Vol. LV. No. 2410. 
NEW \ ORK, APRIL 4, 1896. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
“CHEMICALS AND CLOVER.” 
GREEN CROPS GIVE RIPE RESULTS. 
Keep the Land Constantly Covered. 
BY J. H. HALE. 
Starting life, as I did, with little, if any capital, 
upon a poor New England farm, the question of plant 
food has required careful study. Farming in the 
eastern part of our country is, essentially, a manu¬ 
facturing process, and while some of the raw mate¬ 
rials for many of our crops may be locked up in the 
factory of the soil, finished products in the form of 
profitable crops, can be obtained annually only as we 
supply plant food and well-directed labor. 
Before the establishment of our agricultural experi- 
and costly element of plant food, either in stable or 
commercial fertilizers. Success in agriculture, as in 
any other manufacturing business, comes largely 
through greatest production at least possible cost, 
and by judicious green manuring we decrease the 
cost of plant food, while increasing the crop output. 
Commercial fertilizers of average price and quality 
contain, say, $10 worth each of nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid and potash ; when mixed and bagged for market, 
the makers say, “ Three times $10 are $40,” and we 
have to pay it. While, if we will buy only our phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash, and depend upon green crops 
entirely, they will trap our nitrogen from the air, 
and we may reduce our fertilizer bill one-half. In 
this manufacturing process of agricultural produc- 
pay 16 to 20 cents a pound in the open market for 
nitrogen? I most ceitainly think so, and for some 
years now, with several hundred acres under the 
plow, have depended almost entirely upon green 
crops to secure nitrogen, as well as to supply organic 
matter to the soil. 
How the Crops are Managed. 
Just what the green crops shall be when planted, 
how cultivated, and when and how turned under, are 
all local questions that each individual farmer must 
answer for himself. My own practice is that every bit 
of land on my farm, when not occupied by some crop 
of value, during the growing season, shall have grow¬ 
ing upon it some one or more of these nitrogen traps. 
FARMER POTASH AND HIS WIFE PHOSPHORIC ACID GIVE THE YOUNG FOLKS THEIR BLESSING. Fig. 73. See Brevities. Page 242. 
ment stations, the vast majority of us knew little or 
nothing of the science of plant nutrition, and the 
trinity of agriculture—nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
potash—savored more of the drug store than of the 
farm. The greenest of all green manuring I ever 
practiced, was the purchase of the product of the 
horse-car stables of New York, brought up the Con¬ 
necticut River on barges, and sold at $15 per cord. I 
did not know then, that the organic matter so desira¬ 
ble for the soil, and the mechanical condition im¬ 
parted to it by this bulky substance, could be more 
easily and cheaply obtained by the. plowing under of 
green crops ; and further, that, by the selection of the 
right species for the purpose, we might also trap 
from the atmosphere nitrogen, that most valuable 
tions, we are not called upon to supply plant food in 
equal quantity and proportion for every crop ; neither 
have we to depend always upon the same sources for 
our nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. Yet, as we 
get them in their various forms, it may be roughly 
stated that potash costs from 4 to 5 cents per pound, 
phosphoric acid from 7 to 8 cents, and nitrogen from 
16 to 20 cents. Knowing, as we do now beyond ques¬ 
tion that, by growing and plowing under such green 
crops as clover, cow peas, vetches and soja beans, we 
may gather from the air and store up in our soil, all 
the nitrogen we require for our most ravenous crops, 
and even more than is desirable for some of them, is 
it not a wise business policy to establish and maintain 
the fertility of our farms in this way, rather than to 
The strawberry fields, at the close of fruitage late 
in June or early July, are plowed and harrowed and 
sown with cow peas, one bushel of seed to the acre, 
in drills 2\i feet apart. Or, if the land is dry and 
sandy, soja beans instead of peas are sown ; these 
seeds germinate very quickly in midsummer, and 
make very thrifty plants, which, in their early stages, 
are greatly stimulated by frequent cultivation, so 
that before frosts come in the fall to kill the tender 
plants, they will make an enormous growth, covering 
the ground with many tons of organic matter, rich in 
nitrogen. This I do not attempt to plow under till 
frost has so thoroughly killed and dried out the 
plants that they may be turned under without the 
trouble it would be to manage such an amount of 
