THE EARTH'S BOUNTY 



ter or summer, for seven years. Constant till- 

 age worked the soil to a fine texture. Fre- 

 quent turning in of stubble added humus. 

 The leguminous crops had furnished nitrogen. 

 Never being without a growing crop had pre- 

 vented any leaching of the soil, and when the 

 soil again came into tillage, it was splendidly 

 fertile and mellow. 



Old grass lands were always top-dressed in 

 the fall, plowed, and left open, and rotation 

 crops started the following spring, with pota- 

 toes or corn, cowpeas, Japanese millet, or rape 

 used as catch crops. The following spring 

 oats and clover ; the next year wheat ; then back 

 to rye, timothy, and clover. 



No charge for labor has been put against 

 any of the crops, because it is a task quite be- 

 yond my capacity. The year after we had all 

 the land another regular man was engaged 

 at $15 per month. Each year two extra men 

 have been engaged for odd days, but, at the 

 most, not over $100 per year has been spent 

 in extra work, so any genius in arithmetic can 



68 



