in-growing districts we get
it in part by summer-fallowing, and I believe the dairyman might often
do the same thing with advantage. A thorough summer-fallow would not
only clean the land, but would render some of the latent plant-food
available. This will be organized in the next crop, and when the
dairyman has once got the plant-food, he has decidedly the advantage
over the grain-growing farmer in his ability to retain it. He need not
lose over 16 per cent a year of nitrogen, and not one per cent _of the
other elements of plant-food_.

The land lying on the borders of the creek could be greatly benefited by
cutting surface ditches to let off the water; and later, probably it
will be found that a few underdrains can be put in to advantage. These
alluvial soils on the borders of creeks and rivers are grand sources of
nitrogen and other plant-food. I do not know the fact, but it is quite
probable that the meadows which Harris Lewis mows twice a year, are on
the banks of the river, and are perhaps flooded in the spring. But, be
this as it may, there is a field on the farm I am alluding to, lying on
the creek, which now produces a bountiful growth of weeds, rushes, and
coarse grasses, which I am sure could easily be made to produce great
crops of hay. The creek overflows in the spring, and the water lies on
some of the lower parts of the field until it is evaporated. A few
ditches would allow all the water to pass off, and this alone would be a
great improvement. If the field was flooded in May or June, and
thoroughly cultivated and harrowed, the sod would be sufficiently rotted
to plow again in August. Then a thorough harrowing, rolling, and
cultivating, would make it as mellow as a garden, and it could be seeded
down with timothy and other good grasses the last of August, or
beginning of September, and produce a good crop of hay the next year.
Or, if thought better, it might be sown to rye and seeded down with it.
In either case the land would be greatly improved, and would be a
productive meadow or pasture for years to come--or until our young
dairyman could afford to give it one of Harris Lewis' "homoeopathic"
doses of 40 loads of good manure per acre. He would then be able to cut
two crops of hay a year--and such hay! But we are anticipating.

That stream which runs through the farm in the spring, and then dries
up, could be made to irrigate several acres of the land adjoining. This
would double, or treble, or quadru