DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 243 



spring, when the ground can be harrowed, we sow anywhere 

 from four to five quarts of hulled white blossom sweet clover 

 seed, and run a spike-tooth harrow over the ground to cover 

 the seed. We usually have a good stand of sweet clover by the 

 middle of August, which we plow down and seed with v/heat 

 again. Last season in our work, we had seven tons, or 14.000 

 pounds of sweet clover — green material per acre — containing 

 about 75 per cent moisture, and the dry matter in every ton 

 containing very close to 40 pounds of nitrogen. Twenty-five 

 per cent of 14,000 pounds is 3.500 pounds, and in the 3.500 

 pounds of dry material we have 70 pounds of nitrogen. 

 Through the agency of bacteria this nitrogen will be converted 

 into ammonia — in which some plants can use the nitrogen — 

 and the ammonia through another class of bacteria will, in 

 the presence of oxygen, be changed into nitrous acid and the 

 nitrous acid into nitric acid. Why did we put that lime on 

 there? In order to convert the acid that is produced by bacte- 

 ria into a neutral substance, to put it into a condition in which 

 the plant can use it. 



Now, don't you see there is one reason why we need lime in 

 our soil? Do you know how much nitrous acid 70 pounds of 

 nitrogen will make? Perhaps your chemist here can tell you 

 the exact amount, but it will make available more phosphoric 

 acid than a corn crop Avill need, and it will make available more 

 lime than any of your potato crops would need in one season. 

 So we see that through organic matter we not only retain soil 

 moisture, but accumulate and make available fertility, which 

 is equally as important as the moisture and we obtain the para- 

 doxical conditions which make a cold soil warmer, a warm soil 

 cooler, a dry soil wetter and a wet soil dryer. That is wonder- 

 ful, isn't it? Yet it is true and you and I have it largely under 

 control. That is the idea I want to leave with you. I want 

 to thank you very much for your kind attention. 



President Copeland: We have a few moments for the 

 discussion, which is to be led by Frank Lowell. 



Mr. Lowell: It seems to me an unfortunate thing has oc- 

 curred here, when we might have listened for ten or fifteen 

 minutes more to our friend from Pennsylvania, instead of hav- 

 ing to listen to me ; for what I know about potato diseases is 

 very small in comparison with what Dr. Morse knows. 



