The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1904-06-09

2
manure onto a few acres of land and
then seeded the land to clover. planted
corn on the clover sod, then potatoes
and slowly but gradually began that
system OF crop rotation that in few
years made his farm one of the richest
IN the country. When he first started
IN he hired man to plant few pota-
toes on shares. but the weeds thrived
abundantly and all that he got in the
fall that was fit to take to market was
twenty-five bushels of potatoes which
ne traded for groceries, receiving
seventy-cents a bushel for his pota-
toes. He kept at it, hualing out
manure onto two acres of land. and
cropped the same with clover and il
was not long before he was raising
early potatoes off of the land and
getting $50 an acre from his potatoes.
He kept up the manure and clover
treatment of the land and with regular
rotation, in thirteen years after he
took the land he had three teams haul
ing potatoes to Akron every day dur
ing potato season. He began a three
year rotation Of crops, planting
clover, potatoes and wheat. This
method of farming had never been
tried at that time and he soon demon
strated its value to the soil. It was
not many years before he was raising
from his land as high as 25O bushels
OF. potatoes, and he said that it was
an easy matter for a farmer with fer
tile land to raise from 200 to $50 bush
els OF potatoes to the acre. There
were two things necessary to increase
fertility of the soil-richness and rain.
The use of clover was the agency that
enriched the soil. Eastern farmers
were using commercial fertilizers that
cost them as high as 500 to $50 per
acre but the price they received justi-
fed the use Of this high priced fertil-
izer: while western farmers could
hardly afford to use such expensive
fertilizer year after year. There were
three elements needed in the fertility of
the soil, they were nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash, and all three
the clover plant afforded the soil.
Charts were shown and Mr.. Terry ex-
planned the construction of the clover
plant and how it extracted the free
nitrogen from the air. On the ends of
the deep roots of the clover were in
Vulnerable pin heads, and there were
thousands Of bacteria on these roots
that feed on the nitrogen in the air.
through the clover liant f1ich iisa-
parts to the soil in this manner the
fertilizing elements it needs. The
clover roots were not like those of
most Of the grasses, which send out
their roots horizontally while the
clover has a deep tap-root that ex-
tends down in the ground seven or
eight feet in sandy soil and three or
four feet where there is hardpan. The
clover sends out numerous fbrous
roots and makes the soil rich and
mellow with the fertility that is i'm
parted to the soil. Glover sod when
ploWed is soft and mellow while with
other grasses the roots make the soil
tough and hard to work.
In the growth of the potato the tops
OF the plant want potash while little
phosphoric acid is necessary. The
clover plant stores this poatsh in the
soil for the potato, the potash being
brought to the surface of the soil by
blowing. On light and sandy soil
all fertilizers as rule would 60 down
deep into the soil, and the clover in
the soil would take this fertility and
send it to the surface where it was
needed. Mr.. Terry said that he
planted his clover crop every third
year. After planting clover with
grain he would NOV the clover the
second year. pillow for potatoes, then
follow with wheat, and then go back
to clover. A four-year rotation was
even better than a three-year plan, as
Mr.. Terry said that land would soon
tire of any crop in a short time, and
it was poor policy to plant potatoes
more than two years in succession
on the same soil. Oats and corn and
potatoes and clover was a good rota-
ton. Potatoes did not take much
fertility from the land as they were
mostly water and starch, but constant
planting of potatoes on the same land
would soon deteriorate the land and the
potato as we'll. Mr.. Terry said that
at first his farm did not consist of
more than twenty acres of tillable
land, and he had when he first started
in farming two-thirds of the land in
potatoes and the remainder in clover.
He received $4,000 for his potatoes in
1883 and in a year or two he received
~, TOO for his potato crop and built
him aZUOOd ho,1co co11;,r 4Lo4.1l