442 ANNUAJ^ REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



clover and two pounds of alsike clover. We know that alsike clover 

 will grow in acid soil more than red clover and will stay long. It is 

 a cross between the white and red clover and has some of the 

 characteristics of the white clover, being almost perennial in its 

 habits. You could mix mammoth, but these three would be sufficient. 

 Mix these? No. Sow the clover seed by itself and the grass seed by 

 itself. If you mix them altogether and sow, you will not get an even 

 distribution of seed because some of the seeds are heavier than others 

 and Hy out further. Then harrow the seed in. I believe in planting 

 grass seed just as much as planting corn and there is no farmer that 

 goes out and throws his corn on top of the ground. They always plant 

 it and I believe these seeds ought to be planted. A good many farmers 

 in seeding have been losing their crimson clover. They sow it but 

 don't get a plant. Nearly everyone, upon investigation, have sown 

 that seed on top of the ground. It is a large seed and possibly 

 germinates and it does not get enough moisture until it withers and 

 dies. That ought to be harrowed iu. And so with most of the seed. 

 We should harrow them over; a brush will do; anything to stir it 

 in; and by all means have the seed-bed as good as you can get it, 

 if you must harrow it over several ways. 



There are fields in West Virginia from which the grass has died out 

 and we cannot harrow them. The only thing we can do is sow some 

 seed over them. Some of llieiii ouglit to be reforested and, in fact, 

 I believe that some fields in Pennsylvania should be left go back to 

 forest or have trees planted on them, locust or something else, be 

 cause they are not worth taking care of and will never make good 

 pasture lands. 



Now these plants will need some fertilization, some available plant 

 food, and before I harrow the land the last time I use some com- 

 mercial fertilizer, and on the character of the soil, my friends, should 

 depend largely the kind I would use, and by kind I don't mean 

 any brand. I am asked:' "W^hat brand of fertilizer do you use?" 

 It does not matter about the brand. There are a great many 

 farmers, it is true, up in West Virginia that buy commercial fer- 

 tilizers by the smell. If it has a strong odor they say it is the 

 very kind of goods they are looking for. It may be worth five 

 dollars a ton. Again they actually buy for color; if it has a good 

 dark color that is the thing they want. T met one of these fellows 

 coming from market with a load of fertilizer. I asked him what he 

 paid for it. He said he got a confidential price on that and he 

 promised the dealer not to give him away. I am always afraid of 

 these confidential fellows and I began to insist on his telling what 

 he really paid for it. The analysis was this: One per cent, of 

 nitrogen; seven per cent, of phosphorus acid and one per cent, of 

 potash. I figured that it was worth about ten dollars or ten dollars 

 and sixty cents from the commercial value of phosphorus, nitrogen 

 and potash. After I had insisted that he tell me, he said he got 

 it for nineteen dollars a ton and that the dealer had sold it regu- 

 larly for twenty dollars. I said: "You are the fellow^ who should 

 not want to tell anybody you paid two prices for the fertilizer." 

 There are a lot of farmers doing that. We are buying even what 

 our land does not need. If this pasture land is heavy clay soil and 

 has a reasonable amount of vegetable matter in it you don't need 

 potash, I don't need it on my fields. I have asked my fields what 

 they need and this is the best test and only correct test when we ask 



