488 
A third experiment was started on seed which promised utter failure to those who 
looked on; the end has not yet been reached, but Iam more than satisfied with the 
result thus far, and fully satisfied that my experiment will bring me at least $100 more 
than if left untried. I have abiding faith in coal-ashes and am ready to use all I can 
purchase. 
BUSH CLOVER. 
Calhoun, Alabama.—We have in this and adjoining counties a species of wild or bush 
clover which grows wild on the road-sides, in old waste fields, and even in the woods 
where there is not much timber. I have just returned from an extensive trip in this 
county, and find that this season it is very luxuriant everywhere. Stock of all kinds 
are very fond of it. In uncultivated fields it grows from 10 to 12 inches high; not so 
high outside where it is exposed to stock all the time, but it becomes almost a ‘perfect 
mat on the ground. It will eventually, I think, eat out or supersede the native wild 
erasses. In my opinion it is likely to really prove a great blessing to the country. 
Sheep and goats, as well as colts, quit the mountains about July, come down into the 
valleys, old “fields, and road-sides, and keep fat on it until late in the fall. Asa locality 
for sheep- -husbandr y, Calhoun County could not be excelled in the State, if it were not 
for wolves and dogs. 
INCREASED PRODUCTION OF BRITISH FARMS. 
‘¢ Worn-out soils,” and “ exhausted lands,” are phrases that have no 
place in the vocabulary of an advanced agriculture. Deteriorationis not 
the legitimate result of culture. When retrograde is the rule in the rate 
of yield, either a declining agriculture, or aprimitive and unorganized one, 
may be assumed. In all the new States of this country, it has often 
been stated, the yield of the principal products tends rather to decline 
than to advance. The assumption is correct. Should this fact be deemed 
an industrial disgrace, and an indication of the inefficiency and unskill- 
fulness of our farmers? . Not necessarily. If we regard pioneer agri- 
culture as only an incident to land speculation—the means by which a 
poor and farmless man may obtain a title, at a nominal cost, to land that 
will make either himself or his children rich, as settlement and society 
perfect the advance from nominal to intrinsic value—it is seen to have a 
basis of sound sense. If, on the other hand, wasteful and depleting 
methods are continued, and temporary want of system becomes habitual 
chaos, a stigma is assuredly placed on such practice, and the result is a 
disgraceful “retrograde, disreputable and ultimately unprofitable. The 
tendency to a settled habit of shabbiness and wastefulness is so strong 
that the pioneer is naturally expected to sell out, remove, and open 
more wild land before the advancing wave of even a somewhat more 
methodical and scientific agriculture. 
If our yield of wheat, for instance, is decreasing slightly, it is not 
because of the absence of all progressive elements i in our agriculture, 
but from the fact that most of itis grown on new lands, by pioneer 
farmers, for the temporary purpose of money-making, without regard to 
a slight deterioration. Nor is the decline in yield wholly or mainly the 
result of depletion; it is often caused by careless culture, which fails to 
check the growth of weeds that ultimately overshadow and strangle the 
crops. 
It is well known that Great Britain obtains larger average yields than 
any other country. A small area and a large resident population have 
made necessary a high state of culture and - increased production. Sci- 
ence has been invoked, English, German, and French experiments have 
