AGRICULTURAL SITUATION IN THE EAST 39 



follow with rye sown in August and follow this 

 with sorghum the following spring. In September 

 sow this sorghum field to rye again and the next 

 spring sow either sorghum or cowpeas. A four- 

 year rotation may be established by raising po- 

 tatoes one year. If these crops are all utilized and 

 if the hogs and cattle are fed a little grain in the 

 meantime, this soil will improve. Of course, where 

 the land is clay it must not be pastured when wet. 

 This system of farming takes practically nothing 

 from the land, but does add a great deal to it. 



The Department of Agriculture, after carefully 

 studying all phases of the soil fertility problem in 

 the older section of the United States, concludes 

 that the problem is not so much one of plant food 

 as it is of soil treatment. Consequently, while it 

 may be desirable to occasionally add plant food, 

 the chief thought should be given to the supplying 

 of the soil with humus and to so treating the land 

 that it will be in the best possible mechanical con- 

 dition. The department reaches the conclusion 

 that the results of its investigation seem to indicate 

 that the actual amount of water a soil can furnish 

 the plant, irrespective of the percentage of water 

 actually present in the soil, has a very important 

 influence on yield. When the supply of water is 

 inadequate to the need of the plant it is impossible 

 for the nutritive solutions to be transferred to the 

 roots. If water be not abundant, no matter how 

 rich the soil may be in plant food, large yields can- 

 not be secured. 



Summing up the whole situation in New Eng- 

 land and the Atlantic coast states, the success of 

 agriculture in that region will be measured by the 

 extent to which the raising of live stock is practiced, 

 the attention given to the increasing of humus 



