76 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



surface. I would never plow under manure on such soils unless I planted 

 some crop to utilize it before it could be burned up. Although acknow- 

 ledging that poor sand is the poorest soil, I do claim that rich sand is the 

 most valuable of any soil on the face of the earth, especially in wet or cold 

 seasons. 



In connection with the subject of manures I would like to ask the opinion 

 of the farmers present if it is good economy to go to great expense and labor 

 to compost our manures when the heat generated and lost is just what our 

 corn crop needs in its early stages of growth. I got this scientific doctrine 

 down one cold winter and kept it down till spring, but sweat it out during 

 the summer at the little end of a manure fork. Believing that the time has 

 come when we can succeed only by raising the crops with the least possible 

 amount of manual labor, it seems necessary that we should know what we* 

 are doing, and why we do it, that we may work in harmony and not in oppo- 

 sition to the wonderful unchangeable laws of nature. Let us, while trying 

 to fill our pockets, not do it by robbing our lands but by clothing them, and 

 assisting nature to beautify the earth. 



Mr. Stark, of Webster: I never lived on very light or very heavy soil, but 

 have a happy medium, a gravel, though it is often called a light soil. I can 

 endorse the emphasis of the paper as to benefits of mulch. My experience 

 is, if you can cover a soil it will recuperate and become rich. When a plank 

 is removed after lying some time you are surprised at the richness of the 

 spot. I think clover is chiefly valuable as a shade. Light soils may be 

 very good, are easy to work, but they won't stand drouth. 



Wm. Ball : As to filtration, any farmer who has a manure pile that has 

 lain for years on the lightest soil can test the question by digging a little way 

 under the pile. The soil soon loses all discoloration. The water filtrates 

 through and the sediment is left. The subsoil has little to do with leaching. 

 A good subsoil has qualities of its own irrespective of leaching, and is also a 

 favorable index of the character of the surface soil. As to the comparative 

 merits of light or heavy soils, where do we find the best buildings — on clay 

 or light soil? — on light soils. Clay holds Avater in drouth, but also at other 

 times to the detriment of the crop, and light soils produce value at less cost 

 than heavy soils. I like the paper, particularly the part about clover, 

 manure, and plaster. I often wondered why plaster has less effect now than 

 20 years ago. It is because our soils are better fed now and are less hungry. 

 Cut a fine crop of clover on light soil and you have excellent hay. Cut the 

 same area on clay and you may have twice the weight, but it is of stalks and 

 juice and not leaves, nor will it produce more beef than the one ton of better 

 hay from the light soil. 



EED CLOVER. 



BY PROF. "W. J. BEAL. 



[Read at Institntes at Hudsonville, St. Louis and Okemos.] 



Although in a general way this is a plant familiar to all our farmers, its 

 great importance to the agriculture of our country demands that we keep 



■fe 



