n when the roots of growing plants fill
the soil, is deemed positive proof that summer-fallowing is a wasteful
practice.

If we summer-fallowed for a spring crop, as I have sometimes done, it
is quite probable that there would be a loss of nitrogen. But, as I have
said before, it is very seldom that any water passes through the soil
from the time we commence the summer-fallow until the wheat is sown in
the autumn, or for many weeks afterwards. The nitrogen, which is
converted into nitric acid by the agency of a good summer-fallow, is
no more liable to be washed out of the soil after the field is sown to
wheat in the autumn, than if we applied the nitrogen in the form of some
readily available manure.

I still believe in summer fallows. If I had my life to live over again,
I would certainly summer-fallow more than I have done. I have been an
agricultural writer for one-third of a century, and have persistently
advocated the more extended use of the summer-fallow. I have nothing
to take back, unless it is what I have said in reference to
"fall-fallowing." Possibly this practice may result in loss, though
I do not think so.

A good summer-fallow, on rather heavy clay land, if the conditions are
otherwise favorable, is pretty sure to give us a good crop of wheat, and
a good crop of clover and grass afterwards. Of course, a farmer who has
nice, clean sandy soil, will not think of summer-fallowing it. Such
soils are easily worked, and it is not a difficult matter to keep them
clean without summer-fallowing. Such soils, however, seldom contain a
large store of unavailable plant food, and instead of summer-fallowing,
we had better manure. On such soils artificial manures are often very
profitable, though barn-yard manure, or the droppings of animals feeding
on the land, should be the prime basis of all attempts to maintain, or
increase, the productiveness of such soils.

Since this book was first published, I do not know of any new facts
in regard to the important question of, how best to manage and apply
our barn-yard manure, so as to make it more immediately active and
available. It is unquestionably true, that the same amount of nitrogen
in barn-yard manure, will not produce so great an effect as its
theoretical value would indicate. There can be no doubt, however, that
the better we feed our animals, and the more carefully we save the
liquids, the more valuable and active will be the manure.

The conversion of the ine