20 BULLETIN 1070, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



spring plowing. This is important. Attention should be given to 

 the crops necessary for feeding live stock and also for furnishing 

 home supplies. The difficulty of adapting different crops and enter- 

 prises to different soil types is a factor in determining rotations. 

 On the farm with only one or two types of soil, all of it upland and 

 suitable to a considerable variety of crops, a rotation is easy to plan. 

 When the farm has only lowlands, certain crops must be eliminated 

 and the importance of others magnified in the rotation. On farms 

 with both upland and lowland, one rotation may be required for one 

 part and an entirely different one for the other. 



With these points in mind the rotations here suggested have been 

 arranged. As they are studied the importance given to certain 

 enterprises becomes apparent. The fact that one or two rather 

 important enterprises (sweet potatoes, for instance) are not men- 

 tioned will be noted. On a great majority of places such crops 

 will be grown only on limited acreages. Their period of growth and 

 cultural requirements are such that they may readily be substituted 

 for some other crops. For example, cotton will be planted in April 

 or May. Sweet potato land should be prepared at the same time or 

 shortly thereafter. The plants should be set in the fields in May or 

 June. If importance in the farming system is to be given to sweet 

 potatoes, a few acres of the land intended for cotton in the rotation 

 can be set aside for the potatoes. 



In considering the individual rotations it should be borne in mind 

 that the findings of the survey are that those farms having a compara- 

 tively large percentage of their crop land in cotton have better in- 

 comes than those upon which this crop occupies but a small per- 

 centage of the land, and that when corn yields are above 30 bushels 

 to the acre the farms having over 20 per cent of their crop land 

 planted to this crop have better incomes than the others. The farms 

 having from 10 to 15 per cent of their land in wheat and from 5 to 10 

 per cent in oats, especially when the yields are somewhat above the 

 average, have a maximum labor income. The farms getting a hay 

 harvest from 20 to 30 per cent or even more of their lands are among 

 the more prosperous. A moderate acreage of sweet potatoes seems 

 to increase farm profits. 



The first rotation suggested covers 5 years, gives 40 per cent of the 

 land to cotton, 20 per cent to corn, 20 per cent to small grain (wheat 

 and oats combined), and from 30 to 40 per cent to hay crops, counting 

 double cropping. It keeps practically £>0 per cent of the land cov- 

 ered during the winter and makes 40 per cent available for fall and 

 winter plowing. (Rotation 1.) 



