Vermont State Horticultural Society 



the place one year after we bought it before we got moved on to 

 it. I arranged with him to seed one lot down in the fall to 

 timothy, five or six acres ; he seeded only part of it, never had 

 the time to finish it. When we moved on we wanted to finish 

 the seeding in the spring. I said to a neighbor, — for I knew 

 nothing about it, "What kind of seed shall I use?" He advised 

 me to try clover. The farmers then thought timothy was 

 cheaper and so they sowed it, but he thought it would do no 

 good to seed to timothy so I bought some clover seed. It was a 

 wet season ; what little manure had been made and saved had 

 been hauled on to it, — the rest of the farm didn't have any, — 

 being a wet season the clover did very well ; of course it wasn't 

 anything like what grew later but there was a little second crop 

 I could cut. When I was cutting it I noticed when I got on the 

 clover half there was more hay at that end, and a little later 

 when I was feeding the hay out to the cows in the barn, — the 

 hay was put in, one load of clover and then a load of timothy, 

 a layer of one, and another, I noticed when we changed from 

 timothy to clover that the cows gave more milk, — that was a 

 good while ago, remember, — there were no Experiment Stations 

 then, but the fact was, that the cows increased their milk and the 

 milk was our source of income. After a while I wanted to plow 

 this hay field and put in corn, — half was timothy seeded and half 

 clover seeded, you will remember. I hauled out what manure 

 we had. I knew that spread it thin as I might there would be 

 no more than half enough to go over the field, so I did what any 

 other farmer would do under the same circumstances, I said to 

 myself, that if I was going to have any good corn I would like 

 to have it next the road where people would see it. It was a 

 mere happen so, — I knew nothing about it, — but that simple 

 thing put thousands of dollars into my pocket, — the timothy sod 

 happened to be next the road. I began spreading the manure 

 next the road and let it go as far as it would, — I hadn't any 

 money to hire any help. I paid $i for help the first year, and 

 it was hard work to get the dollar to pay out, I can assure you. 

 When I got it covered, it went about as far as the timothy sod 

 went and the clover did not get any. Naturally, I thought, back 

 over there there wouldn't be any corn. This manure was rather 

 poor quality, of course. The cows were poorly fed, as well as 

 their owners, and we had no money to buy grain with only what 

 was absolutely necessary. Such as it was this was the result, — 

 to my surprise the corn was just about as good on the back half 

 as on the front half where the manure was. Then I began to 

 think ; more hay to the acre by growing this clover ; better hay, — 

 the cows said so; increased fertility afterwards, I didn't know 

 how, but it was a fact. 



