458 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



we took up draiuage and we have expended |2,500.00 and it has paid 

 and paid several times over. I just want to say liere tliat if you 

 have excess water iu the soil you cannot achieve the best results in 

 potato growing. Our soil is a gravelly one principally. We have 

 some light land. It is practically loam. We have a little dead sand 

 and perhaps five acres of clay in seven or eight different places on the 

 farm in little patches here and there the largest patch has possibly 

 two acres. This is a brief description of our i)lace. It has an eleva- 

 tion of about 550 feet above sea level. 



Plowing is a very important point in bringing up soil. Good 

 plowing is an art. I did not come here to insti'uct your farmers in 

 plowing, but somehow there are many farmers that don't plow their 

 land properly. We like to plow our furrows on edge, at an angle 

 of about forty-five degrees, so that they stand up, for the reason that 

 where the furrows are placed on edge we can get better mixing of the 

 soil than by the furrows being upside down. Where the furrow is 

 inverted or upside down there is very little mixing of the soil. And 

 here are several points: One of the points is if there is organic 

 matter plowed under and that furrow turn over flat, capillary attrac- 

 tion will be shut off between the sub-soil and the surface soil, and 

 this is of the greatest importance especially if the season comes dry ; 

 and also by keeping these furrows on edge at an angle of forty-five 

 degrees in the tillage of the field you can bring the different soil par- 

 ticles in contact with each other better than if the furrows were 

 turned upside down. We have gradually lowered our plowing depth 

 from six to ten inches. We plow ten inches for our work and we like 

 that depth. Here is the surface of the soil. The manure and clover 

 rotting down there will be more plant food in the first two or three 

 inches of the surface soil than in the lower inches of soil. If these 

 furrow^s are turned up on edge you can bring the different stratas 

 and soil particles into contact w^ith each other in the tillage. Some- 

 times I think about it in this way: I go to a meeting or come in 

 contact with good people and thereby feel strengthened and im- 

 proved. Then again I go to some other place and came in contact 

 with immoral people with low ideals and I wish I had stayed at home. 

 And so it is with the soil particles coming into contact, those of the 

 surface with those lower down. There is an action set up by the 

 heat, light and atmosphere and so on and that action is of importance 

 to the unlocking of plant food. 



We like Fall plowing. We have a short rotation of crops, 18 acres 

 of each — wheat, clover and potatoes, a three year rotation. We grow 

 late potatoes and we must necessarily get the potatoes planted early 

 in Spring so that we can get them off in time in the Fall to sow the 

 potato ground to wheat and then it is too late many times. 



Now, my position on the fertilizer question is this: I would not 

 use an ounce of commercial fertilizer until I had first drained the 

 land, given the soil the thorough preparation it ought to have, made 

 clover grow luxuriantly and judiciously made, saved and applied 

 the home manure supply, and then if T wanted more fertility and 

 could make commercial fertilizers pay T would use it; but T would 

 not use it, until that time. 



One of the best means of getting and making fertility available 

 on the farm is through the use of clover. We have practiced for 

 four years past a sort of novel way of restoring our land to its 

 original production. We mixed in 25 per cent, alfalfa with our clover 



