THE PENINSULA FARMERS' CLUB. 455 



rate of more than 100 tons to the acre.' The professor, in his letter to me, 

 from which the foregoing has been extracted, further remarks that 'this is 

 doubtless in excess of ordinary greensward, as it was a very heavy mat of June 

 grass;' but he says he • thinks that few farmers estimate correctly the amount 

 of vegetable matter they add to their soil by plowing under heavy greensward.' 

 One hundred tons to the acre of clean grass and roots from the turf of an old 

 pasture or lawn, is a very valuable manuring, when we consider how evenly it 

 is spread and accurately it is applied. But the roots of June grass run but a 

 little way into the ground compared with the roots of red clover, that pene- 

 trate from two to four feet, and bring to the surface the fertility that lies deep 

 in the soil. "When a clover sod, that after being mown has been allowed to 

 stand a few weeks, and the new stalks are grown to be perhaps eight or ten 

 inches high, there will be about all that can be plowed into the furrow. 



MANUEE THAT COSTS NOTHING. 



" I have said such manuring costs nothing. Let us make an account, and 

 charge on one side the seed of the cloverand timothy, and the bushel of plaster, 

 and the cost of sowing ; and credit on the other side the fall feed, after the 

 wheat crop has come off, and the crop of hay that may be cut nest year, and, 

 if desired, the second crop to be cut for seed ; the next year's pasture or crop 

 of hay that can be had long before it is time to do the one plowing for the 

 crop of winter wheat, and allow the stalks to again start np until it is time to 

 prepare for the wheat. Let all these things be credited to the clover, and out 

 of their valne be taken the items of cost before stated, and a large compensa- 

 tion for the use oi the land will be left, and the land vastly improved, and the 

 successive wheat crops will be larger and larger as the process is repeated. 

 •• All flesh is grass ;" at any rate all successful farming is founded on grass, 

 using that term in its common acceptation, as covering the clovers and like 

 forage plants. Wherever red clover can be made to grow well without manur- 

 ing, there is no diflBculty in sustaining the fertility of the soil without going 

 ©ff the farm for manures, except plaster. 



THE POTENCY OF PLASTER. 



" 1 except plaster, for it has been shown that at the Michigan Agricultural 

 College a single bushel of plaster added a full ton of hay to the yield of an acre 

 of ground in the five, most of it in the four mowings that followed — two crops 

 being taken off the ground each of the two years succeeding the sowing of the 

 plaster. The cost of a bushel of plaster is but little in most of our country, 

 and if a bushel is worth a ton of hay above the ground, the roots below must 

 be proportionately benefited. So I believe in buying and using plaster on 

 clover, oats, barley, and corn, and even old pastures. But plaster is the only 

 manure that faimers generally can afford to buy and bring on their farms, if 

 they did but begin and continue in a wise course of green manuring while 

 their land was still good. It is very easy to work a horse and keep hitn fat, 

 but to woik him and at the same time bring him up from a condition of ema- 

 ciation is hard work. If the owners of the excellent soils of Iowa and other 

 new States would but consider this, and while their land is yet at its best 

 estate turn their attention to green manuring and stock feeding of all their 

 forage and much ol their corn to animals, and sell less wheat and more wool 

 and meat, they would get better prices for their wheat, and in the long run 

 more bushels to the acre; but they would sow less acres." 



