Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1906-07-19
Three.5core Years of Far,minu

Few of us realize how rapidly an'
effectively farmers are being educated
or rather are educating themselves
If you open any first-class agriculture
paper today you VIII read with grea'
interest discussions about balance,
Fations. the essential elements {" fer
Utility, the place of the leeumes in The
farm rotation, soil incubation and the
bacteria that enable the legumes tc
utilize the free nitrogen of the at
moSpl,ere. We look in vain for any
thing of the sort in the agricultural
papers of thirty years ago, or ever
twenty
We look in vain in the reports OF
the Iowa Improved Stock Breeders as
ISOLATION. where new things We're
likely to appear first. for any discus
sion as To the reasons why the lcguines
enrich the soil previous to December,
1871, not yet fifteen years ago. The
tact that they do enrich land has been
known from the time OF cato, some
We thousand years. Virgil, who wrote
Il long poem to popularize farming,
mad mentioned the fact. The early
English farm writer's had dWelt long
upon 1t our fathers had pinned their
Faith TO clover and lime. but no one
knew why. We had learned nothing
ON this important subject for two
'ia'USeiilV years.
The first discussion of the SUBJECT
in the Improved Stock Breeders asso-
citation vas in 1891. / had become
deeply interested in the subject in
1899 and 1880. l had beer sowing
clover on various farms in Ada coun-
W for ten or twelve years With varying
success. / was greatly surprised at it's
slnsula behavior under different con-
d!tions. l had begun my studies in
agriculture where most arme do. at
the wrong end With improved live
STOCK. heredity. pedigree, and all that,
instead of with the study of soils. how
to get and keep them in proper condi-
ton, how to grow plants suitable for
the development OF live stock, and then
how to feed the live stock, properly
ending where l tried t. begin, with live
stock breeding.
believed In clover because my ia
Their believed In it. / tried to grow it
as he grew it, and could not UNDER
stand why 1t would not always grow
for me as 1t did for him. Finally in
some way. I do not now remember
how. I got an inkling of experiments
n discussions of DIR. Hellriegel. a
German experimenter. as to why clover
enrlcheS n In 1890 I lived on the
larm Tor some weeks and did little
else but study clover. l sent to Ger
for the final report of these ey.
per iiHeitS anu nau III translated. and
asked the gentleman who translated
1t to repair a paper on the subject of
where legumes obtained their nitrogen.
and to read 1t at the meeting of the
improved Stock Breeders association
IN 1891. l was greatly surprised that it
ELECTED no discussion whatever. While
1t was dry and technical, l expected it
to create some interest: but none of the
bright men who belonged to the assoc
seemed to have the least con-
aeption of its possible bearing on prac-
agriculture.
However, l kept on thinking. talk
ing and writing about it, and in 1899
my conclusions in NV first
book on clover, entitled Glover chi
[ure.' 1t was widely read and gave
ne the name of the clover crank
undertook to revise it. to make If less
and so plain in language that
very man who could understand Eng
lsh could grasp its meaning, ana the
'esult was an almost entirely new book
allied Glover Farming" In order to-
DC sure that l had accomplished my
sim. l picked out a preacher wbo said
lie knew nothing about clover and had
10 interest in the subject. l gave hin,
napier after chapter as it was wit
1 thought that if r could roaiiv
interest a man who knew notbin,
bout the subject. and had no reason