Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1893-05-27
Short Crop Rotations.

be taken from 1T successfully? These
are important, practical questions for
farmers. Undoubtedly we keep more
land in clover and grass than was
thought best when grain cropping was
more profitable. 1t was not infre-
quent to grow two three, or four
small grain crops without seeding
down. But nobody in the East now
thinks of growing successive crops of
potatoes, or corn, or roots. All these
require too much labor to make them
profitable except under the best con-
ditions. These require sod to be
planted on, and to be got back into
sward again with as little delay as
possible.
The first attempt to shorten the
rotation was to keep the land in grass
or clover as short time as possible.
Some years ago we knew farmers who
made a rotation of only three wears.
First, corn or potatoes on a clover
sod, then oats or barley in the spring,
seeding with clover, and often plow-
ing the clover after only one sum-
mer's growth, thus cutting down the
rotation practically to two years, and
keeping either hoed crop or small
grain crop on the land all the time.
But this farming was soon found to
be exhaustive. 1t gave no hay and
little pasture. While there was
young clover to pillow under the second
spring it did not reach the subsoil,
nor did the clover do the good it
ought to do in maintaining fertility.
In these days the short rotation
means more clover and grass, and with
a single year Of hoed crops, timothy
being Sown with wheat in the fall and
a clover seeding put on the following
spring. This keeps some winter COW
ering, however slight, for the soil,
and thus saves wasteful washing.
There is scarcely five months after the
green sod is turned under in April or
May before the grass seed to make
second sod is terminating. UndOubt-
eddy, the wheat and the grass roots
hold much of the nitrogen which a
continued summer cultivation is sure
to develop in soils that have any fer
Utility. 1t is the advantage Of sowing
winter grain after hoed crops that it
prevents losses Of plant food which
under any other system are inevita-
bic.
There should, however, be at least
two years growth Of clover and grass
in the soil to get the best return from
either as a fertilizer. The second
seasons growth of clover always adds
more nitrogen to the soil than it gets
in any other way and practically
without any expense. A crop OF
clover hay will pay good interest in
the value Of ordinary farm land.
After getting profit from feeding it
the farmers ought to have manure
pile that placed on sod full Of de-
caying clover roots will enable him
to grow anything he chooses
In the Eastern States at least the
small grain crops except when needed
to seed with may be left out. We
cannot grow grain in competition
with the West, but we can grow corn,
potatoes, and hoed crops, and we can
afford to grow clover both for feeding
and maintaining soil fertility. By
keeping more land in grass and clover
we can concentrate manure and labor
on fewer acres, and then get more
from each than is possible by long
rotations that include greater num-
Ner of exhaustive crops. American
Cultivation.
Some of the Effects of Good Roads.
BY good roads it is small matter
for farmer to deposit his produce
daily in the market, a few minutes
drive. The citizens table is supplied
with products from the dairy and
fields as fresh as his. Little chill
dren have their morning milk from
the cow, to the neglect Of pump and
apothecary. and with considerable