FOR BETTER CROPS 



33 



Rice has been made more plentiful and cheaper. Broader acres, 

 machines, better varieties, and better kno\vledt,'-e of methods 

 of cultivation have in the last tive years revolutionized rice 

 growing. 



Flax is not one of the cereals, but as it is grown at the same 

 place in the rotation, requires the same preparation of the soil, 

 and affects the land in much the same way as do the small 

 cereals, its cultivation may be discussed with theirs. 



It is certain that economic factors have determined the pres- 

 ent distribution of the small cereals. 



In Korth Dakota, for example, wheat, oats, flax, barley, and 

 millet seed pay better than corn; therefore the farmers are con- 

 strained to grow as large an acreage of these money crops as is 

 consistent with keeping their lands free of weeds, in good condi- 



Harvest time 



tion for grain, strong in fertility, and otherwise in condition for 

 good crops of these grains. 



Alternation With Fallo^v in Semi-arid West — Out in the 



western semi-arid regions, instead of rotating the grains with 

 corn and grasses they alternate them with the bare fallow, thus 

 to keep down weeds, to secure good mechanical preparation of 

 the furrow slice, but especially to conserve the water of the 

 alternate year so as to supply the growing crop with the surplus 

 water of two years instead of one. 



The frequent droughts, too, make frequent seeding to clovers 

 and grasses uncertain, so that the plan in these western-north- 

 western parts is to grow^ grain for some years continuously and 

 then to seed to grass for some years, possibly injecting one crop 

 of corn in among the crops of grain. 



Thus a rotation is arranged as follows: First and second 



