VOL. XXIX.
INDIANAPOLIS. IND.. MARCH i7, 1894
NO. il.
MANAGEMENT OF CLAY SOILS.
[The numbers of the essays published
refer to the order of publication, and not
•to the awards. The committee has not
yet made the decision.]
PRIZE   ESSAY NO. 6.
As there is suoh a large proportion of
clay soils in Indiana, their best and most
profitable management is a very important question and one that should Interest
every Hoosier farmer.
Our clay soils are not. usually nearly so
poverty stricken as they appear, but are
more like the close natured miser, -who
hoards up his -wealth, unwillingly giving
up what little he is obliged to. Once when
passing with a friend a field of soggy upland clay that had never been known
whithin the memory of either of us to
produce a profitable crop of any kind, my
friend remarked, "there ought to be lots
of wealth in the soil of that field." I said
I could not see what made him think so
and he replied, as he had known the field
all his life and had never known of anyone getting much out of it, it must be in
there yet, which seemed to be the case,
when a short time after another man
came in possession of the land, under
whose management the field has produced
good crops, above the average, over since.
Since the unproductiveness of our clay
' soils is not so much on account of their
lack of plant food, as from their poor
mechanical condition and as it is almost if
not quite impossible, even by the most
thorough cultivation, to get land that at
any time of the year is, for any considerable length of time, water soaked and
soggy in the best mechanical condition
and thus render the plant food it contains
in the most available form, then the matter
of first importance in the profitable management of a clay soil is to have it thoroughly under-drained.
Only a small proportion of our clay
lands do not need tile drainage, and this
is where it is under-laid with a gravelly
subsoil and is thus under-drained by
nature. When 1 say thoroughly under-
drained I do not mean simply the laying
of a tile ditch or two through the low
places to drain a pond or wet place that
happens to be in the field, but the laying
of one or more main tile drains not less
than four feet deep through the lower
parts ol the field with arms and branches
of a smaller size tile, branching out all
over the field, near enough together and
of sufficient capacity to carry off all the
-. surplus water so the ground will do to
work within 36 hours after our heaviest
rains.
This thorough tile drainage to some
seems like a great expense, but considered
as a permanent improvement, which it is,
or as an investment, the thorough tile
drainage of land that needs it is better
than bank stock or government bonds, for
it is as safe, and will pay a larger dividend
on the investment. It will pay annually
20 per cent or more on the original cost.
It often makes all the difference between
a good orop and no crop at all. By most
people a mortgage is considered the worst
thing that could possibly be on a farm;
but if the farm has been mortgaged to
drain It of its surplus water I would consider it much better to have the farm
covered with the mortgage than to have
the land covered or soaked with water,
when it is time to plow or plant a crop.
After we have  got rid of the surplus
* water in our clay lands, it .they then are
* sufficiently fertile to produce a good crop
of clover then their future improvement
* and profitable cultivation become simple
, enough. But If the soil will not grow a
■\ crop of olover then it is more difficult, for
, we must fertilize it until it will grow.
We must make the tlovor grow for it is
the next, thing our clay soils need and
must have, it we expect to raise profitable
ecrops on them. A crop of clover not only
brings down nitrogen from the air and
pumps up fertility from the subsoil, but
also when turned nnder furnishes a large
amount of humus or vegetable mold
which our clay soils all so much need. I
think commercial fertilizers expensive and
do not consider their continued use for
ordinary farm crops advisable. Barnyard
manure is our cheapest and best fertilizer
outside of clover. Its only draw back is
Its usually limited quantity. If you have
a field where you can not get a start of
clover and have not barnyard manure
enough to fertilize it, then help out the
barn yard manure by the use of some reliable brand ot commercial fertiliser u_ti}
you can get a good crop-of clover to turn
under. After you have grown and turned
under a good crop of clover, then by applying barn yard manure to the poor spots
and by deep and thorough cultivation and
"properly rotating your crops you can continue to raise good crops on clay land and
at the same time increase its fertility.
In summing up I would say that the
rules for the best and most profitable
management of our clay soils are: lst.
Thorough under drainage. 2d. Deep and
thorough cultivation. 34. A system of
crop rotation in which a crop of clover is
turned under every third year with the
saving and applying of all the barn yard
manure you can get. 4th. Never allow it
to be tramped by stock in the spring of
the year or when the ground is soft.
PRIZE   ESSAY KO.-7.
Of the six or eight substances that chemists denominate earths, four are widely
and abundantly diffused, and form the
crust of the world. These are, lst, silica
(silex or flint); 2d, alumina (clay); 3d,
lime (earth from limestone); 4tb, magnesia (magnesium earths). The earths are
unproductive when separate, but when decomposed and mixed, and to this mixture
is added decayed vegetable matter, they
become fertile and take the general name
of soils, and again, are demoninated
earths. Then if there be In them a preponderance of silica, it Is called sandy or
gravelly soil; if alumina, argillaceous or'
clay; if lime, calcareous, and consists of
bones, marine shells, limestone and chalk;
if magnesia, magnesium. These properties may be readily known by the intelligent, studious farmer by the plowing or
spading of them. A sandy soil is loose
and easily moved by the plow, little re
tentive of moisture and subject to extreme
dryness. Argillaceous soil ls hard and
compact when dry, tough and paste like
when wet, greedy and tenacious of moisture; turns up when plowed into great
clods, and admits the roots of plants with
difficulty. Its resistance to the plow is
vory great, which makes the draft of the
plow very laborous to the team, and is
very difficult to pulverize. Calcareous
soil friable and porous; water enters and
leaves it with facility. The plant roots
penetrate it without difficulty, and less
labor will pnt it in condition for seeding
than clay soil. Magnesian soil is light;
porous when dry; ls easily worked, but
like clay when wet is like paste and very
tenacious of water It refuses though to
combine with oxygen and alkalies.
To arrive at an intelligent understand
ing of how to manage clay soils, I thought
it necessary to diagnose all of the different
soils and see in what their component
parts differ. To do this I have quoted from
Armstrong's Agriculture, as above.
Ci ay soils differ from the others. Frst,
because of their tough cohesive qualities
they have but little affinity for "extractive
fertility," called "humus" ("dead animal
and vegetable matter in the last stages of
decomposition"), which Mr. Davy calls
"extractive matter." This vegetable mat
ter is the simple means employed by na
ture to re-establish that principle of fertility in the Boil which the wants of man
and the animals dependent upon man are
constantly drawing from it. The mechanical relation between the soil and
vegetation has been destroyed by denuding the land of its primitive forests, and
not being properly underdrained, thus
allowing the soil to "float away on the
winter and spring floods," and by too continuous cropping and returning nothing
back to the soil again. As you, Mr. Editor, have said, the clay soils of Indiana
were at one time covered with a ricb, mellow mold (humus) and very productive,
but this native fertility has been exhausted by excessive cropping and careless modes of farmiDg of tne past, and now
the present owners have to Bolve the problem: How can we restore those clay soil-
to their primitive fertility again? Any solution of this subject not based upon thorough drainage would be imperfect, and result in disappointment and failure. First,
I would plan for a systematic and thorough drainage of such soils. Why? Because the spring and summer rains should
be absorbed, or largely so, by the earth,
and would be so absorbed if the soil could
be rendered porous. Thorough drainage
would lower the water level to within a
few inches of the bottom of the drain. It
would then get the full benefit ol the sunlight and heat in warming up the soil,
which are lost in evaporating the superabundance ot moisture without drainage.
Then the winter freezing would do its perfect work of breaking up and separating
the particles that compose this clay soil
In this respect "nature has been neither
negligent nor niggardly. The alternations
of heat and cold, moisture and dryness,
have decomposed the mountains of primitive, secondary and tertiary formations,
and by a thorough drainage these clay
soils can be made to produce better crops
than any of the soils, by adopting the three
years rotation, clover, corn, and either
wheat or oats for third year. English
clover will give the best results. Set up
the clover stalk and make everything else
revolve right around it. Keep the clover
in mind always. Don't be afraid to plow
under a crop. Haul out onto your clay
fields all the manure you can get. Haul
nil those old, half-rotten straw stacks that
have been standing in the way so long
and plow them all under. Don't be afraid
of injuring the soil; it ls just what it is
hungry for. It will keep the soil loose,
while the clover is pushing its way down
into the subsoil and loosening it. Now,
my brother farmers, if underdralnlne,
clover, manure and "eternal grit" don't
conquer the worst clay soil in Indiana,
then I miss my guess.
Thorough cultivation, as every good
farmer knows, is one of the elements of
success on the farm, and let me say here
that it is more essential on clay soils than
tbe other soils.
I plow the clover sod in the fall if possible. Then in the spring use the disc or
spading harrow first, then follow with the
spring-tooth harrow. I plow in the fall
because I can plow under half-rotten
straw with less trouble than I can in the
spring. Then the soil settles over the
straw firmer, and it gives less trouble in I
cultivating the crop. It makes a good
seed bed. Plant to corn; give It level cultivation, and thorough, too. Sow to wheat
in the fall, then follow the wheat witb
clover again. By adopting this plan you
get three crops for one plowing. The
English clover will produce from two to
four bushels of seed ner acre. As I said
above, plow under with the clover stubble
all the stuff can poessibly get. Don't wait
for it to rot, but plow it under, and it will
keep the soil looser than if well rotted.
As I said above, thorough drainage, the
clover plant, thorough cultivation and
eternal perseverance will conquer any
clay soil we have in Indiana.
tain localities. It seems to me that the
same material would produce the same
effect without going through the stomach
of animals. J. B. Lutz.
Shadeland.
—Few of the dictionaries and encyclopedias make any mention of the mad
stone. Scientists do not believe in it.
They say they have no evidence of any
cure beiDg performed by any such means.
People eay they have seen such cures, but
that does not prove the fact. The scientific gentlemen want to see the stones themselves and watch their effect in cases of
undoubted rabies, and they say they have
never yet had the chance to do so. Hence
they scout at the idea of such cures being
made and say the mad stone is a myth,
and so the dictionary makers leave the
word out of their books.
In the case you mention, the scientist
might say that there was no proof that
Mr. Gilmore would have had the rabies if
he had not applied the mad stone. His
clothing might have absorbed the poison
on the teeth of the dog so that none of it
entered his flesh. But so many believe in
the efficacy of so-called mad stones that
scientists ought to make every effort to investigate the subject, till they can say
something definite about it, one way or'
the other.
- The Mad Stone.
Editors Indiana Fab—kb:
I am glad that Mrs. Buckley has given
the location of the mad stone In Carroll
county in the Issue of the Farmer of
January 24.
That there is •"irtue in that stone I have
no reason to doubt. In 1859 Geo. Gilmore
was bitten by a mad dog, and at the same
time the dog bit a horse a few yards from
him. Mr. Gilmore was advised to go at
once to Delphi in search of that mad stone,
which he did, and the lady who had the
stone in her possession applied it the
wound and it resulted or acted as Mrs.
Buckley has stated, according to Mr. Gil-
more's statement. The horse died nine or
ten days afterward with spasms of hydrophobia, the eyes turning green and frothing at tho mouth, and biting at everything
in reach. It was the most horrible sight
in the death of a brute I ever witnessed.
Mr. Gilmore lived in Lafayette for several
years after the occurrence and told me at
different times that he never felt any effect
from the wound.
It is said that this stone will cure snake
bites also. Would it not be well to experiment with some of these stones and see
whether they would not draw the "snakes"
out of some people's boots? It may possibly beat the gold cure.
It is supposed that tbere is an indigestible material in some of those deer licks
on Licking river or its tributaries in Ken
tucky, and that young animals that chew
their eude sometimes in licking at those
salty places, get it in the rennet or first
division of the stomach, and it mixes with
the curdled milk and is not of any value
until the curd is gotten out of it, and
leaves the stone porous, insomuch that it
will swln in milk or water. This stone
could accumulate in young goats or sheep
as well as deer. It is Bald that the Mexi
cans tfnd. thein in goats.; buV oply U* cer-
Plow Deep on Clay Land.
Editors Indiana Fab_—k:
You wish the best plan for the cultivation clay soil. I have tried it for 40 years
and in that time I have not mi*sed raising
a paying crop of corn, while many of my
neighbors have not raised good fodder,
and my only plan is to plow the ground
and cultivate tho crop. When I say plow
the ground I mean plow from eight to 11
inches deep.and then cultivate just as deep.
You can do this with a pair of 1100 pound
horses. I tended 10 acres last season with
two cultivations that made a little over
800 bushels of corn, that Is corn. Some of
it can be seen in our crib yet.
The reason that so little interest is
taken in the institute is that so much
paper and book farming is taught there
and so little practical farming, a great
many times by those tbat know nothing
about field farming. A farmer has no
need of commercial fertilizers, nor to be
told about plant food. It is all there; if the
farmer will do his duty be will have a paying crop every year. But if he lets the
weeds grow on it in the fall he should not
expect much corn. Jep. Morris,
Salem. A 78-Year- Old Subscriber.
—Our aged subscriber gives clear proof
that In his case deep plowing and deep
cultivation make good crops. We have
always believed that deep breaking was
essential in clay soil, but have agreed with
tte majority of writers on tho subject
that after the first cultivation the ground
should be stirred only a few inches deep.
Mr. Morris' experience agrees with that of
another old farmer, now living in this
city, who made heavy corn crops by deep
cultivation. Now that the subject is before us let us get to the bottom of it and
find out which are correct, the advocates
of shallow cultivation, or those who run
the cultivator from eight to 11 inches deep.
The contestants for our prizes for Lest
essays on treatment of clay soils all favor
shallow cultivation we believe.
As to the institutes, it is a mistake to
say the talking is done by men who know
nothing about practical farming. Most of
the speakers in the institute work are men
who practice what they teach, and have
made farming pay.
The Bridgeport, Ohio, glass works will resume in all departments March 15, after a
year's idleness. The works will be run on
the co opeiative plan, the exployes sharing to a certain extent in the profits,