THE SUMMER FALLOW 



175 



organic matter and nitrogen and not water commence to 

 limit the yield of crops, we shall have to restore them 

 to the soil. Most men recognize this serious objection 

 to fallowing, but before dispensing with the fallow they 

 want to be shown a better way. It is to be hoped there- 

 fore that on all soil types careful tests of organic 

 fertilizers (such as manure) and the use of legume crops 

 (nitrogen gatherers) may be conducted from time to 

 time in order that we may know, for each of the dif- 

 ferent types of soil, whether the use of any or all of 

 these means of improvement will pay. 



If crops require 250 to 1,000 pounds of water per 

 pound of dry matter produced, and if the function of 



Fig. 69. Sheep Pasturing in Rape. 



the fallow is to store and conserve water, then neither 

 grass nor even hoed crops will replace the fallow, even 

 though crops be rotated ; but both, and particularly the 

 hoed crops, will lesson the frequency of the fallow. The 

 yield of wheat on corn ground at many different points 

 has equalled the yield on fallow. Wherever this is true, 

 and wherever the corn can be grown at no loss, or even 



