Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
125 
phere through the soil. But with an ordinary soil, and an imper¬ 
vious sub-soil, the circulation of air in it will be next to nothing. 
Mr. Allen. I have listened to the paper wiili a good deal of in¬ 
terest, and I agree with nearly all parts of it. But with reference 
to the corn culture, I said last year, that a pony and a boy made a 
poor team to cultivate corn with, and I believe it yet. In my cul¬ 
tivation of six j r ears, I find that my corn would wilt, and the leaves 
roll, and after the corn was as high as a horse’s back, instead of tak¬ 
ing one horse, I took two, and put one ahead of the other, and took 
one of the Madison cultivators that will dig, and I put a stone on it, 
and I let the two horses draw the "cultivator through the corn, and 
the result was a good crop, and I was not afraid of breaking the 
roots. I let the thing run to the beam and stir up the soil. 
And in reference to deep tillage, I do it with clover. Years 
ago I practiced the deep tillage policy with a plow, and now for the 
last 8 or 9 years I have done it with clover, and it is better; I like 
it much the best. The clover roots go deep and get drainage for 
the crops. 
Mr. Anderson. I think this is perhaps the most important pa¬ 
per that will come before us at this meeting, and it would pay us 
to discuss it the whole three days. I was well pleased with the read¬ 
ing of the paper, and with the recommendation of applying manure 
at the roots of plants. I have practiced that for a good many years. 
That subject of applying manure is verj r important. The president 
of this association understands what good manure is. Feeding grain 
and clover makes good manure. I think the best manure I get is by 
feeding clover hay to sheep, with grain, and feeding grain to hogs and 
horses. I don’t call rotted straw manure at all, and I never have 
any rotted straw on my farm. I don’t depend on straw for feed. 
I think I would differ with some men in regard to the amount 
of nourishment crops receive from the atmosphere. I manured 
last year for corn, and yet I could see to the very row the differ¬ 
ence. I hope no farmer present will expect to raise good crops 
from his land with gas received from the atmosphere, if the soil is 
not in good condition. Above all things depend on the soil being 
rich, and then the atmosphere will not injure it. I have tried 
manuring in various ways, and I think the best way to apply 
manure is to get it out of your barn as quick as possible and put it 
on the ground and plow it in in the fall 3 inches deep, and in the 
