88 ■ AGRICULTURE OF MAINE). 



bank at 3 per cent interest. An acre of land here is worth more 

 than an acre in Illinois or Nebraska. 



We understand, now, that every acre of the farm is to be 

 put to work. Now, then, my first acre of the eight years' rota- 

 tion is in corn. On that acre shall go six loads or ten tons of 

 yard manure, coming out of my liquid-tight pit, all the liquid 

 and solid saved together, and behind it will follow a corn fer- 

 tilizer, 500 pounds broadcast and 150 pounds in the furrow. 

 You see, my friends, I fertilize every acre every year and every 

 acre is going up a yearly incline of yields. By your process 

 of fertilizing once in six or seven years, possibly, you are going 

 down yearly for six years. That is the wrong way to travel in 

 this twentieth century. You note that I use six loads of barn 

 manure per acre. You apply 40 tons to the acre, in one appli- 

 cation. In this case you use 400 pounds of the costly plant 

 food, nitrogen, which costs twenty cents per pound in your 

 purchased fertilizers, and which is subject to leaching in the 

 spring and fall rains and oxidation into the air. Is this good 

 philosophy and good practice? No; better apply often and 

 more moderately. In fact, the best way is every one to three 

 years, accompanied with an annual application of fertilizers. 



We will get from this acre an equivalent of five tons of hay. 



The second crop is oats and peas ; peas because it is a leguminous 



crop, a nitrogen gatherer and protein crop, which with the oats 



in the winter forms a good feed to balance the ration as well as 



a good crop to enrich the soil. I apply for this crop five to 



seven hundred pounds of chemical fertilizers, after the grass 



order but not containing so much nitrogen. The yield should 



be three tons. The following crop is clover, — not clover and 



timothy but timothy enough to fill in, in case of winter-killing 



of the clover. I use half alsike and half red clover, and apply 



500 pounds of a mineral fertilizer containing none of the costly 



nitrogen because the clover will take care of itself in this respect, 



drawing its nitrogen from the air. In two crops of clover you 



could get four more tons. Clover is a great fitting crop for 



potatoes, so we will let potatoes follow. For potatoes you may 



apply barnyard manure in the fall or winter on the unturned 



sod, 6 loads as before, and of course turn it under, but it should 



never be applied where it will come in contact with the seed 



