Proceedings of the Fabmebs' Club. 541 



nutritious matter actually received into tlie system., and both perish 

 for want of such nutritious matter when it is not to be found. The 

 plant does not send its tap-root five or six feet down into the bowels 

 of the earth because it has 2^ presentiment that somewhere away down 

 in the bowels of the earth lies a bed of gypsum, or some other 

 fertilizing matter ; on the contrary, it grows because it receives into 

 its system, partly from the earth and partly from the atmosphere, 

 those elements of nutrition upon which it subsists. To suppose it 

 would grow on any other principle would be to suppose it possessed 

 of that faith described by the Apostle Paul, which is " the substance 

 of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." Why does 

 the pig in your pen flourish and become fat ? Is it because he has. 

 an intellectual consciousness that you have plenty of good sound corn 

 in the crib three rods distant ? Or is it because he eats and digests 

 the corn, and it becomes a part of his bone and sinew, his flesh and 

 his blood ? Let every farmer bear in mind that if a plant grows, it 

 is because it has nourishment which it can incorporate into its system, 

 and not several feet below the point of its tap-root in the bowels of 

 the earth. 



Gkeen Cbops as Manure. 



I notice that at a late club meeting a discussion was had on this 

 subject, in response to the inquiry of Mr. Bond of Ohio. 



One speaker advocates corn, another buckwheat, and a third clover. 

 Now, the inquiry of Mr. Bond was directed to " a soil of clayey 

 loam." On all stiff clayey soils the object of plowing in green 

 crops is twofold. First, chemically to enrich the soil, and second, 

 mechanically to loosen the soil and render it easy of cultivation. If 

 we take into consideration the last mentioned object alone there is, 

 perhaps, no crop better calculated to accomplish the desired eflfect 

 than buckwheat. Its growth is rapid and luxuriant, and its decom- 

 position is also rapid. While it takes a year or more to mature from 

 the seed a crop of clover, including the stalks and roots, a buckwheat 

 crop can be matured in a very few weeks. The cost of seed, also, in 

 case of buckwheat is small. But if the object is to enrich the soil, 

 then buckwheat is of very little consequence, as it is a well-known 

 fact that there is scarcely to be found a plant which in all chemical 

 elements of fertility is so poor as buckwheat straw. 



It is in this great principle of fertilization that the excellence of clo- 

 ver as a green crop is most' peculiarly manifest. Few plants are 

 found, upon chemical analysis, to be so rich in ammonia as the clo- 



