280 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



the farm is planted to cotton. In a few years, this rotation 

 will produce more cotton than could be grown on the 

 entire farm without rotation. 



QUESTIONS 



1. What rotations, if any, are followed in your county? 



2. What rotations were formerly followed and how is the practice 

 changing? 



3. What changes should be made? Why? Ask the opinions of the 

 best farmers; also consider what you have read on agriculture. 



LABORATORY EXERCISE 



68- Planning a Cropping System. 



Visit a farm near the school and learn what crops were grown 

 on each field last year and what crops the owner expects to grow 

 next year. Make a sketch of the farm, showing the present arrange- 

 ment of fields, approximate areas of each, and write in the present 

 crops. The entire class should go over each field to see the present 

 conditions. 



Each student should later make a map of the farm, showing the 

 arrangement of fields that he considers best. 



Give the crops for each field for five years, or long enough to get 

 the rotation established. It will usually take two or three years to 

 get the rotation going regularly. 



COLLATERAL READING 



Farmers' Bulletins Nos.: 



337. Cropping Systems for New England Dairy Farms. 

 144. Rotation of Crops, pp. 8-11. 

 98. Suggestions to Southern Farmers, pp. 38-46. 

 The Fertility of the Land, by I. P. Roberts. Chapter XV. 

 Soils and Fertilizers, by H. Snyder. Pp. Ill, 112, and 230-240. 

 Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. II, pp. 88-109, and index. 

 The Cereals in America, by T. F. Hunt. Pp. 74, 209, 294, 329, 

 348, 361, 388, 405. 



The Forage and Fiber Crops in America, by T. F. Hunt. Pp. 344- 

 346. 



