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manure." The return from Cass says : " Our lighter sandy barrens, 

 which, before the use of clover and plaster, very poorly paid for cul- 

 tivation, have been raised to nearly first-class for profitable culture. 

 The average of our grass-crops is fully 50 per cent, better than tweuty 

 years ago, and still increasing." 



lu Indiana the practice appears to be growing in appreciation in con- 

 nection with both wheat and corn culture. lu a majority of cases the 

 stubble only is turned under. In Fulton, clover is regarded as " the 

 great, indispensable fertilizer; " in Clinton, as " the economical mode of 

 restoring lands ; " in Madison, the full crop " improves the soil 40 per 

 cent.; " in Marshall, the second crop for wheat increases the yield five to 

 ten bushels per acre; iu Switzerland, an experiment with corn, sown 

 thickly, and turned under when knee-high, doubled the yield of wheat. 

 "The yield was so surprising that the practice of green-manuring is 

 likely to prevail to a much greater extent." In Posey, the clover, inde- 

 pendently of its fertilizing effects, " pays a handsome profit." 



From Illinois the only reported exception to uniformly favorable results 

 is a partial one from Jersey : " Leaves the soil in good condition for 

 corn, but for wheat, makes the straw weak, and the crop falls." Macon 

 reports that the young roots supply thecut-worms with what they need, 

 and save the corn. In Vermillion, the second crop ploughed under, 

 after being partially fed ofi", increases the yields 30 to 50 per cent. In 

 Hancock, the practice is on the increase, the stubble increasing the 

 yield 33^, and the full crop 50 per cent. In Shelby, the second crop turned 

 under produces the best and surest crop of wheat, and the seed comes 

 up thick, making a first-class clover-field again. In De Kalb, the 

 second growth turned under is " as beneficial as a generous coat of 

 compost." 



The practice has taken root in Wisconsin, but as yet has made com- 

 paratively little progress. Green Lake reports as follows : " The best 

 results when clover is followed by corn well manured; then two or 

 three crops of wheat with clover; some use a light seeding of clover 

 and plaster with each crop of wheat, allowing the sheep to pick 

 off the clover in the fall. Land treated in this way invariably im- 

 proves." In Pierce, the first crop turned under results in great benefit 

 to two or three succeeding crops of wheat. 



So far as returns indicate, the practice has but little more than been 

 introduced in the newer States of Minnesota and Iowa, though Jackson, 

 in the latter, reports that the full crop turned under increases the yield of 

 corn about 50 per cent. In Kansas, Nebraska, and California, where 

 stable-manure is as yet generally regarded as a troublesome superfluity, 

 the practice is scarcely known. In Missonri, out of over sixty returns, 

 about one-third report the practice to some, extent. In Chariton, the 

 second crop turned under makes old, worn-out fields produce almost 

 equal to new lands. In Boone, for wheat, it perpetuates the clover 

 without the cost of seed or the labor of sowing again. In Stone, land 

 on which the stubble is turned under produces a greater yield and 

 better quality of wheat than any other. In Dent, "as the result of 

 experience, consider it superior to barn yard manure;" iu Grundy, also, 

 "the result is rather ahead of barn-yard manure;" in Cape Girardeau, 

 it is the most popular method of improving old fields; in Scott, the 

 best fertilizer yet tried. The following extracts are specially suggestive : 



Platte : Oar practice in soil improvement is this: Sow tired land in wheat or rye in 

 the fall; sow clover-seed on the same the following spring; let it remain in clover 

 three or four years ; then (turning under the secoud crop) put in wheat or corn. The 

 yield of either will be almost double the amount that would be produced without 



