VOL. XLIX. NO. 2125. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 18. i89o. 
PRICE, FIVE CENT S 
fa.oo PER YEAR. 
CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FIELD. 
No. I. 
Tile-Drainage, Fertilizers, Clover and Snow Protection 
as affecting Winter Wheat and Future Grass. 
PRES. W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
WELYE years ago I fenced in a field of about 38 
acres, shaped as shown at Fig. 304. Plats 1, 2, 3 
and 4 are not separated by fences, but by imaginary 
lines (shown by the dotted lines) for rotation and for con¬ 
venience of description. The outside boundaries have been 
changed somewhat at different times, first inclosing over 
38 acres, and now about 36 ; but there have always been 
about these same 34 acres subject to actual plowing and 
working towards a more or less regular rotation. 
1. The Land ; Previous Experience.— The land is of 
rather a stiff “bowlder clay.” It lies in Hudson, Ohio, in 
the northern and clayey half of Summit County, in the 
“glaciated” part of 
the State. The south 
half of the county is 
chiefly quite fertile 
sandy loam—natural 
wheat and clover 
land. Mr. Terry’s 
farm, about three 
miles south of mine, 
is of the latter sort. 
Mine is of the former. 
In 1865, I bought the 
farm of my aged 
father, forced into 
farming as I was by 
ill-health brought on 
by overwork in teach¬ 
ing. No one then 
tried to raise wheat 
on the clayey farms 
of that region, except 
sometimes an acre or 
so heavily manured, 
and plowed in high, 
narrow ridges. For 
the first 10 years I did 
not dare to defy this 
general verdict, and 
raise wheat; not until 
I had tile-drained and 
enriched the land, did 
I venture to do so. 
My first crop on land 
thus prepared yielded 
34 bushels per acre, 
and my second, of 10 
acres, on land tile- 
drained and highly 
manured, yielded 46>a 
bushels per acre, 
chain measure for the 
land, and thrasher’s 
over-measure for the 
wheat; and the clover 
crops that followed 
were immense. T o 
show how little wheat 
was raised on these 
clay lands, I may say that I shipped from my farm the first, 
second aud third car-loads of wheat grown in a clay soil 
ever shipped, so far as I can learn, from any railway station 
in this clayey region. The farmers there from 1850 to 
nearly 18S0, almost universally bought their flour with 
money from their dairies. This success with wheat and 
clover on fields thus reclaimed convinced me that I could 
extend my wheat-growing area as fast as I could tile, fer¬ 
tilize and clover the land. It was slow work with a slim 
purse and the high cost of tiling and with the manure sup¬ 
ply far too limited, though I made all I could and bought a 
good deal in town. Still I decided to make the venture, 
and therefore fenced in a little over 3S acres, as stated 
above, including the 34 shown at Fig. 303. This was in 1879. 
The Field : its Treatment.— The field itself was nearly 
all rough pasture land, except about six acres of original 
meadow T , included in plat 4, and E of plat 3, being near an 
old hay and sheep barn, which stood as marked on H of 
plat 4. The pasture land was nearly all quite unproduc¬ 
tive, especially the southeastern half of plat 3, aud about 
two acres of D in plat 2. This had by accident been burned 
deep into the turf while covered with rank, dead Blue 
Grass, in the fierce drought of 1845, and seemed to have 
lost much of its humus and hence of its supply of 
nitrogen. Attempts to seed it at the time and afterwards 
failed. Clover would not “catch,” or made a puny, sickly 
growth if it did. The seven acres there would, down to 
1880, scarcely pasture one cow. The rest of the pasture 
was not so bad, but was rough and covered with bowlders, 
big and small, and with scattering trees and thorn bushes; 
a typical, neglected sheep pasture in my father’s time, and 
a rough cow pasture during its rental from 1854 until I 
bought it in 1865. 
In 1879 I cleared the land, tile-drained most of B in plat 
1, manured the whole of plat 1, and had good wheat on the 
tiled part and some on that not tiled. In 1880 I laid three 
large mains of five and six-inch tiles down the broad 
hollow from M to the outlet at L. I also drained B, D and 
F, the southeastern three-fourths of plats 1, 2 and 3, into 
the easterly one of three mains, laying, over the whole, 
laterals 33 feet apart, and 30 to 33 inches deep, and ran the 
surplus water from two small artificial ponds above, and 
from about 40 acres of “watershed” into the middle main 
by means of “silt-basins.” I intended tp drain the parts 
A, C and E of plats 1, 2 and 3, and all of plat 4 (G and H) 
into the westerly one of the three mains and into a 4 inch 
main previously laid from K down a broad depression to 
its outlet I (see Fig. 304 for all details and note them care¬ 
fully). The darts indicate the direction of the slope. The 
ground is considerably rolling, and has abundant fall for 
surface drainage, so much, indeed, that one would natur¬ 
ally doubt whether tile-drainage was needed or even 
would pay. 
In May, 1880, I was called to other work in Columbus, 
Ohio, and then to Iowa; and so, although I have kept and 
managed the farm, the laterals have not yet been laid in 
this westerly part of the field (to the left of the three main 
drains from M to L), chiefly because I could not well be 
there at the right season to engineer and superintend the 
work myself. But I am convinced that I cannot now 
afford to delay the work longer. 
The whole field in 1879 needed enriching, especially plats 
2 and 3. Plats 1 and 4 were rather better land naturally, 
having more of an easterly slope, plat 4 having had also 
more manure from the barns for many years. I attach 
great value to an easterly or northeasterly slope. The 
prevailing winds, from the southwest, blow much of the 
snow along up the westerly slopes and lodge it, double 
depth, on the easterly slopes, giving better snow protection 
for the wheat, and deeper moisture in spring. To some 
extent the same winds in past ages lodged the forest leaves 
on the easterly slopes too, giving more vegetable mold 
and greater fertility. Give me an easterly slope for farm¬ 
ing in Ohio, for these and other reasons. 
The plats 2 and 3, then especially needed enriching, for 
the reasons given, including the turf-fire in 1845. But I 
could not get stable 
or yard manure 
enough without 
cheating the rest of 
the farm, and clover 
made but a feeble 
growth and was too 
slow in its renovating 
effects. It began to 
look as if, in slang 
phrase, I had “ bitten 
off more than I could 
cbew,” in fencing in 
and breaking up eo 
large a tract, besides 
what I already had 
under the plow. 
I was somewhat 
prejudiced against 
comm ercial fertili¬ 
zers, but as a last re¬ 
sort tried both bone 
meal and superphos¬ 
phate with wheat in 
a small way. The re¬ 
sults were good. I 
soon found, however, 
that for wheat, on my 
soil, a good, high- 
grade superphosphate 
was better than pure, 
fine, raw or steamed 
bone. By “high- 
grade” I mean that 
which contains three 
to four per cent, of 
ammonia (or some 
other form of nitro¬ 
gen) and from 11 to 
13 per cent, of readily 
available (soluble and 
reverted) phosphoric 
acid. The bone meal, 
which contains rather 
more of both, has 
them in not readily 
available combina¬ 
tion, and hence is not 
quick enough in its action to give wheat on clayey soil the 
strong autumn growth which best helps it to withstand 
the winter. 
Lasting Effects of Superphosphates.— In 1886,1 put 
the whole of plot 1 Into wheat, using 200 pounds per acre 
of pure, fine bone meal on one-half of it, and 200 pounds per 
acre of the best superphosphate on the other half. I also 
put in 10 acres of wheat in another field on the farm, on 
which I used 15 two horse loads of rotted stable manure 
per acre. Both the wheat and the seeding to Timothy 
were best with the superphosphate; next best with the 
bone meal and poorest with the manure; and the results 
on the hay crops ever since have been fully as permanent 
and proportionately as effective. All three are still in 
grass, and plat 1 was this year the finest 10 acres of 
Timothy I have ever seen in a bunch. 
Encouraged by this success on plat 1, I determined in 
1SS7 not to wait longer for manure, but to seed the whole 
of plats 2, 3 and 4 to wheat, and iu the spring to clover 
and Timothy. Remember that I had for six years now' 
PHOTOGRAPH OF A WHEAT FIELD SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF FERTILIZER. Fig. 303. 
