( 107 ) 



for sending their roots deeply into the soil, thereby bringing up 

 and depositing near the surface the aliment for plants which would- 

 otherwise remain below the reach of the roots of many of our most 

 valuable cereals. For the accomplishment of these purposes no 

 vegetable equals the Southern field pea and red clover. In them 

 we find the answer to that momentous question, how and through 

 what means can we, in the shortest space of time, bring our lands, 

 up to their highest productive capacities to meet our own and the 

 varied wants of society. When we reflect that all progress, civili- 

 zation, refinement, culture, prosperity and happiness of society hang 

 suspended upon the scale which measures out the feeding capacity 

 of the earth, we begin to appreciate those vegetable productions 

 promotive of this desired end. The trefoils and legumes then be- 

 gin to loom up in their grand possibilities; and the clover and the 

 field pea assume an importance not dreamed of before. Without 

 them, on the one hand we must descend to meager harvests, perish- 

 ing stock, fast approaching sterility, hard times and general discon- 

 tent. On the other, by their powerful aid we ascend up to plentiful 

 harvests, fat stock, with the multiplied advantages resulting there- 

 from, good living, money in the purse, prosperity and contentment. 

 Can the pea and clover accomplish all this? Worked in proper 

 rotation with other crops they most assuredly can. In the heathen, 

 but appreciative past, when gratitude was manifested by the erec- 

 tion of temples, and by solemn worship to those deities from whom 

 temporal blessings were thought to flow, the pea and clover of the 

 present day have been entwined with the wheat and fruit, crowning 

 the brow of beneficent Ceres. Now, these mainsprings of success- 

 ful agriculture in our favored land are but half appreciated, and 

 are thrust aside by the impatient tiller of the soil for some other 

 crop supposed to bring in more immediate money profits, but 

 which, in its continued drafts upon the fertility of the soil, must 

 end in the bankruptcy as well as the ruin of its possessor. 



In a previous letter to you I stated some of the advantages which 

 the field pea possessed even over its great fellow- laborer, red clover,, 

 as a fertilizer. 



1. The pea will thrive upon land too poor to grow clover. 



2. That it will produce a heavy and rich crop to be returned to 

 the soil in a shorter period than any vegetable fertilizer known. 



