74 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



authorities estimate that the Mississippi daily pours into the sea the nitrogen 

 equivalents of two thousand tons of nitrate of potassium, the most valuable 

 of plant foods; while an acre of ground does not average over two tons. 

 One thousand acres daily, or three hundred and sixty-five thousand yearly^ 

 washed down only one of these great rivers. 



Now, the class of soils that are the most injured by washing, are the hard, 

 gravelly soils; while the sand and loose gravels, which are poorer, as a 

 rule, do not suffer so much from this cause. Probably the most of you who 

 own such soils have noticed that barnyard manure, plowed under, will 

 almost entirely disappear after one or two seasons; while on clayey soils it 

 may be seen for years. Now, as I am satisfied that it doesn't leach out, and 

 being plowed under, it can't wash out, I conclude it must burn up. All 

 vegetable matter, at a proper degree of temperature and moisture, rapidly 

 decomposes. Science teaches us that decomposition is a slow process of 

 combustion ; that a stick of wood that rots down in the woods gives off as 

 much heat as though burned. Sand, in a dry, hot day, attains a degree of 

 heat probably double that of clayey soils. (I have not tested it with the 

 thermometer, but with my bare feet when a boy.) In examining the con- 

 dition of manure that was plowed down for corn last spring, and turned 

 back for oats this fall, I find some looked as though it had been burned in a 

 charcoal pit. The heat had been so great during the drouth that it had 

 actually turned it black. You can readily see what a waste there must have 

 been if there had not been some growing crop to utilize the gases driven off, 

 and to protect it from the burning rays of the sun. There is no question in 

 my mind but that this power of sand to absorb heat is the cause of its pov- 

 erty in the state of nature. Is it any wonder, then, that the settler found 

 this section of Michigan almost a desert (where the Indians burned it bare 

 every time it got dry enough), and thought they had a good catch of clover 

 if they got one plant to grow every four feet. Yet these same soils, the past 

 season produced an average of nearly twenty bushels of wheat per acre, a 

 yield greater than any State in the Union can boast of, an achievement of 

 which we are proud, but which does not satisfy us, as we can do still better. 



Ask these old farmers who have helped to create this change, what haa 

 caused these light soils to come to the front rank as farming lands. With- 

 out an exception they all say "clover and plaster," some add, *'and sheep." 

 We can all see the effect of this treatment. Some seem to think that the 

 clover with its tap root goes down after that fertility that has leached out 

 and that the plaster draws moisture from the air to nourish it in times of 

 dioath, I believe it does bring up mineral foods from the subsoil, but if I 

 believed in leaching I would not dare sow clover for fear the fertility would 

 all go down the holes that the roots made, thereby rendering it worthless 

 for short-rooted plants like wheat. And as for plaster drawing moisture 

 from the air it is rather absurd, when if put in a barrel in the barn it will 

 dry it up till it falls to pieces. It is the only thing that was ever known to- 

 dry out a salt barrel. 



Clover seems to possess more good points than any other plant. One of these 

 is the tap-root already mentioned. This is the great universal practical subsoil 

 plow. Another is its mechanical effect on the soil ; it acts as a dam to the 

 waters, causing them to settle into the ground where they fall, leaving their 

 plant food instead of carrying it away and washing the goodness out of the 

 soil. It also, by its thick growth of top, acts as a mulch, prevents evapora- 

 tion, cools the ground, stops this burning up of plant food in sandy soils,. 



