﻿AGRICULTURAL UTILIZATION OF ACID LANDS. 11 



Further experimentation will doubtless result in important addi- 

 tions to this list. It is especially desirable that additional legumi- 

 nous plants be found that are hardy far north and otherwise satisfac- 

 tory in rotations. Lupine and serradella, both much employed in the 

 great potato-growing districts of Pomerania and other portions of 

 north Germany, ought to be useful in this country, but thus far they 

 have not found favor, perhaps because of the poisonous qualities of 

 lupine and the rather light yield of serradella. 



ACID-TOLERANT CROPS IN ROTATION. 



From the data already given, the farmer who desires to try an 

 experiment in acid-land agriculture will be able to select the crops 

 that will give him the rotation suited to the requirements of the par- 

 ticular kind of agriculture in which he is engaged. Some of these 

 crop plants are comparatively new and require special handling as to 

 the best time and manner of sowing. When grown for the first 

 time the leguminous plants require soil inoculation with the special 

 bacteria of their root tubercles. 



Rotations made up from the acid-tolerant crops described above 

 have been very successful on some of the sandy, acid farms in Mary- 

 land, a few miles northeast of Washington. 



The trees in one newly planted orchard of Grimes Golden apples 

 have been kept in a remarkable condition of growth by one initial 

 application of manure in the year of. their planting, succeeded by the 

 following rotation : In May the ground is sowed to cowpeas. These 

 are plowed under in September and followed immediately by the 

 sowing of rye mixed with hairy vetch. In the following May the 

 mixed crop is plowed under. The same one-year rotation has been 

 followed year after year. Under this treatment the soil, which has 

 the appearance of almost pure sand, has become so fertile without 

 the application of lime, commercial fertilizer, or manure that an 

 occasional crop of cowpeas has been cut for hay without serious 

 interference with the progress of the orchard. 



Another successful combination is a one-year rotation of corn and 

 crimson clover by which a heavy yield of corn is produced every 

 year without lime or fertilizer in a soil that looks almost like beach 

 sand. The land, which is gently sloping, is ridged in contours at 

 each interval of 2 feet in elevation, the corn rows being parallel to 

 the contour next above them. The crop of crimson clover with the 

 corn stubble is plowed under in April a little before corn-planting 

 time. In August after the last cultivation of the corn the crimson 

 clover is sown between the rows. The seeds germinate so readily 

 that when broadcasted a light shower will start them off. If dry 

 weather follows before they have had time to send their roots deep 



