INSTITUTE PAPERS. 95 



The rough stirring of the soil loosens it up and lets in more 

 air and also grinds off particles of mineral plant food. The 

 old Romans said 20CO years ago that "Tillage is manure," 

 and it is just as true today as it was then. The more we till 

 the soil the more productive it becomes. This is where weeds 

 come in as a blessing in disguise to the farmer. Many farmers 

 would till the soil but very little were it not for killing the 

 weeds. A plant to grow must have more than plant food. It 

 must have air, moisture and warmth. When we put vegetable 

 matter into our soil we also put it in the best possible condition 

 to hold moisture. Soil is made up of ground pulverized rock 

 and vegetable matter. Ground rock alone will not hold water. 

 The water will leach down through it. i\Iix with it rotted 

 vegetable matter and you make a sponge of the soil which will 

 hold the water in suspension right where the plants can use it 

 at will. Again, vegetable matter separates the particles of soil 

 and admits air and sunshine that are just as essential to a plant's 

 growth as plant food. Without this vegetable matter in it, the 

 soil packs closely and does not admit the w^arm air. It has 

 been shown by testing a soil filled with vegetable matter and 

 one that was not, that the soil that had the vegetable matter had 

 several degrees of heat more than the compact soil. In other 

 words, by inserting vegetable matter in a soil it warms up much 

 better and quicker in early spring. Two weeks' time can often 

 be saved in growing a crop by having the soil well filled with 

 decayed vegetable matter. A'egetable matter by admitting more 

 air into the soil gives the bacteria of the soil a better opportunity 

 to multiply and work. It is through the working of these bac- 

 teria that plants largely get their food and the more abundant 

 these bacteria are in the soil and the more active they are the 

 faster the plants can grow. In fact, when a soil is well filled 

 with decayed vegetable matter as a rule the plants growdng on 

 this field do not lack for plant food. 



How shall we get vegetable matter in the soil? One of the 

 best ways to put vegetable matter in the soil is by growing clover 

 and plowing it down either before or after the second crop is 

 harvested. If one's soil is sadly deficient in vegetable matter 

 better plow^ under the second crop, but not before the frost has 

 cut it and the weather becomes cool. A heavy growth of green 

 clover plowed under in hot weather will often sour the soil by 

 its rapid decay. I prefer on general principles to pasture off 



