The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1895-11-02

crimson clover will make a radical and fixed
change in our agriculture within the next
half dozen years.
The experimental stations one after another
give you verified and tested cases on this
subject. The new desk of the executive de-
partment of our government sounds the bugle
of warning to the farmers of the land to cult
vate more extensively the leguminous crops
as they furnish the cheapest food for stock
and the cheapest manure for the soil.
What more need say to gentlemen of your
intelligence? Here they are, the wonderful
members of the clover family-the red, the
white. the crimson, the mammoth, the alske,
ANIMALS and biennals-and along with them
their co-worker and adjunct lime, the SILENT
subtle though sure agency in agriculture,
ready to do your bidding.
And now suffer me Mr.. President by way Of
illustration of what l have said and to i'm
press more forcibly upon the minds of this
club to relate story as told of Mr.. Terry in
a race with Il neighbor who persisted in
growing timothy in preference to clover
''The soil of the two farms was identical and
rotation of crops the same. Mr.. Terry cham
pioned clover, his neighbor timothy. Mr..
Terry asserted clover was enriching and
timothy exhausting. Unable to agree they
put to work their two systems In 1892 Mr..
Terry had a certain field in clover while his
neighbor had another in timothy. The crops
of hay were about equal in value. The second
crop of clover was left on the land to enrich
"a 49, In,
worth talking about. Mr.. Terry had no
manure or fertilizer, only clover roots,
crowns and tops. He had as much hay as
his neighbor. His neighbor put on heavy
coat of manure Both fields were planted to
potatoes the same day. The season was not
q very favorable one for potatoes, but when
digging time came the naighbor had 100
bushels, Mr. Terry 1G7 bushels per acre.
The crops we're sold for IS cents per bushel
with the difference of $50 per acre for the
clover fed land.
The contest continued and both fields were
sowed to wheat. The neighbor threshed first
with ~ bushels per acre. This was big
yield and Mr.. Terry feared he was beaten.
He gave his neighbor the job OF measuring
when he threshed so that he might know
what there was. When the separator reached
AZ bushels it did not stop but went right on
to 80 bushels per acre, pleasing Mr.. Terry
with his very good crop, but far more with
the proof that his theory and practice were
right and uncontrovertabe.
Continue gentlemen to farm your farms. l
am satisfied you would not be half so well
pleased in any other occupation, but do so on
the clover method, the Midas wand for the
ills we now suffer, and that right speedily.
Comment on the essay being in order, Mr..
Duyckinck said there was one obstacle in the
way of cultivating clover viz, the uncer-
tainty of its catch.
Mr.. H. S. Coudon also said that the draw
back to the use of clover, was as Mr.. Duyck-
inck had said, the uncertainty of getting it.
Probably when crushed granite as manure
came into general use. as recently recon-
mended. the use of clover might become
more general.
Mr.. Sutton said he had successfully cult
waited Crimson clover. both as a fertilizer and
as grazing grass and he approved its use
as profitable.
Mr.. John r. Bond said a farmer of his
acquaintance in Dakota, had sown the ordin-
airy red clover. and owed to it. that he could
secure an annual rental of 80 per acre for his
lands. He cited an article he had read, that
demonstrated the fact. that nitrogen was the
needed ingredient of plant food. that it could
be best procured by artificial manures, that
the farmer himself can prepare than by the
use of artificial fertilizers sold on the market.
for the reason that the latter are generally
largely deficient in the heterogeneous in
gradients. the same statement being made
before this club, by Prof. Robinson of the
State Agricultural Experiment Station. He
thought he possibly could procure the desired
result, by applying crude nitrate of soda to
barn yard manure before hauling it out. He
thought clover was the farmers great safe
guard, against Improbable artificial fertilizers
for which the farmers paid "A high price.
That the use Of clover us advocated by Mr.
Waters. was in line with the advanced agri-
cultural theories Of the day.
Mr.. Thos. C. Bond said that it was gen
orally conceded that strong leguminous
plants turned under were the best fertilizers
He did not agree with MIR. John r. Bonds
idea, that we could abandon altogether the
use of artificial fertilizers. while no manure
he thought could take the place OF barn yard
manure. He thought that clover turned
down was an excellent fertilizer but the
trouble was to secure the growth of clover.
Mr.. Jos. Coudon said that Mr.. Waters
essay was one of the most gracefully written
that he had heard before the club He
endorsed the theory of the use of clover as
advocated by Mr.. Waters. That the time had
come that farmers must either use less artii-
cial manure. or get better results. He had II
suspicion that we had injured our clover
producing land, by the use of so much artil-
cal manures. Something must be done as
we could not put 80 per acre on land to grow
cereals ut their present price. That if we
educated our sons on the present basis of
manuring, they would go down financially as
certainly as if they were gambling at the Elk
ton fair.
Mr. Kirk said he had been advocating the
use of raw bone, but it was too expensive,
and the experience of other farmers was
demonstrating, that lime applied in the fall
on sod, and blowing the groundin the spring.
would produce II corn crop, without other
rti nj manure and hp beliavn1 that ba