274 SOILS 



the planting of cow peas at the last cultivation of corn. 

 At such a time and in such a place in the rotation peas 

 can be planted without additional expense in labor or 

 team employment ; the peas grow abundantly, make for- 

 age for live stock, and add nitrogen to the soil. When 

 matured, the peas may be gathered for seed or feed or 

 they may be left on the land. 



In North Carolina a crop of corn on poor land yielded 

 thirty-eight bushels of shelled corn per acre, and from 

 a planting of cow peas at the last cultivation twelve bush- 

 els of cow peas were picked, worth, at current prices, 

 $1.50 per bushel. Besides the yield of corn, there was 

 secured also a pea crop worth, at the lowest figure, 

 $18 per acre. When the peas are allowed to die on 

 the land, the stores of nitrogen that are put into the soil 

 by growing this wonderful crop become very large in a 

 very few years. It should be your aim and your purpose, 

 therefore, to include in the rotation some legume crop for 

 the nitrogen it controls. 



Rotations are bad for weeds. Then we should have the 

 help of some good rotation for its effect in weed exter- 

 mination. Weeds and good farming never go together. 

 Crop rotation is one of the best weapons with which to 

 fight weeds. There are certain crops that affect certain 

 weeds differently, and different tillage tools incidental to 

 their culture enter in. The grain crops allow certain kinds 

 of weeds to flourish, since there is no intertillage to keep 

 them down. Many rapid-growing crops shade the ground 

 and make life such a struggle to certain weeds that they 

 soon despair in the race and disappear. 



Elsewhere is stated a case where corn was grown, a 

 yield of more than eighty bushels per acre of shelled corn 

 being secured when weeds were kept out and frequent cul- 

 tivation given the land. An adjoining plot of corn, where 



