The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-01-08

yard manure will always, of course, 70
main the farmers chief reliance for en-
riching this land, but green manurial
crops will be found to be q valuable and
inexpensive adjunct to this.
Their effects upon the soil are remarSa-
bic, their vegetable or organic matter
rendering it at once friable, active and
fruitful. The greeu crops most profta-
Bile to be employed for this purpose are
those denominated 'air-feeders," those
possessed of the power TO absorb the ele-
ments of organic life from the air, such
as clover, buckwheat, rye, peas, beans,
etc. Glover undoubtedly stands at the
head of the hist. 1t contains a large pro-
portion of potash, lime, magnesia, nitro
gen, chlorine, and carbonic, phosporic
and sulphuric acid. Its great value as a
manurial plant lies in the fact that its
leaves and stems absorb the largest part
of its fertilizlng gasses from the air, and
take only comparatively small portion
from the soil. 1t is voracious "air-
feeder" Moreover, its long, thick roots
draw the fertilEing saline and mineral
elements of the sub-soil up into the sur
face soil, and render them available as
plant food. 1t is cheap and most avail
able agent to supply soils with necessary
nitrogen, which has been well denomi-
mated one of the "scarcest and dearest of
manurial elements"
Buckwheat is also a valuable manurial
green crop. 1t is rapid and hardy
grower, and can be successfully grown
ON the same plot year after year, without
materially exhausting the soil. Two
crops of it can be grown and plowed
under on the same ground in one season,
and the ground seeded down with grass
or a grain crop in September 1t should
be grown far more extensively than it is,
its grain making complete poultry food,
while its cultivation is strongly recon-
mended as an eradicator of Canada this
ties, witchgrass and other foul and OBJ
noXious weeds. 1t also has high hy-
gienic value as a purifier of the air, tax
ing up the effluvia and miasma rising in
the air from foul sink spouts and other
sloveuly spots about the farm or out
buildings. Let us rise more buckwheat
The seed costs but little; it will grow
upon any kind OF land, from drifting
sand to impact claf; it gives good crop;
its straw contains considerable quantities
of potash, soda, lime, magnesia, phos-
phoric ana sulphuric acid, and when
plowed under 1t decomposes rapidly,
loosens the soil and makes a first-class
manure.
The pea is of great value as a manur-
ial crop, even after the fruit has been
gathered and the vines are fully ripened
They contain very large proportion of
potash, lime, magnesia, soda, carbonic
acid and chloride of sodium, besides sui
phuric and phosphoric acid; and when
plowed under, it puts the soil in the best
possible condition for other crops, cs-
pecially wheat and grass.
Rye is also most valuable manurial
crop, but on the score of economy is not
so profitably used for this purpose, its
grain being too valuable to be economi-
cally sacrificed as manure.
European agriculturists also employ
turnips, corn, vetch and mustard as green
manurial crops, the turnIp being rated as
the best, as it grows in the cool and
moist climate of England to the greatest
perfection. But this, like the vetch, is
Il precarious plant in the hotter and
dryer climate of New England.
The proper time to plow down green
crops, to renovate the soil, is in the
warm weather of summer, when they
are just coming into flower. They
then take on quick decay from their
immatured condition when the sun has
its greatest power to aid in the process
of fermentation and decay. Let our
farmers try the practice of green manur-
ing, and the results achieved will be sure
to induce them to continue it as a set
tied policy in their farm operations
american CultiDator.