Rural Heritage April/May 2026

Mineral fertilizers were applied in each case with the following results:

sections is becoming more important every year. Corn, like most other farm crops, does not produce large enough gross returns to justify an extensive use of fertilizers. The grower must, therefore, depend largely upon the soil and upon farm manures for this crop's food. A good cropping system is the first essential toward maintaining good yields, but this in time must be supplemented by the use of manures and fertilizers if the soil is to be kept in the highest state of fertility. The effect of the cropping system and the use of fertilizers on the yield of corn is well shown by the above average yield per acre obtained in two sets of experiments on land handled in different ways (Illinois Bulletin 125). The original productive capacity of this land was about 70 bushels of corn to the acre. Thus, while a good rotation tends to maintain productiveness, it cannot entirely do so if all of the crops are removed from the land. Of course it has other beneficial effects. In another experiment at the Illinois Station, two series of plots were cropped to a corn, oats, clover rotation. On one set the corn and oats grain and the clover seed was removed, the corn stover and oat and clover straw being returned to the land, in addition to a catch crop of cowpeas grown in the corn and turned under. On the other series, the crops were all removed and manure ·applied in proportion to the crop yields, thus approximating a system of livestock farming where the crops are all fed and the manure returned to the land. The original productive capacity of this land was about 70 bushels of corn to the acre. Thus, while a good rotation tends to maintain productiveness, it cannot entirely do so if all of the crops are removed from the land. Of course, it has other beheficial effects.

Thus, where manure is used with a rotation, the yield of corn has not only been maintained but even increased, whereas, a rotation alone,

April/May 2026

71