Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 304, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1917 — EXPERIMENTS WITH CROPPING SYSTEMS [ARTICLE]

EXPERIMENTS WITH CROPPING SYSTEMS

Results Obtained at Missouri College Show That Rotation and Manuring Pays. Experiments at the University of Missouri college of agriculture with various cropping systems in rotation with and without manures have given the following results: 1. Crop rotation has been as efficient in maintaining a yield of corn during the 25-year period as the addition of seven tons of manure annually where corn has been grown continuously. 2. Very heavy applications of commercial fertilizers on all crops of a six-year rotation have maintained the corn yield at approximately the same level as the application of seven tons of manure annually, although the cost of fertilizer has exceeded the value of the increase, the manure has brought a net return.

3. Continuous timothy, manured annually seven tons per acre for 25 years, has brought the largest annual net return, $9.55 per acre, of any of the systems used, where both cost of production and cost of treatment are considered. On the last basis continuous timothy without treatment netted $5.19 annually, a rotation of corn, wheat, clover netted $2.97 annually, without manure, and $4.87 with seven tons of manure annually. Continuous corn without manure lost $2.29 annually, corn manured, 41 cents annually, while continuous wheat heavily fertilized lost $11.30, and a six year rotation heavily fertilized lost $11.47. 4. All crop rotations brought a net return; the fnHrrared rotations aver* aged much higher than the unmanured. Thus, these experiments show that rotation combined with manuring pays.