590 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



hundred acres, T also inherited with it obligations of $10,000. Most 

 of you will think this was a pretty heavy burden for a young man 

 just married. The first thing 1 did was to set about studying the 

 soil and how to improve it, and I have never failed to pay one hun- 

 dred cents on the dollar, and the farm today is better than it ever 

 was, and covers at present nearly three hundred acres. 



I believe that it is possible for most any one to take soil, and 

 to begin without a dollar, and make it provide support. In order 

 to do this, I believe it is only necessary to study the philosophy of 

 tillage, and follow intelligent practice. What does the clover plant 

 do for us? Every time we use the clover plant — especially if we 

 use the Mammoth clover — it sends its roots down into the soil and 

 loosens up the sub-soil and brings up the plant food that has never 

 yet been touched. It brings up the phosphoric acid, and potash 

 and adds to the soil nitrogen. The clever plant, like other legumes, 

 such as cow peas and beans, have the power to take from the air 

 itself nitrogen, and help to build up the soil by adding to it the nitro- 

 gen that we know it needs. It is like a miracle, this building up 

 of the soil by the legume plants. I have improved my soil princi- 

 pally by the use of clover, and it is a pleasure to go over my farm 

 year after year and see the improvement that is taking place by 

 means of the plant food that I am putting back into it. I remember 

 a number of years ago when I first came to this state and advo- 

 cated in your institute work the sowing of crimson clover, the fol- 

 lowing year I was asked to go over portions of your state and make 

 a special study of your buildings, your cattle, and your farms, in 

 order to be able to discuss the subject even more effectively, and 

 in going over the Pennsylvania Kail road through some beautiful 

 sections of your state, here and there I saw fields dotted with crim- 

 son clover in sections where I had advocated it in the institutes. 

 I ,knew there were the elements of fertility being added to the soil, 

 and I never traveled anywhere with greater satisfaction than I did 

 at that time when I saw the Crimson clover that had been sown in 

 the com fields. I am firmly convinced that you can grow crimson 

 clover in your state and thereby restore to the soil much of its lost 

 fertility. You have a wonderful power in your hands, and can use 

 i1 to build up your soil, and add to it the nitrogen it wants, largely 

 taken from the atmosphere. 



Another important point in tillage is this: We must have moist- 

 ure in the soil as well as plant food. I have recently made an exami- 

 nation of a large stretch of country in New Mexico that was opened 

 to irrigation. I spent several weeks in studying the eftect of water 

 upon the arid lands of that state, and when coming back to my 

 own farm, I found in the midst of a very dry season, just as beautiful 

 apples, just as red and as fine as in that irrigated country of New 

 Mexico, where they have to sink wells down 200 or more feet to 

 obtain a supply of water. I found a beautiful crop of apples on 

 my farm, because I had by tillage saved the moisture of the year 

 before. I don't believe that we will ever have to spend a dollar 

 for irrigation in the East. All we have to do is to save the water 

 by tillage. As the season advances, the temperature rises, and be- 

 comes higher and higher on the surface; then there comes the pres- 

 sure of the moisture in the soil, pressing upward to be evaporated. 



