LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE 321 



The bare fallow has no place in a good system of crop 

 rotation in North Dakota. The climate of North Dakota 

 is a little too cold to grow sorghum. Corn, however, does 

 well and as a feed crop it should always be used in pre- 

 ference to summer tillage as it gives a good return in feed 

 and the land is in just as good shape to produce a small 

 grain crop the following year. 



Potatoes are a profitable crop and they leave the land 

 m excellent condition for smlall grains. One acre of po- 

 tatoes requires approximately as much labor as five acres 

 of small grain and will probably give more than five 

 times the return per acre. 



264. Stubble Land. In the heavy soil areas stubble 

 land should be plowed as soon after harvest as possible. 

 This land should be packed with a subsurface packer 

 or with a disc run straight, the day it is plowed. The 

 next spring such land may either be disced or harrowed 

 or both in order to make a compact fine seed bed. The 

 important thing is to have the seed bed compact with a 

 rather coarse mulch on the surface and not too smooth. 

 Light soils should be left for spring plowing. They 

 should be subsurface packed and seeded the day they are 

 plowed, if possible. Only rarely should the harrow be 

 used on lighter, sandy soils in the spring. 



265. Grass Land. One of the best ways of utilizing 

 grass land is to break in the spring, pack down level with 

 a weighted disc or roller and disc until a fine mulch is 

 on the surface and 1 seed to flax. The other method is to 

 break in the summer time and double-disc early the next 

 spring, harrow until the seed bed is fine and seed to 

 wheat. 



266. Rotations. Profitable rotations require small 

 grains, legumes and cultivated crops. The simplest pro- 



