PREPARING AND ENRICHING THE SOIL. 75 



needed elements. A dressing of wood ashes, however, will 

 make good the loss. Buckwheat is one of the most effective 

 means of subduing and cleaning land, and two crops can 

 be plowed under in a single summer. Last spring I had 

 some very stiff marsh sod turned over and sown with buck- 

 wheat, which, in our hurry, was not plowed under until con- 

 siderable of the seed ripened and fell. A second crop from 

 this came up at once, and was plowed under when coming 

 into blossom, as the first should have been. The straw, in 

 its succulent state, decayed in a few days, and by autumn 

 my rough marsh sod was light, rich, and mellow as a garden, 

 ready for anything. 



If it should happen that the land designed for strawberries 

 was in clover, it would make an admirable fertilizer if turned 

 under while still green, and I think its use for this purpose 

 would pay better than cutting it for hay, even though there 

 is no better. Indeed, were I about to put any sod land, 

 that was not very stiff and unsubdued, into small fruits, I 

 would wait till whatever herbage covered the ground was 

 just coming into flower, and then turn it under. The earlier 

 growth that precedes the formation of seed does not tax the 

 soil much, but draws its substance largely from the atmos- 

 phere, and when returned to the earth while full of juices, 

 is valuable. In our latitude this can usually be done by 

 the middle of June, and if on this sod buckwheat is sown at 

 once, it will hasten the decay, loosen and lighten the soil in 

 its growth, and in a few weeks be ready itself to increase the 

 fertility of the field by being plowed under. In regions 

 where farmyard manure and other fertilizers are scarce and 

 high, this plowing under of green crops is one of the most 

 effective ways both of enriching and preparing the land; 

 and if the reader has no severer labors to perform than this, 

 he may well congratulate himself. 



