TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 111 



us the clover plant. We talk about nitrogen, and you buy the advertised 

 fertilizer, l)ut we have in clover everything that brings food for corn, for 

 oats, and lor timothy and blue grass, and it is brought up from the un- 

 derlying clay that you cannot reach by any other means. 



A good many years ago I was digging a well in a pasture field that was 

 thickly set with clover, and I had to dig that myself, and I went down 16 

 feet and noticed some roots right down in the clay 16 feet from the sur- 

 face, down where there was an abundance of water. I followed that root 

 to the surface and found that it belonged to the clover. The clover was 

 green on the surface, while the timothy was all dried out, the blue grass 

 was dried out. I had noticed before that the clover was green while the 

 other grasses were dried up, and I didn't understand why that should be. 

 The reason is that clover is a long-rooted plant, while timothy and blue 

 grass, being a shallow-rooted plant, soon dry out in dry weather. I care- 

 fully dug up that clover root and later wrote an article to the Iowa Home- 

 stead and said that I had made a great discovery. A little later I read an 

 account of another clover root. In building the Grand Trunk railroad in 

 Canada, the engineers doing the excavating had found a clover root down 

 in the clay 45 feet. (Laughter.) 



There is the plant, you should utilize it. Corn doesn't go down with its 

 root 16 feet; neither does oats nor timothy nor blue grass; but if we will 

 only utilize more clover you will be amply repaid. Every one of you 

 knows that along the public highway where there has been a cut made and 

 the clay is forced to the surface, you will not find timothy or blue grass 

 growing there, but you will find red clover there and doing well, and it 

 feeds on clay. All you need is the clover plant, which the Almighty has 

 given us to bring the food to the surface. 



Don't be discouraged; don't join that great army of grumblers that 

 American agriculture is going to the bow-wows. We have every reason 

 to boost; we have our state fair and the great agricultural college, and all 

 of the instrumentalities to encourage farmers, so put your shoulders to the 

 wheel and boom agriculture for all it is worth. Make up your minds that 

 the corn crop of Iowa is to be not only 40 bushels per acre, but let's make 

 up our minds that it shall be 60, 80 and 100 bushels to the acre, and let's 

 boom Iowa and boom agriculture with all the strength we can give. (Ap- 

 plause.) 



The President: This completes our program until afternoon. 

 We stand adjourned until 1 :30. 



