grower another, the cotton 

 farmer another, and the truckman still another, if 

 indeed the rotation does not lead a man to become a 

 stock raiser as well as a grain or cotton grower. 

 The general adoption in the cotton belt of a rotation 

 that would necessitate the keeping of more live stock 

 would be of untold economic benefit besides its great 

 effect in preserving soil fertility. The following has 

 been suggested as a suitable rotation for upland cot- 



