AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 599 



enable the soil to start a crop of clover, and let that grow to its 

 full size and turn it all under. Certainly, for farmers that have 

 no stable manure to spare from cultivated fields to apply to worn 

 out ones, clover is the most economical fertilizer that can be 

 given. Some outlying fields, too, are too far away from the barn 

 yard, and cannot be manured from that without too much ex- 

 pense. Such should be treated with clover and not pastured or 

 mowed, for nothing is gained in a manurial point of view by 

 passing food through the stock. 



William Lawton — I agree fully with Mr. Robinson, that a 

 clover crop is the most economical manure, for it draws two-thirds 

 of its substance from the air. A farmer does not increase his 

 manure by feeding the crop to his cattle. Barn yard manure is 

 only the ashes of crops consumed. If the crops had been turned 

 under, the manurial effects certainly would have been equally 

 great. The material cannot be increased by feeding. There is 

 no doubt but clover is a very cheap manure. 



Mr. Fuller — I hope clover and buckwheat will not be classed 

 together, for I have never seen any benefit from turning in green 

 buckwheat; but I have seen positive injury. 



John G. Bergen — I plowed under a crop of buckwheat twenty 

 years ago, as an experiment, but I have never repeated it. The 

 first satisfied me. A neighbor plowed in a crop of turnips, and 

 found great benefit from it. I know that clover is always bene- 

 ficial to land, whether plowed under or not. 



Horace Greeley — To plow under a green crop will benefit the 

 soil, but is that the cheapest manure? If bran is as good as 

 guano for land, we should use it. But the question then is, 

 would it not be better to feed the bran to cattle ? It may be 

 profitable on some sandy land to turn in crops, but unless nature 

 makes mistakes, that is not the most economical way of making or 

 using manure. I insist that a crop fed to animals, and the manure 

 saved as it should be, will give a more economical dressing. 



Mr. Pardee — Practically, the views expressed by Mr. Greeley, 

 are those of nearly all farmers. But in my experience, a course 

 different from that has proved the most profitable. Some of the 

 most successful farmers in this State, and Pennsylvania, are so 



