212 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



(3) Observe the proper sequence, both between restorative and 

 exhaustive crops and between two exhaustive crops where it becomes 

 necessary to grow two such crops consecutively. 



(4) Select the best varieties or strains and use the quantity of 

 seed and the method and time of seeding best adapted to the locality. 



(5) Plow and prepare the seed bed at the time and in the 

 manner best adapted to the crop, the soil, the climate, and the most 

 economical distribution of labor through the year. 



(6) Obtain all available information concerning yields, cost, 

 and prices of crops grown in the locality, and plan to grow those 

 crops that will yield the largest net return per acre with the least 

 depletion of soil fertility. 



(7) Feed as large a proportion as possible of the crops grown 

 and return the manure to the field. 



(8) Raise the kind of live stock yielding the largest net profit 

 and best adapted to the particular farm and locality and to the pref- 

 erences of the farmer who handles it. Very few farmers ever 

 make a success of raising any kind of live stock the care of which 

 they do not enjoy. 



(9) Use perennial grasses, alfalfa, or clover in the rotation 

 wherever practicable, and where it is impracticable to do so raise 

 rye, peas, or sweet clover for green manuring to maintain the humus 

 in the soil. 



It is believed that the tentative conclusions drawn from the re- 

 sults of the investigations described here will materially aid in the 

 establishment of rotations which will meet the above-mentioned re- 

 quirements. (Bu. Pit. Ind. B. 187.) 



The effect of lime on the yield of corn is chiefly due to the 

 fact that calcium carbonate (limestone) encourages nitrification 

 (formation of available nitrogen) and the consequent liberation of 

 the nitrogen and to a less extent of the phosphorus contained in the 

 natural humus of the soil. 



Pests. The accumulation of noxious weeds, diseases, and in- 

 sects on the farm is one of the most serious sources of loss, as already 

 suggested. This results as a rule from the constant growth or too 

 long continued culture of the same crop or class of crops on the same 

 land. Cotton wilt, melon wilt, flax wilt, cowpea wilt, tobacco wilt, 

 clover and bean anthracnose, root-knot worms, affecting nearly all 

 crops except cereals, bacterial diseases of the tomato, potato, eggplant, 

 cabbage, and numerous other vegetables, the grain rusts and smuts, 

 and weeds and insects too numerous to mention all accumulate in 

 the soil under the one-crop system. 



These pests often multiply to such an extent that ultimately it 

 becomes impossible to secure profitable returns from land thus in- 

 fested, no matter how good the other cultural conditions may be. 

 Resistant varieties must then be secured or crops cultivated on land 

 not subject to these pests. All these troubles, however, can be avoided 

 and the fertility of the soil greatly improved by intelligent systems 

 of rotation. The most profitable systems for any locality or type 

 of farming, so far as they have been developed, can usually be ob- 



