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Show Rotation Essential For Good Farming Says B.Y.U. Agronomist nY THOMAS I- MARTIN A(rronomist, R-V.l. Men in days gone by have occasionally oc-casionally become discouraged with conditions because soils would not produce as they should. Writers would tend to nullify this discouragement by ridiculing the ida of the land's ever wearing out. Some old Roman Senator quoted on one occasion. "It is neither just nor true to think that the material of the ground which the Creator of the universe endowed w ith perpetual per-petual fecundity is affected with barrenness, nor divs it Ixvotr.c a wise man to believe that the earth with a definite and everlasting youth bestowed Uvn it and celled the common parent of all things, should grow old like a woman." Such comments as this no doubt stirred the farmer lo renewed efforts. ef-forts. He would follow instruct ions and produce results. The same condition prevails now. There are a numlvr of things one can do to improve the situation. Suppose rotation is practiced more vigorously, Ix'tter yields would tv produced. The disease so common to fields cannot develop if crops are changed. Poets should not Iv grown more than two years in succession. Poets for two years J followed by grain as a nurse cro; for alfalfa, the alfalfa crown f:v-years f:v-years and plowed up. and the la-i planted to corn and potatoes. faJ lowed by beets again, will s . 1 change the land that it will tak ; , on renewed vigor. Manure sho J . i bo applied to the alfalfa, con -' potatoes and sugar beets. The la.T would need to be plowed but thre 1 vears out of the ten year rotat:er -;it has boon learned that contir.u-; cultivation breaks down the stnK'.'-tore stnK'.'-tore of the soil, and makes it f$ -sible for the igonnis winds s " wmmon here to carr- aiy thr surface layers. Rut reducing th , numbers of plowings over the ten J year period prevents this tender.c-.. ' to wind erosion. j In addition to the above benefit . j from rotation, it will tv found ths -diseases are bettor controlled: th plant fixyl supply is eo,uali.-od: les, . i lalvr is neel1 and it is lvt'eJ I distributed through the ,-ason: th soil inen-asos in fertility: it is a is easier to work, and above all t!l discouraging foaluivs of a iva -.. 'soil aiv' eliminated. Tl'.e givin( ,, bov and parents, ttv. will tvc." 11 fool that after all farming M so bad: ami a now spirit in af7" cultutv will permeate the eonr . munity. largely Nvause tins f-t s-stem of permanent soil fertility will have taken hold again. |