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How to Grow 
 
 One Hundred Bushels of Corn Per Acre 
 
 On Worn Soils 
 
 WILLIAM C. SMITH 
 
 OF INDIANA 
 
 ' CORN IS KING " 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 REVISED, ENLARGED AND ILLUSTRATED 
 
 CINCINNATI 
 
 STEWART & KIDD COMPANY 
 
 1912 
 

 Copyright 1910 
 
 William C. Smith 
 
 Copyright 1912 
 
 Stewart & Kidd Company 
 
 V 
 
 s£CU300806 
 
 ■•i,-r, r 
 
^HE farmer of the past scorned the study 
 of scientific agriculture. He found 
 the soil rich in the elements that pro- 
 duce storehouses of riches. He touched it 
 with the wand of greed and neglect — it was 
 strangled with its wasted fertility. 
 
 ("HE modern farmer became a student 
 of scientific agriculture. He found 
 the soil depleted and despoiled of its 
 fertility. He touched it with the wand of 
 his knowledge — it became rich in the ele- 
 ments that produce a hundredfold. 
 
 fHERE grows in Nature's Garden the 
 plants with which the farmer can re- 
 store his sick, worn-out soils. These 
 plants are the silent working forces of 
 Nature that do their work better than any 
 artificial agency devised by man; thus it 
 behooves us to study Nature's way of doing 
 things. 
 
 "Accuse not Nature^ she hath done her 
 part. Do thou but thine" — Milton. 
 
 5 
 
PROEM 
 
 TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 IN a little frame farmliouse on a pioneer's farm, in 
 the Indian Reserve, out of which Howard County, 
 Indiana, was carved, the author first saw the light 
 of day. His first vision of the world was through the 
 six by six glass windows out across the door yard and 
 public highway into the " clearin'." His father, a sturdy 
 pioneer, had settled in this wilderness abounding in gi- 
 gantic walnut, poplar and oak trees, interspersed with 
 the smaller varieties of timber and underbrush, and by 
 strength of muscle alone, was subduing the forests and 
 making the land to blossom with the fruits of the hus- 
 bandman. 
 
 The pioneer father is sleeping now. He sleeps beside 
 the faithful wife who gave him companionship in the 
 days of his toil. He sleeps in the beautiful land made 
 so by the strength, toil and endurance of the pioneer. 
 
 To the memory of that pioneer father, who loved the 
 soil, this book is dedicated; and as the pioneer fathers 
 subdued the land from the wilderness and gave it to their 
 children, rich in the fertility that Nature gave it, may the 
 children so farm and treat it that that fertility may in- 
 crease and not decrease as the years go by. 
 
 The author loves the soil or else this book would have 
 ne'er been born. 
 
 7 
 
8 PROEM TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 Loving the soil as he does, his indignation is aroused 
 when he sees it despoiled by the soil robber. If this 
 book will only awaken the conscience of the soil de- 
 spoiler, the author will feel that his efforts have not been 
 in vain. 
 
 William C. Smith. 
 Delphi, Indiana, 
 
 January, 1910. 
 
PROEM 
 
 TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 THE first edition of this book is exhausted. It 
 having met with such an unexpected, flattering 
 reception, a second edition is ventured. 
 
 In the two years that the first edition has been before 
 the pubHc, the author has received so many commenda- 
 tions from the press and people regarding the merits and 
 helps of his book, that he feels that he must have touched 
 a key note of worn soil restoration, the greatest and most 
 important problem for solution now before the people. 
 
 He, therefore, perceives that it is a greater honor to 
 have so important a part in this great soil restoration 
 movement, than to be honored with any high office in the 
 gift of the people. 
 
 No nation can become a power without a fertile soil. 
 When a nation's soil becomes worn and loses its power 
 to produce paying crops, then death and decay is written 
 on its very vitals. 
 
 If we would have our nation to continue its place at 
 the head of nations, we must maintain the fertility of 
 our soils and prevent, by every possible means, their ex- 
 haustion. 
 
 It is the hope of the author that this book and its les- 
 sons may play an important part in so solving the soil 
 
 9 
 
10 PROEM TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 problem, that our soils will be kept to the highest state 
 of fertility, that this nation may continue great. 
 
 William C. Smith. 
 Delphi, Indiana, 
 
 January, 1912. <. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 ABANDONED farms and decreasing production 
 of our farm lands is the present-day menace of 
 our country. Increasing population, decreasing 
 fertility of our soils and fewer acres of new land opened 
 for settlement, brings us each day nearer the solution of 
 the problem, how shall we feed our people? 
 
 The answer to the question is the " Renovation of 
 Worn-out Soils " so that they will again produce as they 
 did when our forefathers subdued them from the wilder- 
 ness that held them in subjection for centuries. 
 
 Renovation of the Soil — what does it mean? 
 
 It means to make the soil over again, to restore it to 
 freshness and vigor — to renew it. 
 
 Too many American farmers have gone upon the 
 principle that their land will never wear out. Their 
 fathers entered upon land covered with the virgin forest, 
 rich in all the elements that make good soil ; the forests 
 were subdued and the land brought into cultivation; 
 bountiful crops were produced because the soil was well 
 supplied with humus, nitrogen, potash and other elements 
 found in first class soils. Year after year bumper crops 
 were gathered from these lands, the pioneer died, and 
 his sons and sons' sons continued to farm these lands in 
 
 II 
 
12 INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 the same manner and with the same methods as they 
 were farmed by the pioneer. 
 
 It did not seem possible to the sons and sons' sons 
 that these rich lands could ever reach the point of ex- 
 haustion, or that the time would come when they must 
 be farmed and treated in a different manner than when 
 they were first cleared and planted, yet that very time 
 has come to millions of acres of American soils. 
 
 Millions of acres of our land that once produced from 
 seventy-five to one hundred bushels of corn per acre will 
 not now produce twenty bushels to the acre. These 
 acres have gone into " agricultural bankruptcy." 
 
 Being confronted with this condition, what can we do 
 to remedy it? Is there a remedy and is the remedy a 
 sure and quick one ? The remedy must be quick, for we 
 cannot wait fifty years as England did to restore our 
 soils. 
 
 The purpose of this book is to give the remedy and to 
 prove that it is a sure and quick one. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Proem To First Edition 7 
 
 Proem To Second Edition 9 
 
 Introduction ^^ 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Soil '9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Drainage ^7 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Organic Matter 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Soil Ventilation 45 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Plowing 51 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Soil Covering ^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 How to Produce and Get Organic Matter Into the Soil 75 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Rye 8t 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Hungarian ^ 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Sand, or Hairy Vetch 95 
 
 13 
 
14 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Alfalfa 113 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 Sweet Clover 123 
 
 CHAPTER Xin. 
 Red Clover 129 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Author's Method of Restoring Worn andWorn-out Soils. 137 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 King Corn 145 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 The Culture of Corn 159 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Sweet Corn 165 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 A Chapter of Don't Forgets I7S 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Conclusion 185 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Frontispiece 2 
 
 " The Clearin' " 6 
 
 The Original Soil Builders in the Timber Belt 18 
 
 Plowing Under Organic Matter 34 
 
 A Fine Crop of Organic Matter For Plowing Under 44 
 
 Nature's Plows and Cultivators at Winter Rest 50 
 
 A Double Disc Plow 54 
 
 The Spalding Deep TiUing Machine 60 
 
 Plowing Under Corn Stalks With Deep TilHng Machine 64 
 
 A Fine Soil Covering 68 
 
 A Young Vetch Plant Showing Nitrogen Nodules on Its Roots 74 
 
 Vetch Plant Taken From Frozen Soil 80 
 
 A Bunch of Vetch Taken From Under Ice and Water 88 
 
 A Field of Vetch in Full Bloom 94 
 
 Vetch Stems Showing Bloom and Seed Pods 102 
 
 Vetch Plants Taken in Winter From Top of High Sand Ridge. 112 
 
 Vetch Seed, Actual Size 122 
 
 Vetch Seed, Magnified 128 
 
 A Promising Corn Field FertiHzed With Vetch 136 
 
 A Promising Potato Field Fertilized With Vetch 144 
 
 " Well ! I Wonder Which Is the Best Seed Ear " 158 
 
 Ten Good Ears of Boon County White, But Not Prize Getters. 164 
 
 A Good Type of Sweet Corn Seed, Stowell's Evergreen 174 
 
 The Farmer's Best Product If — , 184 
 
 15 
 
THE ORIGINAL SOIL BUILDERS IN THE TIiMBER BELT. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 SOILS 
 
 SOIL is defined as being the upper stratum of the 
 earth or that compound substance which furnishes 
 nutriment to plants, or which is particularly 
 adapted to support and nourish them. 
 
 Soil varies in depth from a few inches to several feet. 
 Clay soils were produced, in part, by the wearing down 
 and decomposition of rocks containing aluminous min- 
 erals, as granite. Sandy soil consists of fine particles of 
 stone placed where found, by the washing of water. 
 Muck soil is produced by the decay of large quantities of 
 vegetation. 
 
 Clay and sandy soils were originally improved and 
 made rich by the addition for centuries of vegetable mat- 
 ter such as leaves, weeds and other vegetation. 
 
 We agree with him who said " that the condition of 
 the soil is of more importance than its character." Any 
 kind of soil, whether clay, sandy or muck, can be made 
 to produce large crops if put in proper condition. 
 
 While it is true that clay or heavy soils have more of 
 the elements of plant growth in them, yet sandy or muck 
 soils by proper treatment will produce as much, if not 
 more, than the clay or heavy soils. 
 
 In life's battles the " knowing how " is the entering 
 wedge that opens the way to success. So it is in the 
 
 19 
 
20 SOILS 
 
 treatment of the soils, the " knowing how " to put them 
 in condition is the secret of success in growing crops. 
 
 The " whip and spur " method of farming, s<3 long 
 practiced in the United States, by which our soils have 
 been subjected to the process of getting all you can out 
 of them, without the return of anything to maintain or 
 increase fertility, has so exhausted vast areas of our 
 soils that they no longer produce paying crops. 
 
 Any soil that will not produce paying crops may be 
 justly termed a worn-out soil. These worn-out soils 
 abound in all parts of our land. Even the rich corn belt 
 is not immune from the curse of worn-out soils. 
 
 As a rule a greedy husbandry or a sordid tillage has 
 been the producer of worn-out soils, although the decep- 
 tive theory of crop rotation has been to a degree a pro- 
 ducer of them ; for crop rotation alone will not maintain 
 soil fertility. It is but a stimulant. 
 
 Worn-out soils being so extensive, then, has not their 
 restoration become the vital problem of the hour? 
 
 It is appalling in going over the country to see so 
 many farmers so treating their lands as to bring them 
 each day nearer the doom that hangs over all mistreated 
 lands, " the abandoned farm." 
 
 Not one farmer in ten is giving his land a chance. 
 Not one in ten seems to know how to build up his soil, 
 or if he does, he seems to be going on the principle that 
 he can get enough from his land to support him during 
 his lifetime and does not care for his posterity or future 
 generations. 
 
 He is like an ex-governor of a great state who spent 
 his declining days on the farm which before he died was 
 
SOILS 21 
 
 in the worst condition of any in the neighborhood. 
 People wondered why a man whose Hfe and business in 
 other Hnes had been so successful should allow his farm, 
 upon which he was residing, to get into such a condition. 
 The governor was interrogated regarding the matter and 
 replied, " I am not farming for future generations." 
 
 But it is encouraging to see so many of our great 
 financiers, statesmen and people in the humbler walks of 
 life becoming interested in soil restoration. Our agri- 
 cultural schools are doing a noble work along this line. 
 
 If it be true that the condition of the soil is of more 
 importance than its character, then it is not necessary for 
 us to go into the discussion of the relative value of the 
 different kinds of soils, further than to say that some of 
 the extreme sandy soils of New Jersey and Long Island 
 have by proper treatment been transformed into the rich- 
 est of soils; so have the sandy lands of Holland been 
 made worth $3,000 per acre by proper treatment. 
 
 After thorough study, backed up by actual experiment, 
 we make the statement that most any sandy or clay soil 
 can be made to yield 100 bushels of corn per acre. 
 
 That this can be done, and done quickly, we have 
 demonstrated by actual experiments. 
 
 Three elements are necessary to make good soils : 
 Potash, phosphorus and nitrogen ; and the last men- 
 tioned, according to the best authority, is the " most 
 precious, the most important and the most costly." It 
 is the element soonest farmed out of fertile soils. 
 
 It is said that " nitrogen promotes growth, phosphorus 
 produces fruitfulness and early maturity, and potash 
 increases quality." 
 
22 SOILS 
 
 Most sandy, clay or heavy soils contain sufficient pot- 
 ash and phosphorus, but are wholly lacking in humus, 
 organic matter and nitrogen. 
 
 One writer says that " corn, oats and wheat are made 
 of plant food ; that they consist of ten certain elementary 
 substances; that a ton of corn contains a ton of these 
 plant food elements, of which only three are secured by 
 the corn plant from air and water. The seven are taken 
 from the soil. The three elements make up more than 
 ninety per cent, of the corn, but the other seven are no 
 less essential to plant growth." 
 
 The seven elements mentioned and which make up but 
 ten per cent, of the corn crop, are generally found in 
 sufficient quantities in all soils to last from 500 to 17,- 
 600 years. 
 
 The chief lack of worn-out soils is humus, organic 
 matter and nitrogen. 
 
 Humus is the residue of decayed organic matter. 
 
 Organic matter is vegetable or animal matter, like 
 leaves, roots, sticks, grasses, manure, straw, etc. 
 
 Therefore that which is left of organic matter after it 
 has passed through its process of decay is humus. It 
 appears in the soil as a dark-colored substance, and where 
 it exists in abundance renders the soil black. 
 
 Soils originally procured their entire supply of humus 
 and a large portion of nitrogen from decayed vegetation 
 or organic matter, secured in their progress of formation. 
 
 Virgin soils procured their largest supply of nitrogen 
 from the air through the work of those soil bacteria who 
 make their homes in the root nodules of those plants 
 known as the nitrogen-gathering plants or the legumes, 
 
SOILS 23 
 
 and who draw for their food the nitrogen from the air, 
 and drawing more than they need, store the surplus 
 in the soil where it becomes available for plant food. 
 
 There are thousands of nitrogen-gathering plants, some 
 of them being the trees of the forests. 
 
 Go into the virgin forest such as once covered the 
 middle west — and there are some such forests existing 
 to-day, but they are not large — and you will see between 
 the trees, the ground covered with decayed and decaying 
 tree trunks and limbs and a heavy coating of leaves. A 
 large number of the trees, and much of the undergrowth 
 of these forests, are of the legume family, or the nitrogen 
 gatherers of the soil. 
 
 This decaying of trees and leaves, and nitrogen gath- 
 ering, has been going on for hundreds of years, thus 
 storing up a vast storehouse of precious elements of rich 
 soil. Is it any wonder then that lands when first cleared 
 of the virgin forest were so rich? 
 
 Continued cultivation of cleared lands without the ad- 
 dition of anything to reproduce these original elements 
 has exhausted them from our soil, and until we can get 
 them back into the soil again, our lands, lacking in these 
 elements, will become more worthless as the years go by. 
 
 When we consider that it took centuries to put large 
 quantities of nitrogen, organic matter and humus into 
 our soils, it seems an impossible task to get back into 
 these soils again within a short time the quantities of 
 nitrogen, organic matter and humus that took so long to 
 put there in the first instance. 
 
 Barnyard manure will put these elements back into the 
 soil quicker than any other known agency, but this rem- 
 
24 SOILS 
 
 edy is impracticable to use on a large scale, because 
 sufficient quantities of manure cannot be obtained. 
 
 Commercial fertilizers will not do the work for the 
 chief reason that they do not contain the humus, and 
 organic matter, and for the further reason that the min- 
 eral matter in the soil is sufficiently dissolved by coming 
 in contact with water and moisture to furnish the needs 
 of plant growth. This dissolution is continued in suffi- 
 cient amounts to keep up the necessary supply of min- 
 erals, and so the adding of commercial fertilizers will not, 
 as a rule, add to the supply of plant food in the soil. 
 
 It is said that there is enough nitrogen in the air over 
 an acre of ground to grow 75 bushels of corn per acre 
 per year for 600,000 years, but the nitrogen is of no 
 value to the soil unless it is drawn into it from the air, 
 so that the plant in the soil can assimilate it into its sys- 
 tem and thus secure the element that makes vigor of 
 growth. But soils need humus and organic matter as 
 well as nitrogen. 
 
 We are hearing much of the " Volusia soils," so named 
 from a village in New York where first noticed. 
 
 A writer speaking of these soils says : " They are 
 worn and unproductive, extend from the Hudson river 
 westward across the state through Pennsylvania into 
 Ohio. Ten million acres, most part too poor to grow 
 clover without fertilizers, are unfit for cultivation. They 
 once produced good crops ; fine old houses and barns 
 occupy them, which are now unoccupied. These lands 
 dressed with liberal quantities of stable manure produce 
 good crops. It is said that if these soils are drained, 
 supplied with organic matter and their acidity corrected 
 
SOILS 25 
 
 so that bacteria can thrive in them, they become again 
 productive. In fine, these soils need drainage, organic 
 matter in the form of manure, green crops plowed under 
 and application of lime. It is said that these lands can- 
 not get manure because they will not support stock." 
 
 Are not millions of acres of our soil in other states of 
 the Union becoming Volusiaized? And is not the secret 
 of their restoration contained in the application to them 
 of drainage and organic matter ? 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 DRAINAGE 
 
 NO soil can be put in good tilth without thorough 
 drainage. 
 As well try to grow most crops with " wet 
 feet " as to attempt to grow them on hot desert soils. Ill 
 both instances they will die, because they are out of their 
 proper environment. 
 
 Moisture you must have to grow crops, but moisture 
 overdone, un-does. 
 
 It is as necessary for plant roots to breathe as human 
 beings; shut off soil ventilation and you shut off free 
 oxygen from reaching the plant roots, and the plant dies. 
 
 There can be no soil ventilation when the soil is cold, 
 compact and saturated with water. Hence the impor- 
 tance of drainage, and thorough drainage. 
 
 Drainage is of more importance to worn-out soils than 
 it is to new soils. New soils are porous and water will 
 easily percolate through them. 
 
 Worn-out soils are hard, compact and non-porous. 
 They are absolutely incapable of affording ventilation to 
 plant roots. 
 
 Drainage is one of the most effective methods of get- 
 ting this needful soil ventilation. 
 
 The more drainage in worn-out soils the better; no 
 matter whether water is on the land or not, put into them 
 
 27, 
 
28 DRAINAGE 
 
 as much ditching as you can. There is no danger of 
 getting too many drains. 
 
 Ditches give the proper temperature to the soil, pro- 
 mote soil ventilation and conserve soil moisture. 
 
 Most heavy soils are compact and cold, the tempera- 
 ture in them is too low, and the soil ventilation too in- 
 adequate to be conducive to plant growth. There is no 
 room in them for plant roots to perform their proper 
 functions. 
 
 Lands improperly drained are slow in drying out, and 
 seeding them is delayed beyond the proper season for 
 planting, thus giving a shorter growing season. 
 
 It takes more labor to till cold, compact, non-drained 
 soils. All kinds of soils are benefited by drainage. 
 
 Drainage, figuratively speaking, opens up the pores of 
 the soils so that water from rains and snows will quickly 
 enter and percolate through them, down to the drains 
 rather than over the surface, preventing to a large extent 
 the disastrous results of soil washing. 
 
 Drainage will also prevent the standing of water in the 
 low places of our farms and thus eliminate the soured, 
 heavy soils found in such spots. 
 
 The greatest advantage to be obtained by plenty of 
 drainage is the putting of the soil in that condition of 
 porosity, deepness and pulverization, as will prevent 
 droughts as well as floods. 
 
 In a thoroughly ditched soil, plant roots at once strike 
 deep where they are safe from the onsets of summer 
 droughts. 
 
 The experience of years has been that well-drained 
 
DRAINAGE 29 
 
 soils produce better crops in wet or dry seasons than the 
 undrained soils, and experience has also shown that worn 
 soils cannot be reclaimed until they are first well ditched. 
 
 In the light of this experience, I cannot too strongly 
 impress upon my readers that we must first thoroughly 
 drain our soils if we would build them up to a fertile 
 stage. 
 
 All drains should be so constructed as to be open at 
 both ends, as a drain so constructed will act like a chim- 
 ney; the air will go into one end and out the other, and 
 the air thus passing through the drain in dry weather is 
 condensed into moisture, which is thrown out into the 
 soil, made porous by drain construction, and thus fur- 
 nishes moisture to the plant roots. 
 
 The source of all drains should terminate in some 
 fence row close to the fence, the tile brought up to the 
 surface of the ground and properly screened to prevent 
 animals, weeds, sticks, or foreign substances from enter- 
 ing the drain. 
 
 The mouth of drains should be kept open at all times 
 and screened in the same manner. Such a ditch is the 
 most valuable asset on the farm. 
 
 Drains should be constructed of not less than six-inch 
 tile, and need not ordinarily exceed four feet in depth, 
 but no fixed rule as to depth of drain can be given, as 
 the undulating character of the soil and the outlet must 
 govern the depth. Where lands are too deeply tiled 
 there is likely to be a waste of water. 
 
 In constructing drains, the idea of soil ventilation must 
 be kept in mind, so it does not matter in all cases whether 
 
30 DRAINAGE 
 
 a drain will carry water or not; it is useful if it only 
 affords ventilation, provided both ends of the drain are 
 open. 
 
 The Soils and Crops department of Purdue University 
 Experiment station, in their experiments of tiled and un- 
 tiled lands, show an average yield of 76.1 bushels of 
 corn per acre on tiled land and 61.8 bushels per acre on 
 untiled land, or a difference of 14.3 bushels in favor of 
 the tiled land. 
 
 This is a money value of $7.15 per acre with corn sell- 
 ing at fifty cents per bushel. 
 
 This experiment speaks volumes for drainage and 
 shows that a system of good drainage can soon be paid 
 for out of the increased yield of crops which it will pro- 
 duce. 
 
 At a cost of less than six dollars per acre the author 
 constructed a mile of eight and ten inch cement tile 
 drain on his " Vetchfalfa Farm," and the larger portion 
 of same was of ten inch tile placed at an average depth 
 of six feet in order to secure an outlet. 
 
 This system of drainage installed by the author con- 
 sists of one main line or outlet of ten inch tile, running 
 through the center of the farm nearly one-half mile in 
 length, with manholes provided with iron tops with open- 
 ings for admission of water and air. Laterals are run 
 out from both sides of the main line to the outer bound- 
 ary lines of the farm and brought up to the surface of 
 the ground close up to the fences and the opening 
 screened to keep out trash or animals. 
 
 This method of tile drainage construction enables a 
 surplus of water to quickly pass away and affords a per- 
 
DRAINAGE . 31 
 
 feet system of air passage in dry weather, the advantages 
 of which has heretofore been shown. 
 
 In this system of drainage, cement tile were used be- 
 cause such tile are more porous than other kinds, and 
 water and air readily pass through them. 
 
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CHAPTER III 
 
 ORGANIC MATTER 
 
 IT is of great importance to crop production that 
 there be plenty of organic matter in the soil. 
 I have shown why newly cleared soils were so 
 rich in fertility — they are rich in organic matter. 
 
 Good authorities say that organic matter in the soil 
 absorbs three times as much water as its weight in clay, 
 and retains it twice as long, and five times as much as 
 sand and retains it five times as long. 
 
 There is no danger of getting too much organic matter 
 into the soil. An acre of land twelve inches deep weighs 
 2,000 tons. It would take 100 tons of organic matter 
 plowed under every two or three years to make one- 
 twentieth part of the 2,000 tons. 
 
 For a soil to be in its highest stage of fertility it must 
 contain germ life and bacteria. These are always found 
 in their greater abundance within the first six inches of 
 soil, and they get their food from organic matter. 
 
 As they cannot get any feeding matter from the min- 
 erals of the soil, they cannot exist in any soil lacking in 
 organic matter. 
 
 In virgin soils they are found in abundance, where 
 they reach the highest stage of development. 
 
 This germ life and bacteria in the soil play an impor- 
 
 35 
 
36 ORGANIC MATTER 
 
 tant part in preparing the soil, or putting it in the proper 
 condition for plant growth. 
 
 They aire the little constant workers in Nature's lab- 
 oratory, that compound and distribute the substances 
 needed for plant food. They cleanse the soil of its of- 
 fensive accumulations and are one of the best aids to 
 successful agriculture. 
 
 It has been said that land without organic matter is 
 but the skeleton of the soil, and that the organic matter 
 makes the flesh. 
 
 The system of farming in vogue in the United States 
 for the past one hundred years has farmed out of the 
 soils most all the organic matter originally in them. It 
 has stripped the body of its flesh and nothing but the 
 skeleton remains. 
 
 For instance, the average farmer will one year plant a 
 field in corn. The next season he will break, rake and 
 burn every stalk and put it in corn again. In the fall 
 he will sow wheat in the corn. The next season he will 
 break the ground and put in wheat again; perhaps he 
 will sow clover in the wheat in the spring. If the clover 
 is a good stand, the next season he will remove from the 
 field not only the first clover crop but also the seed crop, 
 and the following spring break up for corn again, and 
 continue on and on this same process. 
 
 This is regarded good farming. They tell us it is 
 crop rotation, and builds up our farms. Yet I say to 
 you, that under this very system our farms have grown 
 and are growing poorer every year. That the organic 
 matter in the soil is becoming less and less, and why? 
 
ORGANIC MATTER 37 
 
 Because not sufficient organic matter is being added to 
 the soil to keep up the necessary supply. 
 
 The corn stalks were in the majority of cases burned 
 and destroyed; the wheat stubble with its roots was in- 
 significant. Both crops of clover were removed, leaving 
 nothing but stubble and roots, which are insignificant. 
 
 In all these years more organic matter was removed 
 than added to the soil, and the supply of humus was 
 gradually being exhausted. 
 
 What about the fields that have been planted each 
 year to corn for ten, fifteen, twenty and even seventy 
 years, and stalks removed and burned each year? And 
 what about the many fields rotated with corn, oats and 
 wheat only, and the stalks and stubbles in most cases 
 burned? 
 
 Vegetable matter destroyed by burning resolves into 
 air from 90 to 99 per cent, of its organic parts. 
 
 If this be true, then the value of the ashes obtained 
 from burning vegetation is too small to be considered. 
 
 Standing in the receding twilight of an April even- 
 ing, I have seen the entire visible horizon of the famous 
 Wabash Valley aglow with the reflection from the fires 
 of burning corn stalks, raked up into windrows, from 
 thousands of acres of soil, that needed the humus, 
 potash and nitrogen abounding in these stalks, but 
 which was going up in smoke, to be lost forever to 
 these acres of soil that are fast losing their fertility. 
 As I looked upon this thoughtless and almost criminal 
 destruction of soil fertility, I saw in my imagination 
 pictured in the reflected light upon the sky, pictures of 
 
38 ORGANIC MATTER 
 
 " Agricultural Bankruptcy " and " Abandoned Farms," 
 and as I beheld this pictured doom of the American 
 farm, I exclaimed : When, oh when, will the American 
 farmer come into a realization of this awful destruc- 
 tion of soil wealth? 
 
 One day in the spring of 1909, while directing some 
 work on my farm, I noticed to the north great clouds 
 of smoke and flame covering a large area. I wondered 
 what could be burning. The conflagration was too 
 large for burning corn stalks or buildings. Later in 
 the day I learned that a farmer (?) had touched a 
 match to a forty-acre field of dry Big English clover 
 grown on the ground the previous season and left uncut. 
 
 When I learned of this conscienceless destruction of 
 soil fertility, I said in my wrath : The match in the 
 hands of the American farmer is a menace to the farm. 
 
 In the growing of this clover and leaving it uncut to 
 cover the ground through the leaching season of fall, 
 winter and spring, this farmer had taken the first and 
 an important lesson in soil restoration. But his second 
 and best lesson was left unlearned. 
 
 Think what it would have meant to that soil and that 
 farmer had that splendid crop of organic matter, so 
 full of the precious soil elements, nitrogen and humus, 
 been turned under by the plow. 
 
 Think how the little rootlets of the corn would have 
 reveled in this mass of organic matter, mixed with the 
 soil and drawing from it into the corn system those 
 elements that make that sturdiness of growth that pro- 
 duces a heavy paying crop on the farm. 
 
 Again, think of the financial loss to that farmer from 
 
ORGANIC MATTER 39 
 
 the destruction of the clover. For it has been estimated 
 that the potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen in a ton 
 of clover hay is worth $17.57 for manure. There v^ras 
 not less than a ton of clover hay on each acre of the 
 forty-acre field, worth a total of $702.80 plowed under 
 for manure. 
 
 The farmer's only excuse for burning was that the 
 clover was so heavy that»it could not be plowed under. 
 This we dispute. The right kind of a double-disc plow 
 would have turned it under nicely. Of course the plow 
 would have occasionally choked up, and it would have 
 taken longer to plow the field, but it would have been 
 well worth the time and extra labor, for the farmer 
 would have secured for this field a fertility that would 
 have yielded him large returns. 
 
 The same excuse that this farmer made for burning 
 the clover, is made for burning corn stalks; that is, 
 they cannot be plowed under so as not to interfere 
 with the cultivation of corn and other crops. This we 
 also dispute. We have turned under the rankest kind 
 of growth of corn stalks that never were pastured, with 
 an ordinary walking plow and log chain. Of course, 
 some stalks were left sticking out of the ground and 
 in the cultivation of crops an occasional hill of corn 
 was jerked out of the ground by the cultivator catching 
 on the stalks insufficiently plowed under, but what of 
 that? The loss of a few hills of corn is nothing com- 
 pared to the great loss of the stalks if destroyed by 
 burning. 
 
 An instance is given of two farmers owning farms 
 side by side, one of whom always gathered up his corn 
 
40 ORGANIC MATTER 
 
 stalks and burned them. The other never allowed a 
 stalk or a straw to be burned on his land. After fifteen 
 years the former farmer's farm yielded fifteen bushels 
 of corn less to the acre than when he first commenced 
 farming it, while the latter's farm produced as well as 
 it did at the beginning of the fifteen years. 
 
 One hundred bushels of corn contains about loo 
 pounds of nitrogen, 17 pounds of phosphorus and 19 
 pounds of potassium. 
 
 The stalks upon which the 100 bushels of corn grew 
 contain about 48 pounds of nitrogen, 6 pounds of phos- 
 phorus and 52 pounds of potassium. All these ele- 
 ments in the stalks have a money value of $11.04. 
 
 These elements in the corn itself are lost to the soil 
 if the corn be sold, but that in the stalks can be saved 
 to the soil if the stalks are not burned but are plowed 
 under. 
 
 In the black prairies of Illinois and Iowa and the 
 rich river bottom lands of Indiana, are vast acres of 
 land that used to produce an average crop of sixty or 
 more bushels of corn to the acre. The average is now 
 less than forty bushels to the acre. 
 
 The virgin richness of these lands could have been 
 continued simply by the plowing under of the corn 
 stalks grown on them. 
 
 The American farmer must learn the lesson of getting 
 organic matter into his soil or his farm is doomed. 
 
 We must learn the lesson that the restoration of or- 
 ganic matter to the soil is the only way to increase its 
 crop-producing power. 
 
 That no soil is complete without it. That the very 
 
ORGANIC MATTER 41 
 
 nature of organic matter is to bind the soil grains to- 
 gether, absorb and hold large quantities of moisture, 
 prevent the washing and blowing of the surface, besides 
 furnishing the food for bacteria and depositing into 
 the soil nitrogen and other needful soil elements. 
 
 When we have well learned this lesson, then will our 
 farms be freed from the curse of worn-out soils. 
 
 Nature understood her business when she covered our 
 lands with forests and the vast prairies with large grow- 
 ing grasses, so that the decay of tree trunks, limbs, 
 leaves and grasses would intermingle with the sand and 
 the clay and thus produce the rich lands for the farmer, 
 but the farmer has not learned the lesson that when he 
 gets away from Nature's ways of soil building he is 
 heading towards the doom of soil exhaustion. 
 
 We are so apt to do things as our fathers did, forget- 
 ting that our fathers lived under different environments 
 than we do. 
 
 The pioneer farmer had the soil in its original fresh- 
 ness and had no need of building it up. It was rich 
 enough. The children were by this pioneer, who was 
 not bound by any necessity of a change of farming 
 methods, taught the simple lesson of farming just as 
 he did. 
 
 But when the land fell into the inheritance of the 
 children's children it had almost reached the point of 
 soil exhaustion, and the children's children being 
 bound with the cords of environment, lacked sufficient 
 will or mental power to break them, and kept on farm- 
 ing as their fathers did, thus showing the great strength 
 and influence of environment. 
 
42 ORGANIC MATTER 
 
 It is said that in the magic transformation of dirt on 
 the farm into dollars no one is robbed. True — if the 
 one who touches the soil with the magic wand is not a 
 soil robber. But the wand in the hands of a soil robber 
 plunders all mankind alike, and as some one has said in 
 thought, Mother Earth, resenting the infamy heaped 
 upon her and her people, bears the pain in silence but 
 inflicts the awful punishment that falls on all alike, by 
 withdrawing her bounty. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 SOIL VENTILATION 
 
 I HAVE said something of soil ventilation and that 
 plants cannot thrive without it. I have also said 
 that plant roots must breathe or the plant will 
 die. 
 
 H soil is so compact that air cannot enter it, the 
 plant is injured as much as if it had no water. 
 
 Entirely exclude oxygen from seeds placed in the 
 soil and you get no growth. H you have some ventila- 
 tion but not enough, then you have the sickly plant. 
 It is said that *' a plant lacking in root breathing is 
 drowned as effectively as an animal would be under 
 water, because enough free oxygen cannot reach them." 
 Insufficient ventilation resulting from poor drainage 
 destroys organic matter in the soil. 
 
 Sufficient soil ventilation produces the necessary ni- 
 trates in the soil and prevents their destruction as well. 
 
 Air must penetrate deeply into the soil, and the pas- 
 sage of the air must be both in and out of the soil. 
 
 Soils underlaid with coarse gravel, sandy and light 
 soils, are generally strong on ventilation, while compact 
 clay and heavy soils are short on ventilation. 
 
 Soil is said to be a living thing. But it is only alive 
 when it is full of organic matter and porous veins, so 
 
 45 
 
46 SOIL VENTILATION 
 
 that it can breathe from the air the gases needed by 
 the plant root. 
 
 Tuberculosis enters our insufficiently ventilated homes 
 and soil exhaustion enters upon the compact, non-porous 
 soils. 
 
 We must ventilate our homes if we live, and this is 
 as applicable to the soil as it is to man. 
 
 Soil ventilation can be secured by drainage, deep 
 tillage and plowing in, of course, organic matter. Cer- 
 tain plants, like the alfalfa plant, penetrate their roots 
 deep into the soil and when they decay leave openings 
 into which air finds its way. Next to drainage, soil 
 ventilation is best secured by the plowing under of heavy 
 crops of organic matter, such as corn stalks, rye, vetch, 
 buckwheat, hungarian, clover, etc. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that a soil filled with water 
 cannot possibly breathe, neither can a close, compact 
 soil, so a soil may be fairly well drained and yet not 
 be properly ventilated ; hence the need of organic matter 
 to aid in soil ventilation. 
 
 The necessity for soil ventilation is not only that 
 oxygen may come in contact with the plant roots, but 
 that a proper home may be established in the soil for 
 the vast multitude of bacteria, so that they can perform 
 their work of changing the nitrogen of decaying organic 
 matter into a form suitable for plant food. 
 
 It seems that bacteria in the soil are affected by en- 
 vironment as well as man, so conditions of the soil will 
 influence and modify their growth. 
 
 Soil bacteria being essential to a good, living, work- 
 ing soil, then we can see the need of effective soil ventila- 
 
SOIL VENTILATION 47 
 
 tion so that the soil may be put in that condition that 
 these bacteria may best develop and flourish. 
 
 When soil is in such condition it can be truthfully 
 said that it is indeed a living thing and is only in the 
 proper condition to give its best service in growing 
 crops for the farmer. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 PLOWING 
 
 THAT proper plowing is one of the most im- 
 portant steps in soil building is apparent on 
 close study. 
 
 That soil is improved by stirring is a truth only de- 
 nied by the ignorant and unobserving man. It is one 
 of Nature's ways of aiding in soil building. The plows 
 and cultivators of Nature are the roots of trees and 
 plants. 
 
 In the spring and growing seasons of the year, if one 
 could see into the soil covered with the forests and vege- 
 tation, he would see the roots shooting out and down 
 into the soil as animated beings, and as they grow in 
 size he would see the soil loosened up by their action, 
 and the pushing this way and that way of the roots and 
 rootlets stirs the soil more effectively than if stirred by 
 the plow. 
 
 This observation of one of Nature's ways shows the 
 importance of soil stirring. 
 
 I claim that soil should be stirred frequently. If it 
 were possible to break up soils several times a year, 
 their fertility would be increased. 
 
 It is one of Nature's ways to be busy. She is never 
 idle. Nature will not allow soil to be idle, except in 
 the winter season. 
 
 51 
 
52 PLOWING 
 
 If soil is not occupied with growing crops, then 
 Nature starts the weeds and grasses to occupy and 
 cover the soil, and from this an important lesson is 
 to be learned in successful soil cultivation. Keep your 
 soil occupied with some useful crop. It takes as much 
 plant food to grow weeds as to grow corn. Then why 
 not plow or stir our ground after a crop is removed 
 and plant to some crop of fertilizing value, and secure 
 the great benefits of weed eradication, soil stirring, or- 
 ganic and fertilizing matter. 
 
 It is said that " tillage is a manure," that " frequent 
 tillage is our best and cheapest manure," that " tillage 
 and manure are one and the same thing." 
 
 Old Rome was once noted for its high state of agri- 
 culture, and the old Roman farmer plowed his land 
 never less than three, and some times nine times for a 
 single crop. And after the dark ages the Flemish 
 farmer was a strong believer in frequent pulverization 
 of the soil. And upon this principle England has con- 
 structed an agriculture that reclaimed her worn-out soil 
 and made it increase its productive power nearly four- 
 fold. 
 
 Plowing and stirring the soil mixes the organic matter 
 with the minerals in the soil, affords better ventilation, 
 gives the soil better ability to store up and deliver 
 moisture to the growing crops, and gives more room 
 for the plant roots to perform their proper functions. 
 
 There is a time to plow and a right and a wrong way 
 to plow. 
 
 The plowing or stirring of ground, no matter what 
 
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PLOWING 55 
 
 its character, when too wet is a crime against Nature's 
 laws, and punishment follows, quick and sure. 
 
 The passing of the plow through the soil presses the 
 soil grains together until the soil turned over becomes 
 dense and impervious to water or plant roots. The soil 
 thus turned over becomes like unburnt bricks dried in the 
 sun, and ventilation is completely shut off. Its use- 
 fulness as a home for plant roots is destroyed. 
 
 And even if the surface soil be sufficiently dry but 
 the subsoil too wet, the passing of the plow through 
 the soil will press the soil together under the plow and 
 we get a compact stratum of earth below the top soil 
 which will hold water above it and prevent moisture 
 rising when needed. 
 
 All this shows the importance of plowing at the right 
 time and with the right kind of plow. 
 
 There has been great evolution in breaking plows ; we 
 have many kinds and makes. The writer has tested all 
 kinds and is convinced that the disc plow is the best of 
 all. 
 
 A disc plow will plow soil that no other plow will. 
 It is the only plow that will successfully turn under corn 
 stalks and heavy masses of organic matter and thor- 
 oughly incorporate it into the soil. 
 
 The furrow slice plowed by a disc plow is broken off 
 from the soil below, thus preventing the pressing to- 
 gether of the soil grains. 
 
 Any other kind of a plow in passing through the soil 
 smooths or slicks the bottom of the furrow slice, and 
 the bottom of the furrow, which interferes with soil 
 ventilation and the rising of moisture. 
 
56 PLOWING 
 
 A disc plow does not throw the soil from the bottom 
 of the furrow slice on top. It stirs and loosens the soil 
 to the depth plowed, completely covering all organic 
 matter to be plowed under, yet does not bring the sub- 
 soil to the surface; so it is always safe to plow any 
 depth possible to be plowed with the disc plow. 
 
 The disc plow pulverizes the soil as it turns it over, 
 which no other plow will do, and its draft is lighter. 
 
 When the author began to use double disc plows on 
 his farm, using three horses only, and plowing two 
 twelve inch furrows an average depth of eight inches, 
 the neighboring farmers characteristically condemned 
 them at sight, denouncing them as " horse killers." 
 And though he continued to use them several years, 
 yet these farmers took no pains to investigate their 
 merits and continued to condemn. But the author 
 knew their merits and paid no attention to the farmers' 
 comments, and after using them several years, one spring 
 he employed a neighbor negro farmer to plow for a few 
 days. The negro came to work at noon with two 
 horses expecting to hitch to a walking plow. The 
 author gave him one of his horses and directed that 
 he hitch it with his two horses to one of his double 
 disc plows then standing in a field where it had been 
 in use, and also telling him that the plow was properly 
 adjusted and all he had to do was to just plow. The 
 author then walked off, noticing however, that the negro 
 looked as though he wanted to make some objection or 
 protest. The author returned in the evening just before 
 quitting time and the following conversation took 
 place : 
 
PLOWING 57 
 
 (Author) — " Well Harvey, how have you been getting 
 along since I've been gone ? " 
 
 (Negro) — "Fin', sah! Fin', sah! Say, Boss, dey's 
 don' bin lyin' 'bout dis plow." 
 
 (Author) — " Why, Harvey, it is strange that any one 
 should lie about an innocent looking plow like that, I 
 don't see how they could tell anything bad about it." 
 
 (Negro) — "Well, dey's bin lyin' 'bout dis plow and a 
 sayin' dat it is a boss killer." 
 
 (Author) — " Well, Harvey, has it killed your 
 horses ? " 
 
 (Negro) — "No, sah! It hain't no hoss killer, it don 
 run too easy fer dat." 
 
 I have plowed with a disc plow in the fall of the year, 
 black gumbo soil so hard that a steel walking plow 
 could not be made to enter into it, and I have with a 
 disc plow turned under weeds higher than the horses' 
 backs so nicely that a single weed could not be seen in 
 the field. And with it I once turned under a field of 
 hairy vetch, heavy in foliage, after having tried all other 
 kinds of plows and failed to make them do the work. 
 I once plowed a strip fifty feet in width around a ten- 
 acre field and then finished breaking the balance of the 
 field with walking plows. The field was planted in 
 corn, and during the entire season the corn on the strip 
 plowed with the disc plow was more thrifty than the 
 rest of the field and at least a foot higher, and produced 
 more and better corn. 
 
 How deep shall we plow? Poor Richard said: 
 
 " Plow deep while sluggards sleep. 
 And you shall have corn to sell and keep." 
 
58 PLOWING 
 
 But was Poor Richard exercising the right of poetic 
 license, which allows one to measure thought in verse 
 although the truth sought to be conveyed be • far 
 fetched ? 
 
 In determining the depth to plow, it is well to first 
 consider why we plow at all. 
 
 It must be conceded that the object to be secured in 
 plowing is to obtain a seed bed most favorable for 
 plant growth and development, and such a seed bed is 
 one that will hold sufficient moisture, air and heat, so 
 that chemical and germ action will take place therein, 
 that plant food may be prepared for the growing crops. 
 
 There must be sufficient room for root development. 
 And a deep seed bed well filled with organic matter will 
 so increase the storage capacity of soils for water, and 
 so reduce the effects of evaporation, that a sufficient 
 quantity of moisture will be secured to bring the crop 
 to maturity, no matter how dry the season may be. 
 
 A shallow seed bed cannot possibly hold sufficient 
 organic matter, moisture, air or heat, to meet the needs 
 of growing plants. A study of the corn root system 
 ought to convince any one that a shallow seed bed does 
 not meet the requirements essential to good corn grow- 
 ing. A larger space must be given for the roots of 
 most any plant. 
 
 If your soil, below the depth to which it has always 
 been plowed is close, compact, or hardpan, the roots 
 of plants will not penetrate it, nor will they secure suf- 
 ficient moisture. The deeper the seed bed the more 
 room for plant roots and the greater the supply of plant 
 food and moisture. 
 
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PLOWING 6i 
 
 One enterprising farmer in the Lima Bean belt of 
 California, after studying his soil concluded it was a 
 mistake to merely scratch the surface as most farmers 
 were doing. So he put his plows down twelve inches 
 and got under the hard soil underlying the usual plowed 
 surface. 
 
 By plowing this depth he gave his beans double depth 
 for their roots to grow and get nourishment. This they 
 could not have gotten in a shallow seed bed. He 
 almost doubled his crop. 
 
 A demonstration of plowing to a depth of twelve to 
 fifteen inches in the Yazoo Delta, Louisiana, in 1906, 
 without the use of fertilizers, increased the yield of 
 corn from fourteen to seventy bushels per acre. 
 
 And numerous demonstrations and experiments of 
 deep plowing throughout the South, made within the 
 last few years, have led to the conclusion that deep 
 plowing supplemented with drainage and plenty of or- 
 ganic matter, is the true method of building up and 
 maintaining soil fertility. 
 
 In ancient times the Romans plowed to an average 
 depth of nine inches. 
 
 The Flemish farmers plowed deep, and the chief 
 stone in England's foundation for an improved agricul- 
 ture was deep plowing and soil pulverization. 
 
 The Orangeburg fine sandy loams found within the 
 Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains from Southeastern 
 North Carolina to West Central Texas, are freed to a 
 great extent from the danger of erosion by deeper plow- 
 ing supplemented with the use of organic matter. 
 
 For years it was the custom to plow these sandy 
 
62 PLOWING 
 
 loams not over three inches in depth. In later years it 
 has been found that by plowing to a depth of eight to 
 nine inches that crop yields have been greatly increased. 
 
 One third of the author's " Vetchfalfa Farm " is a 
 sandy loam, the subsoil being a yellow sand ranging in 
 depth from three to twelve feet with gravel underneath. 
 
 When the author first came into the possession of 
 this land he was cautioned to never under any circum- 
 stances plow it to exceed four inches in depth or he 
 would " kill it." 
 
 The author concluded that there was nothing that 
 would pay him so well as to become closely acquainted 
 with his own soil. So he got next to this sandy soil 
 and studied it. He found that below the plowed depth 
 the soil, even though it was pure sand, was so packed 
 that air could not enter it and plant roots and moisture 
 penetrated it with difficulty. He then concluded that 
 there could be no danger in plowing this soil deep so long 
 as the yellow sand below was not thrown up on the 
 surface by the plow. So in the spring of 1910 he de- 
 cided to " kill " the poorest tract of his sandy land and 
 ordered the disc plows to be set to plowing as deeply 
 as possible, plowing under a heavy crop of organic 
 matter. This tract was planted to field corn as late 
 as June 3d, yet made seventy-five bushels of corn to 
 the acre, which was more than double the crop > that 
 had been gathered from this land before the author 
 purchased it. 
 
 Rye was sown in this tract in the corn in the fall 
 of 1910 and in the spring of 191 1 the corn stalks and 
 rye were plowed under and as deep as the disc plows 
 
PLOWING 65 
 
 would plow it, and the land planted in sweet corn. 
 And notwithstanding the fact that the summer of 191 1 
 was the driest and hottest experienced for years, this 
 corn made a profitable crop and a better crop than the 
 best bottom land on " Vetch fal fa Farm." 
 
 By deep plowing, supplemented with the plowing 
 under of heavy crops of organic matter the author is 
 making his sandy land the best land on his farm. 
 
 Under the direction of the author, experiments of 
 deep plowing of stiff clay lands with a disc plow have 
 been made for the past three or four years, and aston- 
 ishing crop yields have resulted. 
 
 There has recently been invented a disc plow called 
 the " Spalding Tilling Machine " which will plow any 
 depth up to twenty-four inches and so plows, mixes 
 and pulverizes the soil as not to bring any of the soil 
 from the bottom of its furrow to the surface, yet will 
 completely turn and cover a sufficient depth the heaviest 
 mass of organic matter. The author will begin the 
 use of these plows the coming season, believing them 
 to be the most valuable tool any one can have upon the 
 farm. 
 
 In the first edition of this book, in the chapter on 
 plowing, the author said, " Drain well your soils, plant 
 in them crops for green manures that send their roots 
 deep down into the soil, then it will only be necessary 
 to plow your soils deep enough to well cover the organic 
 matter plowed under." 
 
 This was safe advice and in the use and application 
 of which no one could go wrong, but subsequent exten- 
 sive experiments have shown the author that not every 
 
66 PLOWING 
 
 green manuring crop will send their roots much below 
 the plowed surface; that the deeper the seed bed, the 
 greater its capacity for root growth, holding moisture 
 and compounding plant food ; that so long as the proper 
 plow is used in plowing no danger can result in deep 
 plowing, but rather will your crop yields be materially 
 increased. 
 
 Tull, an agricultural writer, claims that by thoroughly 
 pulverizing the soil its fertility can be permanently 
 maintained; that by repeated plowing he produced 
 twelve successive large crops of wheat on the same land 
 without manure. 
 
 Supplement Tull's system of frequent plowing and 
 pulverizing the soil with deep plowing and the turning 
 under of plenty of organic matter and you have the 
 secret of building and keeping up the fertility of the 
 soil. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 SOIL COVERING 
 
 TOO much stress cannot be laid upon the im- 
 portance of doing that to your soil which will 
 keep it covered during the season of fall, 
 winter and spring, which is known as the leaching sea- 
 son. 
 
 Terrific is the destruction each year to soil by leach- 
 ing. Stand by our streams and rivers during their 
 floodtides and see the thick consistency of their waters 
 made so by the heavy rains that fall upon the soil, mix- 
 ing and dissolving its particles of dust and litter. 
 
 Hillsides and valleys are swept of their soil by the 
 rapid washing of the waters, which, as stated, occurs 
 more frequently in the rainy season. 
 
 Soils covered by, and filled with, close-lying herbage 
 and thickly rooted plants will not wash or wear away 
 under the action of falling water, neither will such 
 covered or root-filled soils be blown away by the winds. 
 
 If an estimate could be made of the soil wealth car- 
 ried away each year by the waters falling from the 
 clouds and washing away over our fields into our 
 streams and rivers to the sea, and by the blowing of 
 the winds, it would be appalling. 
 
 The remedy to check and preserve this flow of soil 
 
 69 
 
70 SOIL COVERING 
 
 wealth to the sea, is keeping our soil, when not occupied 
 by growing crops, covered as much as possible with the 
 herbage and root-producing plants of rye, vetch, etc. 
 
 Covering the soils with these crops prevents puddling 
 of the soil. The growing and decaying of the roots aids 
 in depositing the minerals and in bringing about the 
 changes characteristic of new soils. 
 
 The open, mellow texture of the soil is produced by 
 covering. 
 
 Naked, clayey soils, subjected to excessive rains, fol- 
 lowed by drying winds and rapid water evaporation, 
 forces them to crack open and their texture is thus in- 
 jured. If such soils are covered, they are not subject 
 to this process. 
 
 It has been observed that when soil is covered with 
 any kind of close material for any length of time, it is 
 so enriched that one would think manure had been ap- 
 plied to it. Even snow lying on the soil for months en- 
 riches it. 
 
 I have already shown that the reason virgin soil was 
 so rich was on account of the ages of covering Nature 
 gave it. 
 
 In the humid region it is noticeable that, if a fence 
 row is neglected, it will first grow weeds, then grass, 
 then the different species of trees native to the neighbor- 
 hood. That, if after the course of only a few years 
 the fence row is cleaned out and again brought into 
 cultivation, it will be found that the soil is rich and 
 that it will again produce abundantly. 
 
 Some will argue that the reason of this is that the 
 land has had a period of rest, forgetting the fact that 
 
SOIL COVERING 71 
 
 a soil works hardest when it is growing weeds, grasses 
 and trees. 
 
 An observer of Nature sees a great lesson in the 
 neglected fence row. It demonstrates Nature's way of 
 soil covering, soil building and soil restoration. 
 
 When the land occupied by the fence row was no 
 longer cultivated and was neglected and for the time 
 abandoned by the farmer. Nature took it in hand for 
 rebuilding and first prepared it for the growing of 
 grass by the growing of different kinds of weeds which 
 filled and covered the soil with the decayed roots and 
 tops. 
 
 The grass came, whose roots and tops furnished addi- 
 tional organic matter and provided a soil covering that 
 gathered and retained the nitrates. 
 
 Then the little trees came which stirred the soil with 
 their rapidly growing roots. Some of the weeds, 
 grasses and trees were of the legume family and so 
 stored the precious nitrogen into the soil. 
 
 The roots of the weeds and trees went down deep 
 into the soil and brought up potash and other minerals 
 which were stored into the leaves, branches and trunks, 
 to be transferred to the soil when they fell down on the 
 soil and decayed. In this illustration we have all the 
 lessons of organic matter, soil stirring, soil covering 
 and their importance in restoring worn soil. 
 
 The secret of soil covering in promoting soil fertility 
 lies in the fact that covered soil prevents ammonia 
 wastes from the soil by evaporation, and the loss of 
 nitrogen. 
 
 To preserve soil fertility, it must be kept covered as 
 
72 SOIL COVERING 
 
 much as possible, yet the system of farming mostly in 
 vogue in America is to strip the ground of every ves- 
 tige of matter, expose it to the heat of the sun and the 
 washing of rains. 
 
 Soil covering is an important lesson we American 
 farmers must learn. 
 
 If, after our fields of corn were laid by we would 
 sow them in rye or vetch, and when corn is harvested 
 roll down the stalks, all to be covered with the snows of 
 winter, and no stock allowed to pasture upon them, what 
 a wealth of fertility would be gathered under this cov- 
 ering during the leaching season. 
 
 What a mass of rich material to be plowed under to 
 mix with the fertility produced by the covering during 
 the season of rest. 
 
 But how does the average American farmer treat his 
 cornfields? They are laid by without any green crop 
 planted, the corn is gathered and then his herds of 
 cattle and horses turned into them; and the fields are 
 stripped of their precious coat of organic matter, the soil 
 is ruined by the tramping, puddling and exposure to 
 washing rains and baking sun. 
 
 The only exception is when corn is followed by 
 wheat, and then too often the fields are pastured to 
 their great injury. If a farmer has a stack of straw, 
 he will either burn it or sell it, instead of spreading it 
 on his soil, which would bring him more money than the 
 few dollars he gets for it, and if he burns it he has 
 gained nothing. 
 
 I wish I could burn it into every American farmer, 
 that he must cover his soil if he would keep up or in- 
 crease its fertility. 
 
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CHAPTER VII 
 
 HOW TO PRODUCE AND GET ORGANIC MATTER INTO THE 
 
 SOIL 
 
 IN the preceding chapters I have endeavored to 
 make it clear that worn soil cannot be reclaimed, 
 or the fertility of any soil cannot be maintained, 
 without the liberal use of organic matter. Any system 
 of farming that does not have for its corner stone the 
 liberal use of organic matter is a " delusion and a 
 snare," and will lead straight to the worn-out abandoned 
 soils. 
 
 I have shown that the use of organic matter was 
 Nature's way of soil building and so it must be our way 
 of soil restoration. 
 
 The use of organic matter being of so much im- 
 portance in aiding and securing complete drainage, soil 
 ventilation, furnishing food for soil bacteria, and in the 
 general building up of all soils, then how are we to pro- 
 duce and get organic matter into the soil ? 
 
 Nature has, indeed, done her part in furnishing a 
 great multitude of plants that furnish organic matter 
 in abundance. Her garden seems to be full of them, 
 and it is up to man to do his part and select from this 
 great storehouse of wealth the plants that will serve 
 him best for this purpose. 
 
 75 
 
76 PRODUCING ORGANIC MATTER 
 
 While it is conceded by the majority, that manure is 
 the best organic matter that can be put into the soil, yet 
 we must not forget that the average farm produces 
 but a small quantity of manure, not one-tenth part 
 enough to keep up its fertility. That the average farmer 
 does not have sufficient means to keep sufficient stock 
 to furnish the supply of manure needed to rebuild or 
 maintain fertility of his farm. 
 
 And we must not forget that worn-out and abandoned 
 soils will not produce enough food to feed a sufficient 
 number of animals to produce the requisite amount to 
 restore their fertility. 
 
 While the author has been a liberal user of manure 
 upon his worn soils, yet for years he has felt that 
 there is some element lacking in manure that seems to 
 be supplied by the use of green manures. Just what 
 that element is he does not know, he only knows that 
 he gets better results from the plowing under of those 
 crops that are best for green manuring than he does 
 from the use of ordinary barnyard manure. 
 
 It is said by a high authority that " as an average, 
 animals digest and thus destroy two-thirds of the dry 
 matter in the food they eat, so that one ton of clover 
 hay plowed under will add as much humus to the soil 
 as the manure made from three tons of clover hauled 
 off and fed, even if all the manure is returned to the 
 land without loss of fermentation." 
 
 All the liquids of any value in barnyard manure 
 originally came from the plants and grain fed to stock 
 and these liquids are the most valuable part of manure. 
 
 In the usual methods of handling manure nearly the 
 
PRODUCING ORGANIC MATTER 'jy 
 
 whole of this liquid is allowed to go to waste. Does 
 not this explain why the author has gotten better re- 
 sults from the use of green manure than from the use 
 of barnyard manure? In the use of green manures he 
 has saved all the valuable liquids which the green 
 manuring plants assimilated into their roots and 
 branches during their growing season, and has also 
 saved two-thirds of the dry matter in these plants and 
 thus secured a greater supply of organic matter for 
 bacteria food, and supplying humus for the soil. 
 
 But notwithstanding this, the author advises the use 
 of all the manure you can get, and do not forget to 
 spare the match and plow under for a supply of organic 
 matter all cornstalks, weeds, stubble and straw. To 
 get a further supply, we must make certain plants sub- 
 serve our purpose, and in subsequent chapters the author 
 will describe the virtues of some of those plants which 
 he thinks are best adapted for producing organic matter. 
 
 However, there are many others of great value, like 
 the Canada field-pea, soy bean, cowpea, buckwheat, 
 turnip. Dwarf Essex rape, alsike and crimson clover, 
 velvet bean, corn sown thick, white mustard, etc. 
 
 Leguminous plants are best for green manuring, be- 
 cause of their power to draw vast quantities of nitrogen 
 from the air; but there are many non-leguminous plants 
 that are valuable for furnishing organic matter and soil 
 covering. 
 
 The ideal plant for furnishing organic matter is the 
 one that can be planted in the fall of the year, and 
 which will make sufficient growth to cover the ground 
 during the winter season, and fill the soil for a consider- 
 
78 PRODUCING ORGANIC MATTER 
 
 able depth with its roots, and if this ideal plant is a 
 nitrogen-gathering plant so much the better. 
 
 When organic matter has been produced, that portion 
 of it other than the roots of the plants can best be in- 
 corporated into the soil by the use of a plow like the 
 disc plow or the deep tilling machine. 
 
 It is important that organic matter be put into the soil 
 in the right manner to prevent the ill effects of " soil 
 roofing " or soil cavities between the bottom of the 
 furrow slice and soil turned under. 
 
 But if the plows above mentioned are used and the 
 soil is well rolled and worked down with harrow or 
 disc there will no effects from " roofing." 
 
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CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RYE 
 
 EXAMINE the rye plant and its roots in the 
 early spring and you will find the soil com- 
 pletely covered with the foliage of the plant, 
 and the soil for six or more inches in depth a perfect 
 mass of roots. Plowing rye is like plowing grass sod. 
 
 The rye plant covering the soil during the winter 
 season prevents the disastrous leaching that occurs on 
 soils not covered. The foliage and roots give organic 
 matter and ventilation to the soil. 
 
 It is said on the best authority that green rye is equal, 
 ton for ton, to stable manure, with one small exception. 
 Manure has half a pound of phosphoric acid per ton 
 more than rye. 
 
 In a ton of green rye there are eleven pounds of 
 nitrogen, four and one-half pounds of phosphoric acid 
 and twelve and one-half pounds of potash. A ton of 
 green clover contains only twelve pounds of nitrogen. 
 
 Rye sown early in the fall will by May i produce 
 five to fifteen tons of rye to the acre. This plowed 
 under on that date would give you, compared to manure, 
 a money value of $io to $20 per acre procured at an 
 expense of less than $2 per acre. In addition to its 
 manuring value, it can be grown at the time of the year 
 when much of your soil is not occupied with other crops. 
 
 81 
 
82 RYE 
 
 It is a protection to fields liable to washing. It ab- 
 sorbs certain useful minerals and acids that otherwise 
 would be lost to the soil. 
 
 One writer, speaking of rye, says : " The labor of 
 applying evenly forty loads of manure per acre is con- 
 siderable. All this is done more evenly by the green 
 crop. Seed and labor together cost me but three dollars 
 and a half per acre. I cannot say that it adds as much 
 fertility to the soil as forty loads of manure, but I do 
 say that in our droughty seasons it produces as great 
 an increase of crop as do forty two-horse loads of good 
 manure. It certainly pays to practice it, and to practice 
 it largely, even on the land well supplied with stable 
 manure." 
 
 In the fall of 1907 I planted rye in corn. The fall 
 was the dryest we had had for years, but notwithstand- 
 ing the extreme drought the rye made a splendid 
 growth before winter and covered the ground. Some 
 of the rye was plowed under quite early in the spring, 
 and some on high rolling ground was not plowed under 
 until it was heading. The entire field was planted to 
 sweet corn. In breaking the field the soil broke and 
 turned over as a sod field would. The soil was loose 
 and friable, and a splendid crop of sweet corn was 
 grown. The corn grown on the higher and rolling por- 
 tion of the ground and which was plowed when the rye 
 was in head produced more per acre than the remainder 
 of the field, and yet this portion of the field was the 
 poorest. 
 
 I had another ten-acre field, which I also planted to 
 rye in the fall of 1907. This field was subject to much 
 
RYE 83 
 
 washing, but the rye covered the ground so completely 
 before winter that no portion of the field was washed. 
 In the spring I early plowed this field and sowed it in 
 peas for a canning factory. The peas were harvested 
 July 7th, 8th, and 9th. After the removal of the peas 
 I disced the field and July 15th sowed to hungarian. 
 September 6th I began cutting the hungarian for hay. 
 It produced three and one-half tons of splendid hay per 
 acre, equal in feeding value to any hay, except alfalfa, 
 grown on the farm. 
 
 On the 20th of September with a disc wheat drill I 
 sowed the field to rye without any preparation of the 
 soil. By December ist the field was a solid mass of 
 green rye. This field I broke early the following spring 
 and planted to field corn, and the field was in splendid 
 tilth for same, and made eighty bushels of corn per 
 acre. 
 
 In growing rye for fertilizing purposes most farmers 
 make the mistake of pasturing it too close in both fall 
 and spring. In no case should it be pastured in the 
 spring. Allow it to grow as long as you can. You 
 cannot have too large a growth to plow under. Some 
 may tell you that if you allow it to get too large and 
 plow it under it will so dry out the soil as to injure 
 the growing crop. But do not believe it. Heavy vege- 
 tation plowed under is a conservator of moisture. 
 
 Some will also tell you that it sours the soil. Your 
 soil is sour only when it is cold, wet, non-ventilated and 
 unproductive. Ditch and get the water out of it, plow 
 into it large quantities of vegetable matter, produced 
 from green manuring plants, and thus start up the 
 
84 RYE 
 
 circulation of air into it, and it becomes warm and 
 sweet. 
 
 Soil is never soured by plowing under green crops if 
 it is well drained, and is thoroughly rolled and pulver- 
 ized. 
 
 Next to draining and ventilating, sour soil needs 
 feeding organic matter, A fertile soil is never sour. 
 
 While rye is one of the most valuable of forage 
 plants, yet it is equally as valuable for fertilizing pur- 
 poses. If your soil needs cleaning, sow rye. It gathers 
 food in the soil and makes fine growth on poor soils. 
 It is especially adapted to sandy lands and will grow 
 well on stiff clay lands if they are well drained. 
 
 The author knows of a farm that has been restored 
 and built up with rye until it produces the best corn 
 crops of any farm in the neighborhood. The owner 
 always sows rye for plowing under for his corn crop. 
 His rye crops plowed under helped his land in holding 
 moisture in dry seasons, which, as I stated, is contrary 
 to general belief. 
 
 The farmers have a wonderful weapon in rye to aid 
 in combating soil exhaustion, and it is so easily and 
 cheaply grown. From one to two bushels of seed at 
 a cost of from 70 cents to $1 per bushel will seed an 
 acre, and the labor and cost of seeding in corn or after 
 wheat is insignificant. 
 
 We who are sentimentally inclined delight in the melo- 
 dies of the Scottish love lyric, " Comin' Thro' the Rye," 
 humming its words: 
 
 "If a body meet a body, comin' thro' the rye, 
 If a body kiss a body, need a body cry? " 
 
RYE 85 
 
 We wonder whether the Scottish bard was singing 
 of the rye plant or of the River Rye and its stepping- 
 stones o'er which the Scottish maidens were wont to 
 pass, for if he was singing of the rye plant we can pic- 
 ture in our imagination the lovely scene of a field, rich 
 in the beautiful growth of the majestic, blooming rye 
 plant, whose foliage hid the blushes of the Scottish 
 maiden when met by her stalwart lover, " Comin' Thro' 
 the Rye," who claimed the coveted kiss. 
 
 But we who have no sentiment in our hearts and 
 look only to the material worth of things, can find in the 
 rye plant those elements of plant food that quickly and 
 cheaply build up our soils to the highest and best fer- 
 tility. 
 
 We so little appreciate the good things that God has 
 provided for our welfare, and rye is one of the least 
 appreciated crops on the farm. Aside from its great 
 feeding value, it is one of the best soil builders, and is 
 always so available and so willing to respond and give 
 its best service to us under the varied conditions of soil, 
 weather and seasons. 
 
A BUNCH OF VETCH TAKEN FROM UNDER ICE AND 
 WATER. 
 
 This vetch was covered with ice and water for three weeks in 
 the month of January, yet the plants were bright and green and 
 showed no injury. This vetch was taken from the field shown in 
 the illustration of a field of vetch in full bloom. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 HUNGARIAN 
 
 HUNGARIAN is another one of the most val- 
 uable and less appreciated crops of the farm. 
 For feeding purposes, for both cattle and 
 horses, I rank it above clover or timothy hay. It is 
 said to injure horses. A greater fallacy never existed. 
 Cut just when the seed has formed, no injury results 
 from feeding in any quantity. I have fed it for years 
 to the best of horses, and they relished it and thrived upon 
 it. It is the quickest and cheapest hay crop grown. It 
 can be sown in July after a wheat, oats or pea crop 
 has been removed, and in eight weeks or less a crop of 
 hay can be gathered making from two to four tons to 
 the acre, and after the removal of a crop of hungarian the 
 land can be seeded to rye or wheat. 
 
 I have heard it said that it is a soil robber. I have 
 not found it so. 
 
 A ton of hungarian extracts from the soil but eight 
 pounds of nitrogen and eight pounds of potash more 
 than a ton of green clover extracts from the soil. 
 
 For loosening up the soil nothing equals it. 
 
 In the summer of 1909 I had a field in corn, one-half 
 of which the previous season had been in hungarian 
 for hay, and there was no difference in the yield of corn, 
 
 89 
 
90 HUNGARIAN 
 
 but that part of the field previously in hungarian was 
 more easily cultivated. 
 
 Farmers will condemn hungarian without foundation, 
 and say that it is a robber of the soil, and yet raise year 
 after year timothy, which I say and can prove is the 
 meanest soil robber on the American farm. Mean, be- 
 cause I know of no more certain way to hasten the total 
 exhaustion of the soil than to grow timothy year after 
 year. On my farm I shun it as I would a rattlesnake. 
 It takes six years of the best of treatment to rebuild 
 soil upon which timothy has been grown for three or 
 four years. 
 
 I know of fields, once rich, almost utterly made unfit 
 for the growing of crops by the growing of timothy on 
 them for a great number of years. 
 
 If I was forced to buy hay, I would rather pay $20 
 per ton for timothy hay than grow it on my farm. But 
 I have digressed, I was to say something of the value 
 of hungarian as a producer of organic matter. 
 
 It is said that a ton of hungarian in blossom contains 
 twenty pounds of nitrogen, five and one-half pounds of 
 phosphoric acid and seventeen pounds of potash. 
 
 It takes from one to one and one-half bushels of seed 
 to sow an acre, worth generally from $1.50 per bushel, 
 or $1.50 to $2.25 per acre. If but three tons of hun- 
 garian to the acre is grown and same is plowed under, 
 you get 60 pounds of nitrogen to the acre. It will 
 take six tons of barnyard manure to produce 60 pounds 
 of nitrogen, and six tons of manure is worth not less 
 than $1.50 per ton, or $9. 
 
 In addition to the large amount of nitrogen and potash 
 
HUNGARIAN 91 
 
 in a ton of Hungarian, think of the vast quantities of 
 organic matter to plow under and available as humus, 
 and for loosening up the soil and for soil ventilation. 
 
 If Hungarian is used as a plowing-under crop, I would 
 advise sowing it after the wheat or oats crop is gath- 
 ered, discing or plowing the ground deep, then when 
 Hungarian is in blossom and before the seed has ma- 
 tured, plow under five or six inches deep and sow to 
 rye. You then Have the advantage of from two or 
 three plowings of the soil during a season, which I 
 Have shown to be a manuring in itself, as " tillage is a 
 manure." Your soil is also covered during the leach- 
 ing season, and has in the spring another valuable crop 
 for plowing under. 
 
 By a little hustling a crop of Hungarian could be sown 
 after wheat, plowed under in time to sow wheat in the 
 fall and which would be of immense value to the wheat 
 crop. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
 
 IN 1906 the author purchased a farm that had the 
 reputation of being one of the poorest in the county. 
 It had been kicked and buffeted about as trading 
 stock. Each owner no sooner got into possession of it 
 when he found he had purchased a " gold brick," and 
 never rested until he succeeded in unloading it upon 
 some other victim. It never seemed to occur to any of 
 its owners that the farm had simply been handled by 
 soil robbers and was paying the penalty by withdrawing 
 its bounty. 
 
 The author purchased this farm because of its cheap- 
 ness, location and possibilities, and was given the laugh 
 for so doing. 
 
 The character of the soil and lay of the land is pe- 
 culiar. One-third consists of deep yellow sand, placed 
 in ridges, no portion of any extent being level. One- 
 third is level, sandy loam and the other third black Wa- 
 bash bottom land. 
 
 The entire farm in its early history was covered with 
 large walnut, poplar, oak and other timber, the timber 
 on the sandy land having been as heavy as on the other 
 portion of the farm. The land was a portion of an 
 Indian reserve, set apart by the government to the In- 
 
 95 
 
96 SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
 
 dians in 1818 and by the Indians sold in 1833, and was 
 cleared more than sixty years ago, and for many years 
 produced large crops. It had always been farmed upon 
 the principle of getting out of it all you can each year 
 and putting nothing back into the soil. Under this sys- 
 tem of farming the sandy or two-thirds portion of the 
 farm had become so poor that in the best season it pro- 
 duced but 15 to 20 bushels of corn, 5 to 10 bushels of 
 oats and 10 bushels of wheat to the acre. Some sea- 
 sons corn, oats and wheat were an entire failure. Even 
 the black bottom portion was farmed in corn year after 
 year until the yield fell to less than 40 bushels to the 
 acre. In fine, the farm was just on the borderland of 
 the abandoned farm. 
 
 As the author has been up against many of the hard 
 propositions of life, it did not take him long to learn 
 that in acquiring this farm he had tackled more than he 
 had anticipated. He was like the Indian who was being 
 worsted in a hand-to-hand conflict and who exclaimed, 
 " Me in a heap big fight." 
 
 To reclaim this land, the author soon realized, would 
 require some work and study. 
 
 The first season he planted the sandy portion to early 
 peas for canning purposes. Seven weeks of dry weather 
 reduced the crop to a money value of $10 per acre. 
 Upon the removal of the peas the land was disced and 
 planted in sweet corn before June 25. The sweet corn 
 brought a money value of $15 per acre. 
 
 Various crops were grown on the farm the first sea- 
 son, to-wit : Peas, sugar corn, canning beets, field corn, 
 tomatoes and potatoes. Some commercial fertilizer and 
 
SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 97 
 
 manure was used; the commercial fertilizer with little 
 or no success. 
 
 Had it not been for twenty acres of late peas sown 
 on the bottom lands that brought a money value of $75 
 per acre, the farm the first year would not have paid ex- 
 penses. 
 
 But the author was not discouraged. He was con- 
 stantly studying conditions and looking about for some- 
 thing and some method by which the soil of his farm 
 could be rebuilt. 
 
 One day during the first summer he received through 
 the mail a catalogue of a seed house, and in turning its 
 pages his eyes caught the words " Sandy Vetch." The 
 fact that he owned some sand that was then the upper- 
 most subject in his mind no doubt had something to do 
 with arresting his eyes upon the words. 
 
 Reading the description in the catalogue of this plant, 
 which said that " Sand Vetch was becoming more popu- 
 lar with the farmers of the country as they learned more 
 of its value ; that it was noted for its extreme hardi- 
 ness, its value as a cover crop and for forage and fer- 
 tilizing purposes ; that it was especially recommended 
 for poor soils where it thrives wonderfully and improves 
 the soil, being rich in nitrogen," the author began to 
 " sit up and take notice." 
 
 It did not take him long to learn that he was inter- 
 ested and intensely interested. But when he read fur- 
 ther that " the Washington Department of Agriculture 
 estimated the value of an acre of vetch plowed under 
 as equivalent to putting into the ground twenty or forty 
 dollars' worth of commercial fertilizer," he became en- 
 
98 SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
 
 thusiastic. He was ready to shout at the top of his 
 voice " Eureka ! " But he read on until he came to 
 where the description said : " It is suited to any soil, 
 and is valuable in this respect, as it produces good crops 
 on poor sandy soils, while on good land it grows to a 
 height of four or five feet and produces enormous 
 crops." 
 
 This was enough. He was convinced that he had 
 been rewarded in his search, and had indeed found the 
 precious alchemic soil-enriching art for which he had 
 been searching, and immediately sat down with " pen 
 in hand " and ordered seed enough to sow two acres. 
 Yes, two whole acres! 
 
 And now, in the light of six years' experience with 
 this valuable plant, the author smiles when he thinks 
 that, being up against one of the hardest propositions 
 of his life, and having placed in his hands the very thing 
 that would overcome it, he only had nerve enough to 
 order enough vetch seed to plant two acres, for had he 
 possessed the nerve to have ordered enough to plant 
 his entire farm, and then the following spring planted 
 the same in field corn, as subsequent experience demon- 
 strated, he would have received from the corn crop al- 
 most the purchase price of the farm. 
 
 In due time the seed was received, and in August it 
 was planted upon the poorest and most rolling two acres 
 of sand land on the farm. It grew rapidly, and by 
 winter the ground was so completely covered with its 
 foliage that washing of the land was entirely prevented. 
 An examination of the roots showed them set thick with 
 nitrogen noftules. Early in the spring, before any other 
 
SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 99 
 
 kinds of grass or vegetation began to grow, the vetch 
 plants were pushing out their summer foliage, and by- 
 May I they were four feet in length. About the first 
 of June the two acres were cut for hay. 
 
 The author saw clearly that he had found a valuable 
 plant for the farm, yet exemplified usual caution by 
 planting only 25 acres of vetch in August of 1907, the 
 sowing being on the poorest and sandiest land of the 
 farm, 21 acres in one field and four in another. It was 
 decided to seed the 21 acres to field corn and leave the 
 other for pasture. Both grew luxuriantly. 
 
 The spring of 1908 was very wet, and it was May i 
 before the ground was in condition to break for corn. 
 Delays were such that the 21 -acre field was not entirely 
 broken until May 25. The vetch had grown to a height 
 of five feet, and the mass of vegetation was so heavy 
 that it was almost impossible to turn under. A half 
 dozen makes of plows were tried with complete failure, 
 when finally success was obtained with a double disc 
 plow, and the field was finished. The prospect did not 
 look inviting, for bunches of vetch showed here and there 
 sticking out of the ground. The field was worked down 
 to fairly good condition for planting by dragging and 
 rolling, and on June 3 and 4 was planted to yellow 
 corn. 
 
 Dire v/ere the predictions made as to the outcome. 
 Many contended that the heavy mass of vegetation 
 would absorb all the moisture from the ground and the 
 corn would perish. And it cannot be said that the au- 
 thor was fairly hopeful. But he gritted his teeth, held 
 his counsel and awaited results. The corn 'tame up a 
 
loo SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
 
 splendid stand. Dry weather set in, which added no 
 little discomfort to the situation. The corn grew slowly, 
 and as soon as it was sufficiently large the cultivators 
 were set to work, and were worked with a little diffi- 
 culty on account of bunches of vetch insufficiently 
 plowed under catching on the cultivator points. 
 
 It was amusing to hear the side remarks of the men 
 working the cultivators, which would indirectly come 
 to the author's ears. 
 
 One day, when the corn was receiving its first plow- 
 ing, two hardware men from the city came out to set 
 up and start working a new two-row cultivator. When 
 they were taken to this field disgust was plainly shown 
 upon their countenances. One of them, after the corn 
 grown in this field had been harvested, told the author 
 that when he first looked upon the field he said to him- 
 self that in all his forty years' experience as a farmer 
 and seller of agricultural tools he had never seen so un- 
 promising a prospect for corn as this field presented. 
 
 As stated, the weather was dry, and the corn grew 
 five or six inches high, and made no further growth for 
 more than a week, when it seemed to take on new life, 
 and then how it did grow! My, the pride the author 
 did take in that field of growing corn ! How it sparkled 
 his eyes and swelled his pride to look upon it! He felt 
 the glory of having done something worth while. The 
 neighbors and travelers along the highway began to take 
 notice as the corn grew and grew like Jack's famous 
 bean stalk. 
 
 The corn, notwithstanding the rolling and hilly char- 
 acter of the field, was of the same height, every hill 
 
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SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 103 
 
 alike, and of the dark green color indicating the healthy 
 growth of corn. 
 
 When the corn reached waist height the prophets who 
 had predicted its untimely demise on account of the 
 great mass of vetch turned under said : " Wait until 
 it begins to ear, and then you will see it fire and wither 
 up." 
 
 But the corn grew up and up until it reached the 
 height of eight to ten feet, silked, tasseled, and bore its 
 ears of golden corn. 
 
 It was subject to six weeks of dry weather after it 
 had silked, and yet it had not fired and every hill was 
 bright and green. The neighbor's corn opposite and 
 across the public highway fired clear above the ears of 
 corn, and did not make 20 bushels to the acre. 
 
 Residents of the county not acquainted with what 
 had been done to the field, who had been passing this 
 field for twenty years or more, attracted by the remarkable 
 growth and condition of the corn, would stop, get out 
 of their vehicles and go over into the field to examine 
 it, and then stop at the house and inquire what had been 
 done to the soil to cause such a growth of corn, saying 
 that " they had never known this field to have upon it 
 a crop of corn of any value ; that corn on this field was 
 almost invariably a failure." 
 
 The corn finally reached its harvesting stage, sound 
 and solid. It was gathered, hauled to market, and made 
 by weight 72 bushels to the acre, and brought a money 
 value ot $35 per acre. 
 
 The planter used to plant the corn was set to drop 
 three grains to the hill, and never missed putting three 
 
104 SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
 
 grains in the hill, but too often dropped four grains, 
 which made the corn too thick, and this condition fully 
 reduced the yield ten or more bushels to the acre. But 
 think of 72 bushels of corn being grown on land that 
 had not for twenty or more years produced more than 
 20 bushels to the acre, and this feat accomplished in so 
 short a time and with so little expense, as the cost of the 
 seed was but $3.50 per acre. 
 
 This experiment with vetch made the author a vetch 
 enthusiast. 
 
 In August of the year 1908 he planted thirty acres, 
 and notwithstanding the extreme dry fall, there having 
 been no rain for eight weeks after it was sown, it grew 
 nicely. 
 
 In the spring ten acres of it was plowed for field 
 corn, seven or eight acres for potatoes, and the balance 
 for sweet corn. 
 
 The illustration in the front of this book shows a 
 view of the poorest part of the field of corn taken Sep- 
 tember 7, 1909. 
 
 Upon this particular spot of ground shown in the picture 
 corn had never grown to exceed a height of four or 
 five feet, with a correspondingly poor yield. Here the 
 vetch was the heaviest, being four or five feet in height 
 when plowed under in the middle of May. The soil on 
 this particular spot is a sandy clay, the remainder of 
 the field is a black gumbo soil ; the whole having been 
 farmed for a half century with a rotation of corn, oats 
 and wheat, a greater majority of the years in corn, and 
 every year the stalks were burned. In recent years the 
 yield of corn had been from almost a failure to 40 bush- 
 
SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 105 
 
 els to the acre. The yield after the vetch was nearly 
 90 bushels to the acre of large, splendid white corn — 
 an increase over former years of over 100 per cent. 
 The cost of vetch seed for this field was $3 per acre. 
 
 The author's brother is the owner of a farm the soil 
 of which is clay underlaid with a gravelly subsoil. 
 When first cleared, more than sixty years ago, it was 
 rich and produced enormous crops. Fifty years in the 
 hands of tenants, with an insufficient soil-building ma- 
 terial added to it, reduced the yield of corn to less than 
 30 bushels to the acre. In the fall of 1908 fifty acres 
 of this land was planted to vetch. The extreme dry 
 fall made the seed come up slow and uneven, and only a 
 fair growth was obtained before winter. At plowing 
 time the following spring a fair crop of vetch was 
 plowed under and forty acres planted to field corn. The 
 crop gathered from the field corn produced over 70 
 bushels of corn to the acre — an increase of over 100 
 per cent. 
 
 Ten acres were plowed under and the ground culti- 
 vated until June, when it was planted to alfalfa, about 
 which we will speak later. Another vetch enthusiast 
 was added to the list. 
 
 Both author and brother had (December 20th, 1909) 
 vetch growing on their farms, sowed in the open and in 
 corn, that covers the ground like a thick velvet carpet. 
 
 The author's experience with vetch for potatoes and 
 sweet corn has been as successful as it has been with 
 field corn. Sweet corn has been grown after vetch on 
 poor soil that produced from 4.^2 to 5 tons to the acre 
 — a money value of $36 to $40 per acre. In 1909 one 
 
io6 SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
 
 and two-fifths acres of potatoes planted after vetch on 
 soil deficient in fertility produced nearly 450 bushels, 
 and potatoes planted after vetch on some of the sandiest 
 land on his farm produced at the rate of 150 bushels 
 to the acre, and double the amount of potatoes grown 
 side by side on the same soil after crimson clover plowed 
 under. 
 
 No doubt the question suggested to the reader's mind 
 is : Why is vetch of so much value as a soil or fertilizer 
 crop ? The question may be answered with a few words. 
 It is the greatest nitrogen-gathering and humus-produc- 
 ing plant found in Nature's garden. 
 
 We believe it to be true as holy writ that for every 
 disease of the human body Nature has a remedy if man 
 can only find it, and that for every disease of the soil 
 there is a remedy to be found in the plant, mineral or 
 animal kingdom, and it is up to man to find and ap- 
 ply it. 
 
 If soil was originally built up by mixing vegetable 
 matter with disintegrated minerals and stones, then why 
 can it not be kept built up by the same process ? 
 
 Under Southern European skies vetch is supposed to 
 have had its birth. In all Europe it is cultivated for 
 forage purposes, it being regarded equal to clover in 
 nutritive qualities. Sown in late summer or early au- 
 tumn, it is harvested the next year. If in the spring, 
 it is cut the same year. 
 
 The American farmer, slow or overly cautious in 
 trying the unknown, has rarely cultivated it. As stated, 
 it is an annual plant, and must be seeded each year, al- 
 though it readily reseeds itself, as I have pastured it 
 
SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 107 
 
 with cattle, taking the cattle from it as it began to seed, 
 and then allowed the seed to ripen and fall upon the 
 ground, discing the field thoroughly, and the seed came 
 up, giving me a fine stand. 
 
 Vetch being rarely cultivated in America, the supply 
 of seed is, as a consequence, procured in Europe and im- 
 ported to this country at a cost to the farmer of 6^ 
 to 10 cents per pound f. o. b. shipping station. 
 
 Fifty pounds of seed to the acre is the right quantity 
 to plant. 
 
 In corn I sow the seed with a one-horse hoe or disc 
 wheat drill. In the open I sow with a two-horse drill. 
 The feed gauge of the average one or two-horse drill 
 entirely shut ofif sows just 50 pounds to the acre. 
 
 If vetch is sown for seed, there must be sowed with it 
 about one peck of rye to the acre. The rye holds up 
 the vetch so it can be easily harvested. The plant is 
 a trailing one, and hence is hard to harvest unless it has 
 a plant sown with it to support it. 
 
 When seed is ripe, cut and thresh with ordinary 
 threshing machine and separate seed with fanning mill. 
 
 Seed for planting can be procured from most any 
 seed house. 
 
 The vetch plant has a mass of roots penetrating the 
 soil to a considerable depth. The roots are always full 
 of nodules, the homes of the bacteria that obtain their 
 food from the nitrogen of the air, and which it is claimed 
 collect more nitrogen than they need, which surplus is 
 stored into the soil. 
 
 The clover, alfalfa and pea plants and other plants 
 of the legume family are considered valuable to the soil 
 
io8 SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
 
 because of their nitrogen-gathering powers, they hav- 
 ing these nodules on their roots; but a vetch plant will 
 have ten nodules on its roots where these other plants 
 have one. 
 
 The vetch roots are so numerous in the soil that it 
 will plow up like heavy sod. The foliage of the plant 
 is so massive that it produces from twelve to twenty 
 tons to the acre. There is no plant of the nitrogen- 
 gathering species that produces such a quantity of or- 
 ganic matter for plowing under as is furnished by the 
 vetch plant. 
 
 When plowing up the 21 -acre field mentioned in the 
 beginning of this chapter the next spring after the large 
 corn crop had been grown, the author observed that the 
 corn roots had pushed their way down into the mass 
 of vetch plowed under, and had interlaced themselves 
 around the vetch stems until the whole mass had been 
 knitted together, and, the plow turning It on top of the 
 furrow, it looked like sheep skins spread out on the 
 ground. On exposure to the air the mass fell Into small 
 pieces. 
 
 This observation proved to the author that the corn 
 roots had found in this mass of vegetable matter a great 
 feeding ground, where both feed and moisture were 
 found in abundance for the feeding of the corn plants. 
 
 After six years' experience with it I am convinced 
 that the claim of the Agricultural Department, that an 
 acre of it plowed under is equivalent in value to twenty 
 to forty dollars, is not extravagant. 
 
 It is the greatest soil builder ever discovered, alfalfa 
 not excepted. With it and ditching I can reclaim any 
 
SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 109 
 
 poor or worn-out soil. With it the American farmer 
 can make his soil produce as it has never produced since 
 it was rescued from the wilderness. 
 
 Vetch is the remedy for clover-sick soil. If alfalfa 
 is the most valuable forage plant ever discovered, vetch 
 is the most valuable fertilizing plant ever discovered. 
 
 Vetch builds on its roots so many pretty little homes 
 for the busy nitrogen-gatherers, who so mysteriously 
 draw from the great storehouse of nitrogen situated in 
 the air above the soil great quantities of the precious, 
 most valuable acquisition to the soil, nitrogen. 
 
 Vetch is no respecter of soils. It settles down and 
 makes its home with the rich or poor clay as well as the 
 rich or poor sand, and commences its business of soil 
 restoration at once. It has no terrors of frost or 
 drought. Winter will grasp it with its hand and hold 
 it in its icy clasp for months and months, and when the 
 warm sunshine of spring releases it, it smiles with its 
 freshness of green and continues doing business at the 
 old stand. The drought of fall, spring or summer will 
 blow its oven breath upon it, but it heeds it not, and 
 continues its business of storing fertility in the soil as 
 though it was being constantly caressed with refreshing 
 showers. 
 
 It finds the soil sick, impoverished and dying. It 
 touches it with its restoring power, and under its stimu- 
 lating touch the soil awakens with new and renewed 
 life, pouring out its wealth of plant growth that ripens 
 into food for beast and man. 
 
 It will yet enter upon the abandoned farm, banish the 
 desolation of the fields, fill the unoccupied farmhouse 
 
no SAND, OR HAIRY VETCH 
 
 and barns with the songs of happy, prosperous parents, 
 the laughter of children and the riches of fertile fields. 
 All hail King Vetch, Nature's greatest soil restorer! 
 
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CHAPTER XI 
 
 ALFALFA 
 
 THE value of alfalfa on the farm cannot be esti- 
 mated. No plant has so many uses. If the 
 corn plant should become extinct, alfalfa could 
 take its place, fill every want that corn supplies, and 
 yet its storehouse of utility would still be overstocked. 
 
 Considering the great usefulness of this plant, it is 
 astonishing that the American farmer grows so little of 
 it. It cannot be on account of ignorance, for volumes 
 have been written about it by the great alfalfa experts, 
 Coburn, Clothier and Wing, the public press and agri- 
 cultural papers, and for years lectures upon its value 
 have been given to Farmers' Institutes all over the coun- 
 try. 
 
 The slowness of the farmer in growing alfalfa is no 
 doubt due to environment, or his habit of farming " just 
 as father did." In many instances it is due to downright 
 laziness, or that spirit of lethargy or state of indifference 
 that has gotten its hold on so many farmers, and which 
 is responsible for our worn-out soils. 
 
 The average farmer does not seem to be in the pos- 
 session of the spirit possessed by the modern manufac- 
 turer who does not hesitate to adopt any improvement 
 or buy any improved machinery that will increase the 
 efficiency of his plant. 
 
 113 
 
114 ALFALFA 
 
 There is no plant on the farm that is so profitable 
 to the farmer as alfalfa. When the Kansas farmer com- 
 menced to grow it he began to wax fat. His bank, ac- 
 count grew, his mortgage was canceled, his house and 
 barn grew into stately buildings filled with those equip- 
 ments and machinery that lessen toil, and make life 
 worth while. 
 
 If this plant has done so much for the Kansas farmer, 
 why can it not do as much for the farmers of every 
 state in the Union? 
 
 Alfalfa on the farm in most any state means at least 
 three crops of hay each season whose feeding power has 
 no equal. 
 
 It means plenty of pasture for all stock no matter 
 how dry the season may be. 
 
 It means a food in abundance for the hog, greater in 
 fattening and health preserving powers than any food 
 ever grown and fed to this animal. 
 
 It means better milk, butter, beaf, mutton and poultry. 
 
 It means that this busy plant, which never rests, will 
 send its great long nodule-producing roots down deep 
 into the soil, opening the way for the water and air, pro- 
 ducing organic matter, liberating and bringing up the 
 valuable plant minerals, drawing from the air into the 
 soil the precious nitrogen, and thus rebuilding and mak- 
 ing rich again the soils wasted of their fertility by the 
 sordid system of farming so long practiced in this land 
 of ours. 
 
 Some farmers say that the reason they do not grow 
 alfalfa is because it is hard to get it started; that it re- 
 quires so much labor and patience to get the proper 
 
ALFALFA 115 
 
 stand and start that they can not afford to bother with 
 it. 
 
 The author has found that it is easier to get a stand 
 of and grow alfalfa than it is to get a stand of and grow 
 clover. He has also found that the first requisite to 
 successful alfalfa growing is a well drained soil. Al- 
 falfa can not grow with " wet feet." 
 
 In the growing of alfalfa the author has pursued the 
 following methods with great success : 
 
 When he decided upon the location of his alfalfa field 
 (and in selecting the field he paid no attention to charac- 
 ter of soil, but selected the field with reference to easy 
 access to barn and stock), he plowed the land deep in 
 the spring and planted to either field or sugar corn. 
 After the corn was laid by he sowed the field to sand 
 or hairy vetch at the rate of thirty-five pounds to the 
 acre, and thereafter kept all stock off of same. The 
 following season the vetch is allowed to grow until it 
 has bloomed, then the vetch and corn stalks are plowed 
 under as deeply as possible and the soil thoroughly rolled 
 and dragged. This plowing is generally done in July, 
 and the field is not only rolled and dragged several 
 times, but is harrowed quite a number of times until the 
 soil is in an excellent state of pulverization. 
 
 If manure is available a thin coating is spread with a 
 manure spreader, the spreading being done after plow- 
 ing and the manure being worked into the soil with the 
 harrow. The spreading of a thin coating of manure 
 upon alfalfa ground after it is plowed will insure a stand 
 of alfalfa. And the plowing under of vetch without 
 manure will also insure a stand of alfalfa. 
 
ii6 ALFALFA 
 
 The seed at the rate of twenty pounds to the acre is 
 sown either with a hand seeder or a seeder attached to 
 the front part of a disc drill. The seed must be well 
 covered or it will not grow. The author wishes to im- 
 press upon the reader the importance of getting the 
 seed deep enough into the ground, or well covered, as 
 he has noticed that where the seed was covered the best 
 that the stand of alfalfa was the best. The author is 
 firmly of the belief that the majority of failures in se- 
 curing a stand of either clover or alfalfa are occasioned 
 by failure in getting seed covered a sufficient depth. 
 
 The best time to sow alfalfa seed is from the first to 
 the middle of August. The plant will reach a height 
 of seven or eight inches in six weeks. At this stage 
 many claim it should be clipped with a mower. The 
 author has practiced the clipping of baby alfalfa and 
 has also allowed it to grow without clipping and was 
 unable to see any difference in either method; but after 
 the first season alfalfa must be mowed at the proper 
 stage, which is when new shoots begin to push out from 
 the plant near the ground, or it loses its vigor. 
 
 Authorities on alfalfa tell us that the alfalfa plant 
 when first started must get its nitrogen, which is neces- 
 sary to its life, from the soil ; that after the plant is well 
 established it draws its supply of nitrogen from the air; 
 that for this reason you must have your soil inoculated 
 with nitrogen-gathering bacteria, and have plenty of 
 nitrogen in the soil or you cannot get the alfalfa plant 
 to establish itself. Then, if this is true, some method 
 must be used to secure the supply of nitrogen and nitro- 
 gen-gathering bacteria in the soil intended for the alfalfa 
 
ALFALFA 117 
 
 field. Various methods of doing this are given by al- 
 falfa experts, such as soil inoculation by taking soil 
 from alfalfa fields and spreading upon the field before 
 sowing the seed, heavy manuring, sowing alfalfa meal 
 with the seed, and feeding alfalfa hay to stock a year 
 before alfalfa is planted and using the manure on the 
 field. 
 
 The author has never been impressed with the inocu- 
 lating method of securing soil from an alfalfa field and 
 spreading upon the field intended to be sown. Upon 
 that proposition he is " from Missouri and will have to 
 be shown," but he has been shown that manure will in- 
 oculate for alfalfa. He has spread manure and sown 
 alfalfa seed upon a dead furrow where the soil was so 
 poor that no plant would grow upon it and secured a 
 stand that for vigor of growth exceeded that grown upon 
 good ground. 
 
 His experience has also taught him that where you 
 can not procure manure, vetch will inoculate the soil and 
 make alfalfa grow vigorously. 
 
 The author in his chapter on vetch spoke of ten acres 
 of alfalfa planted in June, 1909, upon clay land owned 
 by his brother. This field has been cleared for more 
 than sixty years and has been farmed until it was worn- 
 out. As stated, it was planted to vetch in August, 1908, 
 and plowed under in May, 1909, before it had ripened its 
 seed. The weeds were kept down by frequent cultiva- 
 tion until the middle of June, when alfalfa seed was 
 sown at the rate of twenty pounds to the acre. In four 
 weeks the alfalfa was six or eight inches in height, and 
 was clipped with the mower, clippings left lying on the 
 
ii8 ALFALFA 
 
 ground. In five weeks it was clipped the second time. 
 In the summer of 1910 and 191 1 this field yielded sev- 
 eral cuttings of hay and yet was pastured by a large 
 number of hogs. 
 
 If the season is favorable as to plenty of moisture 
 alfalfa can be sown in April, provided it is sown with 
 barley at the rate of one bushel of barley to the acre. 
 Cut the barley when it is in the milk and cure it for feed. 
 It makes fine feed. If the season is dry the barley will 
 use up so much moisture that the young alfalfa plants 
 will die. 
 
 In the spring of 191 1, which was very dry, the author 
 planted a field to alfalfa and barley and both plants 
 came up fine, but it was so dry that the barley took all 
 the moisture and the young alfalfa plants all died but a 
 few, a stand was only secured on one acre of the field, 
 and that portion of the field was low ground and in it 
 a great deal of organic matter had been plowed under 
 which held the moisture. 
 
 Good stands of alfalfa have been secured by sowing 
 in sweet corn after the corn was gathered in the latter 
 part of August, but the seed was well covered, and the 
 season was favorable in the way of moisture. 
 
 The use of ground limestone is a great aid in secur- 
 ing a vigorous growth of alfalfa, but in the majority of 
 farms it is not necessary to use it. 
 
 Alfalfa will so build up and restore worn-out soils 
 that large crops of corn can be grown upon them, and 
 will so maintain the fertility of average soils that they 
 will not become worn. 
 
 The author's personal experience with this plant and 
 
ALFALFA 119 
 
 his observation of what it has done for other land than 
 his own, leads him to urge the growing of this plant by 
 every farmer. It is one of the plants that should be 
 found on every farm for it never fails the farmer, no 
 matter what the season may be. 
 
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CHAPTER XII 
 
 SWEET CLOVER 
 
 A FEW years ago a plant sprung tip along our 
 roadsides in great profusion. It grew so vig- 
 orously and spread so rapidly that farmers be- 
 came alarmed and feared it would become a troublesome 
 weed. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, this plant seldom invaded the 
 cultivated fields or rich spots of the farms. It was 
 found only where the soil was the thinnest and poorest. 
 
 It was soon discovered that this plant supposed to be 
 a noxious weed, was designed to be a renovator of ex- 
 hausted soils. That it languished and died on a fairly 
 rich soil, but grew luxuriantly on soils so poor that noth- 
 ing else scarcely would grow on them. 
 
 Thus the sweet clover plant despised and rejected at 
 first, at last became a chief corner stone in soil restora- 
 tion. 
 
 When planted on the poorest of clay soils where noth- 
 ing grew, it soon made them so fertile that other grasses 
 came and smothered out the clover. It has been known 
 to so enrich bottom land whose top soil had been washed 
 away by high waters that 60 to 75 bushels of corn was 
 again grown on it. It has reclaimed poor, much-washed 
 hillsides. 
 
 Years ago the wreckage of a Dutch ship was cast 
 
 123 
 
124 SWEET CLOVER 
 
 upon the raw, white beach sand of King Island, located 
 near the south coast of Australia. Among the wreckage 
 were some mattresses that had been stuffed with sweet 
 clover which contained some seed. This seed fell upon 
 the sandy beaches and grew, and in the course of time 
 spread over the whole of the coast of this island and 
 transformed it from an island of useless shifting sand 
 to a land rich in grazing for cattle, sheep and horses. 
 This wonderful plant by its almost magical enriching 
 powers has made of the white sand a dark brown soil 
 and increased its value a hundredfold. A once barren 
 island of sand now exports fat cattle and dairy produce 
 and fine horses of the finest grades and quality that com- 
 mand the highest prices in the markets of Tasmania. 
 
 The powers of the plant as a soil builder is simply its 
 ability to gather from the air and store into the soil great 
 quantities of nitrogen, and produce through its root and 
 branch system great quantities of organic matter esti- 
 mated as high as twenty tons to the acre. 
 
 It is simply a great nitrogen-gathering and organic 
 matter producing plant, and herein alone lies its secret 
 as a soil builder. And while the author has never ex- 
 perimented with this plant, he is satisfied that its merits 
 have not been exaggerated, because any plant that has 
 the capacity to draw from the air large quantities of 
 nitrogen and which produces a large quantity of organic 
 matter in its foliage and root system, and which will so 
 readily grow on poor soil, is a plant whose worth as a 
 soil builder cannot be estimated. 
 
 Any one possessing lands so poor that nothing will 
 grow on them should not hesitate to give sweet clover a 
 
SWEET CLOVER 125 
 
 trial. Do not worry about the plant becoming a noxious 
 weed on the farm. It will only grow on the poor lands 
 and these lands need it. 
 
 In the building up of our worn soils and in keeping up 
 the fertility of our fairly rich soils, we must bring to 
 our use those plants that will gather the nitrogen and 
 furnish the most organic matter and the best soil-cover- 
 ing material, and sweet clover seems to be one of this 
 kind of plants. 
 
 The author has written the chapter on sweet clover for 
 this edition of his book to make more emphatic to his 
 readers the fact, that, the chief lack of worn-out soils 
 is nitrogen and organic matter, and that whenever we 
 make use of those plants, upon our worn-out soils that 
 gather nitrogen from the air and produce great quanti- 
 ties of organic matter, that we are then getting on the 
 only road that leads us to soil restoration. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 RED CLOVER 
 
 WHEN the first edition of this book was pub- 
 lished, the author was frequently asked why- 
 he had not written a chapter on red clover, 
 recommending its use for restoring worn and worn-out 
 soils. 
 
 The author's answer was, " Red clover was evidently- 
 intended to be used for the maintahiing of the fertility 
 of fertile soils, for it will not grow and flourish on 
 worn and worn-out soils, and, as my book treats of the 
 worn soil problem, I could not prescribe clover as a 
 remedy to restore worn-out soils." 
 
 Yet, if we should ask the farmer to name the best 
 fertilizing and feeding plant, probably nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine out of every thousand would promptly an- 
 swer, red clover. The farmer so answers because he 
 and his ancestors have for centuries made use of this 
 plant for fertilizing and feeding purposes, and if any 
 one questions its virtues and suggests that there are 
 many other plants of greater fertilizing and feeding 
 power, he is denounced as a deceiver, and the plants 
 named for a substitute are denominated false pretenders 
 and cheap imitators, notwithstanding the fact that there 
 is no plant grown upon the farm that has to its credit 
 so many bad points as clover. 
 
 129 
 
130 RED CLOVER 
 
 The young plant is tender and feeble, so millions of 
 dollars are lost every year in the purchase of clover 
 seed that starts to grow only to die from the effects of 
 drouth or atmospheric changes. Its hay, though rich 
 in feeding value, gives off a dust distressing and in- 
 jurious to animals. It cannot be pastured without pro- 
 ducing its death-dealing bloat. 
 
 It robs the soil of its phosphorus and cannot be 
 grown continuously on the same land without producing 
 the " clover sick " soils upon which it refuses to con- 
 tinue to grow, and it spurns the attempt to make it estab- 
 lish its home in sandy, compact clay, prairie gumbo or 
 worn-out soils, where it is needed the most. 
 
 The author concedes that clover is valuable for main- 
 taining the fertility of soils that are not worn, if used in 
 the right manner. 
 
 While clover grown for hay and seed alone may draw 
 nitrogen into the soil and make the soil loose and friable, 
 and thus improve soil ventilation, yet it must take valua- 
 ble elements from the soil or it would not, after a time, 
 refuse to grow on land where it had made its home for 
 several years. 
 
 If it had all the virtues claimed for it, why is it that 
 in the regions where longest and mostly used we have 
 the greatest number of acres of worn and worn-out 
 soils? 
 
 The author points the reader to the great Volusia re- 
 gion with its acres of " clover sick " and abandoned 
 soils, where loo acres in 1907 produced two small stacks 
 of clover hay, and where lands that sold in 1803 for 
 $37 per acre, in 1907 sold for $5 per acre. Lands that 
 
RED CLOVER 131 
 
 were abandoned because they would no longer grow 
 clover and the owners did not seem to know that there 
 were other plants and methods that would restore their 
 lands. Let the author quote what was said by a Gov- 
 ernment expert about one of these Volusia farms. 
 
 " In 1883 ^^is farm produced clover hay at the rate 
 of 25^ tons per acre for the first cutting, and clover seed 
 from the second growth at the rate of four bushels per 
 acre ; nearly $700 worth of grain was produced and sold, 
 and three cows, twenty sheep, and a team kept. The 
 total yield of all crops for each of the past five seasons 
 grown on this farm would not support more than twenty 
 sheep and nothing was sold. No clover is grown, and 
 it cannot he grown by the methods now in practice." 
 
 He further said of these Volusia farms, that when 
 they were first cleared they brought forth large crop 
 yields of all the staple grains. That there was no difH- 
 cidty in growing red clover, and that the region was well 
 populated and the farms were prosperous. 
 
 Another expert says of these soils, " that the failure 
 of clover to grow on them is not due to any fungous 
 disease of the clover plant, nor to the lack of the proper 
 kind of bacteria in the soil, or to other influences of such 
 a character, and that a chemical analysis of the soil by 
 standard methods shows a sufBcient amount of the com- 
 mon plant-food elements for successful crop growth." 
 
 Upon these soils where clover refuses to grow, other 
 crops refuse to grow as well, and farms are being aban- 
 doned, buildings are going to decay and ruin. 
 
 Some of these same conditions to a considerable extent 
 abound in every region where clover is grown. Then 
 
132 RED CLOVER 
 
 if clover is such a great plant for maintaining soil fer- 
 tility as so many would have us believe it is, why do 
 we have the conditions enumerated? Almost every 
 farmer grows or attempts to grow it, and with the vast 
 quantities that has been so long grown, our farms should 
 show a high state of fertility if there be the fertilizing 
 virtues in the plant claimed by its advocates. 
 
 It is said that " Land becomes ' clover sick ' only in 
 the absence of a proper succession of crops, and the ele- 
 ments of fertility necessary for the support of the plant." 
 
 There is some element in the soil necessary to the vig- 
 orous growth of clover that is soon exhausted or our 
 soils would not refuse to grow the plant, which shows 
 the necessity of the proper handling of this plant with 
 profit. 
 
 Its success in soil building is only attained when its 
 entire crop is left upon the soil or plowed under, for 
 then it returns back again to the soil every element it 
 extracts from it, and gives to the soil the element it ex- 
 tracts from the atmosphere, the organic matter it pro- 
 duces and the advantage of its covering. 
 
 The author wishes to be understood as advocating the 
 use of clover when it can be grown, but he does not hesi- 
 tate to say that it is not a success as a first aid to the 
 restoration of worn-out soils. If it could be made to 
 grow on worn-out soils, and was not cut for either hay 
 or seed, but its entire crop plowed under at the proper 
 time, it would then be a valuable aid in building up our 
 worn-out soils. And it must be used in the same man- 
 ner or with a proper crop rotation if cut for hay or 
 
RED CLOVER 133 
 
 seed, upon our fertile farms, if we would save them 
 from the doom of " clover sick " soils. 
 
 To get the best growth of clover we must have vegeta- 
 ble or organic matter in the soil. The author is of the 
 opinion that herein lies the secret of the cause of " clover 
 sick " soils, they lack the necessary organic matter to 
 produce the necessary soil ventilation and food to pre- 
 pare a suitable home for the soil bacteria that clover 
 must have for its successful growth. 
 
 The author has been watching a series of experiments 
 being conducted on some worn-out clay lands that were 
 " clover sick." Years ago all the organic matter had been 
 farmed out of these lands. Organic matter was again 
 put into these lands by the growing of rye, vetch, sor- 
 ghum and the use of manure, and all plowed under as 
 deep as possible with a disc plow, and planted to corn, 
 and again planted to rye and vetch and the entire crop 
 of cornstalks, rye and vetch plowed under again. After 
 a few years of this method of getting organic matter 
 into this soil it was in such condition that fine crops of 
 clover have been produced upon them. And that part 
 of these lands upon which no manure was put, but only 
 crops of rye, vetch, sorghum and cornstalks were plowed 
 under, grew clover as well as the manured parts. 
 
 The successful growing and judicious use of clover 
 on the farm only makes it a valuable fertilizing crop to 
 the farmer. A judicious use of clover means that if the 
 farmer thinks he must grow it for hay or seed, then he 
 must follow it with other crops that will either produce 
 organic matter or allow the use of other organic matter 
 
134 RED CLOVER 
 
 producing plants, so that a supply of organic matter may 
 be secured for his soil. 
 
 The most powerful way to use clover is to allow one 
 clover crop to grow and die and then plow it under dry 
 the following spring. 
 
 In this manner you would get the additional great 
 benefits of soil covering. Another effective method is 
 to allow it to come into full bloom then cut it, leaving 
 it lying on the ground for the second crop to come up 
 through it, then cut the second crop so that it will have 
 some time to decay before plowing it in for wheat. 
 Either of these two methods of handling the clover crop 
 will so enrich the soil that the effects will linger for 
 years. 
 
 An illustration is given of a Pennsylvania farmer 
 who, after great effort, succeeded in getting a stand of 
 clover upon the light colored soil of one of his poor 
 worn-out fields and then turned the field back to Nature 
 as it were, kept all his stock out of it, and allowed the 
 clover to grow and reseed itself for several years. When 
 the field was finally plowed it was found that the soil 
 had become black for the depth of nearly a foot, and 
 was so enriched that it produced large crops for many 
 years afterwards. And herein is a valuable lesson for 
 the American farmer if he will but learn it. The lesson, 
 that man must follow Nature's way of soil building if 
 he would restore or keep up the fertility of the soil. 
 

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CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE author's method OF RESTORING WORN AND 
 WORN-OUT SOILS 
 
 IT is said you cannot " eat your cake and yet have 
 it." So some will say you cannot restore worn-out 
 soils and at the same time grow profitable crops 
 upon them. That worn-out soils can only be restored 
 by expensive methods and years must elapse before any 
 profitable crops can be grown upon them. 
 
 The author has demonstrated that you can " eat your 
 cake and yet have it." That worn-out soils can be re- 
 stored and yet at the very time you are engaged in the 
 process of restoring them you can grow profitable crops 
 upon them. 
 
 When he came into possession of his " Vetch fal fa 
 Farm," it was, as heretofore stated, one of the poorest 
 in the county. In the entire six years he has owned it, 
 he has made it pay each year, after deducting all ex- 
 penses and taxes, a profit of 6 per cent, per annum. 
 He has increased its value from $75 per acre to $150 per 
 acre, for he has been offered the latter sum for it. 
 
 So if the author had placed in his possession worn or 
 worn-out soils he would proceed to restore them in the 
 following manner : 
 
 If he lived in the vicinity of a canning factory that 
 canned peas and sugar corn, he would first see that the 
 
 137 
 
138 RESTORING WORN-OUT SOILS 
 
 soil was thoroughly ditched ; then would plow it as early 
 in the spring as possible and plant to early peas. The 
 crop ought to be ready to remove by June 15. They 
 have been removed as early as June 10. 
 
 Immediately after the peas were harvested, he would 
 have the ground thoroughly disced and planted to sugar 
 corn. This crop should be well cultivated and kept clear 
 of weeds. 
 
 If the soil was much worn it is probable you would 
 only receive from the crop of peas and sugar corn 
 enough money to pay expenses, but you would be well 
 started on the road of soil restoration, and that start 
 must be made. 
 
 Early in August he would plant in the sugar corn 
 either vetch or rye. His preference would be vetch 
 always. 
 
 Under no circumstances would he pasture the stalks of 
 sweet corn, although they are of great value for this 
 purpose, but you must remember that you are engaged 
 in the business of soil building, so do not let greed get 
 the upper hand. Leave the stalks alone for plowing 
 under with the vetch. 
 
 In the spring of next season, about the ist of May 
 he would plow under the vetch and stalks, and about the 
 loth of May plant to field corn, giving same thorough 
 cultivation, and when same was plowed the last time, 
 would sow to rye or vetch. In this case he would as 
 soon sow rye as vetch. 
 
 He would not allow the corn or rye to be pastured, 
 and the following spring would plow the whole under 
 and plant again to field corn. Both these crops of field 
 
RESTORING WORN-OUT SOILS 139 
 
 corn he knows would produce to your surprise and the 
 surprise of your neighbors, and you would be well along 
 on the highway of building up your soil. 
 
 After the second crop of field corn the soil could be 
 planted to wheat, followed with clover. 
 
 If you do not live in the vicinity of a canning factory, 
 then your first planting could be either cowpeas or hun- 
 garian, but these crops should be turned under before 
 the ripening of their seed, and the soil sown to rye or 
 vetch ; the author's preference would be vetch. 
 
 The following spring plow up and plant to field corn, 
 the same at laying-by time to be planted either to vetch 
 or rye, and the next season to be plowed up and put in 
 corn, to be followed with wheat and clover, the clover 
 to be plowed under. 
 
 The author knows that this method of soil building 
 will work grandly, for he has tried it. 
 
 With this method the author can in two seasons grow 
 from 50 to 100 bushels of corn to the acre on most any 
 worn-out soils. 
 
 On fairly good soils results will astonish you. 
 
 If you wish to start alfalfa on a piece of worn soil, 
 and live near a canning factory, sow to peas as directed 
 and follow with sweet corn and vetch; keep off stock 
 and plow under vetch before ripening of the seed, and 
 keep cultivating your ground until middle of July or 
 first of August and sow to alfalfa. Clip the alfalfa 
 when five or six inches high, leaving clippings on the 
 ground, and clip again before winter if growth should 
 be considerable, or allow it to grow the first season with- 
 out clipping. 
 
140 RESTORING WORN-OUT SOILS 
 
 If you do not live near a canning factory, sow Hun- 
 garian, and if ground is much worn, plow under before 
 seed ripens and sow to vetch. But if soil is fairly rich, 
 cut the Hungarian for hay just as seed has formed, and 
 then disc thoroughly and sow to vetch. 
 
 The following spring, in either of the above cases, 
 plow under the vetch before it ripens its seed. Keep 
 the ground cultivated until you are ready to sow the al- 
 falfa seed, which may be any time from the middle of 
 July to the first of August, the earlier the better. If 
 you use care in selecting and sowing your alfalfa seed, 
 you will obtain a splendid stand and crop of alfalfa. 
 
 In case you plow under your Hungarian you lose a 
 year's crop, but suppose you do ; you gain more than you 
 lose in the fertility you gain and the condition in which 
 you get your soil. 
 
 If your soil is not poor and you cut your Hungarian, 
 you will get a vast quantity of fine Hay, which, as stated, 
 the author regards as the best hay that can be grown on 
 the farm, alfalfa alone excepted. 
 
 Peas, Hungarian and vetch planted in the manner 
 stated blaze the way through the perplexities of com- 
 pact, non-inoculated soils to successful alfalfa growing. 
 There is no doubt about it ; try it and see. 
 
 The author has elsewhere stated that it is a great mis- 
 take to allow soils to be idle. There is only one ex- 
 ception, and that is when you are starting a blue grass 
 pasture. 
 
 The soil should ever be occupied in growing a crop 
 intended either for grain, feeding or plowing under. 
 
 Field corn, after it is laid by, ought always to be sown 
 
RESTORING WORN-OUT SOILS 141 
 
 with vetch, rye or clover, even if same field is to be put 
 in corn the next season. 
 
 If wheat ground is to be followed with corn, the same 
 should be disced or broken immediately after wheat is 
 removed and sown to vetch or rye, the same to be 
 plowed under in the spring. 
 
 By following this plan you gain the advantage of 
 tillage, soil covering, and getting organic matter in the 
 soil. 
 
 The author's secret in restoring his " Vetchfalfa 
 Farm " lies in the fact that he has each and every year 
 produced and plowed under large crops of organic mat- 
 ter. He has never allowed any of his corn fields to be 
 pastured and has always sown them to vetch or rye after 
 the corn was laid by, and then the following spring 
 plowed under the cornstalks, rye and vetch. He has 
 banished timothy from the farm and grown alfalfa and 
 hungarian for hay. He has also plowed under hun- 
 garian and above all he has spared the match and plowed 
 under every weed that escaped cultivation and every 
 cornstalk grown on the farm — this, supplemented with 
 an abundance of green manuring, soil covering and some 
 manure, has so restored the soil of this farm that it 
 produces bumper crops of corn, potatoes and any crop 
 the author wishes to grow upon it. 
 
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CHAPTER XV 
 
 KING CORN 
 
 CORN has been proclaimed the King of all Cere- 
 als, and who can dispute his title ? 
 While corn is of one species, its varieties are 
 numerous. It is one of the most beautiful and useful 
 plants that grows. Owing to its being so common, we 
 lose sight of its beauty, yet in parts of the world it is 
 cultivated as an ornamental plant. 
 
 More people eat corn than any other grain except rice. 
 
 Corn is the farmer's best crop, because it not only fur- 
 nishes food for himself and beasts, but returns the most 
 money for the least labor and expense of any crop on 
 the farm. 
 
 Corn is not adapted to all climates. But while it is 
 affected by climate and soil, yet by continuous cultiva- 
 tion from the same seed, year after year, it can be made 
 to establish itself in most any locality. 
 
 Corn, being distinctly an American plant, is produced 
 chiefly on American soil. But not all our soils will 
 produce corn. The " corn belt " is limited, embracing 
 chiefly the great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, 
 Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. Other states grow it, 
 but not to the extent of the states mentioned. 
 
 There was produced in the corn belt in the year 1909 
 
 145 
 
146 KING CORN 
 
 2,772,367,000 bushels of corn, and yet the price of corn 
 is high, showing that the uses of corn are large. 
 
 The consumption capacity of the world for corn is so 
 great that there does not seem to be any danger of an 
 overproduction. In fact, the demand for corn is greater 
 than the supply, or the price would not be so high as it 
 is now. 
 
 On account of our soils losing in fertility, the average 
 bushels per acre is not increasing as it should. 
 
 If corn is the easiest, cheapest and best money-making 
 crop grown on the farm, then farmers should become 
 enthusiastic over any method that will bring about a 
 greater yield per acre. 
 
 In the preceding chapters I have shown the original 
 process of soil building and the best methods of soil 
 restoration. 
 
 The methods of soil building I have detailed are not 
 chimerical, but are real, practical, cheap and at the com- 
 mand of every American farmer. They will put your 
 soil in the right condition to grow 100 bushels of corn 
 per acre. 
 
 While good soil well prepared as a seed bed is the very 
 foundation of a good corn crop, it is not the only thing 
 needed to produce a large crop. You must have good 
 seed. Seed selection is important in any crop. The loss 
 occasioned by poor seed is enormous, and it can all be 
 avoided with a little care. 
 
 Too many of us depend on our seedsmen, and as they 
 assume no liability on account of poor seed, we are help- 
 less if our seeds prove to be bad. 
 
KING CORN 147 
 
 The author purchases every year for his own growing 
 seeds amounting to thousands of dollars, and his long 
 experience in the purchase and growing of seeds has 
 persuaded him that there ought to be a drastic law regu- 
 lating the selling of seeds. There are so many dishonest 
 persons dealing with dishonest seeds that the honest 
 dealer is often imposed upon, but under present methods 
 the grower suffers the entire loss of poor, unreliable 
 seeds. 
 
 Wherever it is possible to do so, the farmer should 
 grow his own seed crop. When it is necessary to pur- 
 chase, deal only with reliable persons and houses. 
 
 Seed corn is so easily grown and cared for. It is said 
 that the best time to begin selecting seed corn is while 
 you are cultivating the corn, by noticing the most prom- 
 ising stalks and ears; but as we are usually too busy at 
 this time to do this, the practical time to select is at husk- 
 ing time. 
 
 In selecting seed corn, the stalks and husks should be 
 first noticed. The ear should be on the stalk at a 
 medium height from the ground, and the ear should bend 
 downward. 
 
 The husks should cover the ear entirely. The follow- 
 ing rules for selecting good seed corn are as good as any 
 that can be given : 
 
 " The ear should be full and strong in middle portion. 
 The circumference in the middle should be about three- 
 fourths of the length of the ear. 
 
 " The rows of kernels should be straight, and not less 
 than 16 nor more than 22 in number. 
 
148 KING CORN 
 
 " The length of ear should be not less than 8^ inches. 
 
 " White cob in yellow corn or red cob in white corn 
 disqualifies. 
 
 " Twelve or more foreign kernels disqualifies. 
 
 " The kernel should be twice as long as it is broad and 
 of medium size. The edges should be nearly straight, 
 so as to leave only a slight crease between rows on out- 
 side of ear. 
 
 " There should be no space between the tips of the 
 kernels, either on sides or edges. 
 
 " Kernel indentation should be regular and fairly deep, 
 but not pinched, which would make crown chaffy. The 
 kernels should be uniform in shape and size. 
 
 " The ear should be firm and sound. The germ should 
 be well developed, indicating strong vitality." 
 
 Seed corn should never be exposed to freezing 
 weather unless it be thoroughly dry, and should be put 
 in a dry place, where ventilation is perfect. 
 
 The time and method of gathering seed corn, as given 
 by the Agricultural Experiment Station of Purdue Uni- 
 versity, is so practical and good that we quote them in 
 full: 
 
 " To get the best seed corn it should be selected in the 
 field after it has matured and while the characters of 
 the parent stalk can be observed. This can be done to 
 the best advantage by going through the field after the 
 corn is mature and before the general harvest begins 
 and picking ears of good size and quality from the stalks 
 that are strong and vigorous looking, but not coarse. 
 There should be a large leaf development. The leaf is 
 the laboratory of the plant where the food it gathers is 
 
KING CORN 149 
 
 manufactured. The stalk should be of medium size, 
 strong at the base and tapering gradually to the tassel. 
 It should stand up well and bear its ears at a convenient 
 height for husking. The shank should be of medium 
 length and strength. A short shank holds the ear too 
 erect, while a long shank allows it to hang over too far. 
 Ears on long shanks or high up on the stalk are more 
 likely to pull down the stalk during a wind storm, be- 
 sides being inconvenient to husk. The ears selected 
 should be strong and well developed, with straight rows 
 of regular sized kernels. The kernels should be rather 
 deeply dented. The smoother kernels are generally shal- 
 low and will not produce so well. The seed ears should 
 always be a little rougher than the average of the crop, 
 otherwise the variety will become smoother each year 
 and the kernels shallower. The dent, however, should 
 run squarely across the kernel, and there should be no 
 sharp or pointed margins. 
 
 " Seed corn should never be picked before it is mature. 
 An immature kernel has not had time to store up all 
 the food it wanted, and consequently will be more or less 
 weak in vitality. Early picked corn, if well preserved, 
 may germinate well under favorable conditions, but its 
 constitution has been weakened, and the yield will be 
 correspondingly lessened. Nature should be allowed to 
 ripen the seed in her own way. 
 
 " Selecting seed corn from the crib is always objec- 
 tionable. The vitality has generally been more or less 
 injured, and, while the ears selected may have a good 
 appearance, one can tell nothing as to the character of 
 the stalks which produced them. Numerous experi- 
 
I50 KING CORN 
 
 ments have shown that crib corn produces smaller yields 
 than corn that has been properly selected in the field and 
 well preserved through the winter. 
 
 " The quantity of seed corn selected from the field 
 should always be considerably more than will be needed 
 for planting, so that there may be room for further and 
 more critical selection later on. If the quantity of seed 
 ears selected before the general husking is insufficient, it 
 is a good plan to have a small box attached to the out- 
 side of the wagon box into which desirable seed ears 
 found while husking can be put." 
 
 When you buy seed corn, get it on the ear and from 
 a place in your same latitude, and an early variety. 
 
 All seed corn should be tested before planting. The 
 importance of this is seen when we consider that gen- 
 erally farmers do not get more than an average of 75 
 per cent, of a stand of corn, when the average should 
 not be less than 95 per cent. After corn has once been 
 planted it is generally too late to replant the entire field 
 if the stand is poor, and I have never known replanted 
 corn in missing hills to make anything more than fodder. 
 
 The method of testing seed as given by the Purdue 
 University Agricultural Experiment Station is as follows : 
 
 " There are many simple methods of making the 
 germination test, but in all cases each ear should be 
 tested by itself. Experiments have shown that as a rule 
 the testing of a few kernels picked at random from dif- 
 ferent parts of the ear will safely determine whether or 
 not the ear should be used for seed. About five kernels 
 should be taken from each ear and kept separate, and the 
 ear from which they came must be marked in such a way 
 
KING CORN 151 
 
 that it can be readily located after the test is made. In 
 selecting the kernels for the test, take one from near the 
 butt, three from various parts of the middle portion, and 
 one from near the tip. Look for elevated or swollen 
 spots on the ear from which to take the kernels. If 
 there are any weak germs, they are likely to be found on 
 the swollen spots, because there the cob was probably 
 more or less spongy and retained moisture after the rest 
 of the ear was dry and out of danger of being injured. 
 
 " The requisites for germination are moisture, warmth 
 and air. Any chamber or vessel in which these can be 
 provided will answer the purpose. The exact method 
 employed will be largely a matter of convenience. An 
 ordinary dinner plate with a double fold of moistened 
 muslin between which the kernels can be laid, covered 
 with another plate to prevent too rapid drying, makes a 
 very good germinating chamber. A shallow box into 
 which several lots of kernels may be laid between folds 
 of moistened paper and covered with a lid will do. A 
 shallow box containing moist earth or sawdust in which 
 the kernels may be planted may also be handy. In any 
 case the tester should be put in a warm place, but not 
 too near the stove. The temperature of the ordinary 
 living room is about right, provided that it does not be- 
 come colder than 55 degrees during the night." 
 
 After seed has been properly saved and tested, and 
 having your soil built up in the manner I have detailed 
 in previous chapters, the next important step is the 
 preparation of the seed bed. 
 
 In a previous chapter I showed the importance of 
 breaking up the soil at the right time, and assuming that 
 
152 KING CORN 
 
 that is done properly, the same should be worked down 
 to as nearly level as possible immediately after plowing. 
 The best plan is to run over each half-day's plowing with 
 some good pulverizer. A level, well-pulverized surface 
 absorbs heat and retains moisture, both essential to good 
 corn growth. 
 
 A pulverizer should be used that will pulverize the 
 soil to a depth of at least three inches. 
 
 Where soil is dry at plowing time, or where a heavy 
 coating of green crops or organic matter has been plowed 
 under, I would advise the use of a roller or drag before 
 using a pulverizer. No time is lost by running the 
 pulverizer over your fields in opposite directions. We 
 all hurry too much in preparing the seed bed. If we 
 would run the pulverizer over our fields a dozen times, 
 or for a week before planting, it would more than pay 
 us for the time spent. Our soil would be level, mellow 
 and in good tilth. The planter could be run with ease 
 and at a uniform depth, and the seed would be placed 
 in a bed of warm, moist earth, surrounded by every con- 
 dition conducive to quick, healthy growth, thus securing 
 a better stand of corn. The growth of weeds would be 
 so checked that the corn would have a chance to reach 
 the cultivating stage before they were of any size. 
 
 Having the seed bed in proper condition, the next im- 
 portant step is planting. In the main part of the corn 
 belt the best time to plant is between the ist and loth of 
 May. As a rule, planting cannot be done with safety 
 before May i unless the spring is early and the soil is in 
 excellent condition as to dryness and warmth. In the 
 south part of the corn belt planting may be earlier. It 
 
KING CORN 153 
 
 is not infrequently the case that good seed will fail to 
 grow when planted too early or when the soil is too moist 
 and cold. Heat, air and moisture cause the growth of 
 seeds, and the seeds must have just the right proportion 
 of each ; too much of either one is injurious to the plant. 
 
 The earth should be pressed firmly over the seed, 
 which causes the moisture to come in contact with the 
 outer covering of the seed and produces a sufficient 
 amount of heat by preventing air circulating too freely 
 around the seed. The seed placed in the soil under 
 favorable conditions commences to grow at once. 
 
 Again, corn should not be planted too deeply. 
 
 In my long experience in growing sweet corn I have 
 learned that two-thirds of the poor stands may be at- 
 tributed entirely to too deep planting. I make it a rule 
 to plant not over one inch in depth, and when seed is 
 good always get 95 per cent, and over of a stand. 
 Planted five inches in depth, the seed will not germinate 
 5 per cent. The same is true as to field corn. A cover- 
 ing of one inch is sufficient. Covered three inches or 
 more, growth is unhealthy and not rapid. 
 
 Corn has two sets of roots, one above the surface and 
 the other underground. The ones above the surface are 
 the brace roots, and do not perform their functions until 
 the plant is of considerable size, generally not until the 
 corn is laid by. These roots are important to corn 
 growth, because they push out and penetrate deeply into 
 the ground at a time when the corn plant is bearing its 
 harvest and needs to be supported from the onslaught of 
 winds and storms. 
 
 These brace roots shoot out from the plant above its 
 
154 KING CORN 
 
 first joint, about an inch above the grain. Plant the 
 grain too deep, a new and unnatural joint must be 
 formed at the surface (it is never formed under the sur- 
 face), from which the brace roots begin to grow. This 
 new joint-forming process stays the growth of the plant 
 until the new joint is formed. 
 
 Heretofore I have tried to impress upon my readers 
 the fact that we should study Nature's ways of doing 
 things, so that we may avoid doing that which crosses 
 her, for if we do we pay the penalty. 
 
 A study of corn growth will convince any student of 
 nature that corn is injured when its seed is planted to 
 a greater depth than one inch. If this be true, then the 
 practice of planting corn in a furrow and filling the 
 furrow by cultivation is wrong. 
 
 Next to planting the corn the proper depth is a good 
 corn planter with which to plant the seed. 
 
 A poor corn planter is about the worst nuisance on the 
 farm. Get the best that can be procured, and consign 
 all poor ones to the scrap heap. 
 
 In selecting seed corn discard tips and butts and run 
 seed through a grader so same is of uniform size before 
 using in planter. The planter should be set for planting 
 two grains to the hill. 
 
 Extra strong soil will mature three grains to the hill, 
 but under all conditions I have found that it is best to 
 only plant two grains to the hill ; but in planting two 
 grains to the hill it is very important that you have good 
 seed or your stand may be poor. 
 
 Between planting and cultivating there elapses gen- 
 erally two weeks. Sometimes, on account of rains, this 
 
KING CORN 155 
 
 time may be extended, especially if our soils are natu- 
 rally wet and not well drained. When it is possible to 
 work the soil we should not be idle during this time. 
 We must not forget that a crust on the soil causes the 
 soil moisture to evaporate very rapidly. A loose soil 
 prevents this and absorbs moisture from the air. 
 
 An insufficient quantity of available moisture is a great 
 cause for short crops, hence the importance of doing that 
 which will conserve the moisture so the corn roots will 
 absorb it. 
 
 Nothing conserves moisture in the soil like a soil mulch. 
 This soil mulch is the great secret of corn cultivation. 
 A large crop of corn cannot be grown without it, so the 
 necessity of beginning to create soil mulch in the earlier 
 stage of corn growing, or between planting and culti- 
 vating time. It will practically stop all moisture evap- 
 oration from the surface of the soil, and stirring the soil 
 will kill the weeds, so to procure this soil mulch the 
 harrow or pulverizer should be run over the planted corn 
 before the corn sprout has pushed its way through the 
 soil. 
 
"WELL! I WONDER WHICH LS THE BEST SEED EAR." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE CULTURE OF CORN 
 
 CORN can only reach its highest stage of develop- 
 ment when it is properly cultivated. The corn 
 root is the mouth of the corn plant, as its food 
 is collected from the soil and fed to it through its roots, 
 hence the necessity of protecting the corn roots and put- 
 ting about them the environments essential to their best 
 development and growth. 
 
 The corn roots must be protected so they can perform 
 their functions of collecting plant food undisturbed. 
 
 Any method of cultivation that destroys any portion of 
 the corn roots is disastrous to the corn plant, and reduces 
 the yield in proportion to the amount of roots destroyed. 
 
 Eminent professors of corn culture have by experi- 
 ments proven that corn roots pruned to the depth of 
 three inches, six inches from the hill, cut the yield six 
 bushels to the acre, and four inches deep, eighteen bush- 
 els to the acre. 
 
 Cultivating deep and tearing off the corn roots after 
 the second cultivation will decrease the yield from three 
 to twenty bushels to the acre; so any method of corn 
 cultivation that destroys the roots must be abandoned if 
 we would secure the highest and best yield. 
 
 As to the two first cultivations, corn may be cultivated 
 
 159 
 
i6o THE CULTURE OF CORN 
 
 deeply, but after that the cultivation should not exceed 
 one or two inches in depth. 
 
 Corn roots must have plenty of moisture, and they 
 seek this moisture near the surface. During the grow- 
 ing season the corn plant will absorb its own weight of 
 water over and over again, and as this water passes 
 through the corn system the corn food is carried into the 
 cells of the leaves, where the sunlight transforms it into 
 the material that the plant needs in its growth. 
 . It is said that the leaves of the corn plant on an acre 
 of soil will throw off during a season water that would 
 cover the ground to a depth of ten inches. 
 
 This, if true would prove that we must conserve the 
 soil moisture if we successfully grow corn. This is the 
 most important feature of corn culture, and one we must 
 learn and appreciate. 
 
 That system of corn culture must be adopted which 
 will conserve the soil moisture so that it may be avail- 
 able in sufficient quantities during each day of the growth 
 of the corn plant. The moisture must not be allowed to 
 evaporate from the ground. 
 
 The only way to preserve soil moisture and prevent 
 evaporation is to keep stirring the ground to the depth 
 of one or two inches, so as to procure the soil mulch or 
 blanket of finely pulverized soil on top of the ground. 
 We must ever keep in mind that corn has but two sets 
 of roots, feeding and bracing. The feeding roots are 
 small and tender, and run out from the plant in a ho- 
 rizontal direction and when full grown exceed the height 
 of the stalk. They first appear but a few inches below 
 the surface and never penetrate to the depth at which 
 
THE CULTURE OF CORN i6i 
 
 the soil was broken until the corn is in silk. An exam- 
 ination of the field during the growing season from the 
 second cultivation to the " laying-by " time will show 
 these feeding roots occupying the entire soil between 
 the rows of corn. 
 
 When the corn reaches its silking stage these roots 
 will appear in great quantities. They are searching for 
 food and moisture to complete the growth of the corn 
 plant; hence the necessity of their protection and con- 
 serving the moisture for their use. 
 
 No weeds must be allowed to grow, as they rob the 
 corn roots of food and moisture needed for the corn 
 plant. Cultivation must be kept up as long as possible, 
 so that the soil moisture may be maintained until the 
 corn plant has stored sufficient food to mature its ears 
 of corn. 
 
 My most successful method of corn culture is to first 
 run the harrow or weeder over the corn a few days after 
 planting and before the com has come through the soil. 
 One good harrowing with the harrow or weeder before 
 the corn is up does more good than two or three plow- 
 ings as it kills all sprouting weeds and stirs all portions 
 of the soil. In fact a weeder can be used to great ad- 
 vantage in cultivating corn from the time it is planted 
 until it reaches a height of several inches, running over 
 the corn several times during that period. 
 
 The author knows of a farmer who uses the weeder on 
 his corn from the time it is planted until it is knee high, 
 going over his corn as many as five or six times during 
 that period. 
 
 When the farmer was first noticed doing this he was 
 
i62 THE CULTURE OF CORN 
 
 asked in a spirit of derision if he intended to gather his 
 corn with a weeder. But this farmer's corn is always 
 entirely free from weeds and produces fine yields no 
 matter how dry the season may be. 
 
 When the corn is large enough plow the corn each way 
 as deep as possible getting as close to the corn as you can. 
 All cultivation after this must be such as stirs the soil 
 to the depth of an inch, the cultivation to be frequent 
 and kept up until the corn is well along towards matur- 
 ity. When corn is too large to cultivate with two-horse 
 cultivators, a one-horse cultivator that barely scratches 
 the soil should be frequently used. 
 
 Good corn culture means an early starting and a late 
 discontinuance of the cultivators. 
 
 I have known corn yields to be cut short by lack of 
 early and late cultivation. When the growth of corn has 
 been once stunted the damage done cannot be repaired. 
 
 I once gave one-half of a field of corn two late culti- 
 vations with a one-horse combined harrow and cultivator, 
 and increased the yield nearly ten bushels per acre over 
 the half not cultivated. 
 
 The corn's crisis is when it has completed its stalk 
 growth and begins making the ear. If at this time the 
 dry season begins and soil becomes so compact and dry 
 that moisture and air is excluded, conditions favorable 
 to the proper maturity of the ear are cut short. At this 
 critical time the cultivators should be kept moving. 
 
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CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SWEET CORN 
 
 SWEET corn is used almost entirely for human 
 food, so vast quantities of it are consumed upon 
 our dining tables. A favorite way of cooking it 
 is to boil it on the cob, and served in this manner it is 
 regarded as one of the " courses of the most refined and 
 epicurean dishes." The great canning industry of the 
 United States also consumes great quantities of it, their 
 average yearly pack being over six million cases, of two 
 dozen cans each. 
 
 The sweet corn plant cut up and properly cured for 
 fodder makes a valuable feed for all stock, one of the 
 most valuable that can be grown on the farm. Stock 
 will entirely consume it. As a winter feed for horses it 
 excels in value any feed grown. It puts and keeps 
 horses in good condition. It cannot be overfed, and 
 horses and cattle will almost entirely subsist upon it 
 through the winter season, coming out in the spring in 
 fine condition. It is one of the best milk-producing 
 feeds grown, producing quantities of well-tasting rich 
 milk. Where dairying is carried on to a large extent 
 sweet corn fodder is considered worth ten dollars per 
 acre. Some even claim that one acre is equal to eight 
 acres of grass, and worth more than two acres of any 
 forage crop grown. 
 
 165 
 
i66 SWEET CORN 
 
 Sweet corn fodder should be cut when the leaves are 
 glazing and put in small shocks for curing. 
 
 In habit of growth sweet corn is smaller than field 
 corn, but otherwise its characteristics are similar. It 
 requires the same soil, attention and cultivation to grow 
 it as field corn. 
 
 Like field corn, its varieties are many. The varieties 
 chiefly grown for canning purposes are Stowell's Ever- 
 green, Early Evergreen, Crosby's Early and Country 
 Gentlemen, the first and last named being the leaders. 
 
 While Stowell's Evergreen has large ears, it is the 
 sweetest and most valuable of all. The author's large 
 and long experience with it for canning purposes has 
 convinced him that this variety gathered in the right 
 stage comes nearer filling the requirements for a perfect 
 sweet corn than any variety that is grown. While it is 
 true that the Country Gentlemen variety has the reputa- 
 tion and sells for the most money, yet Stowell's Ever- 
 green plucked at the right stage has a flavor that cannot 
 be excelled. 
 
 In the main sweet corn belt it can be planted from 
 May I to July i. Planting in wet, cold soils must be 
 avoided, as the seed will rot. The planting of the seed 
 should never exceed an inch in depth. As stated in the 
 previous chapter, a poor stand of sweet corn can be at- 
 tributed nine times out of ten to too deep planting of the 
 seed. 
 
 The seed must have just the right amount of heat and 
 moisture to germinate it properly, yet there is no diffi- 
 culty in securing a stand if one is careful in planting it 
 when ground is warm and not too wet. 
 
SWEET CORN 167 
 
 ■ There seems to be a disposition to plant sweet corn 
 too thick. This is a mistake. There should never be to 
 exceed three grains to a hill, and when drilled set drill 
 to drop about one foot apart. 
 
 Good seed ought to test 95 per cent. ; where it tests 
 less than this I would advise hand picking the seed, pick- 
 ing out the brightest and best grains. It pays to do this, 
 and it can be done in bad days of spring when other work 
 cannot be done. 
 
 Canning factories pay from five to ten dollars per ton 
 for sweet corn jerked from the stalk, and delivered to 
 the factory in a green stage fit for canning. Some fac- 
 tories have a system of grading or testing by which a 
 bushel is taken from each load and shucked and weighed, 
 when it must come up to a certain fixed standard, but 
 generally it is bought by the ton just as it is jerked in 
 the field. The ten-dollar price is paid for the smaller 
 eared variety like Country Gentlemen, which do not pro- 
 duce a large number of tons per acre. The highest price 
 paid for heavy yielding varieties, like Stowell's Ever- 
 green, is eight dollars per ton, and at this price there is 
 money in growing it, as it will produce from four to six 
 tons per acre, to which add the value of the fodder and 
 you have one of the most profitable crops grown on the 
 farm. If it does not prove a profitable crop it is because 
 it has been planted on poor soil or its cultivation has been 
 neglected. It will respond and produce fine paying crops 
 if given a chance. The author has known farmers to put 
 it on their poorest, worst drained soil, give it practically 
 no cultivation and then curse and condemn it as a non- 
 money maker. He knew one farmer who planted five 
 
i68 SWEET CORN 
 
 acres and never cultivated it once, and then he expressed 
 himself that there was no money in growing it. 
 
 Sweet corn to be fit for eating or canning must be 
 harvested when the shucks are green and while the 
 grain is in the milky stage. It is of no value for eating 
 or canning when the shuck is yellow and the grain is 
 hard. It must be brought to the factory the day har- 
 vested. If allowed to stand in the wagon over night it 
 heats and becomes valueless. While it is true that fac- 
 tories hold it over the night, yet they put it on cement 
 or ventilated floors, where it is spread out thin so that 
 air reaches into the interior of the pile and where there 
 is no danger of its heating. 
 
 Sweet corn has an enemy in the worm found in the 
 end of the ear at certain seasons of the year, and which 
 is said to be the same worm that destroys the cotton 
 crop, the Boll worm, which does serious damage to its 
 ears. While this worm is found to some extent in all 
 sweet corn, it is chiefly found in sweet corn grown in 
 warmer latitude. For this reason sweet corn grown 
 south of a line parallel with the Ohio river cannot be 
 grown for or handled by canning factories with profit, 
 as the work of removing the corn damaged by the worm 
 adds too much expense to the finished product. 
 
 In the sweet corn growing section this worm appears 
 late in the season, but it has been known to make its 
 appearance before the season was more than one-half 
 past, and to put a complete stop to further operations of 
 factories. It always appears to a considerable extent in 
 late planting. For that reason sweet corn for canning 
 purposes should never be planted later than June 15 to 
 
SWEET CORN 169 
 
 20. No remedy has yet been discovered by which this 
 worm or its parent can be destroyed. 
 
 The chief sweet corn growing states for canning pur- 
 poses are Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, New York, Mary- 
 land, Wisconsin and Indiana. The states are named in 
 the order as to quantity produced for canning. While 
 Maine has the reputation of packing the best corn, yet 
 all the other states mentioned can and do pack just as 
 good corn as Maine. 
 
 The canning of sweet corn so as to be palatable is an 
 art in which but few are skilled. The best of sweet corn 
 can be spoiled in canning. Like the preparation of any 
 food, so as to be a delight to the taste, it is generally up 
 to the cook. 
 
 Sweet corn to be good must be sweet, and this sweet- 
 ness cannot be artificially supplied by the addition of 
 sugar, for the original sweetness cannot be imitated. 
 
 No northern state has any advantage over another as 
 to possessing a soil or climate that will produce sweet 
 corn containing an abundance of natural sweet, for 
 southern states will grow sweeter sweet corn than any 
 northern state. It is a fact, however, that sweet corn 
 grown on sandy soil will contain more sugar than that 
 grown on muck or heavy black soils. If Maine packs 
 better corn it is because she has better cooks in her can- 
 ning factories, and possesses more skill in knowing how 
 to handle the raw material so as to prevent it from de- 
 teriorating before it gets into the can. 
 
 Sugar begins to disappear from sweet corn as soon as 
 the ear is separated from the stalk. A chemical change 
 sets about at once and the sugar is transformed into 
 
I70 SWEET CORN 
 
 other substances. The rapidity of this changing process 
 can be arrested to a certain extent only by handling the 
 corn quickly and keeping it at as low a temperature as 
 possible. A large body of plucked sweet corn will heat 
 very quickly and become worthless, because the chemical 
 change brought about by the heating destroys the sugar 
 in the corn. If any northern section of the country has 
 any advantage over another in producing good sweet 
 sugar corn, it is because it has such a low temperature 
 that the corn can be kept in a tender and cool stage for 
 a longer period of time. 
 
 An excessive rainfall is injurious to sweet corn. Dur- 
 ing a dry season if a healthy growth can be maintained 
 the product will contain more sugar. By proper cultiva- 
 tion during dry weather a healthy growth can be main- 
 tained and a large growth of corn can be produced. 
 The author demonstrated this during the seasons of 1908 
 and 1909 to his complete satisfaction. The season of 
 1908 was very dry, and his crop of sweet corn was the 
 best quality and the best yield he ever produced. The 
 season of 1909 was too wet, and his crop did not come 
 up to quantity produced to the acre by a ton or more, 
 and the quality was not as good. 
 
 When the skin of the grains of sweet corn is broken 
 it undergoes fermentative changes at a rapid rate be- 
 cause of its high percentage of sugar, and this also 
 affords an opportunity for dangerous bacteria to enter 
 into the corn juices, resulting in sour corn, the canners' 
 worst enemy. No amount of heat that can be applied 
 by canning apparatus will destroy them. It is said that 
 the source of the germ of these bacteria is from the ears 
 
SWEET CORN 171 
 
 of corn, their presence being found on the kernels be- 
 neath the husks. 
 
 All this shows the necessity of great care in getting 
 sweet corn into the factory in the right stage, condition 
 and manner and the proper handling of it in the factory. 
 
 Sweet corn has a low conducting power of heat, hence 
 the necessity of a long period of heating in order that 
 bacteria that produce spoliation be killed. If not suffi- 
 ciently heated the center of the can is not sterilized and 
 souring begins there. 
 
 The reason the housewife does not successfully can 
 sweet corn is because she does not submit it to a proper 
 heating process. If she would boil it seven hours in a 
 kettle it probably would keep for her. 
 
 A woman once asked the author the name of the acid 
 he used in his canning factory to preserve sweet corn in 
 the can from spoiling, and when she was informed that 
 no acid was used, but that the preserving process was 
 obtained solely by sterilization or heat, she was incredu- 
 lous and went away firmly believing that the author was 
 lying. 
 
A GOOD TYPE OF SWEKT CORN SEED, STOWELL'S 
 EVERCikI'LEX. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A CHAPTER OF DON't FORGETS 
 
 DON'T FORGET — That soil is as jealous as 
 a lover; neglect or mistreat it and its bounty 
 is withdrawn. Caress and feed it, it yields a 
 hundredfold. 
 
 Don't Forget — That a farmer becomes a soil robber 
 when he does not each year put back into the soil more 
 organic matter than he farmed out of it. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the corn stalk is one of the 
 farmer's best by-products. A ton of them contains six- 
 teen pounds of nitrogen and nearly as many pounds of 
 potash, and the organic matter in them is of inestimable 
 value for supplying humus to the soil. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the moisture-conserving ca- 
 pacity of the soil is increased by the plowing under of 
 large amounts of organic matter. 
 
 Don't Forget — That organic matter in the soil aids 
 soil ventilation, and furnishes supplies of nitrogen for 
 the growing plant. 
 
 Don't Forget — That rye, hungarian and the legumes 
 are the best producers of organic matter. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the farmer who refuses to sup- 
 ply the wants of his soil is traveling along the highway 
 of the abandoned farm. 
 
 175 
 
176 A CHAPTER ON DON'T FORGETS 
 
 Don't Forget — That it takes less than fifty years to 
 farm out the fertility of the soil if none is added in the 
 meantime. 
 
 Don't Forget — That England's soil, after a tillage of 
 centuries, is as fertile to-day as in any stage of its exist- 
 ence, kept so by sane methods of soil building. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the entire prosperity of our 
 country is founded on the fertility of our soil, and that 
 he only is a patriot who lends his aid to conserve that 
 fertility. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the conservation of soil wealth 
 means a full dinner pail in the hands of every working- 
 man, a loaf of bread on every dining table and comfort- 
 able clothing on every human body. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the conservation and increas- 
 ing of soil fertility means the building up of an empire 
 in our Middle West, richer in power and splendor than 
 any ever dreamed or imagined. 
 
 Don't Forget — That environment and greed has 
 made us soil robbers, that we must get away from that 
 environment and greed or perish. 
 
 Don't Forget — That he who gets closest to the soil 
 reaps its richest reward. 
 
 Don't Forget — That he only is a farmer who loves 
 and feeds his soil. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the proper feeding of the soil 
 requires the exercise of a fertile brain. 
 
 Don't Forget — That a farmer who does not love his 
 soil will mistreat it. 
 
 Don't Forget — That a soil robber is always a man 
 of greed. 
 
A CHAPTER ON DON'T FORGETS 177 
 
 Don't Forget — That soil building is but the applica- 
 tion of simple common sense to the solution of simple 
 agricultural problems. 
 
 Don't Forget — That no one is worthy the name of 
 farmer unless he is willing to do that which will give his 
 soil a chance to do its best. 
 
 Don't Forget — That for soil to do its best it must 
 be fed the food elements it needs. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the soil robber is the highway- 
 man of agriculture. 
 
 Don't Forget — That crop rotation alone will not 
 build up your soil. 
 
 Don't Forget — That you cannot get too much or- 
 ganic matter in your soil. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the farmer should be trained 
 for his work as the lawyer is trained for his profession. 
 
 Don't Forget — That he who expects to build up his 
 soil by crop rotation alone is doomed to failure and bitter 
 disappointment. 
 
 Don't Forget — That it requires as much intelligence 
 to direct the business of building up the soil as it does to 
 direct the affairs of trade or commerce. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the more intelligence you put 
 into your soil the more money value you will extract 
 from it. 
 
 Don't Forget — That farm values are based on soil 
 fertility. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the soil, like the horse, gives its 
 best service when it is well groomed and fed. 
 
 Don't Forget — That he gets closest to the soil who 
 studies its whims, its moods and its needs. 
 
178 A CHAPTER ON DON'T FORGETS 
 
 Don't Forget — That soil building is the most vital 
 problem of the age. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the legume crops furnish the 
 " balanced ration " needed for soils. 
 
 Don't Forget — That a breathing soil means a living, 
 fruitful crop. That soil cannot breathe unless it is 
 ditched and full of organic matter. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the ratio of increase of your 
 soil will be in proportion to your interest in scientific 
 farming. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the great secret of soil restora- 
 tion is to keep your soil busy growing crops for both 
 harvesting and plowing under. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the soil that produces the poor- 
 est crops is like an inferior farm product — it doesn't 
 bring the price. 
 
 Don't Forget — That improved agriculture is brought 
 about by fertile brains as well as fertile fields. 
 
 Don't Forget — That when Nature built the original 
 soil she used a lavish supply of organic matter in its 
 construction. 
 
 Don't Forget — That to pull every day a full two- 
 horse load requires two horses well fed and groomed. 
 To make the soil pull its load of good crops it must be 
 fed and groomed each day. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the real farmer is one who 
 manages so as to put back each year into the soil more 
 fertility than was extracted from it by growing crops. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the bedrock of the paying farm 
 is soil, well fed. 
 
 Don't Forget — That your success in soil restoration 
 
A CHAPTER ON DON'T FORGETS 179 
 
 depends on your gumption to catch onto Nature's ways 
 of soil building. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the farmer who has no thought 
 beyond the year's profit, has his soil headed towards the 
 doom of soil exhaustion. 
 
 Don't Forget — That you increase the value of your 
 soil in proportion to what you feed it. 
 
 Don't Forget — That skilled workmen are required 
 in all trades, why not on the farm ? 
 
 Don't Forget — That our entire substance comes from 
 the soil. If it fails us, we perish. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the American farmer has yet 
 to learn the lesson of " proper feeding of the soil." 
 
 Don't Forget — That soil is as sensitive and resentive 
 of neglect as a human being. 
 
 Don't Forget — That in the history of nations no 
 crisis ever came but what God produced the man to 
 handle it, so in the crisis of soil exhaustion God has pro- 
 duced the plant or material that will restore it. 
 
 Don't Forget — That you cannot get anything out of 
 worn-out soil until you put something in it. 
 
 Don't Forget — That you must forget the way the 
 pioneer farmed. You must think only of the way the 
 soil must be farmed to-day. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the purpose of this book is not 
 so much to tell people exactly how to enrich the soil, as 
 it is to rightly direct their thoughts and investigations 
 that they may help themselves to solve the soil problem. 
 
 Don't Forget — That your severest test is in getting 
 your worn-out soil started towards increasing fertility. 
 
 Don't Forget — That in pushing along the worn-out 
 
i8o A CHAPTER ON DON'T FORGETS 
 
 soil towards fertility, it's the keeping at it that furnishes 
 the momentum that accomplished results. 
 
 Don't Forget — ^That it is said that the net income 
 of the average farmer is greater than the net income of 
 the average city man, but that average cannot be main- 
 tained without increasing the fertility of the soil. 
 
 Don't Forget — That much of soil building is being 
 done like he who is trying to pull a two-horse load with 
 one horse hitched to the end of the tongue. 
 
 Don't Forget — That you cannot build up your soil 
 as long as you continue to carry to the barn everything 
 that grows upon it. 
 
 Don't Forget — That covering the soil with green 
 crops is one of the farmer's best methods of soil building. 
 
 Don't Forget — That organic matter gone up into 
 smoke leaves no residue of value to the soil. 
 
 Don't Forget — That crop rotation is a gay deceiver. 
 
 Don't Forget — That it has been said that the soil is 
 a living thing. The better reason why it should be fed. 
 
 Don't Forget — That prosperous looking farms and 
 farm buildings are but the reflex of a fertile soil. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the man behind the plow is no 
 longer a force in a community when his plow is turning 
 infertile or worn-out soil. 
 
 Don't Forget — That it is folly to select and plant 
 good seed in soil too poor to grow and mature them to a 
 paying crop. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the men who once grew big 
 crops on our worn-out soils were poor farmers or else 
 these soils would now be rich in fertility. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the policy of properly feeding 
 
A CHAPTER ON DON'T FORGETS i8i 
 
 the soil is not only good for future generations, but for 
 the farmer who practices it. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the farmer who does not ever 
 have in view the conservation and increasing of soil fer- 
 tility is obstructing his own way to success. 
 
 Don't Forget — That he who produces the best crops 
 is the one who ditches and feeds his soil the best. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the farmer who says he cannot 
 afford to plow under green crops, will soon say there is 
 no money in farming. 
 
 Don't Forget — That there is no limit to the possi- 
 bilities of our well-drained soils so long as we do not 
 limit their feed of organic matter. 
 
 Don't Forget — That you cannot overfeed your soil 
 with organic matter. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the truly successful soil builder 
 is the one who drains his soil, tills it well, feeds it large 
 quantities of organic matter and keeps it busy with grow- 
 ing crops. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the physical condition and 
 available plant food of the soil can only be maintained 
 by feeding it with plenty of animal and vegetable matter. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the foundation of soil building 
 is draining. 
 
 Don't Forget — That draining a soil is like currying 
 a horse — it opens the pores and increases circulation. 
 
 Don't Forget — That organic matter is farmed out 
 of the soil in less than four years ; hence the necessity of 
 adding to the supply each year. 
 
 Don't Forget — That well-drained soil full of or- 
 ganic matter is never sour. 
 
i82 A CHAPTER ON DON'T FORGETS 
 
 Don't Forget — That it is the folly of follies to use 
 commercial fertilizer on soils lacking in organic matter. 
 
 Don't Forget — That it takes as much plant food to 
 grow weeds as corn ; kill the weeds. 
 
 Don't Forget — That the boy and the girl are two of 
 the best products of the farmer, if trained along the 
 lines of scientific agriculture and farm domestic science. 
 
THE FARMER'S BEST PRODUCT, IF EDUCATED ALONG 
 THE LINES OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 IF in the perusal of the preceding chapters the reader 
 has imbibed some of the author's enthusiasm for 
 soil building, crop-growing and love of nature, then 
 the mission of this book has borne good fruit. 
 
 There is no grander nor more useful study than the 
 study of the soil problem. It is a study that is of more 
 vital interest to the public than any other, for the very 
 fabric of life depends upon its correct solution. 
 
 Since penning the proem and introduction of this book 
 a mighty agitation has swept over and into every part of 
 our country regarding the high price of living. 
 
 The price of farm products and manufactured goods 
 being higher than known for years, our people are en- 
 gaged in a great discussion trying to ascertain the cause 
 of these high prices. 
 
 The concensus of opinion seems to be that the chief 
 cause of high prices is the fact that too many of our 
 people have left the farms for our cities, so the cry has 
 gone up that the only solution of the question of high 
 prices is " more producers and less consumers." " Back 
 to the Farm " is the slogan. 
 
 Our educational system is faulty. The boy and the 
 girl have been educated away from the lines of agricul- 
 ture and farm domestic science. 
 
 185 
 
i86 CONCLUSION 
 
 The ambitious country boy with bright, sharp intellect 
 has had held up to him only the ideals of business and 
 professional life. The soil problems, the love of nature, 
 the joy and financial returns of farming fertile fields and 
 the peacefulness of good farm surroundings have had no 
 place in his education, so he has grown up believing that 
 no true happiness or financial gain is to be found on the 
 farm. 
 
 The farmer boy so educated has drifted into the 
 never-ending strife and worry of city men and business, 
 and our farms have lost the best bloom of our young 
 manhood.- 
 
 True, some of the boys have attained success and emi- 
 nence, and maybe happiness, but the vast majority of 
 the mighty army of boys who have drifted from the 
 farm into the cities bear the marks of disappointment 
 and blasted lives ; they have not gotten out of life what 
 they would have gotten had they been educated along 
 the lines of scientific agriculture and remained on the 
 farm. 
 
 While we are changing our methods of farming, so 
 as to build up our soils, let us so change our educational 
 system that it will educate our boys and girls to live 
 rural lives and help to solve the problem of the soil and 
 of farm domestic science, that the fields of our farms 
 will be made richer, our herds and flocks be built up of 
 better grades, our homes inside and out be made more 
 pleasant and more attractive. 
 
 When this is done the great procession of boys and 
 girls will be headed towards the farm, and the profes- 
 
CONCLUSION 187 
 
 sions, the mercantile and manufacturing business will be 
 relieved of the congestion of workers. 
 
 Nearly forty years ago the author, a boy of fifteen, 
 bid an affectionate adieu to his mother on the old farm 
 porch and set his face towards the city and entered its 
 busy activities. He engaged in mercantile pursuits for 
 a time, attending school and college, educated himself 
 for the profession of law, engaged in the successful prac- 
 tice of his profession for many years, engaged in manu- 
 facturing, farming, political strife and office holding, and 
 now finds himself past the meridian of life with a great 
 fund of experience to his credit. 
 
 But now as the border land of eternity appears to view, 
 realizing that it will be but a short time until " life's fit- 
 ful dream " will be o'er, he yearns to spend the remainder 
 of his days upon the farm, that he may regain some of 
 the lost pleasures of farm life. Upon the farm, where, 
 far removed from the bitter, galling strife of men, he 
 may commune with nature, study soil problems, smell 
 the bloom of vetch and clover, admire the beauty of 
 growing plants, hear the songs of birds and the soothing 
 rustle of the corn, and bask in the delights of sunshine 
 and open sky. 
 
 Farmers of America, you do not realize what God and 
 Nature have done for you. Your lines have indeed 
 " fallen in pleasant places," but oh, so many of you have 
 failed to grasp your opportunities. Ye are God's chosen 
 people and yet you do not act it. 
 
 If you are tempted to leave the farm, command the 
 tempter to get behind you. Stay with your fields, your 
 
i88 CONCLUSION 
 
 flocks and herds, improve your surroundings and make 
 them more attractive; train your boys and girls to be 
 good farmers and housekeepers and enjoy the peaceful, 
 restful life of the farm. 
 
 There's music in the words, " Back to the Farm," but 
 there is sweeter music in the words, " Better Stay on the 
 Farm a While Longer." 
 
 " The farm is the safest and surest. 
 The orchards are loaded to-day; 
 You're as free as the air of the mountains, 
 And monarch of all you survey. 
 
 " Better stay on the farm a while longer, 
 Tho' the profits come in rather slow; 
 Remember you've nothing to risk, boys. 
 Don't be in a hurry to go." 
 
m ^ "^9^2 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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