80 THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 



A striking experience and observation came to 

 him during the season of 1913. Near his home is 

 situated a prairie. It is a stretch of Wabash river 

 bottom land of a thousand or more acres, sur- 

 rounded by hills from the crest of which a view 

 of the entire prairie is had. This tract of land 

 when first subjected to cultivation was the richest 

 of land. It has been farmed for nearly a century 

 and because of its virgin richness little attention 

 has been paid to its refertilization, and so it has 

 become much worn. For years it has been the 

 corn belt's choicest corn land, and so corn, corn, 

 and corn, has been grown upon it for several gen- 

 erations, and much of it is now fairly in the worn- 

 soil class. A few years ago the author rented 

 two hundred acres of this land and grew upon it 

 peas and sugar corn for his canning factory. In 

 the fall of 1911 he planted a large field of this land 

 to rye, sowing the rye in the sweet corn that he 

 grew upon this land. No pasturing was per- 

 mitted and in the spring of 1912 the rye and corn 

 stalks were plowed under, the plows being set to 

 plow nine inches in depth. Some of the rye had 

 headed out before it was plowed under. After 

 plowing the soil it was properly worked down and 

 the whole planted to sweet corn, and a fine crop 

 was grown upon it. In the spring of 1913 this 

 same land was broken up and planted to field corn 

 by the owner. The author did not see this field 

 during the season of 1913 until about October 1st, 

 when he took a view of the prairie from the crest 

 of the hills. Nearly the entire prairie was planted 

 to field corn, and remember that the character of 

 all its soil was the same. As the author viewed 



