The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-01-10
WINTER RYE AS A GREEN MANURE.

A. G. GLIDDEN IN Posr AND TRIBUSE.
There are so many theories about farming
set afoat in the papers and are retsiled about
30 Industriously that seem 30 sensible, II true,
that often wonder at the readiness which
farmers evince in catching at new WAYS OF do
ing things, after so many failures on trial to
produce promised results. The green stump
burning process that s 80 EASILY ACCOMPLISHED
with the aid OF an augur, saltpeter and plug
The raising OF barrel of potatoes from one
vine by sprinkling in more earth as often as
new sets are formed, and thus gradually bring
ing the vine to the surface OF the barre with
potatoes growing from bottom TO top. The
new tseory that stirring the soil does not pro-
duce moisture, but the contrary, and that
baked surface retains moisture Longest. These
have all proved fallacious. For several years
past very plausible theory has been advocated
wherein winter rye, plowed under just before
maturity, was to make desert bloom, and
render barren lands fruitful again. 1 believed
in the theory: cried Eureka :" | butt up
new prospective solution with rye as basis.
Clover sometimes failed TO "catch" IN dry
season, rye was sure thing, and as large
burden Of "green manure" was available to
turn under as would be grown OF clover. My
soil was bleaching out and failing from the
dire effects OF several dry seasons. prospec-
lively saw them becoming black from vegetable
mold produced from rye plowed under as a
"green manure" Ny neighbors caught the
infection and there was a corner in rye IN this
vicinity for seed. In the Farmers Institute
for 1876 Prof. Kedze had recommended, with
some difiidence,' indeed, the plap but frankly
acknowledged there might be "objections and
difficulties which he did not comprehend
In August of that year (1s7G) l sowed winter
rye in my corn, field Of 10 acres, that was to
be so*n to wheat the following year. 1t grew
well and furnished some fall feed. 1 fed 1t
again a short time IN the spring-until my
clover pasture was well started, and then
turned off. While in blossom l turned the
whole under nicely with chain, and worked it
go that it was-as one OF my neghbors ex-
pressed t-"just like an onion bed" and am
certain that have never received particle OF
profit except for the feed. In this field the
whole was treated alike and no contrast could
be made, but on another field Of ~ acres fair
experiment was made; eight acreil Of this was
IN corn and sowed to rye, treated and plowed
under In the same manner as the first. Tie
balance Of the field, four acres, was IN wheat,
the year that corn was growing on the other
part. Before the rye was turned under the
following year the four acres was plowed, and
then the whole wss treated alike The whole
field was seeded, last spring, to clover, and
narrowed in and rolled. At no tme during the
summer could the slightest difference be seen
where the line OF demarcation came, either in
color, or in breadth OF leaf, or in length OF
straw. The clover stands as well on one part
as on the other, and am certain that the rye
rs green manure, was absolutely valueless to
the wheat. The soil is the common oak OPEN
ing, grown rather thin by frequeAt dropping.
and OF kind to show the effects Of manurisl
agent very quickly. Other parties in the vicin-
ity have tried it, and none Of us SOW any more
rye to plow under. For fall and spring feed it
is success, and for this purpose will pay for
time aud seed. Cattle eat 1t better than horses
Or sheep; the latter two will nIbbe at anything
else before filling themselves on rye. Farmers
who are not scientists are apt to Jump at con-
clusons, and | have learned that professors
sometimes do the same. This much I know:
that all bulky growths, such as sowed corn,
buckwheat rye and rank weeds, turned under.
do not act as manure. To become 80, they
must become dry, and then absorb some ma
mural agent, either in the compost heap, or in
the barnyard They may act on clayey soils
mechanically, to loosen it, 80 that rootlets Of
plants penetrate it more readily; but on sandy
soils the opposite effect is desirable. have
turned under clover while IN blossom with as
pronounced an effect on the wheat crop as
plaster produces on the clover. There must be
something in the clover plant except its bulk
OF green growth, and we learn from science
what that something lie. Plants are either
l. nitrogen producing or nitrogen consuming.
,r The cereals are among the latter class, and the
1t eguminous plants the former, among which
B clover ranks first as a nitrogen producing plant
70 In the light OF this fact we see how clover
,. assists the growth OF wheat, and why rye will
J. not. 1t has absorbed in it's growth the very
% elements necessary for the development OF the
d wheat plant and its stalk and leaf a large per
-. cent OF which is sappy, undeveloped matter,
and Is no compens alton for the loss.
ts Two tramps robhed the Ruchanan st-office