490 



FIELD CROPS 



is: 1, cotton, followed by rye or bur clover; 2, corn, with cow- 

 peas sown in the corn, followed by winter oats or winter 

 barley; 3, winter grain followed by cowpeas cut for hay, the 

 land then being sown to rye or some other winter cover crop. 

 A more simple rotation, but one which lacks an essential 

 feature of all cropping systems for the South, the winter cover 

 crop, is: 1, corn and cowpeas; 2, win- 

 ter grain, followed by cowpeas; 3, 

 cotton; 4, cotton or corn. A simple 

 alternation may be followed in some 

 sections, such as cotton and bur clover 

 or winter wheat and cowpeas. With 

 the addition of phosphorus and potas- 

 sium, this is very successful. 



674. Rotations in the Central States. 

 In the Central states, in what is com- 

 monly known as the corn belt, the one 

 crop on which all systems of farming 

 are based is corn. The three principal 

 crops are corn, wheat, and grass or 

 corn, oats, and grass, and they are ar- 

 ranged in the rotation in the order 

 named. Two crops of corn may be 

 grown in succession or the land may be left in grass for one, 

 two, or more years, either as meadow or pasture. A very 

 common form of this rotation is the 5-year one, as follows: 

 1, corn; 2, corn; 3, oats (or wheat); 4, meadow; 5, pasture. 

 It is possible in the southern part of the corn belt to grow 

 a crop after grain, if the land is not seeded to grass. A 

 rotation embracing this featuremight be devised like this: 1, 

 corn; 2, oats, followed by cowpeas or soy beans; 3, wheat; i , 

 meadow; 5, pasture. 



In Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas, some of the 

 rotations used in New York and New England may be profit- 

 ably followed. In the Dakotas and farther west^ rotaticna 



Figure 157. — The arrange- 

 ment of the fields and 

 crops in a 3-year rotation 

 of corn, oats, and clover. 



