72 THE BUSINESS OF FAKMING 



organic matter is the growing of crops like red and 

 sweet clover, alfalfa, vetch, rye, hungarian, buck- 

 wheat, etc. Clover and alfalfa cannot generally 

 be grown on worn-out soils without the use of 

 some stimulant like nitrate of soda, limestone, 

 etc., to give them a start. If by the use of a 

 stimulant we can get a stand of clover and al- 

 falfa and plow under the entire clover crop and 

 allow the alfalfa to stand for several years, cutting 

 it in its proper season, we will have secured a 

 valuable supply of organic matter and nitrogen 

 for worn-out soils. 



By far the best crops for furnishing organic 

 matter for worn-out soils are the vetches, sand, 

 winter, or hairy vetch, sweet clover and rye. 

 These crops do not require any stimulant to make 

 them take hold upon our worn-out soils and they 

 quickly furnish large quantities of organic mat- 

 ter. 



For years we have been preaching and practic- 

 ing the religion of an abundance of organic mat- 

 ter for all our soils, whether fertile, worn, worn- 

 out or abandoned. We have not only preached 

 and practiced this faith, but have dreamed about 

 it, and our dreams have been that the feeding of 

 our soils an abundance of organic matter will 

 make more fertile our fertile soils, and will so re- 

 store to fertility our worn, worn-out and aban- 

 doned soils, that we will again be a nation possess- 

 ing the fertile soils we possessed when our conti- 

 nent was first discovered. 



The a, b, c of a permanent agriculture is a soil 

 filled with organic matter, for organic matter was 

 the a, b, c of soil building. With it Nature fash- 



