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Show MATE CROPS FOR SOILJERTILITY Must Take Advantage of Conditions Con-ditions Here to Make Farming Farm-ing Profitable By WALTER F. SMITH County Agricultural Agent The starting point in business farming farm-ing is "crop rotation" or the establishment establish-ment of a systematic croping system to maintain soil fertility, keep the soil free from diseases and insect pests and allow the proper kind of soil organisms organ-isms to develop. The three farm practices prac-tices which contribute most effectively effective-ly to the production of the major crops are cultivation, crop rotation, and .the use of fertilizers. These three operations oper-ations rank almost equal in importance, import-ance, But the bureau of soils of the United States department of agriculture agricul-ture points out that while the cultivation culti-vation of the soil and the use of fertilizers ferti-lizers are more or less expensive, rotation rota-tion of crops does not appear as an item of expense in any farm cost-accounting system. Thus in rotation of crops, a farmer has at his command, without any monetary cost to him, a means whereby where-by he can materially increase the output out-put of his land and reduce crop production pro-duction costs. The farmer must be a husbandman of his soil. He must bear in mind that out of the thin crust of soil averaging only 14 to 20 inches in depth on the face of the earth is produced the substance sub-stance for all manner of life both plant and animal. Every day of the year our farms produce more than $25,000,000 worth of new wealth, more in four years than all the gold dug out of all the mines in ail the world in four centuries, yet our farmers forget this condition and become robbers of the soil, so to speak, they mine the soil of its wealth and instead of a heritage they leave to their sons and grandsons grand-sons a burnt out, worn out soil( which to bring back into production must take years of time and dollars of expense. ex-pense. It is soon time to plant pur winter gardens and fields OuTT5" be worked and mulched Zl I friable condition in order iT & t; ' seeds the best chance for Z Pvt te Our opportunity is to takf of our long seasons and 1 if we make farming proflt, |