134 O UF Farming. 



got in this way would safely cut me out of $10 in the future, and, 

 perhaps, much more. I cannot afford to have my plants injured. 

 They are too valuable workers in pumping fertility up and down 

 and shading surface. And then my soil is mostly too heavy to be 

 tramped by pasturing stock, if at all damp. We must have air in 

 the soil, or the roots cannot get the nitrogen from it. We must 

 not tramp and pack soil in a clover field, or cultivated land, ever, 

 only what is necessary, if it is as heavy as mine, if we are after 

 best results in crop growing. I have pastured young clover in 

 the fall. Yes, I have done just such a foolish thing; but it was 

 long ago, and I paid dearly for it. Soon learned better. But it 

 took me longer to learn that I could not afford to ever pasture 

 land at all that I crop, not even the second growth the fall before 

 field was to be plowed. It won't do. Land must not be packed, 

 and surface must be kept mulched. No animal ever steps foot 

 into my cultivated 35 acres, except for purposes of tillage or 

 drawing crops off or manure on. I wish sometimes I could do 

 this with a balloon. And yet sometimes packing is beneficial, as 

 we will speak of in chapter on Wheat Culture. We usually cut the 

 first crop for hay. We need just about that much. And we need 

 the manure from it and the wheat straw to spread on thin spots in 

 the next year's young clover. We try to mow it early, when in 

 full bloom, because it makes the best hay then and gives best 

 chance for a large second growth. Cut a little later it would cure 

 easier, but I can plainly see when feeding out that it is not as 

 valuable for feed. I have tried most all ways of managing second 

 crop. It has been cut and fed out, cut for seed, and haulm 

 returned, and allowed to go back to soil uncut, and the latter 

 seems to me the wisest on my farm, as a rule. But, remember, I 

 grow potatoes. I expect to get about $100 an acre for them, and 

 often more. I may easily sacrifice $10 or $15 worth of seed per 

 acre, or hay, to such a crop, for almost certain better results, 

 when it would be quite unwise to do this for corn or wheat, which 

 bring so much less per acre. The little vegetable matter turned 

 under on every square foot that comes from the second crop clover 

 is very helpful to the potato crop nearly always. The manure from 

 same could not be spread over all the ground and would not do 

 the same good. Neither can one do this with the haulm from 

 seed. But I would cut for seed and plow under haulm, rather 

 than cut for hay and feed out and use manure. I suppose I 

 plowed under 30 bushels of clover seed this spring. I might 

 have cut it if I had known how high it would go, but at $5 a 

 bushel I would -not, certainly. And still there may be excep- 

 tions. If I were in debt, and greatly in need of funds, I might 

 have to take the bird in the hand. With money to invest, I can 

 do the way that promises best returns in the end. 



But, now, when shall this second crop be plowed under ? 

 When the ground is dry enough to work safely in the spring, and 

 not before, on my farm. More mulching, you see. Keep the land 



