244 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jail., 



America that will naturally go in 2.20, or 2.10, or two min- 

 utes, any time this century or the next, he will be terribly 

 mistaken. It cannot be done. 



Question. Has any person in this convention had any ex- 

 perience in plowing in rye, buckwheat, or any other green 

 crop, for the purpose of keeping up the fertility of the soil, 

 and, if so, will he give the result ? 



Mr. . The best way is to harvest the crops. You 



will get money enougli to pay for fertilizers. 



Mr. Merriman. I plowed in a heavy crop of clover once, 

 that would have yielded five or six tons to the acre, and put 

 tobacco in after it. My tobacco was very poor. I thought 

 the next year I would get the value of the clover. I planted 

 tobacco again, but I did not see the value of the crop of clo- 

 ver I plowed in, and never have. 



Mr. Morris of "Willington. About twelve years ago, I 

 plowed in a very heavy crop of clover. I had corn on it af- 

 terwards. I plowed in, in the course of fifteen years, three 

 crops of clover, and manured the crop once in the hill. One 

 year, I spread on a light dressing of manure. At the end of 

 that time, the land was much better than when I bought it. 

 I also took one piece of ground (my land is sandy), plowed 

 in a crop of clover, and used some fertilizer, and there I had 

 the best grass I ever had on the farm. 



Mr. Allen. The way in which they keep up the fertility 

 of their wheat fields at the West is by plowing in clover and 

 lime. They do not use any other manures, and their wheat 

 fields are growing better and better every year. I think it is 

 one of the best means we can employ to renovate our old 

 fields that are lying about us here unproductive. There is 

 nothing that will go down deeper or prepare the soil better 

 for crops than a good crop of clover. 



Mr. Gilbert. Here, in New England, we are obliged to 

 look at questions of this character from an economical stand- 

 point, and this question as to the propriety of plowing in or 

 fertilizing our soils by returning the crop to the soil, certainly 

 should be looked upon from this point of economy. There 



