Show strip cropping rotation keeps moisture in soil strip cropping combined with crop rotation adds up tip to strip rotation a method of saving soil and saving moisture that works well in many farming areas the soil conservation service gives actual actu i il comparisons as worked oat on experimental plots at the state college farm in an aia where erosion and are not nearly so serious as in many farm regions in corn plots cultivated up and down hill for three years there was an annual soil loss averaging 43 tons to the acre yearly by running the corn rows across the slope the loss was cut in half in both cases three crops of corn in succession reduced fertility by strip rotation in the plots planting corn rows across the slope and further breaking the slope with cross strips of close growing hay crops to catch and strain out the soil that starts from the cultivated strips the soil loss was cut to one twenty fifth a ton and a half a year instead of 43 tons the water loss was only about one fourth that from the allcorn all corn plots when the strips were plowed in as a part of the rotation the roots and tops helped to restore organic matter and maintain fertility |