MANAGEMENT OP GENERAL EAEMS IN OREGON. 
21 
may be attributed, at least in part, to the low yield and large acreage 
of the oat crop on the clay farms. 
(5) Perhaps the greatest cause of the lower efficiency of the clay 
farms is the practice of summer fallowing approximately one-fourth 
of the rotation area each year. During the year 1912, 24.5 per cent 
of the rotation area on the clay farms lay idle as summer fallow, as 
compared with 2.7 per cent on the silt loam farms (see fig. 1). The 
practice of summer fallowing diminishes net receipts in two ways. 
In the first place, the land being summer fallowed represents idle 
capital from which there is no return. Secondly, the cultivation of 
the idle land during the summer-fallow year materially increases the 
operating expenses. On the clay farms 46.1 per cent of the gross 
receipts were required for operating expenses as against 37.7 per 
cent on the silt loam farms. The work of cultivating the summer 
fallow is very largely responsible for this difference. 
STARTING CLOVER ON THE CLAY SOIL. 
From what has been said in this discussion it should be evident 
that the profitableness of farming on the clay soil can be greatly 
increased by adopting cropping systems or rotations that will do 
away with the summer-fallow practice, and in which clover and other 
leguminous crops will have a prominent place. Until very recently 
a very large percentage of the farmers on the clay soil thought this 
was not feasible. During the last few years, however, many attempts 
have been made to grow clover on the clay soil. During the season 
of 1916 a detailed study of 53 trials of growing clover was made in 
order to determine (1) whether clover can be successfully grown on 
this type of soil and (2) the most practical ways of getting a stand. 
The success of the 53 trials, which included 1,111 acres, is shown in 
Table XVI. 
Table XVI. — Results of seeding clover alone and with different nurse crops on Salem 
clay soil, Marion County, Or eg. 
Nurse crop. 
Time^of clover 
seeding. 
Num- 
ber of 
trials. 
Total 
acres 
seeded. 
Percentage of cases in which 
the stand was — 
Good. 
Poor. 
Failure. 
Spring oats 
Spring barley 
Feb., Mar., Apr... 
.do 
19 
1 
4 
13 
2 
5 
9 
392 
18 
87 
202 
70 
107 
235 
81.9 
100 
100 
85.7 
14.3 
81.8 
100.0 
10.5 
7.6 
.. .do 
.do 
11.4 
3.0 
Tfo 
Fall 
85.7 
Winter oats 
March 
7.5 
10.7 
No nurse crop, clover sown aione. . 
Total 1 
53 
1,111 
83. 8 ! 6. 5 
9.7 
It will be noted that a good stand was secured on 931 acres of the 
1,111 acres seeded. In other words, 83.8 per cent of the area seeded 
gave satisfactory results. A good stand was secured on 100 per cent 
of the area seeded alone late in May or early in June. A good stand 
