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 

 in excellent condition for smjall 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. G-rass 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 seed to flax. The other method is to 

 break in the summer 'time and double-disc Car'ly 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- 



