the price of good land elsewhere. But I have made some mistakes, 

 mostly because I did not take into account all of the workers in 

 my soil laboratory. My iirst mistake was in not seeing a difference 

 in maintaining fertility and restoring fertility. On my small home 

 farm I kept stock and for a number of years had used clover suc- 

 cessfully in a short rotation. I found that the rules which worked 

 all right in maintaining fertility there failed to restore fertility on 

 the new place. In some respects it was like two horses begin- 

 ning the spring work : one, well wintered and in good condition, 

 will require a maintenance ration only ; the other so poor and 

 weak that it cannot digest enough food to furnish strength for 

 its work and gain flesh at the same time. For two years I found 

 that clover was a failure on the new farm because tlie land was 

 too poor or too dry. I have my opinion of some of the agricul- 

 tural advisers who would make clover a cure-all for all infertility. 

 Many of these men have never tried it themselves, but simply 

 repeat what they have heard other people say. You may put me 

 down as sayhig that clover is of little use for beginning the restora- 

 tion, although it is all right for maintaining it, and for adding fertil- 

 ity when the soil has reached a fair degree of tilth or productiveness. 



" I cannot say that there is any one best way of adding humus to 

 the soil. Conditions vary so much that no hard and fast rule can be 

 followed. I have attended enough Farmers' Institutes to know 

 that many men go there expecting to be given a recipe on how to 

 succeed in farming. This cannot be given any more than a recipe 

 can be given for making money by selling goods or making wagons. 

 But I will tell you my experience : 



" On one of my worn-out fields I plowed and harrowed the best 

 I could, aiming at the 'onion bed' quality of tillage. On this land 

 I planted fodder corn in drills, and let only one-half or one-third as 

 many stalks grow as I would on the strong soil of my home farm. 

 Before planting I applied commercial fertilizer with a liberal hand 

 to give the corn a start. I gave frequent cultivations until the corn 

 was waist high, and at the last cultivation sowed rye between the 

 rows. In the following spring the rye was plowed under just about 

 the time it began to stalk up and before it had made any head. 



575 



