160 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



it had the appearance of a dappled gray horse, only the spots were 

 as regular as if you had laid the spots oil' with a tape line or measure 

 of some kind. 1 was puzzled to know the cause and at last came to 

 the conclusion that the spots were where the corn shocks had stood. 

 Now, what was the cause? I put on my thinking cap and ere long 

 came to the conclusion that the corn shocks stopped the growth of 

 the crimson clover and cowhorn turnips and started them to decay 

 sooner than the rest that grew on till November 21. The vegetable 

 matter on these spots was decayed and available plant food before 

 the rest and showed up in the oats. You could see them as plainly 

 as you could see the held; it was during the dry weather and you 

 could not only see the diiierence in the oats, but could walk to the 

 spots and see a difference in the color of the ground. On this field 

 I plowed down near $20.00 worth of fertility to the acre that cost 

 me less than |1.00. In addition to this cost, I produced nearly all 

 this fertility or vegetable matter on either side of the soil I cul- 

 tivate. I mean from the subsoil and air. 



On the sixth of last August I took with me to a Perry County 

 Farmers' Institute, crimson clover plants 7 inches long and cowhorn 

 turnip plants 9 inches long, and laid them on my rule before about 

 two thousand people. (Deputy Secretary A. L. Martin saw me do 

 it.) Four weeks after I had sown the seed I was producing the 

 plants from, the subsoil and air. They used to laugh at me for 

 talking this way; they do not laugh any more; they have raised 

 the valuation of my farm from |15.00 per acre to |40.00. They 

 laughed at me for mowing my young clover in the fall to make it 

 stout, and the old clover to keep it from going to seed, and many in 

 the Juniata valley who laughed at me will not be bothered this 

 fall cutting their old clover for seed or to keep it from going to seed; 

 all this hinges on holding to vegetable matter for soil improve- 

 ment. 



I believe I can farm a field forty years in succession with the help 

 of vegetable matter and have it better then than when I commenced. 

 You can not do it with lime or commercial fertilizers. They used 

 to farm land in the west for j^ears in succession and burn the straw, 

 but they are going to quft. They have been farming land in Pennsyl- 

 vania for years and leaving the dollars run through the barn-yard 

 fence, but they are going to stop it. I am nearly through building a 

 straw shed to my barn, covering the barnyard, and boarding it up, 

 making it warmer than my stables have ever been. I am trying 

 to get in position to manufacture fertility and keep it from getting 

 away from me. I can not see the use of buying fertility and letting 

 that which we already have run away. I am going to start a fer- 

 tilizer factory at my barn and produce stock as a by-product. I hope 

 to be able to raise a three year-old steer in 24 months. If I can keep 



