USE OF COVER CROPS AND FERTILIZERS. 



183 



Writings. — He was a prolific writer, and 

 among his productions we may just mention 

 "The American Handbook of Ornamental 

 Trees"; frequent contributions to the 

 " Horticulturist" (American) on Landscape 

 Gardening- ; the editing of the Gardener's 

 Monthly; agricultural editorials of Forney's 

 Weekly Press ; important papers before the 

 A. A. A. S. ; Native Flowers and Ferns of 

 the U. S.; many of the articles in Meehan's 

 Monthly, etc., etc. 



Public Service. — To his lasting credit, let 

 us chronicle of Mr. Thomas Meehan, his 

 public and philanthropic spirit. Neither 

 business affairs, nor literary work, was al- 

 lowed to interfere with his interest in the 

 public schools and public parks. In the in- 

 terest of the first of these, he was instru- 

 mental in securing $2,000,000 for new school 

 buildings, and, in the second, his influence 

 led to the organization of the City Park As- 

 sociation, and the laying out of some twenty- 

 eight small parks, as public resting places. 



in various parts of the town. Among 

 the honors conferred on Prof. Meehan, 

 and well deserved, was the Veitch medal 

 presented for "distinguished services in 

 Botany and Horticulture" and this is all 

 the more noteworthy becanse he was only 

 the third American to be so honored. 



Our young Canadian readers should study 

 the face of one whose career has been so re- 

 markable for achieving great results with 

 fair opportunities, and therefore we have 

 secured from Mr. S. M. Meehan, the son 

 who now edits Meehan's Monthly, a good 

 cut of his respected father. He sent in 

 addition, a cut of the old office, adding that 

 " the oflSce shown in the picture has been in 

 use, though added to, from the commence- 

 ment of father's business in 1854 ; and 

 nothing can be much more strongly con^ 

 nected with his daily life, for he went there 

 every morning almost as regularly as he ate 

 his meals, — right up to the time of his last 

 sickness." 



Use of Cover Crops and Fertilizers. — Prof. 

 I. P. Roberts, of Cornell University, says : 

 "Cover crops may, in a measure, take the 

 place of fertilizers and manures. They are 

 not, however, a universal panacea for all soil 

 deficiencies, neither are they a full substitute 

 in all cases for fertilizers. There is always 

 a wide field for the profitable use of one or 

 all of the concentrated forms of fertilizers 

 named, and in many cases there is also a 

 special place for the use of fertilizers, there- 

 fore the more need of honest goods. Com- 

 mercial fertilizers furnish available plant 

 food, but no humus. The cover crop fur- 

 nishes both, but it is only fair to say that 

 the plant foods in the former are more avail- 

 able than in the latter. Cover crops im- 

 prove the physical condition of the soil, 

 lessening the cost of tillage. Physically, 

 fertilizers benefit the soil little or none. 

 The humus furnished by the cover crops in- 

 creases the availability of the plant food 

 already in the soil ; fertilizers do not. Cover 

 crops shade the land and gonserve moisture. 



"It is impossible to accurately compare 

 the cost of fertilizers with the cost of seeds 

 for the cover crops and the preparation of 

 the soil for them. The cost of increasing 

 productivity by extra tillage, by the use of 

 fertilizers, by cover crops or by all three 

 means, can only be determined in each case 

 by the farmer interested. I give below a 

 single illustration of what a cover crop con- 

 tains, knowing that another cover crop, un- 

 der other conditions, might either be more 

 or less valuable. Second growth of clover, 

 furnished in roots and tops per acre, the fol- 

 lowing : Nitrogen, 138.86 lbs.; phosphoric 

 acid, 87.85 lbs.; potash, 109.90 lbs. There 

 is removed by 25 bush, wheat and accom- 

 panying straw, nitrogen, 43 lbs. ; phosphoric 

 acid, 20 lbs. ; and potash, 27 lbs. It is be- 

 lieved that most of the nitrogen taken up by 

 legumes is secured from the uncombined 

 nitrogen in the atmosphere. The clover did 

 not add to either the stores of phosphoric 

 acid or potash. The plant took them from 

 the soil and made them available." 



