Tillage. The Earth Mulch. 119 



mention was made of a wheat crop of my own that paid, I think, 

 about 100 per cent, net profit on the cost of production, counting 

 in use of land and everything. I wrote that, to my mind, there was 

 no question but what the thorough tillage given the preceding 

 potato crop had much to do with the wheat yielding so well. I am 

 yet of the same mind. It is well to bear in mind when tending 

 any crop that we are not working for that alone. The constant 

 and thorough tillage in corn and potato fields may be made to 

 bring paying dividends for years afterwards. Again, one must not 

 expect great results all at once. I have known them in special 

 cases, but usually when there was some other cause, such as tile 

 drainage recently done. You cannot get a very large amount of 

 the fertility in the soil in a single season by the most perfect til- 

 lage. It was not intended that man should be able to ruin land, 

 work as hard as he may. But steady, persistent work will in time 

 bring its reward. Tillage is not manure, in the sense that it adds 

 any fertility to the amount in the soil. It simply makes more of 

 the enormous quantity that exists within the reach of roots avail- 

 able. It is money, and that is what many of us want. I would 

 not waste any fertility, but I would, and have, drawn on the vast 

 quantity in my soil somewhat, to pay for my farm and improve it, 

 and surround my family with comforts and luxuries, just as I had 

 a perfect right to do, and as I. would like to see many more do 

 who need the money for so good a purpose. I started here on a 

 run-down farm to compete with the rich, new, cheap farms of the 

 great West, and I could not afford to put back all I took off. 

 But do not suppose my farm is suffering, nor will it need to in a 

 good many years, probably. When it shows need of food from the 

 outside, we are in shape to give it to the soil now. Our wheat and 

 clover are both too heavy this year. I wish you could see them. 

 When I look over the tremendous growth, even, uniform and 

 almost perfect, except- for lodging, I say to myself: "See the 

 rewards of thorough culture systematically followed up year after 

 year ! " Of course, tillage is not all, but it is what I am particu- 

 larly writing about to-day. Draining, clover, manure-saving and 

 many other points come in to help make the finished result, all of 

 which I will touch on in time. During late years the writer 

 gets much more backing than he used to in pushing this matter 

 of tillage. In a late number of The Rural New Yorker ', Prof. I. 

 P. Roberts is quoted as saying : ' ' We do not half estimate the value 

 of culture. There are vast stores of fertility in our soils if we 

 will only bring them out and render them available by thorough 

 and persistent culture. * * * Good agriculture means, first, 

 culture, and, second, careful conservation of farm manures plus 

 commercial fertilizers." This is giving culture a pretty high 

 place, but it deserves it, and no one knows practically any more 

 about it than Prof. Roberts. Let me quote a little of his experi- 

 ence : "In 1876 we planted a field with mangolds and corn, follow- 



