ROTATION PRACTICE 17 



moth clover, cowpea, soybean, and spring and 

 winter vetch are legumes that possess similar 

 qualities from the feeding standpoint, and which, 

 because of their habits of growth, supplement the 

 red clover in improving rotations, while at the 

 same time they permit a much larger production 

 of forage from a unit of land. Alfalfa also belongs 

 to this group, and is in many respects superior to 

 any of them; but because it grows more rapidly 

 and is perennial in its habits, it is not so well 

 suited for mixtures or for rotations. 



Improvement of rotations 



In this country, extensive or large- area systems 

 of farming are more generally adopted than inten- 

 sive systems, and the crops are usually the cereals, 

 as maize, oats, wheat and barley. These crops 

 must depend on soil sources almost exclusively for 

 their food supply, as the manures are made from 

 a limited number of animals, and those secured in 

 purchased supplies are not universally used. 



A rotation very generally adopted in the East 

 and central West is corn, oats, wheat, hay, clover, 

 or clover and timothy mixed. This is not, in all 

 cases, a better rotation than any other, but it 

 allows the growing of a larger proportion of grain 

 crops. One method in such a rotation is to apply 

 the manure on the sod for corn, which is harvested 



