CROPS AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



is hard on the soil. This is a fair statement of the 

 treatment of this plant on most farms. 



Object of Sods. The land's share of its prod- 

 ucts cannot be disregarded without loss. The 

 legumes and grasses come into the crop-rotation 

 primarily to raise the percentage of organic matter 

 that the land may appropriate to itself within the 

 rotation. Some of the crops usually are for sale 

 from the farm. Most of the crops require tillage, 

 and that is exhaustive of the store of humus. A 

 portion of the time within the rotation belongs to 

 a crop that increases the supply of vegetable mat- 

 ter, unless manure is brought from an outside 

 source. Sods lend themselves well to this pur- 

 pose because they afford some income, in pastur- 

 age or hay, while filling the soil with vegetation. 

 The tendency is to forget the primary purpose of 

 sods in the scheme, and to ignore the requirement 

 of land respecting a due share of what it produces. 

 Attention centers upon the product that may be 

 removed. The portion of the farm reduced in 

 productive power for the moment goes to grass, 

 while the labor and fertilizers are concentrated 

 upon the fields that are broken for grain and vege- 

 tables. The removal of all the crop at harvest, 

 and probably the pasturing of aftermath, are the 



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