FIBER CROPS 345 



has been demonstrated to be of great value, the continuous cul- 

 ture of cotton year after year on the same land has been and 

 still is in large measure the common practise. (329) The fol- 

 lowing rotation is the one best suited to the largest number of 

 cases under existing economic conditions: first year, maize 

 with peas between the rows to be harvested for seed ; second year, 

 wheat or oats followed by cowpeas for hay after the cereal crop 

 has been removed; third year, cotton. If more cotton is essen- 

 tial, cotton follows cotton, making a four-year rotation. If 

 more maize is wanted, land may be planted to the crop two years 

 in succession instead of two years in cotton. 



After many years' experience the Georgia Station asserts 

 that the increased production of the station farm is due more 

 to the adoption and maintenance of a regular system of rotation 

 than to any other practise, and that the recurring crop of cow- 

 peas following the small grain is the most valuable and efficient 

 detail of the rotation system adopted. 



The objection to the rotation above mentioned is that it 

 leaves the land bare during the winter after the cotton. The 

 South Carolina Station recommends early varieties of cotton 

 so that the crop may be gathered in time for fall plowing the 

 cotton field, and the sowing of winter grain. The protection of 

 the soil by the grain through the winter and early spring this 

 station believes is alone of sufficient benefit to justify the prac- 

 tise of sowing grain on cotton land without taking into account 

 the benefit of fall plowing and the value of the grain crop. 1 



The practical difficulties of a grain crop at this point in the 

 rotation will probably prevent its extended use. Cover crops, 

 however, of rye, oats, winter vetch, crimson clover or bur clover 

 may be sown in the fall to be plowed under not later than Feb- 

 ruary first. A farmer is reported to have increased the capacity 

 of his Piedmont soil from one-third of a bale to two bales per 

 acre by growing bur clover on the land each winter, the land 



1 South Carolina Sta. Bui. No. 120 (1906), p. 8. 



