9^ AGRICULTURE OE MAINE. 



the second crop. The animals leave just about as much on the 

 field as they take off and it furnishes pasture at the time of the 

 season when the pastures are usually short. While you are 

 adding vegetable matter by the use of clover you are also filling 

 the soil with nitrogen that the clover has stored up during its 

 growth, from the air, through the bacteria on its root growth. 

 One of the most expensive plant foods the eastern farmer is 

 buying is nitrogen. Why not use the supply that God has given 

 us and then we can save our money. We can do it through the 

 agency of the clover plant. Another way to add vegetable 

 matter to the soil, and plant food also, is in a judicious use of 

 the barnyard manure. Do not throw it out into the yard and 

 let it lie there six months or a year. Experience has shown that 

 fully one-half is wasted by this method. More than 50% of 

 the plant food in manure is in the liquid form and if it is allowed 

 to lie around this certainly is largely wasted. Haul it directly 

 to the field and spread it preferably on the young clover plants. 

 It will make a vigorous growth of clover which will in turn add 

 more plant food and your field will be in fully as good shape to 

 grow a bumper crop of corn or potatoes next season as when 

 applied directly to the corn or potatoes and you will have the 

 extra clover for nothing. If one has not the clover field I 

 should apply it to some hay field that I intended to plow up the 

 following year. One thing I should never do, and that is to 

 plow manure under as soon as applied. It is a great waste. 

 Manure works downward and not upward largely. By plowing 

 it under at once you get it altogether too deep in the ground. 

 Apply it to the surface and let it incorporate with the surface 

 soil before plowing it down. Don't be afraid of ils evaporating 

 or washing away unless it be on a steep hillside, and then there 

 is not nearly the loss that would be supposed. All our manure 

 on our ]\Iinnesota farm goes on the surface as a top mulch and 

 we have saved hundreds of dollars by so doing. All experi- 

 ments will confirm this idea of keeping the manure as near the 

 surface as possible. 



Grow more clover to make more hay, to grow more stock to 

 make more manure to grow more clover and save fertilizer bills 

 and feed bills. There is no reason why Maine should not grow 

 her own horses and her feed to feed them on, as well as her 

 own cows and their feed largely. Clover with the manure 

 rightly handled will furnish the feed to feed them on, and feed 

 the soil as well. 



