The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1912-01-26
A ROTATION Of CROPS
ON ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY
ACRES FOR TWELVE YEARS.
SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION
6y Director Youngbtood Of College Sta
tion-TelIs What to Plant in Pc.
riods-Aifafa a Feature.

College Station, Tex-D. Young
blood, director Of the Texas expert
mcnt stations, with headquarters at
the \. and NJ, college Of Texas has
outlined rotation Of crops on $50
acres Of land, for period Of twelve
years, that is very interesting.
Mr.. Youngblood selects a tract 100
acres in size, and appropriates forty
acres for permanent work. In the cen
ter OF one side, opening on the public
road, he locates the farmstead in ten
acres and on each side of the farm
stead he has fifteen acres in perma-
nent pasture. The balance of the tract
is divided into thirty acres each, and
is rotated as follows;
First Period-Three Years.
First ycar-No. ! in alfalfa; No. .
in cotton or wheat; No. in oats; No,
in corn
Second year-No. ! in alfalfa No
9 in corn; No. 3 in cotton or wheat;
No. in oats.
Third year--No. in alfalfa; No. .
in oats; No. 8 in corn, and No 4 in
cotton or wheat.
Second Period-Three Years.
Fourth year-No. ! in corn; No, 2
in alfalfa; No. in cotton or wheat;
No. in oats.
Fifth year-No ! in oats; No. in
alfalfa; No. in corn; No. in cotton
or wheat.
Sixth year-No. l in cotton or
wheat; No. > in alfalfa; No. 3 in oats;
No. in corn.
Third Period-Three Years.
Seventh year-No in oats; No
2 in corn; No. in alfalfa; No. 4 in
cotton or wheat.
Eighth year-No. in cotton or
wheat; No. 2 in oats; No. 3 in alfalfa;
No. in corn.
Ninth year-No. in corn; No. in
cotton or whea.; No. in alfalfa;
No. in oats.
Fourth Perod--Three Years.
Tenth Year-No l in cotton or
wheat; No. in oats; No. in corn;
No. 4 in alfalfa.
Eleventh year-No. ! In corn; No. 2
in cotton or wheat; No. 8 in oats; No.
4 in alfalfa.
Twelfth year-No 1 in oats; No. 2
in corn; No. 3 In cotton or wheat,
and No. in alfalfa.
In discussing this proposed rota.
ton, Mr.. Youngblood says: 1T will
be observed that alfalfa remains three
years in each of the four-year periods,
and in the meantime three-year rota-
ton of cotton, or wheat, corn and oats
is in operation in the other three
fields. For convenience wheat or oats
occupy each field the year previous to
its being planted to alfalfa, or If the
soil is poor, cOwpeas may be used in
preference to either wheat or oats.
In this rotation ample opportunity is
afforded for controlling root rot, as
resistant crops occupy the land from
two to three years between alfalfa and
the cotton. Where root rot is excep-
tionally destructive, leguminous catch
crops such as coWpeas and soy beans
should be left out of the rotation until
the disease is checked, but where it
appears only on plant here and
there it's effects will be more than
compensated for by the benefits de-
rived from these crops"
Mr.. Youngblood further says: "a
definite rotation in which there is a
total absence of legumes Is rather
unusual, if not altogether unique in
the history Of Southwestern agricul-
ture. 1t becomes still more eXcep-
tional if it has been followed syste-
matically for a long series of years,
yet such a rotation has been practiced
on the black land farm Of James Burns
at San Saba, Texas, the history OF
which I have studied"