150 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



and less, and finally fail altogether; not because the soil has be- 

 come exhausted of the elements of fertility, but because the 

 plants have become enfeebled by age, and are infested by the in- 

 sects and fungoid diseases peculiar to them. I believe with 

 proper rotation, the occasional turning under of green crops, and 

 the application of the barnyard manure made on the farm, a fruit 

 farm can be kept up indefinitely. I have experimented a little 

 with artificial fertilizers, but so far have not found them to pay 

 on my soil, the lowest formation of the Mississippi valley. In 

 '87 I fertilized alternate rows of sweet potatoes with phosphate 

 and ground bone, putting it on at the rate of about five hundred 

 pounds per acre. At digging time these rows did not show the 

 slightest increase, the yield being eleven to twelve bushels per 

 row in the fertilized and unfertilized, alike. In the fall of '88 

 I applied finely ground bone, phosphate and castoria on alternate 

 rows of strawberries leaving rows on each side without any fer- 

 tilizers. Last spring the rows fertilized made more foliage and 

 the berries were larger, but later than where not fertilized. The 

 castoria gave the best result, the ground bone the next and the 

 phosphate the least. It is probable that the bone will show the 

 best result next spring. The phosphate and ground bone cost 

 about $40 per ton in St. Louis, and the castoria $15 per ton, so- 

 that for the result so far obtained the castoria is by far the cheap- 

 est and best. Barnyard manure is the cheapest and best when 

 made on the place, but have my doubts about its paying to haul 

 it far. I save and use all I can make, giving the ground a heavy 

 coat as far as the manure on hand will go, as I find this method 

 to give better results and for a greater length of time than light 

 applications. In fact, light applications produce but little effect,, 

 and that little very soon disappears. I think I can still see the 

 effect of the manure where applied heavily more than ten years 

 ago. But I do not keep enough stock to go all over my land in 

 this way, and hardly think many fruit growers are so situated as- 

 to do so. What to do to fill out this shortage may be what I am 

 expected to tell. My soil has an abundance of lime and potash, 

 and it is time and money thrown away to apply fertilizers contain- 

 ing them. I would not haul the best ashes ever made a half 

 mile, if to be had for the hauling. TV hat my soil needs is decom- 

 posed vegetable matter. The best is clover, but the southern 

 cow-pea; buckwheat and rye are also good; an occasional crop of 

 these turned under will keep our soil in first class condition. 

 When I bought my place twenty-six years ago, there was on it 

 a field that had been cleared long before ; this was in strawber- 

 ries in '85 and '86. In June of '86 as soon as the crop was picked 

 the field was plowed, turning under the old strawberry plants 

 and the old mulch of straw, and sown to cow-peas; these made a 

 heavy growth and were turned under in the fall. The ground was 

 then sown to rye, which was also turned under in the following 



