ROTATIONS IN THE CENTRAL STATES 



519 



1912 CORN 



1913 OATS 



1914 CLOVER 



1915 CORN 



of the possibility of growing several crops during the year, 

 many different combinations of crops may be made. One 

 which includes the two most important crops, corn and cot- 

 ton, and also embraces all the features of a good rotation, is : 

 1, cotton, followed by rye or bur clover; 2, corn, with cow- 

 peas sown in the corn, followed by winter oats or winter 

 barley; 3, winter grain followed by cowpeas cut for hay, the 

 land then being sown to rye or some other winter cover crop. 

 A more simple rotation, but one which lacks an essential 

 feature of all cropping 

 systems for the South, 

 the winter cover crop, is : 

 1, corn and cowpeas; 2, 

 winter grain, followed by 

 cowpeas; 3, cotton; 4, 

 cotton or corn. A sim- 

 ple alternation may be 

 followed in some sections, 

 such as cotton and bur 

 clover or winter wheat 

 and cowpeas. With the 

 addition of phosphorus 

 and potassium, this is 

 very successful. 



682. Rotations in the Central States. In the Central 

 states, in what is commonly known as the corn belt, the one 

 crop on which all systems of farming are based is corn. The 

 three principal crops are corn, wheat, and grass or corn, oats, 

 and grass, and they are arranged in the rotation in the order 

 named. Two crops of corn may be grown in succession or the 

 land may be left in grass for one, two, or more years, either 

 as meadow or pasture. A very common form of this rota- 

 tion is the five-year one, as follows: 1, corn; 2, corn; 3, 



1912 CLOVER 



1913 CORN 



1914 OATS 



1915 CLOVER 



1912 OATS 



1913 CLOVER 



1914 CORN 



1915 OATS 



Fig. 154. The arrangement of the fields 

 and crops in a three-year rotation of corn, 

 oats, and clover 



