OCR Text |
Show SHORTCHANGE SOIL The benefits of clover depend on how much nitrogen and organic matter it produces, and how much of those materials is returned to the soil as clover or as manure. When sweet clover is out in the fall and removed from the field the resulting loss in nitrogen and organic matter reduces the yields of crops following in the rotation. When clover is not cut, those yields increase. The SWEET CLOVER CUT IN FALL . AND REMOVED ( 1 TON -;n4flfl SWEBT CLOVBP PEB ACRE) 'yXtT . . -. M'nY 6WEET CLOVER i BU. PER ACRE i K. 'yfV i!J CUT..-". CORN 78 -"o OAT4 -lb Cf, WHEAT- 21 TC-iJWj CODN -98 I .?'' above chart illustrates results of crop rotation tests at the Carthage soil experiment field by University of Illinois agronomists. In a three-year three-year rotation of corn, oats and wheat, sweet clover was seeded in the wheat and plowed under for corn the next spring. On one plot the stubble sweet clover was cut in the fall and removed. On another plot the sweet clover was left uncut. un-cut. Both plots were plowed the following fol-lowing spring. The effect on yields of corn, oats and wheat following-on following-on each plot is summarized above- |