N... 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 493 



experiment they merely paid the expeuse of their growth, have since 

 amply paid me for the work and have paid a very fair interest on 

 the investment. That being the case it remains to be seen what 

 this method of restoring worn out soils has done for my land. 



At the time of purchase, on plowing I found a hard top soil of about 

 three inches, which fell from the plowshare dead and lifeless when 

 first tilled, below that was a yellowish poor looking subsoil. In 

 contrast to-day we plow over eight inches deep without striking this 

 yellow substance, and a rich darkish soil falls from our mould 

 boards and quivers as though alive quite a while after the plow has 

 passed. 



In the two fields underlaid by hard pan the process has done even 

 more; I caimot explain scientifically, but suppose that the constant 

 work of the clover or vetch-roots has little by little penetrated the 

 strata or hard pan and has thus opened pores for the escape of water. 

 Certain it is that the symptoms previously apparent after a heavy 

 rain, when 1 would sink half up to my knees in the soil, have dis- 

 appeared and the soil is evidently well drained and seeais to enjoy 

 full capillary action. 



More than this, all the laud from being a soil previously most in- 

 juriously affected by droughth has become almost droughth-proof, 

 evidently because the humus-filled soiled is able to retain and hold 

 immense quantities of moisture which previously simply leached or 

 drained off. For an example: 



One of the fields was in the fall of 1899 sown to rye, because it 

 was too late to put in anything else, and I discovered also 

 too late that all my vetch seed had been sown. Last 

 spring one of my men persuaded me, because of our usual 

 difficulty to get enough straw by purchase, to let the rye 

 stand. I disliked doing this, but on finding that I could 

 rent a field from a neighbor to take the place of this rye field 

 for my crops, I finally yielded but had red clover sown in the rye 

 with little faith however in our ability to get a stand. 



I think you all know that our section of the State, the northest- 

 ern section, never before experienced so severe and so lasting a 

 droughth as last 3'ear brought us, and yet this field of rye made a 

 most wonderful growth, not only in straw which reached over my 

 head, but also in the development of the heads. When cut I had it 

 immediately hauled to a neighbor who threshes as a business, and 

 he told me that this rve turned out one-third more to the 100 sheaves 

 than the best he had ever threshed before. 



After the rye was off I had no time to go over to the farm, but, 



feeling that I ought to return something to the soil for what it had 



given me without anj^ fertilizer whatever, I sent one of my men with 



a team and a bag of cowpeas to plow the field and sow it, the peas to 



81 



