(95) 



BOW must be left to the judgment of the farmer, as only an 

 extended experience will be able to show under every cir- 

 cumstance the peculiarities of the land to be sown. Under 

 certain conditions, too, it may be preferable to put the land 

 down in clover, whatever kind of soil it may be; especially 

 is this the case where the land, from long cultivation, is not 

 in good heart. It must be remembered that, if a field has, 

 by long continued cultivation, without rotation, been so 

 reduced in fertility that it will not produce remunerative 

 crops, it will not produce any kind of grass in paying quan- 

 tities, until some of its vitality has been restored. If a 

 farmer fattens stock from the produce of his own farm, it 

 follows that whatever goes to produce bone, muscle, and 

 blood, is so much substance taken from the soil, and restitu- 

 tion is demanded. 



When the earth is covered with grasses, and they are 

 plowed under, and converted into vegetable mould, not 

 only does the land receive what has been taken from it, 

 but there is added, a vast amount of substances extracted 

 from the atmosphere, such as carbon, ammonia, nitrogen 

 «nd oxygen, and in that way the land is constantly im- 

 proved. It is in this way that nature renews herself, and 

 a piece of land left to her care, will, after the lapse of a few 

 years, regain its fertility. But the necessities of man are 

 such lie cannot await this slow process, and therefore, it is 

 that he must, to bring about the same result sooner, resort 

 to the expedient of plowing in green crops. Various kinds 

 of green manuring crops are used for this purpose. In the 

 selection of a crop to plow under, one thing should be kept 

 prominently in view, and that is, select such crops as derive 

 their nourishment in great part from the air. It has been 

 ^demonstrated by many experiments that the legumins do 

 thi- more effectually than any other class. Among these 

 none are so effectual as the different kinds of clover. They 

 not only enrich the land by the great mass of foliage and 

 atems, but also, by their mechanical displacement of the soil, 



