FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 43 



From our farm which is located down here in Egypt, this 

 last 3^ear my brother hauled to market a seed crop, and for one 

 wagonload of seed he got $340.95. You don't get so mrch per 

 pound for your live stock as he got for redtop seed which is 

 produced in Southern Illinois perhaps more than any other place 

 in the United States. The production of redtop seed, timothy 

 seed, clover seed, eac, should be encouraged. 



The soil does not contain limestone in Southern Illinois 

 and yet limestone is one of the things that we must have in the 

 soil if we are going to grow the legtmie crops successfully. 

 Some of them will grow fairly well without limestone, but 

 clover will not, sweet clover will not, and alfalfa will not, and 

 those are the most valuable of the legumes, because you sow 

 ihem once and they hold ^ht'iv place for two ye.:irs or more mder 

 nvjrmal conditions. Clover may be seeded one spring wHh v/heat 

 or oats or timothy and the next year it is up and growing jusi 

 as scon as the snow is gone, and early in June you may Le 

 cutting a crop of hay; sometimes a second cutting is secured, 

 or some fall pasture. You must know the value of clover as 

 compared with cow peas. It costs about as much to prepare 

 the soil for cow peas as for corn. You harvest one crop, the 

 frost comes and it is gone. You won't find people growing 

 cow peas where they can grow clover successfully, except when 

 clover crops fail in time of drought. 



Of course, the man who sells grain sho\ild also get his 

 nitrogen from the air. He can then feed his clover to his 

 wheat or corn, or other grain crops, if he chooses, by plowing 

 under the clover; but, as a rule, I think there is more profit in 

 feeding to the live stock. However, some men can be successful 

 in the production of grain croDs even if they dont know that an 

 animal is sick until it is dead. ' They are not stock men. 



If we put limestone upon the land it will add calcium, an- 

 other element of plant food, besides helping clover to get nitro- 

 gen from the air. Calcium will be added to the soil with any 

 limestone. If we need magnesium also, we use dolomitic lime- 

 stone which is abundant in Illinois. That leaves us only two ele- 

 ments — phosphorus and potassium. Our most common soii;^ 

 contain about 800 pounds of phosphorus and thirty thousand of 



