456 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



All may not kuow Mr. Geddes. All who do, know him to be a practical and 

 successful farmer of ripe age and experience. No better authority can be 

 cited. I assume that the fullest reliance can be placed in his statements. If 

 so, we have only to ask : Can we grow clover here ? AVe know it can be 

 done ; and probably as successfully as in any region with which Mr. Geddes is 

 acquainted. I therefore invite the most careful attention to his statements. 

 Carefully ponder this fact, viz: There is one hundred tons of green vegetable 

 matter in a heavy June grass sod, and more in a clover sod. One hundred tons ! 

 This is secured in two years from the time of sowing. Meantime, two crops 

 of hay can be taken off besides. These offset against the cost of seed and 

 plaster, and use of land, which, as Mr. Geddes shows, amounts to much the 

 largest sum. And so we get the one hundred tons of manure for nothing, and 

 money into the bargain. 



I have said the more vegetable matter we can get into our soil the better. "Why ? 

 Not to make it loose. We have little but what is already loose enough. We 

 may probably go the world over and hardly find another so nearly yws^ right in 

 this particular, as it came from the hand of nature. Then what the food of 

 humus? ISimply to make it rich, — productive, — grow larger crops. I say 

 this from a common-sense standpoint. We all do know that our loxiA, practi- 

 cally, is productive or barren just about in the proportion as it contains vege- 

 table matter. 



If it be said that it may be made to produce large crops by a sufficient 

 amount of stirring, done often enough, and at the right times, I shall take no 

 issue. I think much may be done in this way. Just how it is brought about 

 I won't undertake to tell, for I frankly say I don't know. But I have a pretty 

 thorough conviction that it will be here as in all other places, and hereafter as 

 it has been heretofore, viz. : Those who work into their lauds most green crops, 

 and hardly anything else but clover, and those who most carefully husband 

 all the "good old-fashioned barnyard manure" they can make, and most judi- 

 ciously apply it, will grow the biggest crops and make the most money. 



Mr. Parmelee.— I am glad this paper has been read. I consider Mr. Geddes 

 one of the best agricultural writers in the United States, and hope every word 

 of that report will be pondered on. Mr. Geddes is a practical writer. Mr. 

 Ellwanger is of the same opinion with regard to all manufactured manure. I 

 believe we read too much and have too many theories on this subject. I have 

 always sown fifteen pounds of clover seed to the acre, as recommended by Mr. 

 •Geddes, with good results. I have often said that the manure I haul from my 

 yard is not worth the drawing. 



Mr. Avery. — With regard to plaster, ray experience teaches me that as much 

 advantage is derived from half a bushel as from three bushels to the acre. I 

 have received a letter from Grand Kipids containing an offer to supply us with 

 plaster, by the car load, at twelve shillings per barrel of 320 pounds, delivered 

 at Traverse City. The lowest prices at which we have been able to buy it 

 heretofore were $2.25 at the city and $2.50 here. 



Mr. Tracy. — The remark of Mr. Geddes that it is easy to work a horse and 

 keep him fat, etc., may be applied to our soil ; for, notwithstanding the great 

 loss of vegetable matter it sustains in the burning, during the process of clear- 

 ing, it still is comparatively rich when we begin to crop; and if due care is 

 taken in working the soil, giving it back something in exchange for the nour- 

 ishment supplied to our crops, it may be "worked and kept fat;" but cases 

 "where this is not done are unfortunately of too frequent occurrence. I think 



