CROPPING SYSTEMS 407 



cotton almost continuously. It is rotated more or less 

 with corn. and other crops. This system fails to provide 

 stock food and fails to provide for keeping up the humus 

 supply of the soil. 



A highly recommended rotation that has not yet come 

 into general use is : 



First year, cotton. 



Second year, corn with cowpeas between the rows. 



Third year, oats followed by cowpeas. 



This rotation makes the area that a family can farm 

 practically three times as great as when nothing but cotton 

 is grown. A family can raise all the cotton that it can 

 pick and by properly organizing the work, raise the other 

 crops besides. 'This requires that two- and three-horse 

 teams be used. 



In the winter wheat belt of Kansas and Nebraska, 

 wheat, corn, alfalfa, and oats are the most profitable 

 crops. In the drier parts of the region, wheat does much 

 better than the other crops, and the area of these is re- 

 duced or almost eliminated. It is difficult to provide a 

 very satisfactory rotation with these crops, because 

 alfalfa is a long-lived plant and because wheat does not 

 follow corn readily, and the area of oats desired is usually 

 less than the area of corn. The practice of some of the 

 best farmers. usually provides a rather long and some- 

 what indefinite rotation. Corn may be grown on the 

 same land for two years and sometimes a little longer. 

 It is followed by oats one year. The oats are followed 

 by wheat. The wheat continues several years. It is 

 then followed by alfalfa that is left several years. 



In the northern part of the spring wheat region of the 

 Dakotas and Minnesota, good rotations have not yet 

 been generally adopted. The most profitable cash crops 



