74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



We try to crush and grind the soil, and then, l)}^ the aid of 

 crimson clover and cow-peas, to attract this plant food just 

 as Edison's magnets are attracting the iron. 



We started with the poorest field on the farm as a manure 

 factory. Some people for whom I have the highest respect 

 seem to think that stal)le manure must be made in a stable in 

 the old-time way of feeding expensive timothy hay and oats 

 to a horse, and bedding him with rye straw. I know people 

 wdio in 1892 believed that they could not live without eating 

 porterhouse roast beef. Economy has forced them to it. 

 They find that they can eat a pot-roast or a shin bone, and 

 still retain their standing in church and State. In my 

 travels in Delaware I have seen the cow-pea and crimson 

 clover manufacturing manure faster than a whole regiment of 

 horses. We took a four-acre field, too poor to grow healthy 

 weeds, and worked it thoroughly with the Cutaway. We 

 then broadcasted sixteen hundred pounds of basic slag and 

 five hundred pounds of kainite, and sowed four and one-half 

 bushels of early black cow-peas. The result was an immense 

 growth of vine, w'-hich was cut August 15. A second growth 

 at once started from the roots, and this grew steadily until 

 frost. In the mean time we scattered crimson clover seed 

 over the field, and this finally started, and will grow during 

 the winter. The cow-pea vines may be fed to stock by 

 those who care to do so, or they may be used directly as 

 manure, or used in mulching strawberries. We can rent 

 cheap land and grow this crop at very light expense for very 

 much less than we can obtain stable manure. On poor land 

 it is by all odds the greatest manurial plant we can grow. I 

 shall, however, next year make an experiment with the 

 velvet bean, of which glorious things are spoken by southern 

 farmers. The scientific men tell us that the cow-peas and 

 clover will grow if fertilized with potash and phosphoric 

 acid alone, and that they will steal abundant nitrogen out of 

 the air. I have found that to be true to a certain extent, 

 and yet a little nitrogen added to the potash and phosphoric 

 acid will make a greater growth of vine every time. It is a 

 satisfaction to me to realize that every square inch of our 

 little sand heap, except that occupied by the small fruits, is 

 covered with a living crop of green. It was all criuison 



