122 TALKS ON MANUnES. 



ct'ivc'd a particle of mamiro, proiluccs every year an average of 

 about 15 bushels per acre. Aud tlie whole crop is removed — grain, 

 straw, and chalf. Nothing is returned. And that the land is not 

 remarkably rich, is evident from the fact that some of the farms in 

 the neighborhood, produce, under the ordinary system of manage- 

 ment, but little more wheat, once in four or five years than is 

 ra.i^v<\ every year on this experiment il plot without any manure. 



"Why? Because these farmers d<; not half work their land, and 

 the manure they make is little l»etter than rotten straw. Mr. Lawcs' 

 wheat-field is plowed twice every year, and when I was there, the 

 crop was hand-hoed two or tliree times in the spring. Not a weed 

 is suffered to grow. And this is all there is to it. 



Now, of course, instead of r.iising 15 bushels of wheat every year, 

 it is a good deal better to raise a crop of 30 bushels every other 

 year, and still better to raise 45 bushels every third year. And it 

 is here that clover comes to our aid. It will enable us to do this 

 very thing, aiul the land runs no greater risk of exhaustion than 

 Mr. Lawes' uninanurcd wheat crop. 



Mr. Geddes and I do not dilFeras much as you suppose. In fact, 

 I do not believe that we differ at all. lie has for years been an 

 earnest advocate for growing clover as a renovating crop. He 

 think.s it by far the cheapest manure that can be ol)tained in this 

 section. I agree with him most fully in all these particulars. He 

 formed his opinion from experience and observation. I derived 

 mine from the Rothamsted experiments. And the more I see of 

 practic;U farming, the more am I satisfied of their truth. Clover 

 is, unquestionabl}', the groat renovating crop of American agricul- 

 ture. A crop of clover, e((ual to two tons of hay, when plowed 

 under, will furnish more annnonia to the soil than twenty tons of 

 straw-made manure, drawn out fresh and wet in the spring, or 

 than twelve tons of our ordinary barn-yard manure. No wonder 

 Mr. Geddes and other intelligent farmers recommend plowing 

 under clover as manure. I differ from them in no respect except 

 this: that it is not absolutely essential to plow clover under in the 

 gi'een state in order to get its fertilizing effect; but, if made into 

 hay, and this hay is fed to animals, and all the manure carefully 

 saved, and relumed to the land, there need be comparatively little 

 loss. The animals will seldom take out more than from five to 

 ten per cent of all tlie nitrogen furnisheil in tlie food — and less still 

 of mineral matter. I advocate growing all the clover you possibl}' 

 can — so does !Mr. Geddes. lie says, jilow it under for manure. So 

 say I — unless you can make more from feeding out the clover-bay, 



