242 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



the same thing appHes by letting manure lie out in the weather, 

 as applies to feeding clover and other soil improving crops to 

 animals. At the Maryland Experiment Station they allowed 

 80 tons of well-made manure to lie out of doors one year. 

 The 80 tons reduced to 2^ tons. At the Canadian Experiment 

 Station they made a similar experiment, and 1,938 pounds of 

 manure, permitted to lie out in the open from April 29 to Au- 

 gust 29, was reduced -from 1,938 pounds to 655 pounds, and 

 the nitrogen from 48 pounds to 27 pounds, or two-thirds of 

 the organic matter and half the nitrogen in it was lost. This 

 is another way in which you and I can control the organic mat- 

 ter. 



This organic matter not only holds the moisture in the soil, 

 but it makes available the fertility. We ought to do something 

 to help that thing along. I think no one has done more along 

 this line than Dr. Hopkins of the Illinois Experiment Station. 

 Your people may have done something along this line, but I 

 do not know about it. Lots of people do not agree with Dr. 

 Hopkins, but he is a fighter and I admire him. What does he 

 do ? This is what he does. In connection with the organic 

 matter that he endeavors to get his farmers to produce (in 

 such a way that it does not interfere with the production of 

 the regular farm crops), he uses Tennessee undissolved phos- 

 phate of lime. Why? Because he has a substance in the soil 

 that will take hold of the decomposition ])roducts of the organic 

 matter and put them in a usable condition. I have had some 

 experience myself, which may not apply to your conditions. 



We are endeavoring to get the farmers to produce crops in 

 the regular rotation which will not interfere with the crops 

 that are produced for human food in that rotation. In our 

 rotation we have grass, first ; then corn ; then oats or wheat ; 

 then wheat again and then back to the grasses and clover: 

 There we have the old four-year rotation. What do we do in 

 order to get the right kind of organic matter, derived from the 

 legumes? We sow cow peas or soy beans in the corn, ahead 

 of the last cultivation. In the fall, after the corn is cut, we 

 use a disc harrow and cut up the soy beans and cow peas, 

 mixing them completely with the soil ; then sow wheat or rye 

 and use a limy fertilizer made up very largely of the undis- 

 solved raw Tennessee 30 per cent phosphate rock. In the 



