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1. Crop Rotation in Relation to Soil Productivity 1
Author(s) -
Johnson T. C.
Publication year - 1927
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1927.00021962001900060007x
Subject(s) - crop rotation , crop , citation , relation (database) , productivity , mathematics , agricultural science , agronomy , operations research , agricultural economics , library science , computer science , environmental science , forestry , geography , economics , database , biology , macroeconomics
4 inches, beans were planted by the hills of the corn, the dorn stalks thus forming supports for the bean vines. Clean cultivation was given. Especial care was observed to remove all weeds or other superfluous vegetation. A plat of land would be cultivated with this one-season intercropping rotation for a number of years; but when productivity fell below a sat~factory poi5t, the land would be "turned out" and a new fi.el&-cfe-ared from the forest. The Indians i~eastern Virginia and eastern North Carolina seemed to have devoted their agricultural energies largely to the production of corn. John Smith states that most of the lands of the coastal plain regions of Virginia and the Carolinas were very heavily wooded with pine trees and undergro\~ th of oak and an occasional interchain of gr~ape vines. These landis were naturally very productive. The Indians would clear them of trees by the use of fire. They wotild the/n plant the corn in hills about 4 feet apart, planting three grains ~o the hill. When the corn had attained a height of approximately .f~3 feet, the soil was drawn to the plants with cr6de ,implements, thus forming a mound around each hill. The individual field would be used for a long number of years; but when productivity fell below a satisfactory point, another field would be cleared from the forest ̄ and farming operations started anew. It is stated that the natives frequently fertilized their corn by burying a ~sh obtained from the nearby rivers under each hill before planting. Edmund Ruffin in his essay on Calcareous l~anures, published in ~832, states that the agriculture of eastern Virginia at that time had reached a very unsa.tisfactory state. A three-year rotation, consisting of corn, corn, and wheat without winter cover crop, was in common use. M.any farmers adjacent to the tidal rivers used "green fish" as a fertilizer, but the quantity was limited and means of transformation inadequate so the practice was not general. It was customary to cultivate rather large acreages, but with a very small acre yield.