116 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



sired to grow. I have grown early cabbage ten or twelve years in 

 succession on the same land, following the same season with late 

 beets and celery. I have grown beets for ten years in succession on 

 the same land. Radishes I have grown on the same plat for many 

 years, followed the same season with peppers, tomatoes and egg 

 plant. 



I believe the majority of Minnesota soils, if highly dressed, will 

 grow anything for a number of years in succession, barring droughts 

 and frost. I have never paid any attention to rotation of crops, 

 though it is true I discovered in about fourteen years the warning 

 given by Mr, Henderson that where the soil was so heavily dressed 

 it became somewhat like a member of the human family that had 

 been surfeited with rich food and required a change of diet. So the 

 soil required a rest by feeding it with clover, or any leguminous crop 

 and plowing it under. Dame Nature was then restored and ready 

 to be treated as before, and would cheerfully respond after being 

 tickled with the hoe. 



There is one thing that tillers of the soil in Minnesota can con- 

 gratulate themselves on, they are not spending any money in com- 

 mercial fertilizers. I find in the year 1896, according to reliable sta- 

 tistics collected by Mr. John Hyde, verified and compiled by 

 American Agriculturist, that twenty-seven states purchased two mill- 

 ion tons of commercial fertilizers at a cost of forty million of dollars, 

 and no record that Minnesota expended a dollar. Wisconsin was the 

 farthest western state on the list. We would infer from this that the 

 soil of Minnesota is not yet impoverished so as to require any but 

 home made fertilizers. It may be a fair conclusion that her system 

 of farming will be greatly improved by rotation of crops, clover be- 

 ing the principal change crop, and in the future her products will 

 increase with the knowledge disseminated by our experimental sta- 

 tions, and by reliable agricultural journals, not forgetting Mr. Terry 

 with the farmers' institute. 



Evaporation from Different Soils. — In some tests made at the Colorado 

 station as to the amount of evaporation from different soils, it was found 

 that from an upland soil of mulatto color in which there was a small amount 

 of clay and considerable sand with enough lime to cement it and render 

 it quite hard, 1,038 tons per acre evaporated during 85 days. From a very 

 fine black soil from the hilltop 527 tons evaporated. From a rich clay soil, 

 very dark, 425 tons, and from a fine, light colored soil, commonly called 

 gopher clay, 600 tons. 



