THE KESTORATION OF WORN OUT LAND 159 



of an unproductive soil, after drainage, if it needs it, must be the restoration 

 of the conditions that existed in it when it was new and fertile. It had then 

 an abundant supply of humus, either from the forest decay or the prairie sod, 

 and long culture has exhausted this supply of food-containing and 

 moisture-retaining humus. The restoration, then, of this humus, in an 

 economical way, is the first thing that demands the attention of the cultivator. 

 Given an old field that will not grow peas, let us ask why it will not? If 

 the subsoil immediately under the old time plowing is a good clay, and 

 the drainage is good, the next thing to do is to plow it and loosen the hard- 

 pan with the subsoil plow. Do not plow much deeper than the old plowing 

 at first, but try to loosen the hard subsoil as deeply as the team can pull the 

 plow. The early autumn is the best time for this. Sow some crop like rye 

 for a winter cover and it will be well to give this rye a dressing of a complete 

 fertilizer mixture so as to insure a good growth. Turn the rye under as 

 early in the spring as the ground can be plowed to advantage, and if you are 

 in the North sow oats and Canada peas for a forage crop, and afterwards 

 fallow the land for wheat, and give the wheat a liberal dressing of acid 

 phosphate and some form of nitrogen in organic matter, such as tankage or 

 cotton seed meal, and potash if needed. A good dressing for wheat will be 

 300 pounds per acre of a mixture .of 1200 pounds acid phosphate, 600 pounds 

 tankage and 200 pounds of muriate of potash, if you have found that your 

 land needs all of these. The land will now grow clover, and once you get 

 a good clover sod there will be no further trouble in getting the humus back. 

 If the land is in the South then cow peas should follow the rye, and if the 

 land is very deficient in humus it will pay to turn them under when dead 

 and have finished their work; but as the fertility of the land increases it 

 will always be better to cut and feed the peas. After the peas are cut (and 

 we should have applied to them a liberal dressing of acid phosphate and 

 potash) the land can be gotten in order for winter oats, and the oat crop 

 followed the next summer with peas, again fertilized, and now cut for hay 

 and the stubble disced and sown with crimson clover. Plow this under early 

 in the spring for cotton, and the land will be found no longer dead poor, but 

 will give a fair crop of cotton. Sow crimson clover or hairy vetch among 

 the cotton, and during the winter get all the farm manure out on the land 

 and put it in corn the following spring. Sow peas among the corn at last 

 working, and then start with the Winter oats again in September. Every 

 time the land comes in peas give them as liberal a .dressing of the mineral 

 fertilizers as you can afford, and you may be certain they will do the rest. 

 You will then be putting the plant food where it will tell in the develop- 

 ment of the fertility of your soil, and by feeding all the forage you can 



