Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 18, Number 9, DeMotte, Jasper County, 23 January 1948 — Make This A Crop Rotation Year [ARTICLE]

Make This A Crop Rotation Year

' “This is another year to fer« tilize the crop rotation heavily and produce large crop yields as a means of improving farm income and world food* supplies” said M. 0. Pence Extention Agronomist at the Extension School held at Rensselaer, January 20th. The farmer’s purchasing power of soil improving materials such as limestone and fertilizer has .never been higher, and now is the time to utilize these materials for more profitable crops and increased production of food and livestock feed. To increase crop yields and keep the soil in a productive state Mr. Pence recommended the following: 1. Use a good crop rotation including deep rooted legumes such as clover, alfalfa or sweet clover every 3 to 4 years or, if soybeans are grown, every 4 to 5 years. 2. Make the soil favorable to these legumes by use of limestone to meet soil needs based on soil I acidity tests. 3. Apply liberal amounts of phosphate and potash on all small grain. 4. Apply fertilizer in the hill (in bands) for corn at 125 lbs. per acre or drilled in the row at 200 lbs. per acre. 5. Return all manure and crop residues to the soil,, plowing under about two thirds of the mansure on the corn and one third to wheat as a top-dressing. 6. Where legume sods are not available plowing under 500 to 1000 lbs. of 8-8-8 fertilizer per acre should produce paying yield increases if moisture and physical conditions of tne soil are good. The most effective method of applying such fertilizer is in bands 5 to *6 inches deep. In addition 100 to 200 pounds of 0-12-12 or 3-12-12 should be applied in thp row, also nitrogen alone may be broadcast and plowed where previous small grain crops have been fertilized at 300 to 500 pounds per acre.