The Morrow Plots on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus mark 150 years in production this year — the nation’s oldest continuously running agricultural experiment in North America. The plots are the second oldest in the world. “It’s not an overstatement to say that the Morrow Plots have directly impacted the way Americans farm,” according to a news release from the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. “When the plots were established, farming was more of an art than a science. However, methodical, controlled experiments in the plots proved certain practices — crop rotation and judicious fertilizer use — were winners from boosting crop yield, soil health and farm profitability.” The university said the Morrow Plots likely started with agriculture chemist Charles Wallace Silver, who visited England’s Rothamsted Field, the world’s oldest agricultural experiment field, and later proposed a long-term corn study on campus in 18