LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 22? 



place, continued cropping impoverislies ttie soil for the reason that he sells the 

 grain off his farm in the raw state and nothing is returned to the land. Then 

 again it is the most expensive crop that a farmer can raise, for if it escape 

 the insect, winter-killing, frost, and drouth, and promises to be a fair crop, in 

 order to harvest it he must pay the highest wages, to the amount of two to 

 three bushels for a day's labor, and then just as he is ready to grasp the 

 fruits of his toil it may slip through his fingers as was the case this last season, 

 occasioned by forces over which he can have no control. 



Then again, if he depends entirely upon one crop the price obtained may be 

 so low as to leave no profit over and above the cost of raising the same. 

 Whereas, if he had followed a rotation of crops he would be more independent, 

 liaving some of each kind to sell, and in a rotation the labor would be more 

 evenly distributed throughout the season, thereby saving the expense of hiring 

 extra help. 



I never was much in favor of summer fallowing for wheat. I believe that 

 farmers make a great mistake in doing so much of it. In the first place it is 

 too slow, taking two years to get a crop, which at present prices is certainly 

 unremunerative. Then I do not believe that it is according to the laws of 

 nature to expose the bare soil to the fierce burning heat of a summer sun; I 

 think it better to be shaded by some crop. Let us see how nature works. 

 Take our own beautiful State ; the first settlers found its hills and valleys 

 mostly covered by extensive forests. Did you ever think what fertilizers 

 nature used to produce this wonderful growth of forest trees? The answer is 

 that the foliage, acting in a two or three fold capacity, first shading the soil 

 from the burning heat of summer, and in autumn spreading a carpet of leaves 

 to protect the earth from the frosts of winter, and in the end decaying and 

 forming a fertilizer rich in all of the elements of plant food. 



Where there were no forests the wild grasses sprang up and grew in luxuriant 

 profusion. Take a cultivated field and turn its soil up to the sunlight and 

 leave it alone and in a few short weeks it will be covered with a mantle of 

 green, showing conclusively that nature is always striving to shade the soil. 



The best system of rotation of crops is what is called the five or six years' 

 course, beginning with corn. Take a clover or timothy sod, having allowed 

 the aftermath to fall back on the ground, plow cither in the fall or spring. 

 I never could see much benefit in fall plowing, only as it advanced spring 

 work. Above all things let the ground be well fitted, plant to corn, and give 

 it a thorough tillage. 



The second course should be oats ; but here let me digress from the subject 

 a moment. Every farmer should keep stock enough to consume all of the 

 coarse grains and fodder that he may raise. He should never sell any product 

 of his farm until he has placed the last value possible into it, and that would 

 be in the form of meat or dairy products. 



The manure arising from the consumption of the coarse grains and fodder I 

 would haul upon the corn stubble, spreading it evenly, plowing under, and 

 sowing to oats. The third course should be winter wheat, After the oat crop 

 is taken off, the field should be ploughed, and if done aright, will bring to the 

 surface the manure that was applied in the spring, which has become well 

 rotted, and with good cultivation it is thoroughly incorporated with the surface 

 soil, usually making a fine seed bed. For wheat, the upper layer of soil, to 

 the depth of say four inches, should contain the manure especially for that 

 crop. I have noticed that when green, rank, manure was applied in the fall, 

 that it does not become evenly mixed with the soil, causing the wheat to make 



