character of a soil is an important factor in determining actual fertility. This has reference, first, to the original character of the rock from which the soil particles were derived, whether hard and dense in their mineral character, thus resisting the penetration and solvent effect of air and water and other agencies, or soft and friable, and freely permitting their. entrance and action; and, secondly, whether in the formation of the soil the particles were so fine and so free from vegetable matter as to settle in hard and compact masses impervious to water, air and warmth, or whether they were coarse and not capable of close compaction, thus giving rise to an open friable soil, freely admitting the active natural agencies which are so necessary to plant growth, for the free circulation of the air and water through the soil is necessary that they may dissolve and make available the plant food and carry it to the plant. The temperature of the soil and of the surrounding atmosphere must not be too high or too low, thus preventing the progress of those changes which must go on, both in the soil and in the plant that the normal growth and development may be accomplished. Then the great importance of adding vegetable matter or humus to a soil is to give body to a light, sandy soil, leaving it less porous, enabling it to retain a greater amount of moisture, thus keeping a larger proportion of the plant food within reach of the plant roots; to make a cold, compact clay, or other soil of similar nature loose and friable, allowing a free circulation of air and water, increasing its moisture containing capacity, allowing less rainfall to run from the surface; by its decomposition to raise the temperature of these cold soils.

When the earth was formed it is thought that the chemical elements were more uniformily distributed throughout its crust than they are at present, owing to changes that have taken place by the removal of soils from their place of formation and their deposition at other places.

The mechanical components have become separated and deposited, the coarser first, forming sand, then the finer forming clay, and perhaps lime in another forming limestone soil; all differing from each other in the amounts and proportions of the essential fertilizing constituents contained, as well as in their physical qualities. The sandy, gravelly soils being the poorest are usually deficient in phosphoric acid and potash and not rich in nitrogen; clay soils are frequently rich in minerals containing potash and poor in those containing lime and phosphoric acid. Limestone soils are usually deficient in potash and rich in lime and phosphoric acid. Those soils composed largely of vegetable matter are rich in nitrogen and deficient in all the mineral elements. Hence it is that in the use of commercial fertilizers a knowledge of the soil is important and that we may supply those that are needed in that type of soil. Perhaps the best method of learning the element or elements that give us the largest increase in crop production is by experiment with the different elements of plant food upon the growing crop.

Of the ten chemical elements necessary to plant growth all are found in most soils in sufficient quantities with the exception of three or at the most, four, namely: Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash and lime. These are liable to become exhausted because they exist in larger quantities than the others in the plants grown and in smaller amounts in the most fertile soil. Nitrogen in its simple form is a gas and as such cannot be used in fertilizers. Therefore, when we speak of nitrogen in fertilizers we do not mean that it exists as simple nitrogen, but in combination with other elements, perhaps in different forms, as nitrate of soda-which is nitrogen combined with soda; as ammonia, which is nitrogen combined with hydrogen, or it may be in the form of organic matter.

The function of nitrogen is to grow the stems and leaves of plants, and an abundance is indicated by a luxuriant growth of these parts and a deepened color of the foliage. Potash is essential to the formation of starch in plants. Starch is first formed in the leaves of plants after which it becomes soluble enough within the plant cells to pass through the cell walls and is carried to the fruit of the plant where it accumulates and changes back to its insoluble form. Potash exerts an important influence on the development of the woody parts of stems and the fleshy parts of fruit.

Experiments have proven that plants will die before reaching maturity unless they have phosphoric acid to feed upon. Phosphates perform three functions. They aid in the nutrition of plants by supplying the needed quantities of phosphoric acid. They aid the plant to assimilate or make use of the other ingredients and are found chiefly in the seeds of plants. A plant does not mature and so does not produce seed unless phosphates are present in the soil in an available form. Certain forms of phosphates render the albumoinoids sufficiently soluble to enable them to be carried from the growing parts of the plant to the seed where they accumulate.

The function of lime is to improve the mechanical condition of soil, by loosening heavy clay soils and by holding together and giving body to light sandy soils. Lime aids in the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter and tends to convert them into available plant food. Therefore, care should be taken to use it with or in connection with fertilizers. Lime serves an important purpose in correcting the acidity of soils. I would like to add that several years ago I had the pleasure of testing samples of the different soil types found in Green township with litmus paper and found all the samples which I tested to be quite acid; therefore, I believe that the farmers of this section would be benefited by the use of lime.

Plant food as used on most farms is obtained from three sources, namely: legumes or nitrogen gatherers, farmyard manures and commercial fertilizers. The nitrogen gatherers belong to the legume or clover family and the distinguishing features of plants of this order are that their seeds are formed in pods or legumes and they have the power of acquiring at least part of their nitrogen from the air. In order that the plant may obtain its nitrogen from the air the soil must originally contain or must be inoculated with a germ, the presence of which is manifested by the growth of nodules on the roots, through which it is believed the nitrogen is obtained. The nitrogen thus introduced into the soil is in a very good form, that is, it readily decays, and thus supplies the needs of other plants.

But it must be remembered that the helpful additions to the soil are limited to organic matter and nitrogen, and the usefulness of the crop will depend upon the available mineral elements in the soil or on those supplied.

Farm manures add directly to the fertility of a soil by supplying all three elements of plant food in the organic form which must be broken down by decay, thus gradually liberating the plant food which they contain. Besides supplying the elements of plant food, farm manures serve another purpose, as do the legumes, that of supplying organic matter, which by its decay renders available some of the plant food already in the soil. and, as before mentioned, they greatly affect the physical condition of the soil.

Commercial fertilizers, on the other hand, in most cases supply only the elements of plant food and may not leave a beneficial effect upon the soil. Rock phosphate, for instance, as a carrier of phosphoric acid does not leave the soil in as good a condition to grow such crops as clover as does steamed bone. The rock goods are manufactured from phosphatic rock, which does

not contain organic matter and which when finely ground is treated with sulphuric acid to render the phosphoric acid available, while steamed bone is an animal product and does not undergo the acid treatment which may account for its better effect.

By practicing the following rules, the fertility of the soil can be maintained and increased:

By keeping the ground covered with some growing crop there is little loss of plant food. By proper crop rotation the exhaustion of plant food is lessened. By the use of legumes, nitrogen, the most costly element of plant food, may be obtained from the air. By better tillage and more tile draining the soil may be kept in good condition. By the intelligent purchase and use of commercial fertilizers fertility may be maintained. Most important of all, by marketing the products of the farm as far as possible through the medium of live stock and by care in saving and handling the manure, the greater part of the fertilizing elements may be returned to the soil.

The loss occasioned by the improper care of manure is enormous. It is estimated that if one-tenth of the present waste were avoided the amount of plant food saved would be more than equivalent to the amount purchased in the form of commercial fertilizers. Those interested in the study of fertilizers will find Professor Voorhees' book on that subject helpful. Bulletin No. 750 of the Ohio Experiment Station on "Ohio Soil Studies" will also be helpful to those interested along that line.

GROWING CLOVER.

BY WILLIAM C. COOMBS, LINDALE, OHIO.

[Read at the Farmers' Institute held at Laurel, Clermont county, January 4 and 5, 1905.]

You have doubtless all been advised to grow clover as a means of enriching your land. I have heard it from my boyhood up. All the agricultural books and papers are full of it. Judging from all that is said and written about it, growing clover must be a good thing-too good a thing for you or me to fail to get.

Yet how many of you have really succeeded in growing enough clover to have derived ary marked benefit from it? If I were to visit all the upland farms within a few miles of this place, and look into all your barns, how many good mowfuls of clover hay would I find? Occasionally, by a combination of favorable circumstances or by special and expensive preparation, you have had a field of good clover, but perhaps it would be years before you got another one. You have bought high priced seed nearly every year, and found it hard to pay for, and yet failed in most cases to realize any adequate return for your investment. Why is this? Is it possible that our upland farms will not grow clover, and is it true that we must forego the advantages that are said to result from it? If such advantages as are claimed follow the growing of clover, and it can be grown on our upland farms, we ought to raise it, we can not afford not to do it. If this paper shall help my fellow farmers to grow clover successfully and they actually do it on their farms, then my object shall have been accomplished, and I shall be satisfied. You will also doubtless excuse me for simply giving my personal experience. A relation of what has

been successfully done, is often of more value than a theoretical showing of what might be done.

About twelve years ago, on account of failure of health, scarcity of help and other causes, I found my land very much impoverished, mostly farmed by tenants, and yielding very little income. Corn was a light crop, wheat could only be grown on specially prepared ground, and timothy meadows were almost entirely run out. Clover seed had been sown almost every year, but seldow produced a crop. What the hot sun and dry weather after harvest spared, was generally finished by the frosts of winter. I had about as poor a prospect for growing wheat and clover as you can find on any farm around here.

Encouraged by returning health, and the help of two good boys who had fiinished their course in the high school, I gradually dismissed the renters. The tillable land was divided into three nearly equal parts, of about twenty acres each. A short rotation was adopted and peristently followed-corn, wheat, grass-one year to each. Commercial fertilizer was used on the wheat every time-seldom on any other crop. At first we sowed on the wheat a mixture of timothy and clover, but when the chinch bugs came, it was found that they would kill the timothy and not the clover, so after this clover alone was sown, and greatly to our advantage. Manures were spread, as nearly as possible fres from the stables, on either the young clover or on the clover sod which was to be plowed for corn in the spring. Each division was thus handled in succession -corn, wheat, clover, one crop of each.

What is the result? Clover, instead of being counted on as one of the most uncertain crops, is now counted on with as much certainty as the others. The amount of live stock kept on the farm has been largely increased, yet we have not been able to keep all the stock necessary to eat the feed produced, and for several years we have found it necessary to dispose of considerable quantity of clover hay every spring, which our neighbors seem glad to get at good prices. A look into our mows would satisfy you that we do grow clover. But, some of you may say, what was there in all this to make clover grow better than it did before? First, clover stands the drought and freezing better when grown on the firm soil of the wheat field. It also gets the benefit of the fertilizer put in with the wheat. Second, the clover was sown early, in February or March, so that the freezing and thawing bedded the seed firmly in the soil and gave it an early start. We were careful about drainage. Our land was back-furrowed in strips about two and a half rods wide and the dead furrows kept open. After drilling the wheat, the dead furrows were run out with a light plow and finished with a hoe if necessary. Lastly, we had adopted a rotation and stuck to it. Many of our first crops were very thin, but we did not get discouraged and stop.

What of the other crops? A steady and very gratifying increase. A look into our corn cribs, and wheat bins, or a comparison of our crops with those of our neighbors, or with the yield when we first began our rotation, would give abundant proof that our ground is increasing in fertility, although our crops are far from perfect, or what we yet expect them to be.

Why not try the same plan on your own land? Few, if any, have a more unpromising prospect than I had. You will succeed if you will stick to it. If your farm is small, or you are afraid to venture, try it on a smaller scale. If you can set aside only fifteen acres, you can have five acres of corn, five acres of wheat, and five acres of clover each year. If you can put 30 acres into the rotation so much the better; this will give you ten acres of each crop each year and your land will grow better. You will have some failures, but with

perseverance you will find that you can grow clover with profit, and at the same time increase the productiveness of your farm.

How does the growing of clover improve land? First, in common with all grasses by improving the mechanical conditon of the soil, making it more easily worked, enabling it to hold and retain more moisture for the growing plant, and by the growth and decay of rootlets adding the much needed humus to the soil. The roots of clover also penetrate deeper than most grasses, bringing up fertility from lower depths. But the chief advantage is in the ability of clover to draw nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix it in the soil as available plant food. It is becoming generally known among farmers that plants cannot grow, unless the plant food, or the material out of which plants are made is in the soil, and in a shape to be available. When you buy commercial fertilizer it is to add to the soil either nitrogen, phosphoric acid or potash for the use of the plant and without which the process of growth cannot go on. You generally buy nitrogen under the name of ammonia as that is a compound containing nitrogen. It is the most expensive ingredient of fertilizers, and is generally deficient in all worn soils, but there are inexhaustible supplies of it in the air which we breathe. Clover has the power to draw this nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil in a form available as plant food. Only clovers and the plants of the class to which they belong have this power. It is an interesting discovery of the last few years, that they do this by the help of certain bacteria, or minute parasites, which live within the plants, and whose nests or breeding places are on the roots forming small tubercles or enlargements. If these bacteria are absent or deficient, but little, if any, nitrogen will be added by growing clover. Just now the United States Department of Agriculture is conducting some interesting experiments in inoculating soils with this nitrogen-gathering bacteria. Any of you who wish to test it may do so by making proper application to the Department.

What substitutes are there for clover? As I have before stated, all that class of plants to which clover belongs-called legumes-clover, alfalfa, beans, peas, and vetches-have the power of gathering nitrogen from the air. Owing to the difficulty so often experienced in growing clover, of late years, the growing of these substitutes has been very much advocated, but I have yet to find any upland farmer who has made any very decided success with either. Alfalfa is not adapted to all kinds of soils, it is a perennial and cannot be used in any ordinary rotation. Great hopes have been raised in regard to soy beans and cow peas, yet in this latitude they have not yielded satisfactory returns. The principal difficulties I have found are, that they require cultivation to keep them free from weeds and to promote growth. The ground has to be broken, the same as for other crops and a whole year lost in growing them. They are also difficult to harvest. Then, the roots do not penetrate and fill the ground as do the roots of clover.

With clover grown in the rotation I have described there is no extra breaking of the ground, no cultivation, or loss of time, no extra work, only sowing the seed, cutting and harvesting with ordinary harvesting machinery, and the results to the soil are more satisfactory. If you can grow clover, you certainly cannot afford to spend a whole year's time and much hard labor also, in growing cow peas or soy beans.