ABSTRACT
Crop rotation is defined as a system of growing different kinds of crops in recurrent succession and in definite sequence on the same land, 1,3 as distinguished from continuously growing the same crop (monoculture). The Romans recognized the benefit of alternating leguminous crops with cereals more than 2000 years ago. 2,3 The practice of green manuring (turning under a crop in succulent condition) for soil improvement was known to the Greeks and Chinese before the Christian era. 1 Modern crop rotation was established about 1730 in England when the benefits of growing turnips or other root crops in rotation with barley, clover, and wheat were discovered. The oldest crop rotation experiments known were established at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Rothamsted, England in 1848, and were continued until 1951. 4 Crop rotation research in the U.S. was started with the Morrow plots in 1876 at the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. 3 Other rotation experiments were soon established in North Dakota, Alabama, Ohio, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. 1,3
