Chemically, green manuring is beneficial for the following very good 

 reasons. 



Through the process of fermentation and decomposition of green 

 manure, humates are formed which in combination with other elements 

 in the soil form plant food compounds. 



The deep-rooting legumes are especially beneficial, for the reason 

 that they decay, admitting moisture and air far below the reach of the 

 plow, forming as they do plant food by combining with the inorganic 

 elements that exist in the subsoils. Plant food thus formed in the 

 deeper strata is brought to the seed-bed through the action of capillary 

 water. This process is responsible for the great increase in crops fol- 

 lowing clover and other deep-rooting plants. 



Green manuring is resorted to profitably in sections where stock- 

 raising is not practiced to an extent sufficient to secure an abundance of 

 barnyard manure. Dead vegetation plowed under is also beneficial, but 

 owing to the fact that most of the moisture contained in the plant has 

 evaporated, decomposition is slow. 



Next to legumes, rye is regarded as the best green crop to plow under. 

 The following table, the result of experiments on light soil in Germany, 

 is very interesting: 



TABLE NO. 14 .. INCREASE IN THE YIELD OF RYE PER ACKi; ON GREEN 

 MANURED PLOTS OVER THOSE NOT GREEN MANURED 



Prof. Neale of the Delaware Experimental Station presents the fol- 

 lowing: 



"8.3 tons of crimson clover, grown from seed which cost $1.00 per 

 acre, added 24 bushels to the corn crop; $1,00 invested in nitrate of soda 

 and used as a top-dressing, added 6 bushels to the corn crop. Hence, in 

 this case, $1.00 invested in clover seed returned four times as much as 

 $1.00 invested in nitrate of soda. As to the relative amount of labor 

 involved, the sowing of the seed and the broadcasting of the nitrate of 

 soda possibly balance each other." 



