508 FIELD CROPS 



meadows and pastures, and all classes decrease in fields on 

 which cultivated crops are grown and given proper attention. 



664. Rotations Insure Returns. A rotation of crops, 

 with the diversification which it necessarily implies, insures 

 some return for the season's labor. Seasonal conditions may 

 be such as to cause the total failure of one crop, but it is very 

 seldom, at least east of the 100th meridian, that all the crops 

 on the farm fail to yield a profitable return. Conditions 

 that are unfavorable to oats or wheat may be quite suitable 

 for corn or hay, so that if one has several crops he is much 

 surer of some return for his labor than if he depends entirely 

 on one. The old caution, "Do not put all your eggs in one 

 basket," applies as well to crops as to anything else. Plant 

 diseases or insect pests may destroy one crop, but they are 

 seldom destructive to all crops in any one year. The diversi- 

 fication of crops has been the best means of preventing finan- 

 cial disaster in the sections of the South which have been 

 invaded by the cotton boll weevil, just as it has been under 

 similar circumstances in other sections. 



665. Rotations Increase Crop Yields. One crop helps 

 to prepare the soil for the one which follows. Clover opens 

 the subsoil and adds nitrogen and vegetable matter for the 

 corn or potato crop which comes after it. A cultivated crop 

 preceding one of small grain puts the soil in the best physical 

 condition, conserves moisture, and cleans the land of weeds. 

 If the crops which are produced are largely fed on the farm 

 and the manure returned to the land, crop yields will be 

 further increased, because each crop, except perhaps the small 

 grains, increases the available supply of plant food. The 

 grasses and clovers add vegetable matter to the soil, while 

 cultivation unlocks a part of the store of plant food and 

 makes it available for the use of plants. 



