60 The Bulletin. 



Some of your lands will need potash and some phosphoric acid. 

 Piedmont soils, formed by the breaking down of granite, are pretty 

 well supplied with potash. If we keep these soils filled with vegetable 

 matter, the decay of this matter will set free potash, and the '•main 

 plant food you will have to supply will be phosphorus in some form or 

 other. 



Q. Does a man need lime to unloch this potash? 



Mr. Goodrich : Lime is very helpful on some soils, but you must 

 work that out for yourselves. I have on my place as yet, in four years, 

 not gotten any results with lime ; but I have seen lands helped wonder- 

 fully by lime. Study your local conditions and consult with your local 

 advisers on such points. 



Q. How about rye as a cover crop? 



Mr. Goodrich : Rye is an excellent winter cover crop, but it differs 

 from these leguminous crops in that it has not the power of going into 

 the air and getting valuable nitrogen. It simply adds vegetable matter 

 or humus. If you use leguminous crops in place of rye you get this 

 nitrogen too. On some lands, in starting these crops it is well also to 

 plant rye, so that if the legumes fail we have some crop to turn under. 



Q. Suppose you cut these crops and feed the hay to stoch and put 

 the manure hack on the land, what is the difference in results? 



Mr. Goodrich : That is a little difficult to answer, as it depends 

 upon the care you give the manure. It is difficult to feed hay to stock 

 and put the manure back on the land with a profit. We*lose a great 

 deal in handling the manure — in most cases one-half or three-fourths. 

 Manure loses in bulk and loses nitrogen. Feeding hay to stock and 

 putting the manure back on the land is practicable, however, when 

 carried on with great skill. 



b' 



Mr. Shuford: Can we raise crimson clover seed as cheaply as we 

 can import it? 



Mr. Goodrich : I don't know, but some farmers in North Carolina 

 raise their own seed, among them Mr. Woodard, near Wilson. I was 

 on his farm about three years ago, and he had been raising crimson 

 clover for several years. Two years ago he had over 100 acres of 

 cotton and corn seeded in crimson clover. I was there in early August 

 when the clt)ver was just coming up, over 100 acres, and he had raised 

 every seed of it. 



Mr. Goodrich : The gentleman asks if, when land has not been in 

 clover, it is necessary to inoculate it to secure a stand? 



To grow the legumes, we must have in the soil those little germs or 

 bacteria that take nitrogen out of the air for these plants. In planting 

 these new lands, we must inoculate with these germs; The best way 



