98 



THE TRIENNIAL CROP ROTATION SYSTEM 



Crop practiees. 



Details cannot be given here of the planting, 

 culture, harvesting, storing and marketing of the 

 several staple farm crops. In general, successful 

 farming depends on doing everything at the right 

 time and in the right way. After a crop has been 

 grown it should not be lost or allowed to become 

 damaged by a little carelessness in handling or 

 storing, through the negligence of the farmer. 

 The quality of wheat and other grain often is in- 

 jured seriously by harvesting too late, by leaving 

 in the shock too long, by wetting or heating in the 

 stack because of careless stacking, and by thresh- 

 ing and storing damp grain, resulting in bin-burn- 

 ing and other evils. Often wheat that might have 

 graded No. 1 or No. 2, grades No. 3 and No. 4, or 

 is rejected, simply because of the neglect in taking 

 proper care of it. Much of the wheat sold grades 

 low because of being mixed, or not pure in type. 

 Farmers should grow well-bred, pure types of grains. 

 Much of the corn which farmers sell grades as 

 mixed because it is not pure in color. Pure white 

 or pure yellow corn of the same quality as mixed 

 corn will often sell for two or three cents more 

 per bushel. The subject of crop breeding is now 

 attracting great attention. It pays to breed and 

 grow pure varieties of crops as well as of live- 

 stock. 



The writer believes that farmers should store and 

 hold their grain and not sell so largely at harvest 

 time. This practice throws a surplus of grain on 

 the market, which usually results in low prices and 

 less profits to the farmer, and perhaps not always 

 greater profits to the Idealer. Grain may be stored 

 and kept for a time in small quantities with less 

 loss to the growers than to the dealers when the 

 same grain is bought and stored in large quantities. 

 This is especially true ■with, corn, much of which is 

 sold in the fall and early winter, too damp to keep 

 well when stored in large quantities. It is true also 

 of wheat and other grain that, when hauled from 

 the threshing machine, it may be too damp to store 

 in large elevators. There is a risk to the dealers in 

 handling such grain, hence the low prices. Also, 

 doubtless, there is a tendency on the part of the 

 dealers to make as low prices as possible when the 

 fanner sells the bulk of his crop. Some farmers 

 are oblieed to sell as soon as the crop has been 

 harvested or threshed, needing the money and hav- 

 ing perhaps -no suitable storage room. But this is 

 a hand-to-mouth method of living and farming, and 

 the thrifty, experienced farmer will make himself 

 independent of such conditions. 



From the results of several trials at different 

 experiment stations, it appears that the shrinkage 

 of grain put into the bin in good condition is very 

 flight, and corn put into the crib in the fall, fairly 

 well cured and dry, will not lose over ten per cent 

 ijn weight during the fojir or five winter months, 

 ijhe shrinkage usually being much less, proportion- 

 ately than the rise in price. Also, as sold in the fall, 

 ten to fifteen per cent greater weight per bushel of 

 eax .com is .required .by dealers than is required in 

 the winter or spring. 



The farmer should watch the market and sell at 



the highest prices. A good seller is usually a suc- 

 cessful farmer. Farmers should give more atten- 

 tion to the marketing of their products in this 

 day of trusts and combinations. They should co- 

 operate and protect their interests in maintaining 

 fair prices for their products. But let us urge that 

 every farmer, by his own efforts as well as by 

 cooperation, seek first to prepare for the market a 

 ■prime article, which on its own merit will bring 

 the highest price. 



Literature. 



There has been little published on farm manage- 

 ment as such, though various phases of the subject 

 have received much separate treatment. Such 

 books as The Fertility of the Land, by Roberts ; 

 The Soil, by King ; Cereals in America, by Hiint ; 

 Grasses, by Shaw, treat more or less on the subject 

 of farm management. Somewhat fuller accounts 

 will be found in Agricultural Economics, by Henry 

 C. Taylor ; Physics of Agriculture, F. H. King 

 (chapter on Farm Mechanics); Chapters in History 

 of Agriculture, T. F. Hunt. The most specific in- 

 formation will be found in the two bulletins. An 

 Example of Model Farming, and Farm Manage- 

 ment Investigations, by W. J. Spillman, United 

 States Department of Agriculture; Successful 

 Farming, by William Rennie, Sr., published by 

 Wm. Rennie's Sons, Toronto. For farm bookkeep- 

 ing : The. Farmer's Business Handbook, I. P. 

 Roberts, The Macmillan Co.; The Model Farm 

 Record, Minnick, Bliss & Co., Chicago ; Farm 

 Account Book and Farm Record, E. A. Boehne & 

 Sons, Hansen, Nebraska ; Practical Bookkeeping 

 for Farmers, published by H. G. Phelps, Bozeman, 

 Mont. The importance of stady of this subject is 

 being recognized, and the future will find available 

 much helpful farm-management literature. 



THE TRIENNIAL CROP ROTATION SYSTEM 



By Hugh N. Starnes 



After the red-clay lands of the southern cotton- 

 belt have been protected from erosion by terracing 

 (Vol. I, page 402), experience has proved that a 

 simple three-year crop rotation will rapidly restore 

 their original fertility without materially derang- 

 ing existing conditions or interrupting the contin- 

 uous production of the three principal staples of 

 that section — cotton, corn and oats. The two fac- 

 tors which simplify the process are (1) the reten- 

 tive clay subsoil and (2) the rapid growth and 

 effective service (both chemical and mechanical) 

 of the cowpea. This valuable legume, in the space 

 of 90 days, not only stores in the soil, through its 

 decaying roots and stubble, a large quantity of 

 vegetable matter for subsequent conversion into 

 humus, and transfers from the atmosphere a con- 

 siderable supply of immediately available nitrogen, 

 but it also " pays its own way " while so doing. In 

 principle, the process is of course not new, but its 

 adoption as a practice is recent and by no means 

 universal, as yet, though making rapid headway, 

 particularly in Georgia. 



