312 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



gave us plants by which we 'Can construct and maintain the fer- 

 tility of our land. In Pennsylvania we have a crop rotation 

 of corn, oats, wheat, and wheat and .grass, usually timoth). 

 Corn, oats, wheat and timothy are soil exhausting crops, and 

 in this rotation we have one clover crop in four years, which 

 does not suffice to keep up the fertility of the soil. 



I cannot get the Pennsylvania Dutch to change their rota- 

 tion. We get them to put crops into their rotation to 

 improve the land, and the probabilities are you can 

 get some idea out of what I am saying to help you 

 up here. With the corn, we now sow cow peas at the last 

 cultivation. This last summer I had the pleasure of having a 

 growth of cow peas two feet high. We cut the corn, put it into 

 shocks, and then we got into the field with a disk harrow and 

 cut up the peas and the corn stubble, and then sowed it with 

 wheat, and with the wheat a fertilizer composed of 1,200 

 pounds of Basic slag, 600 pounds animal tankage and 200 

 pounds nitrate of potash. This mixture cannot be obtained 

 at this time, but instead we make up a mixture of 1,200 pounds 

 dissolved potash rock, 500 pounds animal tankage and 300 

 pounds hydrated lime. These ingredients must not be mixed 

 until they are to be sown, because the mixture will become hot 

 and lumpy and cannot 'be sown. It works fine. Why? Be- 

 cause it cannot help itself. In this section you could use crim- 

 son clover, if you can get it started. The Canada field pea 

 sown with the corn might do splendidly here. The Soy beans 

 will frost kill as well as the cow pea, but not as soon. Your 

 soil may get sour, and the reason we put lime in is to prevent 

 anything like that from occurring. They are all right after 

 they are in the soil. I believe that in southern Maine the cow 

 pea would do all right. 



You have in the Canada field pea a soil improving crop sown 

 with the oat. After these, the land is seeded down with clover. 

 I believe that alfalfa and timothy seeded together in this state 

 would make a splendid combination. I know where it does 

 well, and I believe it would do well here, if you get your land up 

 to the condition where it would grow alfalfa. If you cannot 

 raise red clover, get a soil improving crop with the oats, and a 

 soil improving crop after the oats. The man who handles his 

 farm in this way and feeds whatever he produces to stock and 

 hens for milk, butter, eggs, etc., that man will improve his farm. 



