for years been an earnest advocate
for growing clover as a renovating crop. He thinks it by far the
cheapest manure that can be obtained in this section. I agree with him
most fully in all these particulars. He formed his opinion from
experience and observation. I derived mine from the Rothamsted
experiments. And the more I see of practical farming, the more am I
satisfied of their truth. Clover is, unquestionably, the great
renovating crop of American agriculture. A crop of clover, equal to two
tons of hay, when plowed under, will furnish more ammonia to the soil
than twenty tons of straw-made manure, drawn out fresh and wet in the
spring, or than twelve tons of our ordinary barn-yard manure. No wonder
Mr. Geddes and other intelligent farmers recommend plowing under clover
as manure. I differ from them in no respect except this: that it is not
absolutely essential to plow clover under in the green state in order to
get its fertilizing effect; but, if made into hay, and this hay is fed
to animals, and all the manure carefully saved, and returned to the
land, there need be comparatively little loss. The animals will seldom
take out more than from five to ten per cent of all the nitrogen
furnished in the food--and less still of mineral matter. I advocate
growing all the clover you possibly can--so does Mr. Geddes. He says,
plow it under for manure. So say I--unless you can make more from
feeding out the clover-hay, than will pay you for waiting a year, and
for cutting and curing the clover and drawing back the manure. If you
plow it under, you are sure of it. There is no loss. In feeding it out,
you may lose more or less from leaching, and injurious fermentation.
But, of course, you need not lose anything, except the little that is
retained in the flesh, or wool, or milk, of the animals. As things _are_
on many farms, it is perhaps best to plow under the clover for manure at
once. As things ought to be, it is a most wasteful practice. If you know
how to feed out the hay to advantage, and take pains to save the manure
(and to add to its value by feeding oil-cake, bran, etc., with it), it
is far better to mow your clover, once for hay, and once for seed, than
to plow it under. Buy oil-cake and bran with the money got from the
seed, and growing clover-seed will not injure the land.

I am glad to hear that Mr. Geddes occasionally sells straw. I once sold
15 tons of straw to the paper-makers for $150, they drawing it
themsel