414 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



grow clover successfully, after which no trouble need be experienced in keep- 

 ing up the fertility of the soil. "But," said a farmer to me the other day, 

 " what are you going to do after three bad seasons, like we have had in 

 Mecosta county, and almost all your seeding has been a failure on account 

 of drought?" I reply, just what I have had to do. Plow up your stubble 

 and sow flat turnips in the month of July or first of August, seeding down 

 to clover and timothy ; and as we generally get a fair amount of rain after 

 our crops are past redemption, you will get a good stand of clover, and the 

 large turnips may be taken off for stock or sold, thus helping to pay for 

 seed and labor, and the smaller ones will wilt down over the clover later in 

 the season, affording protection to the plant, while the roots will decay and 

 give sustenance to the crop. Then continue to sow rye or turnips in your 

 corn, rye in your potato ground, after you have harvested the potatoes, and 

 in proper season plow down and plant, and when you get ready to seed down 

 to timothy and clover you will have no trouble in doing so, as far as the 

 richness of the land is concerned. This has been my experience for a num- 

 ber of years, and all will admit that our farm has been steadily improving. 



I have not said anything about corn for green manure. My own observa- 

 tion ( not experience, mind you, as I have had none ) has not been as 

 favorable as I had hoped. 



The question now arises, is it not expensive? Let us see. To manure an 

 acre of land forty rods from the barn-yard will consume the time of one team 

 and two good men one day, so the figures stand thus for the barn-yard 

 account : 



Team 1 day and board $2 50 



2 men @ $1.00 per day. 2 00 



Board @ $3.50 per week.. 1 00 



Plowing under manure 2 50 



Rolling 50 



$3 50 



Green manure account : 



Plowing 1 acre $2 00 



Seed rye, 1\ bushels @ 60c 75 



Dragging 1 acre. 50 



Plowing under crop 2 50 



Rolling 50 



6 25 



$2 25 

 Leaving, as you see, a balance in favor of green manuring of $2.25 ; and 

 I have not said anything as to the value of the manure. You will observe I 

 have only charged two dollars for plowing the clean land, as I can get it 

 plowed for that any time, and you can hardly hire a man to do a good job 

 at plowing under manure, so we place fifty cents more against the barn-yard 

 manure account. Then, again, we have not taken into account the fact that 

 often, as on corn and potato ground, rye can be sown without plowing, and 

 in fact my own experience has proved to me that rye does better on well 

 cultivated land than it does on mellow, plowed land, as, like wheat, it 

 requires a firm undersoil to do its best. 



