. Cyclopedia of farm crops. Farm produce; Agriculture. DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 93 certain fields may be kept more profitably in grass than in any other crop ; but such fields will not enter into the regular crop rotation system. A convenient and desirable time to manure land is while it is being used as meadow or pasture. If the manure is applied a year or so before breaking, it will stimulate the growth of grass and cause a greater production of hay or pasture. Meanwhile, the soil is enriched by an increased root-growth and the formation of more humus. Besides these beneficial results,
. Cyclopedia of farm crops. Farm produce; Agriculture. DISCUSSION OF FARM MANAGEMENT 93 certain fields may be kept more profitably in grass than in any other crop ; but such fields will not enter into the regular crop rotation system. A convenient and desirable time to manure land is while it is being used as meadow or pasture. If the manure is applied a year or so before breaking, it will stimulate the growth of grass and cause a greater production of hay or pasture. Meanwhile, the soil is enriched by an increased root-growth and the formation of more humus. Besides these beneficial results, some plant-food will be supplied by the manuring for the use of the first crop that is grown on the breaking, at a time when available plant-food is much needed, because the larger part of the fertility in new breaking is in an unavailable condition and cannot be used readily by the new crop. Soils in which the organic matter and humus are deficient may be improved in fertility and texture by green-manuring. A cheap and practical method of green-manuring is to plant a crop adapted to this purpose (the annual legume crops, such as cowpeas, soybeans, field-peas and vetches being preferred) in the grain stubble immediately after harvest. The method at the Kansas Experiment Station is to follow the binder directly with the drill; thus, when the harvest is finished the field has been replanted. Cowpeas, rape or sorghum seeded in this way usually make a good stand and an excellent growth, and furnish forage or pasture, or the crop may be plowed down for green-manure or left as a winter cover. It is necessary, in carrying out permanent plans for crop rotation, to have fields of nearly equal area, in order to grow about the same acreage of the several crops each year, thus making it possible to keep a certain number of live-stock, and from year to year to have regularity and uniformity in the farming business. In order to demonstrate the working of practical systems of crop rotation, a
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