Crop Rotation

Abstract

An extensive experiment in crop rotation has been under way at the South Dakota Experiment Station since 1897. This experiment was begun by Professor E.C. Chilcott, now of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and was carried on continuously by him until the close of the last fiscal year. The writer has, however, been connected with the work as an assistant in the Department for six years. The field work has since its beginning been uninterruptedly in charge of Mr. William West, foreman of the Experiment Station farm. One bulletin, No. 79, which is now out of print, was published by Professor Chilcott in 1903, giving some of the results of the first five years of the experiment. It is perhaps needless to say that results from an experiment in crop rotation become increasingly more valuable the longer the experiment runs. It cannot be said, therefore, that the experiment is in any way finished, but it is believed that the importance of the work justifies the publication of results up to date. It is not the purpose in this bulletin to make an exhaustive study of all the results, or of all the different rotations. Such a task would be almost limitless. We will confine ourselves (1) To a brief discussion in a general way of the results from each rotation; (2) To a more extended study of the results from some of the shorter rotations, especially in regard to alternate cropping to wheat and corn, wheat and summer fallow, and wheat and a legume, vetch; (3) To the effect of applying manure with varying frequency to land that grows wheat alone, and to land in which corn enters into the rotation; (4) The effect of introducing a sod crop into the rotation, and (5) The influence of the immediately preceding crop upon the yield of wheat, oats and barley