36 How THE FARM PAYS. 



Acme harrow. It may then be sown with rye, and with clover in 

 the spring; and after the clover has been cut for hay, and the second 

 crop plowed in, the land may be brought under a regular course of 

 rotation as described in Chapter IV. Buckwheat is frequently used 

 for this purpose, and is very valuable, as the seed costs but little, and 

 a crop may be sown in May and plowed in early in July, when a second 

 crop may be sown, and this plowed in, and the ground fitted for a 

 crop of rye as before mentioned. When buckwheat is thus used, it 

 will be advisable to give a dressing of lime on the ground after the 

 second crop is plowed under, as this will decompose the green matter 

 and greatly help the growth of the rye. 



Clover is a very valuable green manuring crop, and especially the 

 large variety known as the mammoth or pea vine clover, which 

 often makes a stem four or five feet long, and on poor soils produces 

 considerably more herbage than the common red kind. But as a 

 soil that will produce a sufficient yield of clover, to be of much value 

 for plowing in, is past the stage when it will be profitable to grow 

 crops solely for manurial purposes, clover is of more value for main- 

 taining land in good condition than for starting a course of improve- 

 ment. Growing clover, however, to be plowed under instead of manure, 

 may be made of the utmost value for the fertilizing of hilly land, or 

 for fields that are distant from the homestead, and which cannot be 

 conveniently supplied with manure from the barn-yard on this ac- 

 count. The late Hon. George Geddes, whose recent early death is 

 to be much regretted for the loss of an accomplished and successful 

 farmer, practiced this method for many years on his farm with entire 

 success. He sowed the most distant fields with clover along with 

 wheat; the clover gave a crop of hay the next year; it was then 

 dressed liberally with plaster, and the next year was plowed under 

 after being pastured, and wheat again sowed. In this way, after fifty 

 years of cultivation by his father and himself, the land was kept suffi- 

 ciently rich to yield thirty-five or forty bushels of wheat to the acre 

 one year, give a large yield of hay the second year, pasture the third 

 year and wheat again the fourth year, and so on. Perhaps no better 

 instance than this can be given of the value of this kind of manuring 

 for preserving the fertility of the land. 



FERTILIZING LAND BY FEEDING. 



Another method of restoring a farm to a good condition, or of 

 keeping it fertile, is by feeding stock. This may be made very profit- 

 able in skillful hands. Thousands of farmers in Pennsylvania, New 

 Jersey, New York and Ohio, and even further west, where the land 



