I 
 
 *e/w 0 
 
 A PAPER BY 
 
 df^. ^ 05 E^T C0F ^||^ M 0 ^|5 
 
 (FARmeR’s msTjTOTe worker) 
 
 OF 
 
 OLH6Y, RJCHEAKP COUHTY, ILLINOIS, 
 
 ON FERTILIZING WITH 
 
 <§)oja iSean^ 
 
 ©lover (Leguminous Nitrogen Gathering Plants) 
 
 and /^rticliol^e^, 
 
 CONTRASTED WITH 
 
 COMMERCIAL OR LAND STIMULA¬ 
 TIVE FERTILIZATION. 
 
 This pamphlet will be sent to any address upon receipt of 
 five 2-cent stamps. Address F. M. Riley 
 & Co., Olney, Ill. 
 
 LILE & EGLESTON PRINTING COMPANY, 
 OLNEY ; ILLINOIS. 
 
 1897. 
 
BUTLER STREET MILLS AND ELEVATOR. 
 
 S. C. Wilson & Co., Proprietors. 
 
 Oeney, IeE., April 23d, 1897. 
 
 We have known the parties who stand for the firm of 
 F. M. Riley & Co. for a number of years. They are reliable 
 and responsible gentlemen. 
 
 [Signed] S. C. WILSON & CO. 
 
 Aden Knoph, Pres. R. N. Stoteer, Cashier. 
 
 FIRST NATIONAL BANK. 
 
 Oeney, Iee., April 23d, 1897. 
 
 I have been acquainted with F. M. Riley & Co. twenty 
 years and have always found them trustworthy. 
 
 [Signed] ADEN KNOPH, Pres. 
 
 It is common to say as to our reliability we refer you to 
 So-and-So. We send you a statement of President Knoph of 
 the First National Bank and the Butler Street Mills people. 
 What we promise will be faithfully carried out. Any failure 
 to receive the seeds on time or mistakes will be ma*de 
 satisfactory. F. M. RILEY & CO. 
 
FERTILIZERS. 
 
 What is a fertilizer? What object do we have in view 
 when we sow or use fertilizers? If we have no other motive 
 than to bring dollars out of the ground, sowing fertilizers is 
 no better than highway robbery. 
 
 Commercial fertilizers is commercial selfishness. 'The 
 thought of leaving the field permanently improved enters but 
 few minds. There are two kinds, commercial and natural. 
 
 Careful inquir3 T among those of our neighbors who have 
 tried the first fails to find anyone who keeps up the practice. 
 If it did they would keep at it. The fact that they do not 
 may be accepted as proof that in our soil and locality it don’t 
 Have we any proof that natural fertilizers pay? We present 
 the testimony; you judge. We suspect a lack of a knowledge 
 of how to follow it up is one cause of its failure in our 
 section. As a matter of fact, commercial fertilizers are some¬ 
 what like clover seed; there are certain well-known conditions 
 of soil that must exist to make the use of commerctal fertil¬ 
 izers a success or profitable. 
 
 Again we use these chemicals without a correct know¬ 
 ledge of the particular element our soil needs. We need the 
 land doctor, who can tell from the color of the blade of corn, 
 wheat or grass. What’s the type of sickness our fields are 
 suffering with? These chemists can make us land medicine, 
 for medicine it is. If the land was in a normal condition we 
 would not need to enrich it. 
 
 The fact that we must put something on or into our soil 
 is an acknowledgment that it is in a low state of productive- 
 
 777919 
 
2 
 
 ness, which means it lacks vitality, is too weak to respond to 
 our demand for a paying crop. Land has conditions that are 
 in exact correspondence to our own infirmities or sicknesses. 
 
 We say So-and-so died with consumption. That is not 
 true. Conditions of the material body became such that the 
 tenant or spiritual life could no longer occupy “this tenement 
 of clay,” and the real man—the mind, memory, intelligence, 
 the soul—took its flight, and there was born into the unseen, 
 or real world, a new inhabitant The material body never had 
 life, it was only that which contained life. It was only a 
 maierial recepticle for the life that was in it. This is an 
 exact corrispondence of the ground. 
 
 Our soil only recieves life, and is a medium in which life 
 forces combine and ultimate into what we call plant life. You 
 may say such a farmer is taking the very life out of his land. 
 It is true only in this sense and in this way: He is helping 
 to bring about conditions that plant life cannot flourish in, 
 and like the consumption, gradually the soil become so 
 devoid of the ability to respond to the demands of plants and 
 nothing will grow. We say such soil is dead. 
 
 The man was of earth earthy, and when life left the body 
 was literally fulfilled; dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Mother 
 earth opened her bosom and took back her child. 
 
 Nitrogen is a quality we do not have enough of; it is the 
 first thing the soil loses. Being so volatile, it escapes into 
 the air, and is a slippery thing to try to hold. While it is so 
 hard to keep, it is also the easiest to capture; but it must 
 have conditions exactly suited to it, or it quickly escapes. 
 The air is composed of four-fifths of nitrogen in combination 
 with other gases. The supply is inexhaustible. - We live in 
 a sea of nitrogen as the fishes live in the sea of water. In 
 commercial fertilizers it is the big item of cost. 
 
 To reduce it to a business basis, will it pay to sow from 
 three to five dollars worth to get two or three dollars back in 
 crops, and run the chances of getting nothing, as a number 
 of our farmers have experienced. 
 
 There is another way of securing nitrogen that is more 
 rational to us, because it is following nature. Working from 
 in to out . It follows the plan that made the land, and it also 
 
3 
 
 simplifies and cheapens the cost. From this source it will 
 cost almost nothing. 
 
 To restore a thing to health is to restore former conditions 
 of health. When the work can be accomplished upon the 
 lines used by nature in the first building seems commendable 
 
 Then we come to the question by what means shall we 
 build up our sickly, exhausted soils? The soil we know is 
 made out of decayed vegetable, mineral and organic life. 
 Plants and minute insect life that fills the soil where vege¬ 
 table matter is decaying. So numerous is this form of 
 organic life that millions give up life every second in an acre 
 of rich land. Every footstep on a soft, spongy soil destroys 
 millions of lives. The cycle of their life is very short. They 
 multiply in a ratio the mind can hardly grasp. 
 
 The growth of wheat, corn, oats or timothy is largely fed 
 by the work of this countless horde: But these plants are 
 parasitical in their habits. They take almost everything 
 that enters into their structure out of the soil. They have no 
 power to draw but a minute part of their bulk from the air, 
 and as a result they draw most of the nitrogen they use from 
 the soil, and thus the soil is depleted where they grow. They 
 are termed exhaustive crops; opposed to them is a class of 
 plants called leguminous or nitrogen gatherers. 
 
 In their growth the nitrogen they need is absorbed from 
 the “sea of nitrogen” above to soil. They also have the 
 power to put into the soil in which they develop a quantity of 
 nitrogen only limited by the conditions under which they 
 grow. Take a clover, bean or pea vine root and you will 
 find it is rough with little nodules or shot-like pertrubances. 
 These are composed of almost pure nitrogen, which is left in 
 the soil for succeeding crops to feed upon. This is the w r ork 
 of minute bacteria life that has the power to wound the roots 
 and suck the sap and out of it and with air manufacture their 
 little homes, “crystal palaces’ ’ of almost pure nitgrogen. The 
 number on an acre of leguminous plants could not be com¬ 
 prehended by the human mind. These silent busy friends of 
 the farmer labor unceasingly during the short period of their 
 life’s cycle. The discovery of this bacteria is only a few 
 years old. It has been long known clover was a crop that 
 
4 
 
 left land in better condition than when seeded, especially for 
 crops that followed it, but why was not known. 
 
 There are three principal plants of the leguminous family. 
 We will notice in the order in which they come into our 
 knowledge, clover, cow peas and soja beans. I am indebted 
 for very many of the most useful facts in this paper to Prof. 
 W. C. Stubs, Director of the Louisiana Experiment Station. 
 
 VARIETIES. 
 
 It is estimated that there is over one hundred varieties, 
 all the result of a mixing of three original kinds, white, 
 black and red. These varieties have special qualities, very 
 much like apples; some early, some late, some of high 
 quality, some poor in quality, some almost bunch peas, 
 some enormous viners, and adapted to different 
 soils as well. To the inexperienced grower this is a 
 matter ,of vital importance . A knowledge of the varieties 
 suited to certain latitudes and soils is absolutely necessary; 
 without such knowledge much loss and disappointment will 
 result. 
 
 This list embraces some of the very choicest varieties, 
 but for Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Missouri at 
 present they are not profitable. These varieties will no doubt 
 become acclimated in a few years. But those who want to 
 plant for profit will do well to take the advice offered in this 
 pamphlet. The kinds we know to be suited to our northern 
 climate are named in the order of their value as to a seed 
 crop, for hay, or soil restorers. 
 
 The Black, or “nigger pea,” is the richest and best of 
 all the cow-pea family. It is a rank grower, makes lots of 
 vines, is the pea for August and September pasture, wants 
 fairly good ground, is medium early, makes a great crop of 
 seed, very rich in quality. 
 
 The “little black eye” is almost a perfect bunch pea in 
 dry seasons; in wet weather vines quite a good deal. It is 
 essentially “the hog pea” for an early crop. Planted in 
 warm ground May 20th, they have matured on the writer’s 
 farm in 40 days enough to turn hogs in to pasture them off. 
 They are not a good hay pea. The seed shatters out very 
 badly when they are dry. 
 
The whipoorwill is the most popular cow pea, but isony 
 half as rich in quality as the black. It is a very valuable 
 variety. It has one especially valuable quality. The seed 
 Is very hard to get out of the pods; does not shatter out in 
 feeding. It will grow on very poor land; we call it in this 
 country “poor w&n's and poor land clover.” 
 
 These varieties the writer knows of personally . There 
 are no doubt in other localities other varieties of merit, but 
 he don’t know it, and this paper is put out to be a reliable 
 guide to those who want reliable information upon these new 
 crops. Every statement made is upon growing these plants, 
 or watching them in the fields of my neighbors. 
 
 About six years ago some good farmers in this county 
 were making money raising stock peas and hoging them off 
 on the land. A careful investigation showed the secret of 
 their success. These plants were of the clover family, and 
 when a crop of seed was eaten off in the field by the hogs all 
 the waste except what actually became part of the hog was 
 put right back on the land. The hog became a wonderful 
 instrument; he was a harvester, a feeder, a manure spreader 
 and a land improver all in one. These fields made ideal seed 
 beds for wheat or grass, and the enriching from the hogs was 
 better and cheaper than costly- fertilizers. The only work to 
 get the seed bed, ready was going over the pea stubble with a 
 disc or spring tooth harrow. The seed had the stimulus of 
 the manure, a loose fine top soil and a hard under soil, and 
 the wheat did not freeze out. The nitrogen of the pea roots 
 supplied that costly need, and these men were making money 
 in a sensible quiet kind of a way. 
 
 We have watched the agricultural press, and when a 
 writer who gave evidence of more than average farm intelli¬ 
 gence wrote on these plants we have corresponded with them, 
 and thus have hundreds of letters that bring us the most 
 advanced thought and newest experience in the growth, cul¬ 
 tivation, methods of piauting, harvesting, saving for hay or 
 seed. Also the bulletins of the experiment stations of the 
 different states have been drawn upon. The concentrated 
 evidence of sll these sources is laid before you. 
 
 We will grow the season of 1897 about 100 acres of peas 
 
6 
 
 and soja beans out of 160, divided as follows; 
 
 Five acres of whi poor will for early feeding, green or dry , 
 
 Ten acres of little black eye for early hog 4 feed. They 
 will enable us to stop buying corn at the season it is generally 
 the highest—the latter part of June and July. They are a 
 very much healthier hog feed in hot weather than corn. We 
 do not fear cholera. 
 
 Twenty acres of black peas for pasture in August and 
 September. They make wonderful pasture. 
 
 Twenty-five acres of dwarf soja beans. A very early 
 variety and enormous yielder of seed. 
 
 Forty acres of medium soja beans, that will make more 
 bushels of seed oil thill land than com. 
 
 Ten acres of artichokes. We raise lots of hogs; when 
 we have artichokes we have healthy hogs. They will yield 
 from 600 to 1000 bushels per acre. The feeding value of the 
 artichoke is the same as potatoes; but the sugar (fat) in the 
 potato is in the shape of starch, and must be converted into 
 sugar in the animal's stomach, while the sweetness of the 
 artichoke is in the shape of syrup, or already to digest. 
 
 They are a condiment or aid to digestion. All fowls and 
 farm animals are ravenously fond of them. Like the pea the 
 hogs root for them in the field. Frost does not hurt them. 
 Sheep seem more fond of them than anything you can put in 
 their feed box. 
 
 Ten acres of Canada field peas and oats. This will be a 
 new crop to us; but if they do well will be cut green or in 
 dough and run through a cutting box after they are thorough¬ 
 ly cured for winter feed. 
 
 Fifteen acres to oats, in which we will sow dwarf essex 
 rope for a pasture after the oats is harvested. This will also 
 be a new departure. 
 
 Twenty-five acres to pasture, five acres for truck garden 
 makes the 160; not a hill of field corn you will observe. We 
 can't afford to raise corn on our prairie land; it is an exhaust¬ 
 ive crop. While 130 acres of the 160 will be in crops that 
 gather from the air and go deep into the subsoil for the plant 
 food they consume while growing to maturity. We buy our 
 corn and wheat from our neighbors who are foolish enough 
 
7 
 
 to sell. They sell us the cream from their fields. 
 
 Observe we grow 65 acres of soja beans and but 35 of peas 
 of all kinds. We do this because we have found them 
 worthy of such a preference, r 
 
 As has been said peas are liable to injury by wet 
 weather, and do net seed well on rich ground. The bean on 
 the other hand will stand more wet weather than corn or any 
 farm crop, and stands drougth as well as the pea. A case in 
 point: In the latter part of June and early part of July, 1896 
 a field of soja beans on very flat prairie land stood (one-third 
 of it) in water three weeks. Corn on our neighbor’s land 
 alongside of it scalded so badly that it made a fourth of a 
 crop. Peas on the other side on our own ground rotted so 
 they were not worth harvesting. The beans held their own 
 until the soil got dry enough when the cultivators were put 
 to work and the field made a crop worth $30 per acre. This 
 qualit}' is an important factor in laying out our crops for the 
 season. 
 
 The soja bean is comparitively a new forage crop. It is 
 a native of Japan. It has very many points of superiority to 
 either clover or cow peas, either as a hay crop or seed crop, 
 or as a soil restorer. Having tried all of them I feel compe¬ 
 tent to advise others. 
 
 As a soil restorer Mr. J. E. Peneroyer, of Norwood Park, 
 Ill., writes me: “They made a tremendous growth of tops. 
 The plow pulled up many tap roots broken off 18 to 24 inches 
 under the soil. Don’t know how much deeper these roots 
 went into the subsoil for mineral plant food. The top or 
 lateral feeding roots were literally matted in the top soil. 
 Planted May 20th, plowed under September 20th, 1896.” 
 
 Mr. Jas. Bellwood, of Virginia, writes me: “I have 
 threshed over 100 bushels of seed from one acre of soja beans 
 grown upon rich river bottom land.” 
 
 Mr. Jackson, of the Southern Planter, Richmond, Va., 
 says: “I have seen a field of soja bean that would average 
 six feet in heigtlr and I have seen them in a field where 
 the water stood on the ground for some weeks. The corn in 
 the fields adjoining wa drowned out, but the beans came 
 through when good weather set in and made a good crop!” 
 
8 
 
 S. C. Wilson, of Olney, Ill., had 80 breeding ewes in 
 two flocks, winter of 1895-6. The flock fed soja bean hay 
 sheared an average of eight pounds; the flock fed clover hay 
 six pounds, showing the value of the great percent of protien 
 (wool making) quality in the bean hay. 
 
 The soja bean will stand eiiher wet or dry weather. The 
 pea stands dry but will not do well in wet weather. They 
 vine excessively when the ground is leaj-cnably vet, and lot 
 very easily and quickly if it is very wet. 
 
 Peas vine or trail on the ground and interlace while 
 growing, are difficult to harvest, handle and feed. The bean 
 (one name for it is tree bean) grows like a bush, never vines, 
 and holds its leaves well up off the ground. The quality of 
 the hay is very much richer than pea hay, while the seed is 
 the richest in fat of anything that grows in the shape of farm 
 crops. To illustrate: Corn has four and one-half pounds of 
 fat per feushel; soja beaas sixteen and seven-tenths pounds of 
 fat per bushel. 
 
 Peas are subject to pea bugs, that often destroy a crop in 
 the straw or in the bin.. The bean is bug proof, chinch bugs 
 do not molest either, so far no insect has molested them 
 while growing in our county. 
 
 One more point and I dismiss this part of my subject. 
 Peas vine excessively on rich spots or soil, and make but very 
 little seed. But on poor land they make but few vines and 
 seed freely. 
 
 Soja beans will grow as many bushels of seed as corn on 
 the same quality of soil. They will do well on poor soil, 
 grow profitably on any kind, while no soil is too rich for them. 
 Both the bean and pea will grow on land that clover will not 
 do well on at all. 
 
 The habit of growth of these plants, soja beans, both as 
 to top and roots is all that could be desired as a fertilizer. 
 The leaves are large, giving great surface to act as nitrogen 
 and electricity gatherers. The roots will penetrate a soil so 
 hard common farm crops cannot go into. I11 the matter of 
 leaves the bean has very much more leaf foliage than the pea. 
 
 We have two classes of crops to choose from, the one 
 class, wheat, corn and grass, all hard on land; the other, 
 
9 
 
 peas and beans, that enrich land. The one we sell off the 
 farm; the other must be fed on the farm to get the best results. 
 
 Commercial fertilizers is cash money, and if sown with 
 wheat the farmer runs a great risk from winter killing, the 
 fly and the chinch bug, and will be out the use of his money 
 about one year. The cost is great, the risk greater, the 
 result is doubtful . No permanent benefit follows. It is an 
 unnatural proceeding, and won’t pay at present prices of 
 grain crops. 
 
 To fertilize with leguminous plants is a natural, rational 
 wav. You put more nitrogen into your soil than you could 
 possibly afford to sow. The crop of hay, beans or peas will 
 pay for the labor and expense, and your plant food is a gift . 
 Not only that. The one puts no vegetable matter into the 
 soil; the other fills the ground full of carbonicious substances 
 that makes hurnas, loosens up the soil, holds moisture, in¬ 
 duces fermentation, and that creates combustion, or heat. 
 
 The one, you must get money out of the Bank to pay for; 
 the other a gift of God’s providence. 
 
 The one is doubtful, the other certain. The one the 
 result of hard labor to earn money to buy; the other of its 
 own accord enters your soil. 
 
 The one you can’t afford; the other you can’t afford not 
 to. The one adds to the risk and burden; the other opens a 
 simple way to lift your burden and avoid the risk. 
 
 The one makes a rich manufactor; the other makes 
 chances for more good farmers. 
 
 The one obeys natural laws, working from in to out ; the 
 other the laws of human selfishness. 
 
 The fact that it takes fourteen months to make a crop of 
 clover hay, and is attended with great risk as to a.catch, and 
 the still more important thing, that clover is only reasonably 
 sure on reasonably fertile timber or second bottom lands; the 
 uncertainty as to a crop; the limited amount of land suitable 
 for its growth, the time the land must be occupied; that it 
 must take the haggard of two winters, are practical, reason¬ 
 able odjections to it as a dependence on any but suitable land. 
 Then to this add that it will not grow at all on what we call 
 poor land; is a failure on all prairie soils. The question nat- 
 
IO 
 
 urally asks itself, have we anything else that is better? We 
 offer our suggestions based upon personal experience, an 
 extensive correspondence, and the work of several State 
 Experiment Stations. 
 
 The soja bean we offer as the best leguminous plant of 
 three land improvers; the cow pea second, and clover third. 
 
 Why the bean first? Its adaptability to the greatest 
 range of soils—none too poor, none too rich; will stand wet 
 weather that would rot peas or clover. 
 
 Will stand dry weather or a protracted drouth better 
 than peas or clover. Growing up off the ground it gives op¬ 
 portunity for the greatest leaf development of any plant we 
 know of. 
 
 The stiff upright growth gives a chance to cultivate close 
 up to the young plants and keep down the weeds. About 
 two cultivations is all we have been able to give ours. They 
 grow so rapidly that they smother all crab grass and weeds. 
 
 Pulling the interlaced pea vines apart strips nearly all 
 the leaves off the vines and they are lost and the value of the 
 hay impaired. (See what will be said by Louisiana Experi¬ 
 ment Station.) 
 
 The bean requires more time to mature than the pea: 
 about 90, days for hay, 120 for seed. The plant 
 is fully grown when the blossoms first show. In 48 hours 
 four-fifths of all its bloom w r ill burst open. This is the stage 
 to cut for hay. It will cure out and no part become woody. 
 This idea comes from the North Carolina Experiment Sta¬ 
 tion. The only possible objection we could find to them as a 
 forage was the coarse woody stem. We had been letting 
 them stand until the pods had well formed beans. (We note 
 this information with great pleasure.) 
 
 When cut for hay rain does not injure it as it does peas 
 or clover. In October, 1896, our boys finished cutting six 
 acres of a heavy crop on Thursday. The following Saturday 
 night it began raining aad rained four days and nights 
 almost continuously. 
 
 As soon as possible they were gathered into small bunches 
 and when dry were put up with almost no loss of leaves. 
 Pea$ in the neighborhood that were exposed to this rain were 
 
so badly rotted as to be worthless. 
 
 Their value as a feed crop is away above peas or clover. 
 Protien—beans 34.05; peas 24.84. Fat—beans 16.7; black 
 (the richest pea) 4.08. 
 
 The farmer needs no new tools to begin to use these 
 plants. For soja beans and peas the ground should be well 
 plowed and pulverized. The bean ought to be planted by 
 the first to fifteenth of May, the pea not earlier than Ma) T 20, 
 to June and July. They are not so hardy and want warmer 
 soil. ( 
 
 We use a marker that has three runners, thirty inches 
 apart between rows. Set the gear of your corn drill to drop 
 16 inches betv/een grains—they will bunch a little but it will 
 do no harm: 12 inches for peas (they want to be thicker than 
 beans.) When the first true leaves get well developed we go 
 through and cultivate, and as often after that as we can; 
 when the plants are well grown. . We do not work them 
 when they are wet with either dew or rain. 
 
 We use in harvesting the beans a. Buckeye table rake, 
 cutting one row at a time; let the bunches lay three or four 
 days, then put three or four together on a fresh spot so they 
 will all be moved; let them stay two or three days; then 
 double the bunches, and when fully dry haul in. 
 
 They are hard to stack and ought to be put under cover. 
 Cut when in blossom for hay; for seed let them stand until 
 the field stands the most beautiful yellow you ever saw, and 
 treat as to curing the same as for hay. Any separator will 
 thresh them the same as wheat. To fix it to thresh take ten 
 old teeth and cut them off so they will only stick up and and 
 one-half inches from the face of the concave, five in each row. 
 Set the concave down so these stubs do not come nearer than 
 one-lialf or five-eights of an inch to the cylinder teeth, and 
 you.will have no split beans. Much of the splitting of cow 
 peas is by the concave and cylinder teeth passing too close. 
 Thresh beans when they are dry , peas when they are damp . 
 
 Our seed crop was cut when the leaves were yellow: very 
 few dropped off. The threshed straw is the very best winter 
 roughness for stock we have ever had. Our cattle are licking 
 themselves; our horses are fat and the hair laying smooth and 
 
12 
 
 has that glossy appearance, indicating a healthy condition of 
 digestion, and freedom from constipation so common at this 
 vSeason of the year among farm animals. 
 
 This paper is not for those who know how to build up 
 and keep up land, but for those who are today face to face 
 with farm conditions that must be changed. Further deple¬ 
 tion of the soil must be stopped , and a system of farming 
 adopted that will build up the farm as well as mend the for¬ 
 tune of the owner. 
 
 Farmers want to raise ‘‘mortgage lifters” and sheriff 
 stoppers, and tax payers and comfort givers. Ten cent oats, 
 sixteen cent corn and fifty cent wheat would ruin ninety per 
 cent of the farmers if kept up five years. But ten cent- oats 
 put into calves or pigs with pork at three cents will bring up 
 the ten cent oats to thirty cents; sixteen cent corn in calves, 
 pigs or beef means thirty to forty cent corn. Fifty cent 
 wheat fed means with stock at present prices, seventy-five to 
 eighty-five cents*, according to the skill of the feeder. 
 
 These peas and beans represent the crossing of the river 
 Jordan, putting aside-past conditions, establishing a monu¬ 
 ment that a higher type of life is determined upon. Like the 
 crossing of this river all is in a turbulent condition, but He 
 who rules the world will part the waters (separate the diffi¬ 
 culties) and the task is not so hard. 
 
 Grover Cleveland did not do it, Mr. McKinley cannot do 
 it, Bryanism would probably have plunged us in still deeper 
 distress. But there is a way that will bring contentment, 
 peace and prosperity. 
 
 Let each individual farmer set to work to put his own 
 house in order. Abandon the idea that relief will come 
 through political channels except as political wisdom is used 
 as an aid. Take up the subject of how can / better my con¬ 
 dition. Not from the standpoint of selfishness, but as one 
 who will set an example to my fellow farmers; helping the 
 neighbor is the surest and quickest way to help yourself. 
 
 All over this beautiful land of ours a pall hangs over the 
 farming classes. Study the principles that are the foundation 
 stones upon which farm industries are builded. Not one 
 farmer in fifty has a correct idea of how to feed corn. Corn 
 
13 
 
 was a good feed for the razor-back hog or the scrub cow, but 
 the breeder has placed in the farmer’s hands an entirely 
 different animal. 
 
 The fine bred hog, or cow, or beef has a much larger 
 stomach, larger lungs, longer intestines. Its no wonder 
 there is hog cholera. The farmer throws out corn to this 
 finely bred, delicately organized hog: by the very nature of 
 its breeding it is fitted to consume more food than the razor 
 back. He crowds its stomach full of strong heating corn. 
 
 The powers of digestion that had been developed by the 
 breeders on a diet consisting of bran , ship stuff\ oil cake , clover 
 and a little corn, is put in a dry lot and stuffed with nothing 
 but corn. Digestion is impaired and a condition brought 
 about that when the germs of hog diseases get a lodgment 
 the whole head dies off, and we call it cholera. 
 
 We protest against the use of the name cholera in that 
 way, and suggest that more hogs die from dyspepsia every 
 year than from true '‘hog cholera.” The proposition is per¬ 
 fectly reasonable. 
 
 The same criticism may be made as to beef or cattle 
 feeding. No wonder Germany does not like American pork. 
 Go into the slaughter houses where exclusively corn fed hogs 
 are killed and not one liver in a thousand but has ‘‘liver 
 worms” or diseased spots in the tissue of the liver. If the 
 liver is diseased the blood of the hog is diseased, if the blood 
 is diseased the meat is diseased and cannot be fit to eat. No 
 wonder lard won’t keep long in hot weather now days. 
 Probably not one pound of lard in ten thousand but is mixed 
 with diseased pork. Who is to blame? The farmer. Can 
 this be helped? Yes and a surer and safer industry be the 
 result. 
 
 We find that hogs raised upon lines such as they have 
 been bred upon—mixed feed—having plenty of bone, sinew, 
 lean meat, hair, all that part that relates to the activities of a 
 hog’s life, have no ‘‘liver worms,” have no ‘‘liver spots,” no 
 congested bloody ‘‘lights,” but all the internal organs are 
 normal and healthy. Such meat is healthy; lard made from 
 such hogs will keep indefinitely. Hog cholera may rage all 
 around such a herd and not a sick porker. In the lesser risk 
 
x 4 
 
 is an insurance of safety, and surer and safer profit. 
 
 We can't help breathing too much tainted air; we can 
 help swallowing disease germs. 
 
 Can pork be raised that has absolutely healthy livers and 
 lights, free from evidence of disease? We used to raise 
 “liver worms’ 7 and “mush spots.” We will pay $5 in gold 
 for all such evidences of disease in a hog of our raising as we 
 now feed. We give you our plan; try it. 
 
 When the pig is three da)^s old we begin to make pork 
 out of him. The first three weeks through his mother's milk . 
 At that age he will begin to eat. We cut off a portion of the 
 sow’s pen and have a pig trough the sow can’t get at, begin¬ 
 ning gradually t.6 feed the little fellows a slop made up of 
 low grade middlings, oats and peas, when we have them. 
 Feeding the sow all the rich slop she can eat. (If we have 
 milk we mix the pig’s slop with milk) and some corn. Our 
 aim is to have the sow weigh as much when she weans her 
 pigs as when they were farrowed. We raise two litters a 
 year from each sow. It has been said that the day a pig 
 squeals for something to eat you have lost five cents on him. 
 
 We feed our growing hogs ship stuff and bran every day. 
 The mixture we have found that almost splits the hide on the 
 backs of growing hogs is one bushel of corn, two bushels of 
 oats, two bushels of peas or one of soja beans, ground fine 
 and mixed with an equal bulk of middlings and bran half 
 and half. This mixture gives bulk to the growing hog. 
 When the pigs get to weighing about 150 pounds we begin 
 to increase the corn diet; it will astonish you how quickly 
 they will fat down. We sell when the average is from 175 
 to 200 pounds. We are making a good profit on 3 cent hogs. 
 
 The above is good hog feeding sense to those who are 
 not pea, bean and artichoke feeders. We know that is the 
 way we began our hog feeding business; but we have 
 advanced away beyond that. We will give you how we do 
 it now. 
 
 In April we plant artichokes; they are fit to feed in 
 October and all winter; fence off a small plat at a time and 
 let the hogs root for them. 
 
 About May 1st plant dwarf soja beans and they will do 
 
for hogs just after the '‘black eye” is g;qn&'.\ Alk^ at the 
 same time the medium soja bean; they follow the d^varf. We 
 have our hogs on peas and beans from about July 15th to 
 mid-winter. 
 
 About May 20th we plant one-tliird of our ground in¬ 
 tended for hay-feeding in black eyed (home grown) peas for 
 earliest feed. While on peas a little corn is good, but when 
 on beans do not need corn, as the bean is very rich in fat . 
 Plenty of good water, and salt, sulphur and charcoal always 
 where they can get at it. Plenty of shade sheds, so they can 
 get out of the very hot midda}" sun. 
 
 You probably think you have seen pigs grow, but when 
 pigs raised as I have told you how to raise them are turned 
 into a pea or bean field then you will see how fast a pig can 
 change into a hog. 
 
 A few words on the subject of the value of soja beans as 
 feed, the yield, etc.: 
 
 Coburn’s work on “Swine Husbandry” says: “Soja 
 beans are, in our judgment, the very best crop for hogs. 
 They make the firmest and fattest pork of any feed we know 
 of.” Our own experience confirms this. 
 
 The fall of ’96 we left a patch of soja beans standing in 
 the field. January 1st, ’97, they were still standing and the 
 beans still locked tight in the pods. This season we shall 
 plant a few acres late, and at last cultivation sow rye. The 
 beans and rye ought to make an ideal feed for brood sows 
 and young pigs next winter. 
 
 The report of the Louisiana Station says: “The value 
 of the leaf, leaf stem, vines or stems and the seed is as follows 
 of cow peas: 
 
 Leaves, 
 
 protien 18.84, 
 
 fat 6.71, 
 
 nitrogen, 
 
 3.01 
 
 Leaf stems 
 
 “ 6.12, 
 
 “ 2.16, 
 
 < < 
 
 .98 
 
 Stems and vines, 
 
 “ 5 - 87 , 
 
 oc 
 
 t < 
 
 •93 
 
 Peas (seed) 
 
 “ 24.84, 
 
 “ 1.21, 
 
 < < 
 
 3-97 
 
 An article in the Chicago Inter-Ocean in February, 1896 
 gave the value of the soja bean (seed): Protien 34.00; fat 
 16.07, nitrogen not given. Supposing the leaves and stems 
 to be equal the value of the bean is very much richer. It 
 proves why, as Coburn says, they make such fat pork. This 
 
i6 
 
 table is very valuable, and shows the importance of saving 
 the leaves when cut for forage. The leaves and leaf stems 
 are worth more, pound for pound, than the seed. 
 
 The Delaware Experiment tests show bean and pea hay 
 worth more ton for ton than wheat bran, as a milk feed. Now 
 can the farmer who must buy mill feed for his cows afford to 
 pay $12 to $14 a ton for it when he can raise a better feed for 
 $2.50 per ton? 
 
 Davis Bros., Wayne Co., Ill., make this report: “We 
 milk about twenty cows, and feed them ten to twelve pounds 
 bran per day. We base feeding value of soja beans 
 upon protien contents, and value them worth two and a half 
 times as much as bran. We enclose you a report of analysis 
 by Prof. E. H. Farrington (late of Illinois Experiment 
 Station). 
 
 Estimated digestible (per 100 pounds) protien 3.00, 
 carbo 1.45, fat 1.75; ratio 1:6.1. Planted May 20th, 1895. 
 This sample cut Sept. 14th. The crop weighed 13 tons and 
 560 pounds per acre. Total cost from seed into silo, $7 per 
 acre, or less than 60c per ton. Feed value 26,560 ponnds 
 divided by 365 days in the 3^ear gives: green feed (pounds) 
 76.68; dry substance 23.28; protien 2.18; fat 1.27—ratio 1:6.1 
 —for each day in the year, and a feed for one cow, and sup¬ 
 port one cow for each acre. Grown on prairie land that has 
 been cropped 50 years and manured twice only.” This, of 
 all the reports we have, is the most remarkable, because of 
 the great yield on such land. We trust Messrs. Davis Bros, 
 will pardon us if we give their post office address: 
 
 Davis Brothers, Fairfield, Wayne County, Illinois. 
 
 From the Louisiana Experiment Station about curing 
 for hay: “In curing for hay great care should be exercised 
 to harvest as many leaves as possible, since their loss depre¬ 
 ciates greatly their value as food, and increases the proportion 
 of vines, which have a superabundance of potash and conse¬ 
 quent deficiency of nitrogen. This excess of potash also 
 suggests the most careful pains in curing them, as fermenta¬ 
 tion may develop nitre (nitrate of potash) in the vines, wdiich 
 may in excessive quantities have serious effects upon the 
 kidneys of work stock.” 
 
17 
 
 We desire to emphasize this caution. Undoubtedly some 
 fatal results occurred in our county last year from feeding 
 pea hay. It was the common belief it would heat and cure 
 out in the mow like clover. The same applies to soja beans. 
 Cure thoroughly. 
 
 The six states, Louisiana, Alabama, Connecticut, South 
 Carolina, Rhode Island and Arkansas give an average of 122 
 pounds of nitrogen, or a value of nitrogen to each acre of 
 $18.30. 
 
 The most remarkable report comes from Rhode Island; 
 the variety the black pea. The entire plant, tops, roots, 
 seeds and all was computed in this test and the amount of 
 nitrogen found on this crop was worth at market price $41.20. 
 The yield of vines was the heaviest reported. 
 
 A word of caution as to seed: The New York Station, 
 Geneva, N. Y., says: The author emphasizes the importance 
 of securing seed from northermost points when expecting a 
 seed crop in the north. If you want forage or hay southern 
 seed is all right; but it takes several years to get to bearing a 
 full crop of seed. 
 
 Southern black eyes, whipoorwills and blacks will 
 mature part of a crop of seed the first year, a very fair crop 
 the second. This county is the greatest pea county north of 
 the Ohio river, and yet there is but very few home grown 
 seed for sale. The wet summer of 1896 was disastrous to the 
 seed crop, and the price will be high. The writer will buy 
 pea seed for his own planting. 
 
 F. M. Riley & Co., Olney, Illinois, have the crop of soja 
 beans raised on the writer’s farm in 1896. They are clean, 
 pure seed, having been grown in the north several years. 
 Ninety-eight per cent of the seeds will grow. They will also 
 have the handling of a few bushels of artichokes. If you 
 favor them with an order you will be fairly dealt by. 
 
 Don’t forget if you desire to correspond with the writer 
 to enclose a stamp. At this season of the year we get a 
 great many letters and the stamps are quite an item. 
 
 A word about the varieties of soja beans may be useful 
 to those who may want to buy seed: 
 
 The dwarf is the earliest variety, growing about 20 to 24 
 
i8 
 
 inches high; but the pods are as thick as they can stick from 
 the ground to the top. They can be planted 28 inches 
 between rows, and will mature in about 65 days. We had 
 but a few bushels more than we will plant. For seed this 
 will probably be the most popular variety. 
 
 The “medium” grows about 31-2 feet high, yields a 
 great seed crop. This is the one for main crop, or to cut 
 when in blossom for hay; on good land it will make three 
 tons of dry hay. Our feeding experience is it is worth more 
 than either clover or timothy. Our cattle are in better fix as 
 to flesh and doing as well in milk as they used to do on hay 
 and grain. 
 
 The “big” is very coarse, does not mature seed in this 
 latitude; blossoms so late it is hard to cure for hay. It is a 
 great crop for the silo. There is a green seeded variety but 
 we do not grow them. 
 
 A summary of this Pamphlet is about like this: 
 
 First. Can we afford to pay $20 to $40 per ton for com¬ 
 mercial fertilizers, when for $1 per ton we can put two tons 
 to one acre that will leave your ground in better shape and 
 worth more to the ground than the other. 
 
 Second. To fertilize with beans, peas and clover will 
 pay. Harvesting the crop and feeding it on the farm will 
 pay as well as a grain crop. The nitrogen left in the field 
 for the succeeding crop and the rich manure is a free gift. 
 
 Third. This way of fertilizing is a natural, rational 
 way—feeding the land while it feeds you. 
 
 Fourth. Feeding these plants on the farm is conserving 
 the fertility of the soil on the farm, while selling grain crops 
 is depleting the soil. 
 
 Fifth. It means pro- gressive, m-tensive farming. 
 
 Sixth. We believe barns filled with growing stock is 
 better company, and will be better for the farmers, than halls 
 filled with boodling politicians. The one hardens the heart, 
 the other softens it and upbuilds. 
 
 TZE3IE .DB1T3D- 
 
We have for sale the Soja Bean crop raised by Dr. Morris 
 in t/he season of 1896. 
 
 J This is raised from seed grown in this county for ten 
 lyears, is thoroughly acclimated. Is free from morning glory 
 seed or other foul seeds. 
 
 To save useless correspondence: We will have no black 
 or clay peas for sale this year. 
 
 The wet summer of 1896 cut the pea crop very short. A 
 few bushels of black eyes and whipoorwill could be had upon 
 early orders. The reason we say this is there is not enough 
 of the two last named to supply the home demand. But the 
 farmers will not try to buy until they are ready to plant. 
 
 We think we could get a few for April orders. 
 
 Every farmer should sow a peck on good dry land and 
 have an abundance of seed for next year. 
 
 PRICES: 
 
 Black Eye or Whipoorwill, strictly acclimated, home grown 
 seed, 1 peck, 75c; 1-2 bushel, $1.35; 1 bushel, $2. 
 
 Dwarf Soja Beans, “new” and very scarce, great seeders, 
 per peck, $1.35; 1-2 bushel, $2.50; 1 bushel, $4.25. 
 
 Soja Beans for main crop, 1-2 bushel, $1.50; 1 bushel, $2.50. 
 
 Artichokes, French White, $1.00 per bushel. 
 
 F. M. RILEY & CO., 
 Obey, Richland Comity, Dlinois. 
 
IF 
 
 You are not a progressive farmer you ought to 1 c * 
 Give the philosophy of this pamphlet a care^ u * 
 study. 
 
 IT ~~ 
 
 Will tell you how to change from old ways of 
 farming that are not paying and help you to 
 adopt new ways that 
 
 15 
 
 Paying thousands of farmers all over the land to¬ 
 day. They had enterprise enough to get out of 
 the old ruts and into new and better ways that 
 has made them money and will make you 
 
 MONEY 
 
 and at the same time improve your soil so you can 
 make money faster, and change your condition 
 from a dependent into one of /^dependence. 
 Take the situation as it is today; 
 
 YOU 
 
 Must know you can’t continue in present ways; 
 you can’t quit farming, there is nothing else you 
 can do any better at. You 
 
 WANT 
 
 A ray of hope and confidence. Hope and confi¬ 
 dence will be father and mother to a new family 
 of bright children who will be named Zeal, 
 Energy, Pluck, Perseverance, Peace, Con¬ 
 tentment, Plenty, Happiness, Joy, and 
 Prosperity.