The Old Rotation

The Old Rotation

Education; Lee County, AL; The Old Rotation; Auburn University; Duggar, J.F.; National Register of Historic Places; Cotton; Legumes; Scientific Experimentation; Auburn, AL

Located on Lem Morrison Drive directly across the street from the Auburn University Parking Services Building, The Old Rotation exemplifies Auburn’s tradition as a bastion of agricultural education. Professor J.F. Duggar established the acre in 1896 as an experiment to determine the benefits of planting winter legumes such as beans or peas as a winter crop cover when cultivating cotton or corn. Duggar successfully demonstrated that winter legumes could offset some of the nitrate depletion inflicted on soil when planting cotton or corn in the same field yearly. The plots planted with winter legumes in the acre consistently yielded more cotton lint than those that lay fallow during those months. The Old Rotation is the third-longest running agricultural experiment and the oldest continuous cotton experiment in the world. In 1988, the National Register of Historic Places added The Old Rotation to its list.

Taylor McGaughy

Image Sources: http://www.aaes.auburn.edu/comm/pubs/old%20rotation/plotsoneandtwo.html

http://www.kennysmith.org/wordpress/markers/2014/11/13/the-old-rotation/

Text Sources: Auburn University, http://www.ag.auburn.edu/agrn/cotton.htm.

Auburn University, Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station, http://www.aaes.auburn.edu/comm/pubs/old%20rotation/photos.php.

Alabama Cultural Resource Survey

2014-11-26

Taylor McGaughy

JPEG and Text

English

Still Image and Text