Saving Southern Soils Demonstration on Franklin County Farm, 1940

From the November 1940 issue of The Southern Planter

North Carolina State College has demonstrated on the farm of H.F. Fuller, Franklin County, that sound rotations and winter crops are essential to the saving of Southern soils.

In two plots where cotton and corn have been grown continuously since 1937 without a winter cover crop, 44 tons of soil per acre were lost each year.  In another plot, where lespedeza has been grown continuously, no soil was lost during the same period.

In two other plots where corn and cotton have been grown and crimson clover was used as winter crop, the annual loss of soil per acre from the 7 per cent slope was 38 tons. But where a four-year rotation of cotton, corn and barley was planted with lespedeza, crimson clover and barley as winter cover crops, the annual loss of soil per acre was only 7 tons.

In 1939 the corn yielded 31 bushels per acre on the plot where corn has been grown continuously, 51 bushels per acre where it was grown in a two-year rotation, and 53 bushels per acre where it was grown in a four-year rotation. In 1940, barley grown in the four-year rotation yielded 55 bushels per acre.