No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 395 



My attention has been repeatedly called to the beneficial effect of 

 wood ashes applied to clover; or as a preparation of the seed bed, 

 the 5 per cent, of soluble potash in the ashes is doubtless the ener- 

 gizing principle. Clover analyzes 44.5 pounds of potash to the ton, 

 and while it can and does gather a share of its seventy pounds of 

 nitrogen from the air, it can draw its potash from the soil alone. 



Therefore, I conclude that a soil well filled with organic matter 

 and free from potash are necessary to success in growing clover. 

 And I need no argument to convince me that when I can grow two 

 good crops of clover in one rotation, one to plow under and the other 

 to feed dairy cows, that I have solved a troublesome problem. 



AN INEXPENSIVE AND UP-TO-DATE COW STABLE. 



BY DR. M. E. CONARD, Westgrove, Pa. 



An inexpensive cow stable is one that possesses conditions which 

 favor cheap production of good, clean products and insure good 

 health to its inmates. An. expensive stable is one which places 

 around its inmates and their products such environments as do not 

 favor the greatest amount of satisfactory returns for feed and care 

 bestowed. If a manufacturer can by the use of improved machinery 

 and buildings reduce the cost of the output of his factory a fraction 

 of 1 per cent., and thereby insure a profit on hi® goods, why is it not 

 reasonable that we should so improve our milk factories as to reduce 

 the cost of production that we may have a reasonable profit on our 

 work and investment. 



The machines in our dairy barns are not propelled by steam, elec- 

 tricity or water; the amount of power used is not directly under the 

 control of the engineer, if such he might be called; a glance at the 

 steam gauge, a shake of the fire or a turn of the throttle valve will 

 not be followed by an immediate increase in the bucket; the ma- 

 chinery is more complicated and requires for its successful manao-e- 

 ment a more general knowledge of cause and eifect. There are com- 

 paratively few of the inmates of our barns that are producin"- anv- 

 where near the maximum limit of their capacity, and why? Because 

 there is something in the care, surroundings or food that is not 

 fully in accord with the requirements of nature; the food is not doino- 

 its best, or the throttle valve is not fully open. A handicap of anv 

 kind, from any cause, on the energy of the dairy cow causes an irre- 



