FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 31 



where near adequate to that purpose, and hence we must depend to a 

 large extent upon the supplies of moisture that have been accumulating 

 in the soil during the late autumn and the winter months. The reservoirs 

 are now well filled, and it is from these reservoirs in our sub-soil that we 

 must depend very largely for our supply of moisture during the growing 

 season. Tillage means, then, not only improvement of the soil, through 

 its finer mechanical reduction of the particles of the soil, but it means to 

 us the proper distribution of moisture during the entire growing season. 

 Tillage should be deeper during the early part of the season for the pur- 

 pose of admitting the warmth of the atmosphere — for the purpose of 

 admitting the atmosphere itself — and this can only be done wisely while 

 the plants are small, and their roots have not extended far into the soil. 

 As the season advances, and the hotter days of the spring and summer 

 come on, the waste of moisture becomes very much more rapid through 

 the processes of evaporation, and as the season advances and the roots 

 of plants are reaching farther and farther out into the soil the cultivation 

 should grow lighter, and should become more frequent until the surface 

 soil is made so fine that there is no possiblity of escape of moisture, except 

 as it shall be through the plants themselves. The rolling of the leaves of 

 the corn plant in times of drought is the indication to us that the plants 

 are suffering for want of water, and if we, at that time, will begin a 

 vigorous round of cultivation, going over the fields each day, we shall so 

 check the waste of moisture, even under these conditions, that it will be 

 possible to supply the corn plant with needed moisture, and unroll its 

 parched leaves. So that the second prominent object in tillage which 

 will apply to all of the cultivated crops upon the farm — to orchards, or 

 vineyards, or small fruits — is this right distribution and holding back of 

 the great water supply in our sub-soil. And we can do far more than 

 we have been doing to incorporate in our soil very important vegetable 

 matter which will aid us very greatly in controlling the water supply. 

 For several years I have been working u])on the line of 



REINCORPORATIl^G HUMUS WITH THE SOIL, 



which had been very largely used up and worn out upon my own farm, 

 which has been under cultivation during a century and a half. After 

 generations have grown wheat and other cereals upon it, I have been 

 covering the same farm with orchards, and vineyards, and small fruits, 

 and I have realized that there has been a necessity for reintroducing this 

 very important element, humus, to carry through my crops successfully 

 during dry seasons. I commenced by sowing buckwheat and rye in 

 orchards, but for six years have been using, with very marked success, 



CRIMSON CLOVER. 



I will give you, in as brief and condensed a form as possible, the treat- 

 ment under the crimson clover culture. All cultivated land is kept under 

 the most constant tillage up to the middle of July; then, as tillage ceases, 

 my practice is to sow ten pounds of crimson clover through all of- the 

 orchards, and cover lightly the seed with a smoothing harrowing. At 

 the last cultivation of corn, the crimson clover seed is sown (ten pounds 

 to the acre) and lightly covered with the one-horse cultivator. At the 

 last cultivation of potatoes, the seed is sown in the same proportion. As 



