The Story of the Soil; from the Basis of Absolute Science and Real LifeHopkins, Cyril G. (Cyril George)
Science
The Story of the Soil; from the Basis of Absolute Science and Real Life
Hopkins, Cyril G. (Cyril George)
Soils
First year: Corn, with mixed legumes, seeded at the time of the last
cultivation, on perhaps one-half of the field. These legumes may
include some cowpeas and soy beans and some sweet clover, but that
is not yet fully decided upon.
Second year: Oats (part barley, perhaps) on twenty acres, cowpeas on
ten acres, and soy beans on ten acres. The peas and beans are to be
seeded on the twenty acres where the catch crop of legumes is to be
plowed under as late in the spring as practicable.
Third year: Wheat with alsike on twenty acres and red clover on the
other twenty, seeded in the early spring. If necessary to prevent
the clover or weeds from seeding, the field will be clipped about
the last of August.
Fourth year: Harvest the red clover for hay and the alsike for seed,
and apply limestone after plowing early for wheat.
Fifth year: Wheat, with alsike and red clover seeded and clipped as
before.
Sixth year: Pasture in early summer, then clip if necessary to
secure uniformity, and later harvest the red clover for seed. Manure
may be applied to any part of this field from the time of wheat
harvest the previous year until the close of the pasture period.
Then it may be applied to the alsike only until the red clover seed
crop is removed, and then again to any part of the field, which may
also be used for fall pasture. To this field the threshed clover
straw and all other straw not needed for feed and bedding will be
applied. The application of raw phosphate will be made to this
field, and all of this material plowed under for corn.
The second six years is to be a repetition of the first, except that
the alsike and red clover will be interchanged, so as to avoid the
development of clover sickness if possible; and to keep the soil
uniform we may interchange the oats with the peas and beans.
This system provides for the following crops each year:
40 acres of corn;
20 acres of oats;
10 acres of cowpeas for hay
10 acres of soy beans for seed
80 acres of wheat
20 acres of red clover for hay
20 acres of alsike for seed
20 acres of red clover for seed
20 acres of alsike for pasture, except from June to August.
We also have some permanent pasture which we may use at any time
that may seem best. If necessary we may cut all the clover for hay
the fourth year, and we may pasture all summer the sixth year. We
can pasture the corn stalks during the fall and winter when the
ground is in suitable condition.
We plan to raise our own horses and perhaps some to sell. In
addition we may raise a few dairy cows for market, but will do
little dairying ourselves.
We expect to sell wheat and some corn, and if successful we shall
sell some soy beans, alsike seed, and red clover seed.
How soon we shall be able to get this system fully under way I shall
not try to predict; but we shall work toward this end unless we
think we have good reason to modify the plan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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