The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1909-02-11
FORAGE PLANTS AS
SOIL IhlPROVERS
By j. E. Northrup. Minnesota.

Miilet grown on new land for hay Is a
soil improver; it helps to disintegrate
the soil, shades the land and makes
plant food available. Grown on old
land for seed it exhausts the soil, con-
seQuently puts little back and from
this standpoint is soil robber. The
leguminous crops, peas, beans and the
clovers are held in high esteem not
only as forage, on account of high pro-
tein content, but also for the nourish-
ment in shape of nitrogen they furnish
soil, which has been exhausted in the
growing of grain crops. These valu.
able agents, however, will make the
land sick and return diminishing crops
if grown on the same ground year af-
ter year, and thus prove soil robbers.
All forage crops are, therefore, good
or bad, according as they are used in
the proper rotation. At the Minnesota
state experiment station. where corn
was grown continuously on one plot
for ten years, it gave an average of
eos bushels per acre for the first five
years and Ill bushels to the acre for
the second five years. While on q plot
alongside, where corn was planted but
once in five years in a system Of 70.
tation. the average yield for the two
years it was planted was 1872 bushels.
The manner in which forage crops
are harvested is also large factor in
considering their value from q profit
and loss standpoint. It is becoming
more and more the custom in the
northwest to turn sheep, cattle and
swine into the fields to harvest the
crop. This saves labor, and at the
same time fertilizes the fields. It is
plain, therefore, that, in the considera-
ton of forage plants as soil improvers,
allowances must be made for the par
ticular field where the crop is to be
grown.
In many sections of the northwest
field corn is becoming standard crop,
regardless of early or late frosts, be.
cause of the large quantity and SUI
pericr quality of forage it yields. In
addition to its soil renovating and fer
tility-restoring properties, both as a
substitute for summer fallow and for
the forage it produces, it has been
demonstrated again and again that the
best yields and qualities CT small
grains come from fields where corn
was grown the previous year. The
North Dakota experiment. station gives
most convincing record on its trial
grounds, where, during a very dry
summer, wheat on corn land made 25
bushels per acre, where the crop from
land which had been sown continu-
ously to wheat for II years made less
that three bushels to the acre.
Dry land farming has demonstrated
that crop of corn grown on SEMI
arid lands prepares it for succeeding
crop fully as well as summer fallows,
which had been employed every alter.
nate year to conserve moisture suf-
ucient to produce q full crop once In
two years. The enterprising farmer
sows rape or clover in the corn and
pastures the fields with sheep or cattle
until they are in condition for the
block. This saves the expense of har.
vesting the corn with men and ma
chinery, also the time employed in
feeding the same from cribs.
The clovers are fully equal to corn
as soil improvers, but take second
place as forage. The best results are
obtained in short rotations with small
grains. The Introduction Of the cloverl