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run the plow along several acres right on top of the solid rock. I 
recollect my father did not have good crops from that piece of 
land; but when I got hold of it and put the sheep on it and went 
to growing grain crops, I found I could grow good crops on that 
land. It bore good crops because the manure from the high land 
was always washing down upon, and enriching it. But, gentlemen, 
if you want good crops, don’t forget your manure; there is nothing 
will pay you so well, except getting your water from under it. 
Then put on your manure, and don’t care what professors say, stick 
to your manure. [Applause.] 
Mr. Porter. We, each of us, farm our own land just as we think 
best, and if we succeed the credit is our own, and if we don’t succeed 
we sell out and go west. But, so far as the recommendation from 
our worthy Professor is concerned, I believe he is right in many 
respects, but to follow up his recommendation would ruin the whole 
of us. I mean to say, to follow it because it is a recommendation, 
it would absolutely ruin the whole of us. I believe the most of us 
are acquainted with our own soil, and what that soil requires. I have 
observed while I have been here, and I see every man farms his own 
farm on his own hook. And if he is beat he gives it up, and if he 
succeeds he goes along. But I don’t care how much he makes out 
of it, his very next neighbor won’t follow his example. 
I have a farm of a considerable number of acres. I followed ma¬ 
nuring for a number of years in a certain way, and I found that I 
was not succeeding as I ought to and thought my land was not as 
remunerative as it ought to be, and I thought there must be some 
other way to apply that manure so it would pay better. And I 
think about twelve years ago I took it into my head I would try 
the plan of summer fallowing. A large amount of my land is 
strong clay land, and I now summer fallow from twenty-five to 
fifty acres every year. When my harvest is ended, I haul out from 
three to five hundred loads of manure on that summer fallow, and 
I sow my wheat on that land, and I never failed so nearly as this 
year, and this year my crop came to a little over fifteen bushels. 
Next year I shall plant corn, and the next year use clover. Now 
that is not the common plan, but it is a success. 
But if I w^ere to recommend it to you, and you were to follow it, 
very likely it would ruin all of you. My finances are better by it, 
and that concerns me most; but I think it would be an outrage for 
