UMASS/AMHERST 31EDt,bDD5a5SDfl7 iiillit msm \„ DAVID C. LEWIS David C. Lewis is now 87 years old. He has owned and conducted the farm now made famous by "Chemicals and Clover" since 1874. Mr. Lewis is not only one of the best and most influ- ential farmers this country has produced, but one of the most honorable of men. A few years ago there was a demand for soil from a good alfalfa field to be used for inoculating new fields. Mr. Lewis had excellent alfalfa and could have sold large quantities of the soil. There was some little question as to whether all alfalfa soils con- tain the characteristic bacteria. Mr. Lewis re- fused to fill another order unless he could be convinced that the soil from his field contained what the people wanted to buy. This sturdy character has made the record of his farm all the more valuable, for we know that the figures given are accurate. Good seasons or bad, Mr. Lewis has recorded the facts, not with any desire to tell "a big story," but to give the truth. Thus, in its way, and tSirough its long service of 37 im- proving years, the Lewis farm has done for plain American farmers much of what the famous Rothamsted experiment farm did for scientific agriculture. DAVID C. LEWIS. CHEMICALS AND CLOVER. "England is robbing all other countries of their fertility. Already in her eagerness for bones she has turned up the battlefields of Leipsic and Water- loo and of the Crimea; already from the catacombs of Sicily she has carried away the skeletons of many successive generations. Annually she removes from the shores of other countries to her own the manurial equivalent of the million and a half of men whom she takes from us the means of supporting and squanders dow^n her servers to the sea!" THIS fierce outburst came from the great German chemist, Justus von Liebig, at a time when the Eng- lish farmers were groping their way toward a system of Chemicals and Clover. For many years the English farmers had rested secure in their belief that their strong land could be kept productive indefinitely by the use of stable manure and live stock farming. There came a time, as does to every farming section, when the crops plainly showed that something more was needed. As England de- manded more food her land began to fail. Then, led by such men as Sir J. B. Lawes, the English farmers began to search and scour the earth for plant food. The bones whiten- ing in the desert, the bird deposits on ocean islands, the nitrates in the parching sands, the mounds in bat caverns, the smoke from factories, the ashes of sea weeds and the G-erman potash mines all contributed to help save the English farmer. It was the old story that has been worked out in every century of civilization. ISTew land opened to cultiva- CHEMICALS AND CLOVER tion made food cheaper. The old system of farming with stable manure alone to maintain fertility failed to maintain the old yields. Farmers were driven to Chemicals and Clover, first finding a suitable addition to manure and then a full substitute for it. In every age men have foretold dire disaster to the human race through a failure of plant food and thus a failure of human food. Yet it is true that those nations and sections which have come closest to the true system of Chemicals and Clover can now show larger average yields, more productive soils and greater agricultural wealth. True Even in Colorado. What happened to English farming also happened to the older sections of America. In a strip of land along the Atlantic coast there has probably been the highest develop- ment of Chemicals and Clover that the world has seen. Dur- ing the past thirty years there has been less change in this system of farming than in any other. Very few men who farmed in the old way can say that their methods of pro- viding plant food are the same as their fathers employed, 3^et that is just what thousands of young men who use chem- ical fertilizers can say. . The old order changes — Chemicals and Clover remains the same. Consider history for a moment and you will see the truth of this. Thirty years ago I lived in Colorado. Pioneers had gone there a few years before and opened up the raw prairie soil. There was no way in which such soil could lose its fertility until it was cultivated. The rainfall was not sufficient to leach plant food away. Little was taken away by the few cattle which grazed the scanty grass. For ages that soil had been mellowing and slowly gaining plant food. The chemists even find that chemical action goes on in that soil which forms active ni- trates in a way which may account for the deposits of nitrate of soda in South America. Thus the soil had been guarded and replenished through ages, needing only water. Thus the early settlers were justified in saying that when they secured irrigating water from the rivers they had a perma- CHEMICALS AND CLOVER nent garden spot — soil that could not "wear out." Here you might well say was a system of farming which need not be changed for a century at least. Yet within a dozen years crops began to fall away in yield. What now? It was the old problem which sooner or later confronts the farmers of every section. You cannot continue to export without finally importing. That is as true of a farm as of a cider barrel. These farmers first took up stock feeding to help the land; alfalfa came in by the thousand acres and sugar beets fol- lowed. The alfalfa and the beets and beet pulp made a bal- anced ration for cattle and sheep. For a time this result- ing manure revived the yield. Potatoes planted on an alfalfa sod for a time gave heavy yields, then they began to fail once more. Looking for the reason it became evident that while the alfalfa might be adding nitrogen, the sugar beets and the live stock were removing potash and phosphoric acid. The success of any system of farming depends upon the skill with which the farmer supplies what the crops re- move and builds up a surplus. So those Colorado farmers on their rich soil began to use chemicals. It was a crude form of Chemicals and Clover, much the same beginning as in other sections, and even here the highest type of the system was found to pay. In 1889 a Colorado farmer grew 847 bushels of potatoes on a measured acre. He used 1,000 pounds per acre of a high-grade fertilizer such as is used on the Atlantic coast. This man knew his business for he had used a form of Chemicals and Clover in Scotland and in the Eastern states. The Colorado soil with its irrigation water beat all records with this fertilizer added. It is doubt- ful if any more profitable acre of potatoes was ever grown in Colorado. On Rich Kansas Soil. In Kansas the settlers found a different soil. Here was a moist, warm climate which induced a rank growth of vege- tation. For centuries this heavy growth had died annually and rotted down or been burned to ashes by prairie fires. CHEMICALS AND CLOVER Thus the upper surface was like a thick layer of rich manure. It might have been bagged and sold to fertilize poorer soils elsewhere. In fact, such soil in the form of dried muck is mixed and sold in some low grade fertilizers. Here was a case where the permanent qualities of manure should have been exhibited if anywhere because nothing had been lost from this rich soil. ISTo wonder the early Kansas settlers be- lieved their soil had no bottom, that it would last forever. They grew corn stalks as large as trees and wheat in which a giant could hide; yet 3''ear after year the yield failed. Fi- nally in 1895, the average corn crop in Kansas was 28 bushels per acre and in Connecticut 43 bushels. It seems strange, yet Connecticut after producing nearly 300 annual crops beat Kansas after producing only 50. It took these Kansans some time to wake up to the fact that the straw and the cobs and the grain had carried away potash and phosphoric acid never to return. They thought it was a case of chemicals or clover, but Connecticut followed Chemicals and Clover and went ahead. The ashes of the corn cobs put back on the land helps and is the first step toward a complete Chemical and Clover system. Sooner or later all must come to it. Raw Phosphate in Illinois. Again, in the central west or Mississippi valley the same old story has been worked out. Less than 20 years ago I was asked to go to a Western state and talk on potato grow- ing. When the Institute manager was told that I expected to discuss the use of fertilizers and Chemicals and Clover, he cancelled the engagement. He did not want his farmers to know that there was any substitute for clover or manure. That knowledge he said would lead to "lazy farming.^' This year over $3,000,000 worth of fertilizer was used in Missouri alone. The change has come as it always does, through the old story of learning after crops fly the flag of distress, that the farmer must supply what the soil has lost. Take Illinois as an illustration. This has been a live stock State. For 50 years cattle, sheep and hogs have grazed the pastures and eaten the stalks, grain and hay and then walked out of the CHEMICALS AND CLOVER State. What did they take with them? In every 1,000 pounds of live animal there went 27 pounds of nitrogen and 19 pounds of phosphoric acid. Since Illinois was settled millions of tons of this meat have thus carried away plant food and left the soil that much poorer. At first it was claimed that all this and more could be made good by grow- ing clover. Just as in Colorado and in Kansas, this answered for a time but the clover added only nitrogen and this did not take the place of the other plant foods for the live stock had carried away vast quantities of phosphoric acid. So they also started Chemicals and Clover. This start was made by using "floats" or ground phosphate rock. The theory of this practice is that the manure and the clover can make this rock partly available and that the clover can utilize it and thus provide for other crops. We will not dis- cuss that here, but the point is that everywhere in this coun- try, after half a century of old-time farming with selling live stock and grain, farmers begin a crude system of Chem- icals and Clover. The corn cob ashes in Kansas and the phosphate rock in Illinois simply indicate the growth away from the old idea that there can be no adequate substitute for manure. I have letters from a farmer in Alaska who, finding his soil failing, first tried fish and then the ashes of sea weed to stop the decline. All these things finally lead to the use of genuine high-grade chemical mixtures which means larger crops and greater profits. The Home of Chemicals and Clover. Prom Florida north to Maine, along the Atlantic coast, on what in some cases may be called about the poorest soil in America, the Chemicals and Clover system has reached its highest development. Here may be found some of the most profitable farms in the country, soil that is more productive than 30 years before and a system of farming that has not changed while all other systems have been turned inside out. And now you will ask — What is the Chemicals and Clover System ? CHEMICALS AND CLOVER It is the plan of using concentrated wastes of plant food in the form of chemicals and fitting the soil so that the crops can find these wastes quickly and economically. These wastes are largely deposits of plant food which nature has tucked in corners of the earth, through long ages ready to be used for the highest type of farming. As we have shown^, the plan of using chemicals to help out the manure supply is an old one. The name "Chemicals and Clover" was first given to a method of farming followed by a group of intelligent farmers near Cranbury, N. J. There is nothing elsewhere that so clearly illustrates this system. Mr. D. C. Lewis was the pioneer and a brief description of his farm operations will explain it. When Washington chased the British up from Philadelphia he found this a section of good farms. The strong level land produced corn, pota- toes, wheat and grass. Some dairying was done and stock was fattened and sent away. Thus we may see that, as in the West at a later date, there was a steady drain of fertility away from the farm. ISTotice here that is the world-wide history of agriculture. Soil is left to nature until it becomes highly productive, then it is cropped until the yields fall away. Wliile this may require 5 or 50 years, the result is ever the same. Farmers stick to the old systems until it is evident that crops are failing, then they start in to save the soil by purchasing plant food of some sort. This answers for a time, until the corn will not ear properl}^, the wheat and oats fail and all crops show vine and stem growth at the expense of seed. After costly mistakes such farmers finally learn what to use. We see how these Illinois farmers are beginning with phosphate rock and Kansas farmers are try- ing cob ashes. Others have tried marl, plaster, lime and muck only to give them up finally and pin their faith to high grade fertilizers. How They All Begin. Older men can easily remember the land plaster craze in New York State at about the time of the Civil War. Without CHEMICALS AND CLOVER question the land plaster did serve to increase crops for a few years. Because it did so many farmers agreed that no other fertilizer would be needed. Yet after a few years the plaster failed to give results. When they learned why it failed farmers were further along the road to the true Chem- icals and Clover. The plaster did not add plant food; it made possible a chemical action in the soil which enabled available forms of potash to be fed to crops. When those forms of potash were used up of course the plaster failed. To-day not one farmer in 100 uses plaster except it may be in the stable. Farmers have learned to search for actual plant food in forms which their crops can utilize. Thus every one-sided fertilizer like plaster, floats or ashes leads the thinking fanner step by step to the true Chemicals and Clover. All farmers must finally go that way or fall by the wayside. Mr. Lewis was no exception. He bought this farm in 1873 and has seen it pass through the definite and usual Chemicals and Clover development. Even before he bought it much the same experiment that is now being tried in Illinois was worked out on this Jersey farm. Live stock and hay had been the chief exports and, as we have seen, this meant heavy drafts of nitrogen and phosphoric acid. The owner was a button manufacturer in Philadelphia. The horn and bone refuse from the button factory was sent by canal, hauled 8 miles and spread over the farm. This was a crude form of Chemicals and Clover. In the light of the agricul- tural science of that day it seemed like sound practice. Farmers knew that bones were useful as a fertilizer and it was evident that bones represented the chief forms of plant food that had been carried away by stock and crops. Like the Illinois farmers, those Jersey men figured that phos- phoric acid would supply all that was needed. The Jerseymen learned their mistake 40 years ago. The Western men will learn it later. 10 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER A Very Crude Beginning. When Mr. Lewis bought this farm it was evident tliat something beside button waste was needed to keep up the farm fertility. Something was needed, for any one could take the figures and see that the farm was slowly losing its power to produce crops. Now mind what I say — let us get this right — power to produce. We speak of a soil that has lost its fertility yet it would require centuries to bring about such a condition. Under some old or faulty system of farming a soil may lose its power to produce and in that event Chemicals and Clover may bring that power back by providing the plant food and helping the soil to give it up. What Mr. Lewis started to begin with may be called a crude system of Chemicals and Clover. His rotation was oats, wheat grass (2) years and corn. But few potatoes were grown at this time. That was before the time when this bulky crop could be profitably shipped. A small herd of cows was kept and their manure put on the sod for corn. Mark how this practice remains the same in all the develop- ment of Chemicals and Clover. Whatever manure is made is put on the sod and the whole thing plowed under for the corn crop. This practice stuffs the soil with organic matter and corn is the best crop to make use of it. "Chemicals" in those early days were largely confined to Peruvian Guano and marl. The plan was to put marl at the rate of 100 bushels per acre on one field during each round of the rota- tion. This would bring the application of marl once every 5 years. This meant a heavy liming with the addition of a little potash. This lime whipped up the soil to give its plant food, and while for a time it forced heavier crops, in the end it weakened the soil. On each acre of wheat they used 150 pounds of Peruvian guano. This gave a small amount of nitrogen and more phosphoric acid, but it did not supply the needs of the wheat, nor could the soil after the oat crop supply what was required. Twenty-five well fed good hens would furnish as much plant food, but the point is that in those early days of Chemicals and Clover farmers CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 11 did not realize what their crops needed. Mr, Lewis realized that something more than marl and guano was needed, for the farm had come to the point where 20 bushels of wheat per acre was considered a good yield. Bear in mind that all through this Mr. Lewis had the clover part of the combina- tion in operation. He also used the manure from the cows, but it was not until he got the right combination of chem- icals to go with the clover and manure that the farm re- sponded. A Manure Substitute Needed. The gradual failure of crops might not have made so much dijfference if the high war prices had been maintained. This could not be. The government's financial policy brought prices down and thousands of old soldiers, after the war, moved West and took up government land. To them were added thousands of immigrants from Europe all eager for homes and farms. All this contributed to help depress prices for good. Prices for farm products steadily fell while the cost of producing a ton of hay or a bushel of wheat in- creased. Suppose it cost $18 to produce an acre of wheat. The yield falls from 25 to 20 bushels and the price falls from $1.25 to 90 cents. What becomes of the farmer? He can only reduce the estimate for his own labor and work for nothing. The selling price of farm produce is beyond his control. His hope is to reduce the cost per unit by growing more bushels to the acre with no increase of labor, taxes or fixed charges. I am trying to make it clear that Mr. Lewis was driven to practice the true Chemicals and Clover through necessity. It was a part of true historical development tJie same as numberless changes in manufacturing and social life on the Atlantic coast forced by the opening of cheap Western land. Many older farmers can easily remember this critical period of Eastern farming. The opening of that Western land drew ambitious youth away from Eastern farms, filled the markets with cheap, low priced food, and took away what our farmers regarded as the most logical method of keeping up fertility — live stock keeping. Meat of all sorts 12 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER could be produced cheaper on the Western land than else- where. The New Jersey farm could not stand the compe- tition at the old methods and farm prices fell and farms failed. Men like Mr. Lewis could readily see that New Jersey held a great market advantage. His farm was midway be- tween the two largest cities on the continent, wliile this new land which threatened ruin was 1,000 miles away. It was evident that if the old Eastern farm could be placed in fair productive competition witli this new Western land the former would surely have the advantage. Yet that seemed like a large contract to asl: farms over a century old to com- pete with virgin soil. Who would ask the man of 50 years to wrestle with the young fellow of 25 ? What could possibly place the two farms on even terms? As he saw it in those first years, Mr. Lewis concluded that a good substitute for stable manure, with improvements, would do it and nothing else. If you will only consider for a moment you will see that this is the conclusion which the long line of Chemicals and Clover farmers have always finally come to. For centuries stable manure was considered the fertiliz- ing foundation for agriculture. Yet, as we have seen, there always comes a time in every farming section when stable manure alone will not maintain crops as desired. There must be added to it what the crops or the stock have taken away. Therefore, we are right in saying that the true Chemi- cals and Clover system to be successful must provide a sub- stitute for manure and also what the manure lacks. Mr. Lewis started out to obtain this and 30 years of successful crops with a soil constantly increasing in fertility shows that it was found. Studying Out a Substitute. I make much of this and refer to it again and again be- cause much the same conditions prevail to-day with men who are leaving the city to go "Back to the land." They find much the same problem and must have a substitute for stable CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 13 manure in order to make a start. At the time we speak of, 40 years ago, it seemed like agricultural heresy to say that one bag of high-grade fertilizer might bring to the farm as much plant food as a ton of stable manure. You see at that time the farmer did not stop to realize that outside of this bag of plant food the manure had nothing except water and organic matter. The rain was fully capable of furnishing the water, while the stubble and vines will provide the organic matter or humus. If you have the plant food in the bag and grow grass and clover in your rotations, you have Chemicals and Clover, the manure substitute. Most of this was new when Mr. Lewis started. It had not been worked out defi- nitely in practice. He had help and suggestions from Mr. Charles V. Mapes. Mr. Mapes had studied and handled fertilizers for years. Prof. James Jay Mapes, his father, being a noted agricultural chemist. He had demonstrated that in a way the development of a substitute for manure was like the growth of the Chemicals and Clover system. We have seen that in this plan of fertilizing the start is usually made with a single element or with crude forms of plant food. At first these help then they fail and other chemicals follow until a complete fertilizer is evolved. So it was with the development of a full substitute for manure. At first Peruvian guano was thought to be sufficient. Finally it failed when used alone. Then came specially prepared bone, blood and flesh, fol- lowed by additions of chemicals to suit any desired crop or special soil. This growth was natural with the needs of the soil and the development of markets. With experiment the mixtures developed into that complete substitute which placed the Jersey farm in the ring once more — a winner. It was a high-grade mixture, nothing else could have done it. How those chemicals did marshal the hosts to defend that Jersey farm. There was nitrate from the South American deserts, bone from the western plains, sulphate of ammonia from the fumes of factories, guano from the islands of the sea and potash from the German mines, all assembled to make a substitute for manure. This was entirely natural, for very likely every one of these concentrated forms had in ages 14 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER past been used again and again to produce animal or vegeta- ble life. Perhaps you never before considered how this Chemi- cals and Clover system brings the wastes of the world together as nothing else can do to make the products which save human life and, what is more, save agriculture. The stable manure farmer must depend largely upon his own farm; the chemical farmer may say — the world is mine. Organizing the Chemicals and Clover Rotations. We can explain what is meant by a high-grade mixture later. Just now we want to tell how Mr. Lewis saved his farm through Chemicals and Clover. For save it he did and with profit. In 1874 his total sales from the farm were $1,694.38. In 1911 the same farm, same fi.elds, same fertil- izer and same crops produced $5,250.87 ! To-day this farm is surely 25 per cent, more productive than it was 37 years ago. Now, in order to make a full substitute for manure there must be humus or organic matter with the chemicals. Ob- viously some crops give more humus as wastes than others. It is also true that some crops give better results than others on a sod or where the soil is rich in organic matter. Others do better when feeding directly upon chemicals. The arrange- ment of all these things means a "rotation," that is, one crop following another in a regular and definite system so that the natural habits of one match into those of the others. There, being 90 acres of tillable land in the Lewis farm, 5 fields were marked off for the rotation. You will notice that the same crops which had been grown for years were selected, only the arceage of potatoes was greatly increased. For- merly but few potatoes were grown, oats preceding the wheat. In the new arrangement the oats were discarded, potatoes taking their place. This was because the potatoes made the best money crop and were also found best for feeding directly upon the chemicals. In starting such a rotation suppose a field is in grass, two crops or more having been cut. We all know that corn is best suited to sod ground. Com can CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 15 stand heavier feeding than any other farm crop, so all the farm's accumulation of manure is hauled and spread on the sod. This may be done at any time after the hay has been removed. On level land it is a good job for winter and each day's supply can be hauled out when ready. "With all this manure and the sod plowed under the corn is planted and given the best of culture. It is good practice to sow crimson clover or some other "cover" crop at the last culti- vation of the corn. This cover crop plowed under in the spring adds to the humus or organic matter in the soil — a most necessary feature of Chemicals and Clover. The vig- orous corn crop utilizes much of the manure and sod and leaves the soil in fine condition for the potato crop which comes next in the rotation. Here we come to the "Chem- icals" part of the system. The corn has attended to the "Clover" part for all the manure was put on the sod and plowed under. Then all, or nearly all, the chemicals needed for the rotation will be put on the potatoes. There is good reason for this. The potatoes represent the money crop, that is, they bring more per acre than the grain or the grass. It is therefore a matter of business to fertilize heavily and se- cure as large a potato crop as possible. Again, there is no farm crop better suited to chemical feeding than potatoes. Stable manure in large quantities will make the crop scabby and lead to rot. A well balanced fertilizer of high-grade will give a smooth, fair crop and supplies every requirement, with- out forcing the plants too much. And the high-grade fer- tilizer is so made that after the potatoes have taken what they need the soil still holds enough chemical plant food to en- sure a crop of wheat and two large crops of grass. What Follows the Money Crop? In this rotation it is necessary to plant a potato of medium earliness so the crop can be dug in time for wheat seeding with grass. Eye might wait longer but wheat should be seeded in September. If the potato crop has been larger than usual Mr. Lewis plans to use some chemicals on the 16 CHEMICALS AND GLOVER wheat and of late years this has become a general practice for Chemicals and Clover farmers have one standard re- mark — "The more fertilizer I use the more money I make." The spring following this wheat seeding clover seed is scat- tered over the wheat ground and usually there is a good "catch." Mr. Lewis has learned that Alsike is surer than Bed Clover and a mixture of the two is usually seeded. The wheat is harvested at the proper time and then the grass comes on. The first year it is heavy with clover hut the Timothy comes in the second year. After two crops are cut we are right where we started with a sod two years old, carrying all the farm manure ready to be plowed and put in corn once more. Thus, with the rotation fully under way, Mr. Lewis had each year about 18 acres each of corn, potatoes and wheat and 36 acres in grass. The corn and the potato ground, or 36 acres, are plowed each year, all the manure on the corn ground and nearly all the chemicals on potatoes. Bear in mind that these are all farm crops, not truck or garden. But how do you prove that the chemicals on the potatoes and the stubble, vines and stalks of the other crops make a substitute for manure? Facts and Figures Prove It. I prove it by figures and the history of the farm. Thus far, you have had theory, but Mr. Lewis has been accumulat- ing figures for 37 years. In 1874 when this rotation started, sales from this farm amounted to $1,694.38. For the year ending April 1, 1911, sales of the same crops from the same land, grown by the same fertilizer came to $5,250.87, over three times the year's product 37 years before ! Since this rotation was organized and started this farm of 90 acres of tilled land has produced $103,390.82 worth of grain, hay, potatoes and milk. The rotation has now run around seven times without change of method, crops or chemicals, except that where some years ago the stalks were thrown into the manure, they are now fed. In the first five years of the rota- tion total sales were $9,611.27. In the last five years these CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 17 sales were $18,070.85. Here are the figures of a few years taken at random : Farm Sales 1874 $1,694.38 1884 1,972.00 1894 ' 2,874.38 1902 3,856.04 1905 3,288.29 1909 3,074.93 1910 4,339.95 1911 5,250.87 Now think what this means. It is not track farming, involving a great gang of workmen, hut the culture of ordi- nary farm crops such as two men or a good family with extra help in haying and potato digging can handle. Since the start with Chemicals and Clover the farm has turned off, as we have seen, $103,390.12 worth of produce or $1,148.17 per working acre. Starting in 1874 with an average of $18.82 per acre, in 1911 the average on these same acres was $58.23. Some one may say that this has cost more than it came to. Not so, for the cost for fertilizer in 1911 was less than $7 per acre for the farm. Mr. Lewis, after all these years 'of Chemicals and Clover says that with this system properly carried out he can go on cropping indefi- nitely, with large returns, and with the soil constantly grow- ing more productive. ^Vhat is more, he says he can take any reasonably level farm of fair soil and good drainage, reasonably near a market, and make it pay from the start with Chemicals and Clover! These figures prove it for here is this once failing farm after 37 years of continuous cropping now producing larger crops than ^ver before. Going Into the Details. And now you will ask — how were these crops divided to bring $5,000 or more. Do they get returns for putting so much fertilizer on potatoes? Here are the figures for 1911: 18 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER Sales of Farm Crops, 1911. Milk and calves $700.00 Potatoes 2,741.00 Hay 1,100.00 Wheat 579.87 Chickens and pork 130.00 Total $5,250.87 Now you will notice there is no recorded sale of corn here. Formerly sales of this grain equalled those of wheat; now the crop is practically all fed to the stock. The sales of $830 for milk and stock should mostly be credited to the corn crop. The chief object in keeping the cows is that they may consume the corn stalks with profit. In the earlier days of this system these stalks were wasted, so far as their feeding value was concerned. They were thrown on the sod to decay or into the barnyard to be trampled and crushed into the manure. The object has ever been to put back into the soil the wastes of the crops such as stalks, straw and stubble and sell the rest. There are chemical farms from which even the stalks and straw are sold, but Mr. Lewis from the first has realized the necessity for humus or vegetable matter on his soil. There are soils where this need is not so great, but if you start out to make a substitute for manure you must consider the organic matter. We must, of course, realize frankly that the plan is all opposed to the old theory that nothing should even be sent away from the farm that can be consumed there. I have heard old farmers say that any man who sold hay and grain surely entailed a curse upon his children — in a wasted farm. Yet how can any such theory stand against the facts of this farm? Go and see if you can find 100 acres handled on this old plan which pro- dTTces more and constantly grows more productive. How Does the Com Help? You will notice that the rule is to consume the stalks and sell the hay. The stalks would barely bring in market their CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 19 actual plant food value, while the hay brings three times as much. Thus the hay means a profit to the farm, while the stalks, sold in the same way, might mean a loss. You may ask why grow corn at all since it gives little, if any, direct addition to the farm income. As a matter of fact, the items of $830 for milk and pork belong to the corn crop. All this aside it is one of the most important crops in the rotation. On many farms the hogs or the flock of ducks act as scavengers and are most profitable because they make good use of the rougher, bulky forms of food. Corn is the useful hog among crops. Any farmer will tell you that neither potatoes, wheat nor grass seed would do as well on a manured sod right after plowing as corn does. Corn, the hog plant, not only makes use of this roughage, but it does more. It is also corn, the manufacturer, for it fits that tough sod for potatoes as no other crop will. Go into a com field planted on sod at the end of the season and see how mellow the soil has become. The tough roots of grass and weeds and the wiry stubble have disappeared or changed to soft, open humus, while the corn roots fill the soil and keep it open and porous. The potato is not a root but an enlarged underground stem and it cannot possibly make a large yield unless the soil is porous and at the same time capable of holding moisture. A tough sod immediately after plowing is not of this character but after being fitted and strained by the corn crop such a soil is ideal for potatoes. Thus the corn, while not making a large financial contribu- tion, still makes it possible for the "money crop" to do its best. Yet, as we see, the milk and the pork give good returns. The corn crop, put into the silo or husked, with the dry stalks fed, is responsible for most of the milk money. If the corn were given up the cattle would also go. Thus corn helps dispose of the farm wastes and also provides a profitable winter job. Of late years Mr. Lewis has worked into alfalfa culture with considerable success. The alfalfa hay is fed with the stalks to the cattle, making nearly a complete ration and leaving more hay for sale. Thus, as we see, after feeding 20 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER all the stock (about a dozen head), hay to the value of $1,100 was sold. Chemicals on the Money Crop. But the money crop is potatoes. In 1911 we see this crop providing over half the total income. This meant a combination of good yield and high prices — a banner year. Yet do not forget that the corn and the grass crop both helped to make this possible. On practically every farm there will be found certain fields which make better potato soils than others. As the rotation passes on the chance of a favorable season and one of those superior soils will make a banner year. On the poorer soils the potato crop may not do so well, but other crops may be better. The rule of Chemicals and Clover is to operate on the principle that every year is the banner year and feed the potatoes to the limit of their ca- pacity. This is entirely safe for, as we shall see, the wheat and the grass follow so closely that there can be little if any loss of plant food. It was John Sherman who said that a surplus is always better than a deficit. That is true of a nation's finances and also of the system of Chemicals and Clover. After the corn crop has worked over and fitted the sod ground it is safe and highly profitable to use heavy dress- ings of a high-grade, balanced fertilizer. That is the keynote of success. Mr. Lewis now knows that this is true, but at first he was inclined to hesitate. It did seem like a mistake to throw on more fertilizer than the crop could possibly take out. He visited some successful farmers on Long Is- land and found them using 3,000 pounds of fertilizer per acre. They showed him figures and proved that while the single potato crop might not respond and clean up all the plant food, the wheat and the two grass crops did respond and fully paid for the goods. This Long Island soil was light and needed more fertilizer. On the stronger New Jersey soil 1,200 pounds per acre made a good dressing for the potatoes and, year after year, this has kept the farm going. You see the figures of sales and you must remember also that chemical farming saves labor. As all farmers know, CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 21 the labor cost of handling the manure, even when carriers and spreaders are used, is the heaviest item of expense and certainly the most disagreeable job. In Chemicals and Clover the work, and particularly that of the potato crop, may be practically all done by machinery. Plowing, planting, culti- vating, spraying and digging, everything up to picking po- tatoes, may be done while riding on a comfortable seat. Two men each Avith only one leg can do nearly all the work in Chemicals and Clover except picking up. The Other Crops Fit In. And now let us see how beautifully the wheat and grass fit into Chemicals and Clover. It is said that they eat at the second table. Many boarders prefer this. They do not receive hash and scraps but a carving of meat nearer the center where the true juices are. In much the same way the wheat and the grass get the best there is. Like the corn they not only furnish products for sale, but save what the potatoes leave and help fit the soil for another crop. You see how the "Clover" or humus part of this system revolves around the Chemicals. With all this heavy dressing of fer- tilizer when the potatoes are planted, of course late summer finds the soil well supplied with plant food. This is par- ticularly true of the soluble nitrates which are freely formed in the hot, moist soil during late summer and fall. So long as the potato crop keeps on growing these nitrates are used as they are formed and not lost. Digging the potatoes and harrowing the ground still further stimulates the formation of these nitrates and if the soil were left bare, there would be a heavy loss and the system of using more plant food than the potato crop really needs might fairly be criticized. Here is where the wheat and grass come in and save the day. When they are seeded on the potato ground they fill the soil with their living roots and utilize these soluble nitrates which would otherwise be lost. This gives them the remarka- ble start which all have observed when grain is seeded after well fertilized potatoes. A high-grade fertilizer is built to stay by the job and after saving these wastes from the potato 22 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER crop and thus getting a full start, the wheat and grass find food enough to grow on to a finish. For as we saw there was enough plant food put on the potatoes to feed all three crops. Here again, we see the true theory of Chemicals and Clover. In ordinary years the chemicals put on the po- tatoes will fully carry the wheat and the two grass crops through. Should there be any indications of crop failure or lack of plant food, a top dressing of soluble fertilizer will at once supply the need. In some cases rye proves even more profitable than wheat. The straw is worth more and there is usually a surer "catch" of grass than with wheat. This would mean the sale of straw and the loss of that much more to the farm, for at Cranbury the wheat straw is all worked up into the manure. As we can see from our table, the wheat crop brought $579.87 or about $33 per acre. Not a large income, yet profitable when we consider how the wheat saves what one crop of potatoes leaves and helps fit the soil for another. This rotation represents the highest type of Chemicals and Clover. There are modifications of it as we shall see, but this is the real thing for farm crops. Re- member that this is no fairy tale but the plain record of facts. Cranbury is on the map and the farm and all its methods are easily to be seen. What is Meant by "High Grade" ? But why all this talk about "high-grade" fertilizer ? What does that mean? Are not all fertilizers which contain equal quantities of plant food the same? Do you mean to say that different crops are so different in feeding habits that they will do better on one mixture than another? In these questions you get down to the heart of the sub- ject. It has been made clear that Mr. Lewis, like all chem^ ical farmers before him, had to find a fair substitute for stable manure before he could hope to make his farm pay. He might have used a crude mixture of chemicals giving much the same total amount of plant food as the mixture which has made success possible, but he would have failed. For instance, a mixture of tankage and fish, acid phosphate CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 23 and kainit would have provided the actual plant food, but before two rounds of the rotation had passed both the soil and the crops would have shown that something was wrong. To make it clearer, let us take this very stable manure for which a substitute is required. Who does not know that although all manures contain the same kinds of plant food they vary greatly in quality? Take a herd of "Springers" wintered on dry stalks and poor hay alone and coming out of winter "spring poor." Compare the manure such poor creatures make with that from a grain fed dairy herd com- fortably wintered and fed clover hay. You know that one is worth far more than the other, ton for ton. Take cow manure wintered in the drippings from the barn roof and put great frozen chunks of it on one field. Take from another farm mixed horse and cow manure thrown into a tight barn cellar and well worked over by hogs. Put this on another field and compare the crop with that grown from the hard chunks. One is what we call low-grade and the other high- grade manure. The difference between them is what they are made of and the way they have been handled. Or, take manure which has been carefully composted under a shed until it is well decayed and fine. Is there any intelligent farmer who would not choose that for any crop in place of the lumpy, green stuff M^hich you often find in the barn yard? If you had to use the coarse stuff at all you would rather have it on corn. Yet they are both called manure only one has been cared for until we call it high-grade be- cause its plant food is available and so fine that it will spread easily. Fine Hen Manure is "High Grade." Or, to make it still clearer, take the different kinds of manure to be found on your farm such as hen, horse, cow or sheep. Who does not know that dry and fine hen manure represents the highest grade of all farm fertilizers? It is a common fact that at auctions farmers will often pay as much for three barrels of good hen manure as for a ton of old cow manure, leached in the barn yard and full of long stalks. 24 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER Why is this? Both are known as "manure/' yet farmers have learned by experience that a small one-horse load of the hen manure has a greater crop producing power than a big two-horse load of the other. A handful of one is known to equal a forkful of the other in its power to make crops grow. Why is this? There are two chief reasons why the hen manure ranks as "high-grade." One is the food, the other mixing or preparation. The hen has a greater variety of food. She eats insects, meat, pieces of bone, forms of food containing far more nitrogen than any cow food. Then nature adopts different plans of mixing. With the cow, liquids and solids are voided separately. The liquids contain most of the valuable plant food but they are mostly lost by leaching away. With the hen, liquids and solids are voided together and thoroughly mixed and when promptly dried the hen manure thus contains three to four times as much plant food (more available as well) as the colder and more bulky cow manure. Thus the hen manure is made of rich ma- terials, all of which are saved. The cow manure is made of coarser products with much of its plant food lost through the liquids and their place supplied by bedding or trash with but little fertilizing value. This illustration of the differ- ence between hen and cow manure explains what we mean by high-grade and low-grade fertilizers, both as to quality and preparation. ISTot only is the hen manure rich in plant food, but it is so composed that it stays by the crop from start to finish. Many a farmer got his start in Chemicals and Clover by observing the effect of a handful of dried hen manure in the hill of corn. The liquids mixed with the solids act first to feed the crop during its early life, then the balance becomes more and more available as the season progresses, so that the crop is fully supplied all through its growth. Why the High Grade Stays By. Now when a farmer realizes what this difference in farm manures stands for he can easily see that there may be a similar difference in Chemical mixtures and for much the CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 25 same reason. Since it is a substitute for it, a high-grade mixture should be built like a high-grade manure, with additions of what the manure lacks. As in the case of the hen manure, half a dozen or more things go to compose it. Each plays its peculiar part. For example, a high-grade fertilizer should offer nitrogen to the crop in half a dozen different forms. In earliest spring when iJie soil is cold, yet when the young crop must grow, the nitrates are at once available. Then comes sulphate of ammonia, dried blood, Peruvian guano, fine bone and the rest, each with its part to play at the right time, following in succession. It is all so well arranged that there is no moment during the life of the potato plant that it may not have an abundant supply of available plant food. When the crop is harvested, as we have seen, the wheat and the grass follow the potatoes and utilize and save all available nitrogen that the potatoes leave in the soil. Any one can see the advantage of having this wide variety of chemicals rather than only one or two. Imagine a market gardener putting cold and cloddy cow manure into the soil and expecting to grow an early crop of lettuce or garden truck ! Any farmer will know that he would do much better with fine hen manure, compost and liquid ma- nure. Yet the dressing of cow manure may contain just as much nitrogen as the other. Can you not see that the fine, well-rotted manure gives better results because it contains more and better forms of this nitrogen ? That is what makes it high-grade. Suppose that in his dressing of potato fer- tilizer Mr. Lewis uses 40 pounds of nitrogen per acre. He might use 40 pounds in the form of tankage or dried fish and nothing more. There is no man who ever used fertilizers who will say that this could possibly equal the results from a high-grade mixture of different forms of nitrogen. I keep at this again and again because it is the very founda- tion of success with Chemicals and Clover. You must have a high-grade mixture. It is the same way with phosphoric acid, a low-grade mixture may have but one form of phos- phoric acid, an acid phosphate. In most soils this form will be "reverted" or changed so that it has little power to 26 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER feed plants and yearly applications must be made. The high-grade mixture will supply phosphoric acid in bone, guano and bone black. This phosphoric acid will become more and more available as time goes on, the reverse of the acid phosphate which becomes less and less available with age. The Whole Story Told. Another virtue of the dried hen manure is the fact that it can be crushed fine and evenly spread. Consider for a moment that in one acre only one foot deep there are 3,500,- 000 pounds of soil. Imagine how little showing a few tons of manure or one ton of fertilizer can make in this great mass unless the fertilizer can be evenly spread all through the ground. The fertilizer itself must be so thoroughly mixed that every tablespoonful is a fair sample. It must be so dry and fine that it can be found and used whenever the plant roots hunt for it. What we call a high-grade mixture sizes up to these requirements. It costs more than the coarser, sticky "low-grade" goods and is worth more, just as a barrel of good hen manure is often worth as much as half a ton of coarse trash from the barn yard. Mr. Lewis told me only the other day that he would not attempt to keep up his rota- tion or start farming on other land vvihout the highest grade fertilizer he could obtain. I a^eQ him if he could not take an equal amount of plant food in tankage, acid phos- phate and kainit and do as well. He laughed at the idea, saying that from the very nature, origin and analysis of good manure it was necessary to have a great variety of plant food in order to make a manure substitute. Even now I sometimes hear farmers object to chemicals because they do not believe in bringing plant food from elsewhere. They claim that the farm should support itself. Let them think for a moment and they will see the folly of this argument. They will grow a crop at one end of the farm or at the other end of town, haul it home, feed it and carry the manure to feed a crop grown half a mile from the first field. Or, they will buy stable manure from town and haul it to their farm. What is this stable manure? The hay came from Iowa, CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 27 the oats from New York, the corn from Illinois and the straw from Pennsylvania. It is as much "imported" as any chemicals. What is more, these very chemicals are really concentrated manure. "We see that high-grade manure is that which has been finely worked up and chemically worked over. Most of the chemicals were originally much the same as the things which produce manure but the fineness and chemical action has been carried on much longer and further. At least part of the nitrate of soda found in the South American deserts was derived from vast manure beds of ages ago. Nitrate of potash comes up from sink holes and manure pits and is often formed in small quantities in manure piles. Sulphate of ammonia is washed out of the fumes from coal and organic matter. Peruvian guano is well dried bird manure. Blood, bone, flesh and fish are organic substances, all of them fed at times to animals. Do you not see that the high-grade mixture of these substances is more than a manure substitute but rather a manure extract? No, there is but one outcome from, all the world's experimenting with chemicals. Sooner or later the farmer must come to a high-grade substitute for manure if he expects to maintain his farm. Modification of the System. I have given the details of this system followed by Mr. Lewis because it is the standard plan for Chemicals and Clover. It is a farm rotation of standard farm crops, within reach of any farmer of moderate capital who must compete with other farmers on even terms. There are, of course, many modifications of the system, all based on the general plan of feeding some money crop heavily on chemicals and using other crops to utilize what this money crop leaves and help fit the soil. One man in a more northern latitude with a small farm provides four fields, corn, potatoes, rye and clover. The potatoes are heavily fertilized with chemicals. This farm is too far north to make wheat seeding after po- tatoes safe, so rye is used alone, no grass seed being wanted, but clover is seeded in the spring. Instead of harvesting 28 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER the rye a drove of hogs is turned in to eat it down which they do completely. The clover comes on and affords pas- ture for the hogs and the corn is snapped off and fed to them. Next year the field comes up in clover and is pas- tured in the same manner^, then followed by corn. In this way much labor is saved, the hogs are profitable and, as on the Lewis farm, the corn and clover are all designed to help make the money crop' — potatoes. Another farmer in New England followed a curious modification of Chemicals and Clover. He grew a white flint corn which had a peculiar value as meal. He started on a sod with corn and followed with potatoes, fertilizing heavily; after the potatoes came rye. In the spring this rye was plowed under and corn planted again, and in August Timothy and Eed Top grass seed put in the standing corn. By scattering this seed evenly and cultivating it in with raking around the hills, a good stand was obtained. The second year you would hardly know it had been a corn field. Of course, the stalks were cut close to the ground and rolled down in spring. This plan is not to be recommended for general practice since the scheme for seeding in the corn is only suited to certain localities and to small areas. I simply mention these cases as instances of the way in which the Chemicals and Clover system may be worked out. The foundation in every case is to put the chemicals on some money crop like pota- toes and have the other crops in the rotation serve this one by contributing organic matter or "clover" and utilizing the plant food left over from the potatoes. On Long Island in particular and in New England great things have been done with this system. The money crop may be potatoes or tobacco or onions or cabbage or cauliflowers. The "clover" may be grass, rye, corn, peas or vetch, but the principle is the same. It is a full chemical substitute for manure on the money crop and other crops in the rotation to wait upon it, take its leavings and fit the ground. Mr. Newton Osborne of Newington, Conn., did even more remarkable things than Mr. Lewis, who had good soil to start with. Mr. Osborne took a sandy berry patch, "grafted" potatoes in the berry CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 29 vines and made that neglected old field into a productive farm. Of course, it was the same old story, only more forcibly told. On this poor and useless land the Chemicals and Clover paid from the start and made a good farm. George M. Hewlett, of Long Island, matched dollar for dollar in stable manure again its chemical substihite; that is, he used a dollar's worth of one against a dollar's worth of the other. The object was to see if the substitute could stand up against what was thought to be the real thing. It did — stood up until the ''real thing"'' went down. In this com- parison Mr. Hewlett worked up to 3,000 pounds of chemicals on one acre of potatoes. When the chemicals beat the ma- nure on potatoes the critics said, "It may do better with the potatoes, but it cannot hold out, the wheat and grass will fail without manure !" But they did not fail for the longer this comparison was continued the greater superiority was shown by the substitute. Not only the potatoes but the wheat, grass and corn all showed better crops with the chemicals. As in all other cases where the high-grade goods are used, the soil improved steadily with each round of the rotation. In Florida even greater and more remarkable results are obtained. In the peculiar climate and soil of Florida dif- ferent methods are followed. The orange tree is peculiar in its demands and cannot be safely fed upon plant food which would satisfy corn or grass. Here there can be no rotation but the available chemicals must be put just where the tree roots want it. Stable manure or corn crops with their organic forms of nitrogen would not answer. They would keep on forcing the tree after it should stop growing. The grower must control the growth of his tree and know how to make it grow and then how to make it stop. High-grade chemical mixtures have been used in the best orange groves for years, supplying just what the trees needed. Along the Atlantic coast the use of chemicals with "clover" as needed has revolutionized gardening and trucking. If gardeners and fruit growers were now obliged to depend on stable manure for plant food entire sections would be depopulated and all except the rich would return to a winter diet of bread, pork 30 CHEMICALS AND CLOVER and beans and canned goods. Many fruit growers at the north, especially where located on lighter soils, now follow the plan of fertilizing heavily in spring, then giving thor- ough culture until late July and then let the grass and weeds grow. This promotes rapid and early growth. The weeds come in and check this wood growth so that the trees ripen their wood and their fruit, while the weeds provide the ''clover" and thus make the full manure substitute. The System May Change Society. I have told how old farmers take advantage of Chemicals and Clover to save and improve their farms. There is another side which must be considered. One of the evils of modern living is the fact that the country has crowded into the city. Good farms have been given up, while many more are half worked and for sale at a low figure. On the other hand, the towns are well filled with men of middle age or younger who know that they cannot hope to hold their positions much longer. Some of them have saved enough to make a fair start on a farm. Their savings will barely carry them three years when they lose their position, while on a good farm, wisely handled, it would represent a com- fortable home for life. This hard problem has been presented to thousands who may read this little book. It is really the most thought- ful problem now before the country. Food is steadily in- creasing in value and prices for farm products seem assured at a high figure for years to come. Land is passing out of production or losing in power. The producers of food are not rapidly increasing while the consumers are growing more numerous every year. From this condition has grown the "Back to the land" movement. It would grow faster and change the history of the country if the city man with mod- erate capital could realize the possibilities of Chemicals and Clover farming. There lies the great hope for him as well as for the old time farmer. The city man cannot hope to start in and win great success at dairying, poultry keeping, sheep or other live stock. It is really a life business to learn how CHEMICALS AND CLOVER 31 to handle these animals. With a reasonably level farm, how- ever, he can start a rotation like that at Cranbury or a modification of it, and begin at once with high-grade fer- tilizers. In fact, something of this plan is about the only safe way for these men to start. As soon as they realize it, hundreds of them will begin and thus, as I have stated. Chem- icals and Clover will change history. Outside of live stock specialities no farmer of the future will succeed unless he recognizes and practices the foundation principles of Chem- icals and Clover — a money crop with other crops to wait on it and use its wastes and a high-grade chemical substitute for manure ! Issued by THE MAPES FOEMULA & PERUVIAN GUANO CO., 143 Liberty Street, New York. THE J. W. PRATT CO., PRINTERS, NEW YORK (C*^!"*****"*"