follow. The cow pea, which is no pea at all but a bean, and very 

 tender to frost, can also be sown for this purpose. Personally I 

 have had no experience with the cow pea, but praises of its merit 

 come from so many reliable sources that I intend to give it a trial 

 the coming season. 



" How many seasons will it take for land to pass from the resto- 

 ration to the maintenance period ? I do not know. Yery nuich 

 will depend npon how low the fertility is in the soil when you 

 begin. AVith fair nursing I have usually been able to get a paying 

 crop on my own fields the second season, and on the third I have 

 put the land to the clover test. Sometimes the catch of clover on 

 the third year has not been satisfactory, and I have liad to wait 

 until the fourth, but in case of failure I never alloio the land to 

 remain idle. I have something growing that will make humus, 

 whatever may be its fertility. On my home farm I always sow rye 

 after taking off a crop of sowed grain, provided the field is not 

 already seeded to clover. Rye sown after potato digging will 

 endure the winter and give something to turn under in May. It 

 usually pays me to sow clover between the rows of corn at the last 

 cultivation. Crimson clover also is much praised for this purpose 

 and I have found it good ; but I am surprised how well the common 

 red clover will do. When sown during the last half of July it does 

 not make as much fall growth as the crimson but it forges ahead in 

 the spring. 



" These are some of my methods of keeping the soil hustling : 

 always growing a crop for me or for itself. But these are not the 

 only ways of adding humus. Every farmer must judge for him- 

 self what will be the best way to imitate nature's way of making 

 soil, by adding humus to stone flour. One point I wish to make 

 emphatic ; that is, the humus should be added only in small quanti- 

 ties. I have told you my experience in plowing under rye after it 

 lias headed out. I have heard that if a large green crop is plowed 

 under there is danger that it may make the soil sour, particularly 

 during the hot summers of the south. Of this I have had no 

 experience. I have tried sparingly of lime, plaster and salt. In 

 one of your leaflets you said that these are not direct fertilizers, 

 37 577 



