328 FARM MANAGEMENT AND CROP ROTATION 



two or more different crops are grown. The importance of rotation 

 in farm management and its application are fully discussed in 

 the following paragraphs. 



Rotation an Essential Factor in Farm Management.— Crop 

 rotation is a mosi essential factor in successful farm management, 

 because it aids materially in increasing and maintaining soil 

 fertihty, in systematizing faftoi operations, and in solving certain 

 other soil and crop problems. The relation of rotation to soil 

 fertility has been fully discussed in Chapter XV. 



Rotation implies system. The adoption of definite cropping 

 plans is the beginning of systematic farming, affecting not only the 

 growing of crops, but field management and the use of labor as well. 



Problems concerning the adaptation of crops to certain fields, 

 the effect of one crop on another, soil renovation, the management 

 of special soils, etc., are best solved through crop rotation. 



Rotation in Practice. — In establishing a fixed rotation, it is 

 necessary to divide the farm into uniform fields or units on which 

 are grown the different crops. Each year the crop on each field or 

 unit is changed according to the adopted plan. For example: 

 A certain farm consists of 100 acres, sixty acres of which are under 

 cultivation and are divided into three twenty-acre fields; the 

 remaining forty acres includes permanent pasture, orchard, yard, 

 garden, etc. The farmer wishes to grow annually twenty acres, 

 each, of corn, oats and clover; thus a three-year rotation is planned 

 as follows: 





Field I 



Field II 



Field III 



Yearl 

 Year 2 

 Years 



Corn 

 Oats 

 Clover 



Oats 



Clover 



Corn 



Clover 



Corn 



Oats 



This is the simplest conception of a practical rotation. Com- 

 paratively few farms, however, lend themselves to such a simple 

 arrangement because of certain conditions or factors which 

 present themselves. Usually two or more different rotations are 

 necessary on each farm . 



Factors WMch Determine Kinds of Rotations. — The rotations 

 best suited to any particular farm are determined by — 



(a) The feeding requirements of the stock kept. 



(b) The kind and amount of cash crops grown. 



