TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 137 



Trees begin to grow early in the spring. I have been surprised to find 

 that forest trees and most other trees, especially those not highly culti- 

 vated, make a half to two thirds of their total growth before the leaves 

 are fully grown in the spring. You will notice that the growth in length 

 is nearly always completed by July or June. We need to cultivate very 

 early in the spring, and get the tree at work as early as possible. The 

 advantage of this early cultivation lies in several directions. In the first 

 place, we get the tree at work, as I have said. We prevent the soil from 

 becoming baked and cemented on top, and we complete the growth of the 

 tree early in the season, so that a little later on, in July, or August, or 

 September, the tree can spare some of the moisture and some of the 

 nitrates. Then we have a chance to put on some other crop which can 

 grow upon the moisture which the trees do not need, and which will 

 catch more or less of the nitrates which tend to leach out with the rains. 

 Now, a cover-crop upon our land is valuable for two or three reasons: 

 It affords us a means of getting some plant food, for, while most of the 

 food elements are originally taken from the soil, nevertheless they are 

 worked over, adjusted, and put back into the soil in a more available con- 

 dition than would have been the case otherwise. Butter is the most eas- 

 ily digested of all foods because refined twice, once in the plant and once 

 in the cow. And then, we are improving the mechanical condition of 

 our land by putting fibre into it. But what is most important to you is 

 this point, which I wish to bring out forcibly: Lands which are bare 

 during the winter shed water like a duck's back, especially if those lands 

 are somewhat rolling; watch a shower in the summer time and you will 

 notice how the water runs into the ditches along the roadsides; and yet, 

 go into an adjacent area, on a green sod, in the meadow or pasture, and 

 you will find the water held on the surface. It is held there until it has 

 time to pass down into the soil, and your land becomes saturated with 

 the moisture because of this covering on the land. The soil has not 

 become cemented. The fall plowing has much the same effect, the water 

 can not run off and is taken into the land. If we have a pretty thorough 

 system of tile drains, pretty deep down, we do not lose so much water. 

 We have a deeper reservoir and we have it stored away for the coming 

 of spring. 



The most important effect of the cover-crop, then, is that it prevents 

 the surface soil from becoming dry and cemented. It holds the snow and 

 moisture until it shall have time to absorb into the soil ; and then, in the 

 spring time, the crimson clover— just as soon as growth begins— com- 

 mences to pump the water out of the soil and makes your land dry early. 

 But here comes a difficulty. People leave it on too long. The value of 

 crimson clover, or any other crop, does not lie in the spring growth, 

 except so much as we get before the land is dry enough to plow, but in its 

 protection of the land during the winter, in holding the snow, and in 

 itse'f,which we turn under in plowing. Plow under the crimson clover 

 before it blossoms, just as soon as your land is dry enough in the spring. 

 The only exceptions are when cultivation will tend to hurry the growth 

 in places where there are likely to be late spring frosts, but these are 

 exceptional cases. 



Everywhere. I see instances where people sow rye or something else, 

 late in the fall, and leave it too long in the spring. Now, if we plow 

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