STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 5 1 



ist from Cornell, if I knew just what I had been doing. Of 

 course I could give only the general results. The chemist took 

 samples of the soil where three crops of clover had been plowed 

 in, and another of the same kind of soil with no clover in it. 

 He analyzed the two samples. In testing for water he found 

 15% of the clover-treated land, against 8.75% in the other. At 

 this per cent., on an acre of land six inches deep, which is as 

 deep as we can cultivate in an orchard, he found in favor of 

 the clover-treated land, forty-seven tons more of water than in 

 the other land. Here are two pieces of land, lying side by side, 

 one treated by clover and one not, and the clover treatment made 

 a difference of 47 tons of water per acre. 



In testing for humus he found 2.94% in the clover-treated 

 land, against 1.91% in the other. 



Testing for nitrogen, he found .21% in the clover-treated 

 land, against .12% in the other. A difference of .09%, or 

 1,350 pounds in an acre six inches deep. What would it have 

 cost me to put that into my soil? Takinp- the low valuation of 

 fifteen cents per pound, the lowest cost would have been $200 

 per acre. 



The results may, perhaps, be more clearly stated thus : 



Thi'ee Crops Clover. No Clover. 



Water 15.00% 8.75% 



Nitrogen .21 % .12 % 



Humus 2.94 % 1. 91 % 



Phosphoric Acid 015% .008% 



Available: 



Water, 6.25 per cent. — 46,875 tons per acre more. 



Nitrogen, .09 per cent. — 1,350 pounds more per acre. 



Phosphoric Acid, .007 per cent. — 105 pounds more per acre. 



It gives us a new inspiration to find that we can take a plant 

 like clover, and by a few years of free use, so rapidly build up 

 the supply of nitrogen and other vegetable matter the soil needs. 

 I cultivate to the middle of July, and then, when the time comes 

 that cultivation should cease, cover the soil with a growing 

 plant. I choose crimson clover because it is an annual plant, 

 and it grows rapidly, and when cultivation ceases it fills the soil 

 with roots and holds it to the best possible advantage during 

 the winter months. Possibly you in Maine may not succeed as 



