No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 159 



and the farmer has looked for something to brace up his land and 

 help him through, mam' turning to lime and commercial fertilizers, 

 and many to their sorrow. Commercial fertilizer would never have 

 been made had there not been a demand for it. If the farmer's soil 

 had been satisfactory he would have no use for it. The humus and 

 vegetable matter have been worked out until much of the soil 

 has been almost ruined. If this be the case, and true, then the most 

 important subject is soil improvement. 



I have heard for years, that we can raise anything if we have 

 lots of water. This is true, and when you consider that soil filled 

 with vegetable matter (compared with soil that has not been worked 

 out), contains as high as 50 tons more water to the acre, can you 

 imagine the value of this when you are raising in a dry season, com 

 and potatoes that are 70 to 80 per cent, water. 



1 have watched the power of this kind of soil along side of land 

 that had been skimmed, and you could see the blue milk soil starve 

 the plants almost to death. In watching the action of such soils, 

 I often thought of Dr. Rothrock's pictures and description of streams 

 drying up as the forests have been cut and the vegetable matter on 

 the earth's surface burned up by forest fires, and as the ax and 

 forest fires rob the earth of water supply, so does the plow and 

 binder rob the soil of humus, vegetable matter and water holding 

 power. While many have laughed at me, with my vegetable matter 

 hobby, I have watched with pleasure the rapid improvement in my 

 soil year after year until I can look with pleasure on as fine clover 

 and grain as stands in Huntingdon county. 



Tlie last winter was very severe on clover and wheat, many wheat 

 fields being plowed up and millet being sowed to get hay in this 

 part of the State, and many of my neighbors are complaining, while 

 ray wheat is good and my clover is as fine as any I see this year, 

 on land that seven years ago was covered with daisy, sorrel, golden- 

 rod and briers. I do not think you can find a weed in the field to- 

 day. This is all due to plowing down vegetable matter. At Blooms- 

 burg, last June, I overheard some men saying, I could not get fer- 

 tility and improve my soil with vegetable matter for less than one 

 dollar an acre. , I now make the assertion that I am going to get 

 the cost down to GO cents an acre this year. 



Since last June Round-up I plowed down cowhorn turnips and 

 crimson clover, commencing to turn them under November 21, and 

 put the field in oats this spring. I went to Chester county May 26, 

 inOO, to attend a Farmers' Institute and I did not see a better field 

 of oats on my way down or back, and this field had nothing but the 

 vegetable matter, and seven years ago the field was so poor it 

 would not raise anything. On the 18th of May, I was spreading 

 manure on a hill above the oats field and looking on the oats field 



