12 Talks ox manures. 



Deacon. Very good ; but what shall I make it of ? " Make it out 

 of your straw and stalks and huy." So 1 do, but all the straw and 

 stalks and hay raised on the farm when I bought it would not 

 make as nmch manure as " high farming" retiuires for live acres 

 of land. And is this not true of lialf the farms in the United 

 States to day ? Wliat then, sliall we do ? 



The best thing to do, t/icorcticilly, is this: An}- land tiiat is i>ro- 

 ducing a fair crop of grass or clover, let it lie. Pasture it or mow 

 it for hay. If 3'ou have a fl<ld of clayey or stiff loam}- land, break 

 it up in the fall, and summer-fallow it the ne.xt year, and sow it to 

 wheat and seed it down with clover. Let it lie two or three years 

 in clover. Then bre.ik it up in July or August, " fall-fallow " it, 

 and sow it with burliy the next spring, and seed it dt)wn again 

 with clover. 



Sandy or liglit land, that it will not i)ay to sumincr-fallow, 

 should have all t'le manure you can make, and be plowed and 

 planted with corn. Cultivate thoroughly, and either seed it down 

 with the cor.'i in August, or sow it to barley or oats ne.xt spring, 

 and seed it down with clover. I say, theoretiCiilly this is the best 

 plan to adojit. But practically it may not be so, because it may be 

 absolutely necessary that we should raise something that wc can 

 s 'II at once, and get money to live upon or pay interest and taxes. 

 But the gentlemen who so strenuously advocate high farming, are 

 not perhaps often troubled with considerations of tins kind. Meet- 

 ing th Mn, tlierefore, on their own ground, I contend lliat in my 

 case " Ingh farming" would not be as profitable as the plan hinted 

 at above. 



The rich altuvi-il low lan.l is to be pasture 1 or mown ; the upland 

 to b^ l)r.)ken up only wlien necessary, and when it is plowed Xu be 

 plowed well and worked thoroughly, and got back again into 

 clover as soon a.s possible. The hay and pasture from the low 

 land, and the clover and straw and stalks from the upland, would 

 enable us to keep a good many cows and sheep, with more or less 

 pigs, and there would be a big pile of manure in the yard every 

 spring. And when this is once obtained, you can get along much 

 more pleasantly and profitably. 



" But," I may be asked, " when yi>u have got this pile of manure 

 can not you adopt high farming?" No. My manure pile would 

 contain say : 60 tons of clover-hay; 20 tons wheat-straw; 25 tons 

 oat, birley, and pea-straw; 40 tons mr'adow-hay; 20 tons corn- 

 stalks ; 20 tons corn, oats, and other grain ; 120 tons mangel-wurze] 

 and turnips. 



