370 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTIIDTE. 



Restorinq Worn-Out Land. 



Mr. C. H. Weidner, Shoknii, Ulster county, N. Y. — On this sub- 

 ject we need more light. It is not snfficient to tell farmers to 

 plow under clover, for the value of clovfn- is tin established fact, 

 and yet not one-tenth of the farmers use it, for the reason that they 

 do not believe they can succeed. Two years ago this spring I 

 seeded down with clover and timothy a lot that had rye on, which 

 gi-ew well, and when gathered it yielded a heavy crop; yet there 

 was hardly a blade of any kind of grass to ))e seen. The same 

 season I ploAved under a crop of buckwheat in the fall, sowed it 

 with rye, which last June looked so much better than that on an 

 adjoining lot, that I felt satisfied the increased yield would have 

 paid the expense incurred in plowing under the buckwheat. I 

 plowed under the rye, had a boy follow after and drop corn in the 

 furrow, and in the fall the corn was from one to two feet high, 

 which was turned under and again sowed to rye. This spring I 

 will seed it to clover. When the season is over, I will give you 

 the net result of the whole. My advice to those wanting farms 

 is not to go South or West, but to do as I have done, locate ;i 

 little out of the common course of travel, within a hundred miles 

 of New York city, Avhere can be found a plenty of naturally good 

 laud, but by misuse run down, and which can be purchased at the 

 same price as in the settled parts of the West. The great want is 

 better cultivation, and to get the land in the same condition as 

 that of the West. Here prices of farm produce range higher than 

 they do in the city. 



I shall try to demonstrate the fact that it will pay to get poor 

 land into a high state of cultivation. 



Rye will grow on soils where clover will not start, and because 

 it will grow on poor land it has been raised year after year. \ 



Books for Farmers. 



Mr. N. C. Meeker read the following letter from Dr. J. P. Phil- 

 lips, New Haven, Conn: 



" Farmers read and pui-chase too few books, and often those 

 they do read are not adapted to their wants. I suggest that the 

 Farmers' Club appoint a connuittee to select and recommend a 

 farmers' lilu-ary of ten or twenty volumes. Then let arrangements 

 be made with wholesale booksellers, by which they will furnish 

 the entire library or any single volume at wholesale price. This 

 would encourage farmers to buy the best, and would prevent them 

 from squandering their money for worthless sensational books." 



