CHEAPEST MANURE FOR FARMERS. 127 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

 THE CHEAPEST MANURE A FARMER CAN USE. 



I do not know who first said, " The cheapest manure a farmer 

 can use is clover-seed," but the saying has become part of our 

 agricultural literature, and deserves a passing remark. 



I have heard good farmers in Western New York say, that if 

 they had a field sown with wheat that they were going to plow 

 the spring after the crop was harvested, they would sow 10 Ibs. cf 

 clover-seed on the wheat in the spring. They thought that the 

 growth of the clover in the fall, after the wheat was cut, and the 

 growth the next spring, before the land was plowed, would afford 

 manure worth much more than the cost of the clover-seed. 



" I do not doubt it," said the Deacon ; " but would it not be 

 better to let the crop grow a few months longer, ai:d then plow 

 it under ?" 



" But that is not the point," I remarked ; " we sometimes adopt 

 a rotation when Indian-corn follows a crop of wheat. In such a 

 case, good farmers sometimes plow the land in the fall, and again 

 the next spring, and then plant corn. This is one method. But I 

 have known, as I said before, good farmers to seed down the 

 wheat with clover ; and the following spring, say the third week 

 in May, plow under the young clover, and plant immediately on 

 the furrow. If the land is warm, and in good condition, you will 

 frequently get clover, by this time, a foot high, and will have two 

 or three tons of succulent vegetation to turn under ; and 

 the farmer who first recommended the practice to me, said 

 that the cut-worms were so fond of this green-clover that 

 they did not molest the young corn-plants. I once tried the plan 

 myself, and found it to work well ; but since then, I have kept so 

 many pigs and sheep, that clover has been too useful to plow un- 

 der. But we will not discuss this point at present. 



" What I wanted to say -is this: Here we have a field in wheat. 

 Half of it (A) we seed down with 12 Ibs. of clover-seed per acre ; 

 the other half (B) not. The clover-seed and sowing on A, cost, say, 

 $2 per acre. We plow B in the fall ; this will cost us about as 

 much as the clover-seed sown on A. In the spring, A and B are 

 both plowed and planted to corn. Now, which half of the field 

 will be in the cleanest and best condition, and which will produce 

 the best corn, and the best barley, or oats, afterwards?" 



