394 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the use of machinery often grows beautiful clover, while the smooth 

 field over the fence scarcely shows a trace one year after seeding. 

 Nature is sjieaking to us in her most convincing manner. Will we 

 not heed? After years of experiments with crimson clover, I can 

 look back upon but one complete success in field culture. That was 

 sown in corn in August on a worn out pasture of many years stand- 

 ing, which had not been cropped to death, while many acres equally 

 promising in November died in February follov*ing on fields much 

 better supplied with plant food, as we usually understand the term. 

 But even though it has died, have I lost my labor and seed? Not 

 at all. Last year on July 1, 1 sowed ten pounds of crimson clover 

 seed per acre in corn, ahead of the cultivators at the last working. 

 In November by digging, drying and weighing an experimental plot, 

 found to my surprise that I had the equivalent of |20.00 worth per 

 acre of commercial fertilizer, or two tons of barnvard manure — total 

 expense 9(5 cents per acre. Cow peas in the same field did equally 

 well, though the seed cost twice as much. 



It would be follv for me in a meeting at advanced farmers to com- 

 ment upon the value of that crop as a nitrogen gatherer, protecting 

 the otherwise bare soil from washing, adding vegetable matter, etc, 

 even though it was dead in March. I shall continue along these lines 

 only substituting rye on heavy clay soil, sowing the rye about July 

 1, in the corn, at the same time with the clover, hoping eventually 

 to so alter the physical character of those fields that they will carry 

 clover through the winter as well as other and more favored parts 

 of the farm now does. 



The process of tearing down, or what is commonly termed ''wear- 

 ing out" our land, has been the work of generations, and the build- 

 ing up must necessarily be the effort of years. On the ordinary farm 

 with its five or six year rotation each particular tract is reached and 

 worked only six or seven times in one generation, which should 

 prompt us to make as much improvement as possible when oppor- 

 tunity offers. 



Not less than 4,000 tons of w^ater falls on each acre in this latitude 

 annually, and yet there is scarcely any one in which we do not suffer 

 at some time through the growing season for the want of moisture. 



An acre of vigorous rapidly growing corn will pump out one ton 

 of water in twenty four hours. A large tree will require as much. 

 Not enough rain falls daring the growing season to supply this 

 (quantity, but a sponge of humus beneath the surface helps us out. 

 Humus holds seven times as much water as does sand. That even 

 very rich soil nmy be improved by humus was clearly proven in the 

 corn belt during the groat drought last year. Those farmers who 

 had energy enough to return their waste vegetable matter to the 

 soil suffered least. 



