ROTATION PRACTICE 17 
moth clover, cowpea, soybean, and spring and 
winter vetch are legumes that possess similar 
qualities from the feeding standpoint, and which, 
because of their habits of growth, supplement the 
red clover in improving rotations, while at the 
same time they permit a much larger production 
of forage from a unit of land. Alfalfa also belongs 
to this group, and is in many respects superior to 
any of them; but because it grows more rapidly 
and is perennial in its habits, it is not so well 
suited for mixtures or for rotations. 
Improvement of rotations 
In this country, extensive or large-area systems 
of farming are more generally adopted than inten- 
sive systems, and the crops are usually the cereals, 
as maize, oats, wheat and barley. These crops 
must depend on soil sources almost exclusively for 
their food supply, as the manures are made from 
a limited number of animals, and those secured in 
purchased supplies are not universally used. 
A rotation very generally adopted in the Hast 
and central West is corn, oats, wheat, hay, clover, 
or clover and timothy mixed. This is not, in all 
cases, a better rotation than any other, but it 
allows the growing of a larger proportion of grain 
crops. One method in such a rotation is to apply 
the manure on the sod for corn, which is harvested 
B 
