Proceedings of the Fajimees' Club. 255 



more red clover on light soils. Red clover is good on our heavy, 

 calcareous soils, such as I used to work in Tompkins county, of this 

 State, where the "hai'dpan" comes up to the second rail of the 

 fence; and it is good also on the lightest kind of sandy loams. 



While ruralizing in New Jersey, I met with about nine acres of 

 as heavy a corn at Bricksburgh as I ever saw; and it was growing 

 on a light soil, where a clover sod had been turned under last 

 spring, with only a thin dressing of barnyard manure. I never 

 saw better corn before on any of the heavy soils of New York. 

 And at Tom's River, last week, on the farm of Messrs. Gowdy, I 

 saw a very large held of corn, which looks more like a young 

 forest than a crop of grain. This corn was also planted on a clover 

 sod. The crop equals anything I ever saw in the line of Indian 

 corn. Almost every stalk has two ears on it, and many of them 

 three ears; and a large proportion of the stalks are eleven and 

 twelve feet in height. There is nothing like red clover for trans- 

 forming these sandy and loamy soils, and even heavy soils, into a 

 fertile mould by the application of a little marl and a sprinkling 

 of muck. Our fathers told us to shun the sandy soils. My father 

 always told me to keep away from the light soils. But when I 

 came to see how easily the light soils of South Jersey can be culti- 

 vated, and what wheat and corn can be produced on sandy loam, 

 that looks more like dirty snow than a cultivable field, I say give 

 me a sandy loam, and you may have the clay. I was brought up 

 amid bitter prejudices against New Jersey, because the soil was 

 said to be so light there. But I must confess that I have never seen 

 so heavy corn, nor better wheat than I met with on Messrs. Gowdy's 

 farm. The great trouble is, not in the soil, but in the system of 

 farm management. The soil will be all right if it be managed 

 properly. 



HOW TO GET A START. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — I have been exceedingly interested in the 

 remarks just made; but as it is always considered a difficult matter 

 to get clover started, I would like to have Mr. Todd tell how to 

 do it. 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — It is a very easy thing to produce a 

 heavy burden of clover when there is not a trace of vegetation. 

 Why, I tell those "Pine Jersey men" who think they can't raise 

 anything on their light soils, that if I were banished to the most 

 sandy, repulsive and barren " Sahara desert" that they can find in 

 that State, I would soon bring it into such a state of fertility that 



