THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 93 



Q. It is awfully heavy you know, like salt. 



Mr. Hale: I know, but you can do it; you can do anything in this world 

 that you have to, brother. 



Q. How cheaply would you have to buy barnyard manure to make it a 

 profitable fertilizer? 



Mr. Hale: That is a local question. How far would you have to haul 

 it, what you have to pay for it, pay for labor, and for teams, etc. 



Q. Get a large load on the ground for $1.25, on the field. 



Mr. Hale: I would keep them coming. 



Q. Do you use soda in preference to potash on light sandy soil? 



Mr. Hale: They are two different things for entirely different purposes. 



Q. Is there much potash in nitrate of soda? 



Mr. Hale: Not a bit. Nothing, but nitrogen. If you buy nitrate of 

 potash, you can get the two together. But it is up to $90 a ton, and therefore 

 nitrate of soda is a little cheaper to buy, and buy potash separately. 



Q. Potash is about $50 isn't it? 



Mr. Hale: No. I bought a hundred tons of muriate of potash a few 

 days ago, delivered in Georgia on my farm, for $37.75 a ton. Muriate of 

 potash is $40 or $42 a ton at present time. 



Q. How much of this nitrate of soda do you use to young trees? A 

 handful or two? 



Mr. Hale: A good liberal half-handful to a young tree. And another 

 one a month later. It is rich and powerful and will reward you if you give 

 it a chance. 



Mr. Hutchins: There is a good deal to this cover crop question, a person 

 is liable to find out if he studies it a little. There are several different kinds 

 of conditions; and the conditions, it seems to me, that Mr. Hale has, of sandy 

 ground, is different from what a good many of us have on our clay soils. 

 I want to find something that will make some material, that is, something 

 that is practical. We put in a cover crop of oats, which is one of the best 

 I can find. We can't put it in very well before the first of August; it will 

 make quite a little growth before the winter comes on, and it will catch the 

 foliage; but as far as the humus you get out of it is concerned, it does not 

 offer very much material, and you could gather up a whole lot of it in a 

 tablespoonful. Now I think perhaps if we could make this vetch grow 

 on these heavy soils, it would be all right, but we can't do it, not to amount 

 to anything. At least I have not been able to. 



Mr. Hale: Can't you make clover and turnips get to going? 



Mr. Hutchins: Yes, we can make turnips grow. You can't make clover 

 do very much; once in a great while you can, but you can't bank on it. And 

 we can't leave it long enough in the spring to amount to much. That clay 

 soil does have the faculty of evaporating the moisture. And with us we have 

 to get at it early in the season. Some fellows have an idea you must leave 

 the cultivation until the blossoms are fallen. Well, if you have made a study 

 of it, you would be surprised to find how much water has left you during that 

 time, and our only way is to get at it earlier in the season before the blossom ; 

 and you have got to have a cover crop that is out of the way by that time 

 in order to cultivate. I want to get at something we can use and produce 

 humus in appreciable quantities, and at the same time that will allow us 

 to cultivate as early as that. Maybe I have been very obtuse and have 

 not been able to search around as much as ordinary fellows; but I have looked 

 a little for it, and I have not been able to find it. We can grow turnips. 

 I have grown them some, and you would know, along in the spring, they 



