CHAPTER 2 



THE ROTATION OF CROPS 



In all of the older agricultural districts the rotation of crops is recog- 

 nized as an essential to successful farming. With the prevailing price of 

 corn, farmers on the best lands in the coin-growing belt have found it 

 profitable to grow corn after corn for a number of years. In like manner, 

 on the best wheat land in Minnesota, the Dakotas and Canada, wheat 

 grown continuously has proven a profitable enterprise. In that region 

 farmers find no good argument in favor of fencing their farms, construct- 

 ing farm buildings, feeding cattle and milking cows, when they can make 

 as much money or more by a system of farming that occupies their time 

 for a little more than one-half the year and allows them leisure during 

 the remainder of the year. A single crop system, while successful for a 

 time, however, will not prove successful in the long run. 



Successful farming calls not only for the best possible utilization of 

 the soil and the maintenance of its fertility, but also demands the fullest 

 possible utilization of the labor that is to be employed. The efficiency 

 of the labor of men and teams on farms is measured largely by the pro- 

 portion of time for which they are profitably employed. In nearly all 

 other enterprises labor is fully and continuously employed. In order 

 that farming may compete with other enterprises for labor, it must be 

 likewise employed on the farm. 



Rotations Defined. A crop rotation is a succession of crops grown 

 on the same land. A good crop rotation is a systematic succession of the 

 three general classes of farm crops, namely, cultivated crops, grain crops 

 and grass crops, in such a way as to give large yields and provide pasture 

 and forage on the farm at the least expense of labor and soil fertility. 



The rotation is definite when the crops recur in a fixed order, and it 

 is a fixed rotation when they not only recur in a fixed order, but also at 

 regular intervals. A rotation consisting of corn, oats, wheat and clover 

 and timothy is a definite one, regardless of whether the clover and timothy 

 remain for one, two or three years, but it becomes a fixed rotation when 

 not only the order of the crops is named, but the length of time of each 

 crop is also specified. 



Purpose of Rotations. A rotation of crops (1) provides for maintain- 

 ing the soil in good tilth; (2) supplies organic matter and nitrogen; (3) 

 prevents destructive outbreaks of insect pests; (4) reduces plant diseases; 

 (5) provides for the economical destruction of weeds; (6) maintains crop 

 yields; (7) distributes the labor of men and horses; (8) saves labor in 

 cultivation of land; (9) keeps the soil occupied; (10) provides for a 



(28) 



