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In Agriculture, crop rotation is the practice of growing more than one crop in the same area by rotating periodically. There are many agriculture benefits to be had by using this method. However, it is usually easier to do when growing vegetables as apposed to other types of crops. This is because of the timing and the growing seasons of the crops.
One benefit of this agriculture practice is that each crop takes certain nutrients from the soil and deposits others back into it. Overtime, this will deplete the soil of certain nutrients that are needed for the crops. By rotating the crop with another type of plant, the soil may be replenished with the nutrient missing, however other nutrients are taken so the crops must continue to be rotated.
Agriculture pests and plant diseases can set in on a crop and as long as the pest and disease is allowed to spread and feed on the certain crop, the worse the situation becomes. Again, by rotating the crop you are taking the medium the pests and disease use to grow away and replacing it with another crop that does not attract the same pests and diseases.
The different nature of each agriculture crop makes the choice of which crop to use a crucial one. Some crops may have properties that make them ideal choices for rotation together, while other crops do not have such matching properties. There are also other considerations such as the soil and animals contained in the area.
Crop rotation is an ancient agriculture technique that was apparent in Roman literature. The Middle Ages contained many examples of crop rotation techniques and many countries have pioneered different rotation methods such as the Dutch's four-field rotation. Crop rotation in the United States was invented by George Washing Carver.
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