MANURE FOR CLOVER. 153 



Now, we know by analysis that this clover plant is a great 

 renovator of the soil. We want to have more clover introduced 

 into the rotation in New England. I do not know any way in 

 which we can introduce so much vegetable matter, so much 

 manure into the soil, at so little expense, as in the cultivation 

 of this plant, in a good system of rotation. It is well known 

 that a ton of clover hay, fed to animals, is worth for the manure 

 nine dollars, on account of the large amount of ammonia in it ; 

 ordinary hay is not worth half that. It is worth in manure, 

 after it has passed through the bodies of animals, and they have 

 gained their flesh and fat by it, nine dollars. If that is so, if 

 science says that is true, we ought to cultivate clover hay. If 

 we can have this rotation introduced on our farms, everything 

 will be more profitable than now ; and if men have faith in their 

 business, and have faith to invest in it, (it is not going to cost a 

 great deal to try this experiment,) let them sow clover, let them 

 pursue this rotation, which is found to be so profitable in Penn- 

 sylvania, New Jersey and some parts of New York State. 



Well, we not only want this rotation, but we want improved 

 tools and machinery in our husbandry, and these will make farm- 

 ing much more profitable. For instance, the mower, the horse- 

 tedder, the horse-rake and the horse-fork. With these four 

 implements you can gather your hay harvest at an expense of 

 less than three dollars a ton — make it and put it in the barn. 

 With the scythe it costs double that, at the present price of 

 labor ; and the farmer who uses those improved tools of course 

 can put his hay into market at much less expense than the man 

 who uses the scythe and hand-rake. The old style farmer will 

 be beaten out of his shoes if he does not get these improve- 

 ments. He cannot afford to go on in the old track any longer ; 

 his neighbors will leave him far behind. And so with other 

 implements. I was in Pennsylvania ten days, and I did not see 

 a man in a cornfield with a hoe — not one. They do all the 

 cultivation of their corn (except in very limited districts, which 

 I did not see,) with the cultivator. I saw men riding on a 

 sulky seat cultivating tiie ground and leaving it as clean as the 

 hoe would, unless the land was very weedy and grassy, and 

 going over ten acres in a day. Now a man cannot hoe much 

 more than an acre a day with the common hand-hoe ; and corn 

 is raised in Pennsylvania for fifty cents a bushel, when it would 



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