Show SUMMER FALLOW HABIT BAD waste of time and humus in wheat belt of northwest one interesting english experiment summer following fallowing fal 1 justifiable to localities where the moisture ol 01 two seasons 1 required tor one crop writes L P childers in the western fanner but in the wheat belt ol 01 the northwest it Is a grand waste of time money and opportunity clear and aside from the useless waste ot the coil s store of humus the loss of time and money needs no argument to convince or because there are highly remunerative munera tive crops which are well suit ed to fill the gap the unpardonable sin of cummer fal lowing is the wanton waste of humus this Is the material that colors the soil dark or black gives it life makes it spongy or tri able it contains the nitrogen so nee essary tor the growth of plants culta or summer plowing produces nitrification by stimulating bacterial action which in tho presence of mole ture and air consumes thia humus the result Is that more of these nl are liberated than are required tor the succeeding crop this excess Is therefore exposed to beeching leeching lee ching dur ing the winter or early spring and an excess of straw ie produced in the ma lured crop this straw contains much nitrogen which 1 wasted in the burned or rotted straw heap at Rot hamstead england the oldest experiment in the orld two plats of grounds were sown to wheat one alternated with wheat and fallow the other was sown contina bously to wheat at the end of 47 years the alternated plot had yielded an average of 8 5 bushels as against 12 4 for the continuous plat this does not argue that we should seed one certain crop continuously upon a piece of land rotation should be practiced here but it does argue that should never be practiced unless scarcity of moisture makes it necessary potatoes and roots put the land in fine shape for the succeeding crop and are remunerative if not too tar from the shipping point but the most promising crop Is field peas break the land in the fall inoculate it in the spring and seed 75 pounds of jeaa per acre the first crop is never so good as the second or third but the amount of pig and cow feed will surprise you |