St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-08-14
MAINTAINING FERTILITY,
Glover Pho wed Under or Burned Bette
Than Commercial Fertilizers.

Glover Pho wed Under or Burned Bette.
| Than Commercial Fertilizers.
An experience of over twenty years
on my farm shows me that the farm
itself will furnish all the fertilizers
necessary to.keep it ut high state Of
productiveness. and that clover seed is
the only fertilizer CO need to buy.
and that can grow, if wish to. Nv
general plan of management is this:
have seeded down in bluegrass for pei.
manent pasture enough of my lant
which is rolling and least suitable for
cultivation to enable me to raise stock
to consume the hay and corn-foddc,
and work the straw into the compos;
heap. The remainder of my land
sixty-iive acres in all. is in one enclos
ure, and no stock is ever turned on i,
either summer or winter. On this w.
follow Il rotation which brings it Il!
into clover ut least every third year
About one-third of it is sown i'm whea,
each year and clover is always sown
with the wheat. A few acres are sown
to oats each spring; some five to eight
acres planted to potatoes; five to ten
kept in timothy for meadow, and the
remainder is planted to corn
The larger part of the clover does no,
stand to make Il crop ut all. but Us it il
not pastured after harvest we get in al!
favorable autumns us heavy Il growth
as is usual in June, and then this is
plowed down late in the fall or early
the following spring. On the poorer
part of the land we allow the clover to
stand and cut the first crop for hay and
either pillow under the second growth
or cut it for seed. but on twcnty-:iv.
acres of my best land have grown
crop of grain or potatoes each year Ia
twenty years and have +plowed down
ten acres Of clover grown in the fall rs
stated above. call this raising tire.
crops in two Years. and consider til.
clover crop thus grown nearly Us val
liable us the grain crops. | conclud>
after careful comparison with manure
that this fall-grOwn crop of clover il
worth rs much to the land rs twelve
loads of manure per acre, which wuul !
cost ME in cash All labor eighteen dol
lars, AMI this wi,.i NJ expense cxcept
for seed and ling, which rarely OK
caeds one dollar III Il re and sometime
falls below sc,enty-iive cents. Tier.
is one point in nv practice which
presume will be criticised by many o,
my readers. l burn OF the clover l.
not plowetl under in the fall | hay.
experimental in this matter until fee
well assured that this is best.
We lose no organic matter by th
b-lFninr and / fbint fh,
have washed most of the nitrogen int,
the soil. and find the mechanical con
dition of the soil much the best wher.
the clover is burned. prefer to bur.
early when the land is frozen and the.
the fine coat of leaves that has bee.
washed into the soil does not burn b,,
only the coarse stalks. The ash make.
4 fertilizer that is powerful and act.
quickly in giving the young plants i,
start. In 1856, when had a crop %,
wheat which threshcd thirty-thre.
bushels to the acre and was cut with :.
cradle which necessarily left a yer,
heavy stubble on the ground, wished
to put the field in wheat again bu,
found it impossible to pillow the stubbl.
under and SO Tired it. About half the |
Held burned over, but in places wher.
the stubble was lighter it was no,
burned. In two weeks after the whea,
came up one could stand ut the sle vi
the field and tell to \ foot where the |
stubble had been burned by the rank |
growth and good color of the plant. In
another case field of clover had beer |
to grow all the season to pillow
under. but after worrying half day
the owner gave it up and applied the
torch. The result was yield Of sixty
two bushels of wheat to the acre.
which is the heaviest yield ever heard
Of in our country.-Waido +. Brown,
~ n. \ Tribune