Kaffir corn is not soil enriching. It has no such character. It probably
depletes the soil just as much as an ordinary corn or hay crop. It is a
good food to continue a milking period into the dry season, but you must
be careful not to allow your cattle to get too much green sorghum, for
it sometimes produces fatal results. We do not know anything which you
can grow during the summer without irrigation which would contribute to
the fertility of your land. If you had water and could grow clover or
some legume during the summer season, the desired effect on the soil
would be secured.
Soils and Crop Changes.
Peas and sweet peas do not grow well continuously in the same ground. I
know this practically in my experience, but in no book have I ever found
why they do not grow.
There are two very good reasons why some classes of plants cannot be
well grown continuously in the same piece of ground. One is the
depletion of available plant food, the other the formation of injurious
compounds by the plants, or the gradual increase of fungoid, bacterial
or animate pests in the soil, which finally become abundant enough to
seriously hinder growth. Different plants take the plant foods, as
nitrogen, lime, potash, phosphates, etc., in different proportion. More
important, perhaps, is the fact that the root acids that extract these
foods are of different types and strength.
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