No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 885 



acre will generally do as much good as fifty. Its influence on the 

 micro-organic life of the soil, which plays such an important part 

 in preparing the plant food, is also of the highest importance. 



Therefore it would appear that a good way to improve a run-down 

 soil would be to manure it well in the spring with barn-yard manure 

 if available, if not then with an artificial fertilizer containing potash 

 and phosphoric acid, omitting any nitrogenous element, as this will 

 be furnished by the crop itself. After plowing the manure under 

 an application of about twenty bushels of lime to the acre should be 

 given and the earlier this can be done in the spring the better. The 

 ground should then be harrowed from time to time until it is time 

 to sow cow peas, which should not take place until all danger of 

 frost has passed. One bushel of peas to the acre will be suflScient 

 when drilled in. 



There are now two methods to be pursued; if the object is to in- 

 crease the fertility of the soil in the least possible time the cow 

 peas should be plowed under as soon as they come into bloom, but in 

 any case a sufficient time before wheat seeding to give time for fer- 

 mentation to set in, and to permit of a thorough pulverization of 

 the soil by repeated harrowings before sowing the wheat. The 

 other method would be to alloAV the cow peas to continue growing 

 until the pods commence to turn yellow when they should be mowed, 

 as in this state they furnish a most valuable fodder for stock, and 

 especially for milch cows on account of the high percentage of ni- 

 trogen they contain, forming a substitute for bran. The stubble 

 will contain a large percentage of nitrogen that has been absorbed 

 from the atmosphere through the combined action of certain micro- 

 organisms forming small tubercles on the roots and by the plant 

 itself. The ground should be seeded to wheat with an application 

 of phosphoric acid and potash. By following such a course a great 

 improvement would be brought about in a single year. 



MAKING A LIVING ^^S. MAKING A LIFE. 



By MRS. C. E. KAUFFMAN, MeAlistervUle, Pa. 



The interests of the farmer are many and varied. Upon every 

 hand there is animated discussion of questions relating to farming 

 and farm life. Seemingly, most stress is given to problems dealing 

 with the material aspect of their calling and probably defaulting in 

 other ways so that even material enrichment is lessened. Keal suc- 

 cess in any calling, however, embraces for more than the accumula- 

 tion of a competence, comprising houses, lands, bonds, stocks, etc. 

 If these be acquired by violating certain fundamental principles, 

 then so far as making a life is concerned there has been signal failure. 



