SOIL IMPROVEMENT 103 



the land from washing, and uses plant food which would other- 

 wise go to waste. With the corn at the last working is seeded 

 crimson clover, which is a winter-growing crop. 



The second year, after grazing the rye or barley in the third 

 shift, the farmer plows it up and plants that land in corn, sowing, 

 as before, crimson clover at the last working. He feeds or plows 

 under the crimson clover in the second shift and plants it in cotton, 

 later seeding this land in oats. When he cuts the oats on the 

 first shift, he seeds cowpeas on the stubble, and when these are 

 cut or picked, he sows rye or barley. 



The third year he again, changes the crops on his shifts. Corn 

 and crimson clover come on the first shift, cowpeas and small 

 grain on the second, and cotton and oats on the third. 



The farmer is kept busy, but is never so much hurried as 

 his neighbor who raises only cotton. Winter finds something 

 growing on all the fields; the land is gaining instead of losing 

 fertility. By change of crops and by plowing under green crops 

 and stubble, humus and plant food are saved and supplied. This 

 farmer has to buy less commercial fertilizers, and yet has better 

 crops. Crop diseases and insect pests are less troublesome in 

 his fields. He has plenty of feed for live stock; the hay and 

 peas and grain he raises more than make up for his smaller crop 

 of cotton. 



In the long run, it will be found more profitable to grow a crop, 

 such as cotton or tobacco, once every two or three or four years 

 on a field than every year. The advantages of crop rotation 

 are so great that the farmers who give it a fair trial do not return 

 to the one-crop system. In most sections the most prosperous 

 farmers are those who practice rotation of crops. 



There are three kinds of crops which should have place in 

 every rotation. First, of course, is the money crop to which 



