NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 9, 1895. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
Vol. LIV. No. 2389. 
" CHEMICALS AND CLOVER ” WELL TESTED. 
IMPROVING POOR LAND AT A PROFIT. 
What Crops to Supply Organic Matter? 
In the early part of this year, under the head of 
“ Farming Among the Coal Mines,” I gave an account 
of the experiment started by M. Garrahan in the 
Wyoming Valley, Pa. Briefly restated, the facts are 
that Mr. G. had been conducting a farm garden on 
rented land located over a coal mine. The rent was 
excessive, and the soil is being ruined for agricultural 
purposes by the leachings from the waste coal which 
is dumped out of the mines. Twenty miles down the 
river, off the coal beds, is a farm of 80 acres. It is 
naturally good land, well located, but for years has 
been run on a tenant system so closely, that its 
capacity for producing crops had been almost entirely 
destroyed. Insignificant crops of grain and grass 
were all that the tenant could squeeze oul of the soil. 
Mr. Garrahan 
concluded to 
buy this cheap 
and worn - out 
land, and begin 
a systematic 
plan for restor¬ 
ing its fertility. 
Stable manure 
was out of the 
question —it 
could not be 
secured at any 
reasonable 
price. The only 
way to restore 
that farm was 
to buy chemi¬ 
cals and use the 
green crops 
that could be 
produced on 
the soil. While 
this work was 
undertaken as 
a business en¬ 
terprise, there 
was an experi¬ 
mental side to 
it as well. The 
object was to 
show, from ac¬ 
tual experi¬ 
ence, that a 
rundown farm 
could be re¬ 
stored to fer¬ 
tility, and Ynade-profitable by the use of commercial 
fertilizers. 
After two seasons’ work on the farm, Mr. G. is pre¬ 
pared to state some of his conclusions, which will un¬ 
doubtedly interest those of our readers who are con¬ 
fronted by this problem of how to improve their 
farms without live stock. 
“ I presume that you gave this matter careful study 
before you started ? ” I asked Mr. G. 
“Yes, indeed! There were two methods of pro¬ 
cedure presented to me. One was to hire a man to 
live on the place as a sort of tenant. I could furnish 
team, tools, etc., and he could plow and sow green 
crops to be turned under, using a small amount of 
fertilizer to get these crops started. I became con¬ 
vinced that what the soil most needed was “organic 
matter,” which the green crops would supply. After 
a few years of this treatment, I knew that we could 
grow profitable crops. This was a slow way to do it; 
but it was sure, and there was no great risk about it, 
except that we would get no returns for our labor as 
we went along.” 
“ What was the other method?” 
“In a few words, to spend money enough to secure 
a profitable crop at the same time we were growing 
the organic matter to plow into the soil. It would 
oblige us not only to buy team, tools, and hire a man, 
but to put sufficient capital into the business to make 
it pay—from start to finish. Could that farm of 80 
acres, so robbed of plant food that the products of the 
entire farm, when sold, brought only about $250 
annually, so destitute of organic matter that even 
the stones looked almost yellow, be made to produce 
profitable crops by the use of fertilizer, without the 
addition of clover, stable manure, sod, or any vege¬ 
table matter to turn under, other than a very scanty 
wheat stubble ? That was the other method, and the 
one I finally decided on. It seemed a hazardous 
undertaking, but it has paid.” 
“Then your farm is growing better? ” 
“No doubt of it, and, besides that, our crops have 
paid all the expenses of this improvement, and a fair 
profit in addition. In other words, we have used fer¬ 
tilizers so heavily that we have not only had good 
crops from this poor soil, but have also grown heavy 
catch crops for plowing under.” 
“ Now I wish to know some of the best lessons this 
experience has taught you.” 
“ The lessons have been many and various. To 
begin with, the season of 1894 was nine inches short 
in rainfall. The season of 1895, so far, has been 19 
inches short at this farm. We have learned that, to 
obtain the best results from the use of commercial 
fertilizers, a sufficiency of soil moisture must be at 
hand, either naturally or artificially obtained, to 
render the plant-food contained in them soluble. I 
am convinced that a greater quantity of water is re¬ 
quired to make the average complete fertilizer give 
up its plant-food than is required by well-rotted stable 
manure. 
“You seem to be positive in regard to that state¬ 
ment ? ” 
“ Yes, I am, because I not only expect but desire to 
have this point argued by The It. N.-Y. readers. Of 
course when I say well-rotted manure, I mean that 
from a good compost heap, and not the frozen chunks 
used by many farmers.” 
“ Will plenty of organic matter in the soil with the 
fertilizer help make the latter more available ?” 
“ Yes, without doubt. That is another lesson we 
have learned : that the presence of humus in sufficient 
quantities acts as a sponge in retaining soil moisture, 
helping a crop over a hard place in time of drought. 
This knowledge having been obtained, the next thing 
to learn was how to obtain the necessary humus in the 
most economical manner, and what crops to grow in 
order to furnish the best results with the least risk.” 
“ Did you try Crimson clover for this purpose ? ” 
“ Yes, but it has not yet passed the experimental 
stage in this latitude ; besides, a certain amount of 
vegetable matter in the soil seems essential in order 
to obtain the best results from a sowing of clover 
seed. Again, 
the weather has 
been so very 
dry here this 
season, that 
spring- sown 
clover that 
caught well 
was actually 
burned to the 
ground, and 
during August 
and September, 
the ground was 
dust-dry 18 
inches in depth. 
It will be seen, 
therefore, that 
clover is a some¬ 
what precari¬ 
ous crop for 
our farming.” 
“ What crop 
that you know 
of will answer?’ 
“ If the ex¬ 
perience of one 
season is suffi¬ 
cient to justify 
a conclusion, I 
would say, 
cow peas. We 
sowed, this 
year, about 
four acres 
under different 
circ u mstances, 
to obtain some information regarding them, and I 
have no hesitation in saying that, when the ground 
has been properly prepared, as for any other crop, 
as much stuff can be turned under in one year’s 
growth, as from two in an ordinary clover crop. We 
cut some fall-plowed land up with the Cutaway har¬ 
row, and sowed with the drill ; but we made a mis¬ 
take When we plowed the ground properly, put it 
in about the same shape as for oats or corn, set the 
drill to sow 23^ bushels of wheat per acre, which will 
sow a trifle more than one bushel of peas, and at the 
same time applied a mixture of 200 pounds of ground 
bone, 200 of acid phosphate, and 100 of muriate of 
potash, we had a very satisfactory growth despite 
the dry weather. Out of this dry ground, in August, 
I pulled single stalks that measured 29 inches of top, 
and 11 of root, and much of the root remained in the 
ground. I am half inclined to think that it might be 
profitable to apply double this quantity of fertilizer 
to the crop of peas, and let them work it up for the 
use of potatoes the following season. I picked quite 
a basket of ripe pods before the severe ^freeze in 
A FLAX FIELD ON PUGET SOUND ! A NEW INDUSTRY FOR THE WEST. Fig. 233. 
