49 



For barnyard manure, yon cnn claim no superiority 

 over this plant, but its partial decomposition. It is 

 more available, beca ! isf- n part of it is oxidized. 



The rye must undergo this change, before its 

 albuminoids can be of use to growing vegetation. 

 But look at the ample time that it has to decompose, 

 and then you cannot but acknowledge its value. 



It may be plowed in for a crop of corn, or may be 

 cut down just as it blossoms, and left as a mulch on 

 the ground. A second crop will then grow up, nearly 

 as large as the first, and may then be plowed in, and 

 Hungarian grass, or white mustard, or buckwheat, or 

 irreen corn be sown and make a third crop for turn- 

 ing in for wheat. If com should be the third crop, 

 I should prefer to use it as a mulch, as already 

 explained in Chapter VII. 



J. B. Root, of Rock ford, III., writes in the American 

 Agriculturist^ 1S75; " The labor of applying evenly 

 fbrt\ loads of manure per acre is considerable. All 

 this i* done more evenly by the green crop. Seed 

 and labor together cost me but $3,50 per acre. I can 

 not say that it adds as much fertility to the soil as 

 forty loads of manure, but I do say that in oar drouthy 

 seasons, it produces as great an increase of crop as do 

 forty two horse loads of good manure. It certainly 

 pays to practice it, and to practice it largely, even on 

 the land well supplied with stable manure." 



f very one acquainted with the writings of Joseph 

 Harris, lor the last twenty- five years, will suppose of 

 course, that clover is the only green crop which could 

 obtain such a high recommendation from a practical 

 fanner. 



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