204 FIELD CROPS 



RELATION TO OTHER CROPS 



245. Place in the Rotation. In Iowa, Illinois, and the 

 other states of the corn belt, oats usually follow corn. A 

 common rotation where winter wheat is not grown in this 

 section consists of two crops of corn, followed by a crop of 

 oats and one or more crops of grass or clover. In Maine, 

 Minnesota, and other states where potatoes are an important 

 crop, a common rotation consists of one crop each of potatoes, 

 oats, and clover. In the South, a good rotation which 

 includes winter oats and the two most important crops of 

 the Southern states, corn and cotton, is as follows: First 

 year, cotton; second year, corn, with cowpeas sown in the 

 corn; third year, winter oats sown after the corn is removed, 

 and followed with cowpeas to be cut for hay. All these 

 rotations include a leguminous crop to add nitrogen to the 

 soil. In the grain-growing sections of Minnesota and the 

 Dakotas, where no regular rotation is practiced, oats are 

 usually grown after wheat. Experiments indicate that better 

 yields are obtained where oats follow wheat than where 

 wheat follows oats in a rotation which includes both crops; 

 that is, that corn, wheat, oats, is a better sequence than 

 corn, oats, wheat. 



246. Use as a Nurse Crop. Oats are largely used as a 

 nurse crop; the practice of seeding to grass and clover with 

 oats is a very common one. While this method of attempt- 

 ing to establish a meadow or pasture is so often used, it is 

 not always successful. As oats draw heavily on the soil 

 moisture and also shade the ground closely, barley and 

 wheat, which take less moisture from the soil and make less 

 shade, are better nurse crops. Oats start growth early in 

 the season, and on account of their dense growth are a 

 fairly good crop to clear the land of weeds; barley is rather 



