The Bourbon news., 1912-09-10
DEMOCRATIC TICKET.
Prof. Kinney Gives Farmers
Advice.

For many years it has been an al
most universal practice among the
farmers of Kentucky to sow wheat
after corn crop. but Prof. E. j.
| Kinney. Assistant Agronomist at the
| Kentucky Experiment Station, in an
address before a farmers meeting in
Lexington declared it was almost i'm
| possible to raise good crop of wheat
on land that had just produced a crop
OF corn. and that this practice was one
of the chief causes for the decreased
| production of wheat in Central Ken
lucky. In the course of his address s
Prof. Kinney said:
"The soils of the Blue Grass region
cannot be excelled by any wheat lands
| in the country. They will produce
good crops.now if managed with in
telligence and conditions made favor
able for the crop. On the experiment
station farm the average yield for the
past seven years has been above thirty
bushels per acre. The cost of pro-
ductlon. including rent on the land, is
about SIS, leaving net profit of $11
per acre Not pound of commercial
fertilizer has been used on the land to
produce this wheat, and no more at
tention and care has been given to the
crop than the average farmer can and
should give it. The Experiment Sta
tlon afrm is not above the average
of the farms in the section in natural
fertility. In fact nothing has been
done that any farmer cannot do. and
| thesproduction could be equalled on
any farm. These yields are due to
keeping the land we'll supplied with nj
trogen and organic matter, the only
things necessary to keep Blue Grass
lands productive; to having wheat
follow crop which leaves the land in
a favorable condition for fall growth !;
by preparing good seed bed. and by
sowing good seed of good varieties of
wheat.
1--WE found on the station farm
that high yields were difficult to Sc
cure when wheat was seeded on corn
land. The corn crop so eXhausts the
soils of available plant food and mois-
ture that wheat does not make suffi-
cient growth to withstand the winter
successfully. 1t is difficult to prepare
seed bed properly on corn land. The
shocks are in the way and take up
considerable space. Soy beans were
introduced into the rotation to follow
corn and to be followed in turn by
wheat. They serve the purpose admi-
rably aud leave the land in as good
condition for wheat as does tobacco.
Soy beans are legumes, and have the
same property of enriching the soil
with nitrogen as have the clovers.
We have found them a practical and
proftableIcrop and recommend their
use. Cow peas may be used in the
same place in the rotation as soy
beans.
"Other rotations can be planted to
give similar conditions for the wheat
crop. Corn, oats. wheat and clover ia
good rotation for stock farm where
manure can be used to take the place
of one leguminousScro Soyfbeans or
cow peas can be planted on one half of
the corn land and oats on the other
half du' ing one period of the rotation.
and the next time corn occupies the
field, the area planted formerly to oats
can be planted to soy bears and vice
verso.
"Ciover, potatoes and wheat are
good three year rotations, but provide
no place for corn. A two year rOta-
tion of wheat and clover is admirable
where. little corn is grown. By sowing
clover in the corn in August a four
year rotation of corn. ::wheatsand clover
can be practiced and will prove an ex-
cellent one.