Show husbanding sol fertility ahls ta Is the great lesson to be learned by this generation our fath era ers knew nothing of it they found land so rich in plant food and in humus that they deemed it ble hie to wear out tha soil they took innumerable crops from tho the 1 land land a aej n d threw their manure into t the ri river v e r and streams it become a habit to rob tho the land plant food and humus in the land were owing gowing g less lers anil arid less with each succeeding year but they did not know it aa As the humus went vent the ability of the soil oil to hold moisture went with it the farmers began to believe that the years were getting more drouthey drou thy though this wat not the case their land had lost power to resist drouth this was for two readous tt humus had bad held moisture in the eoll soil and the richness I 1 tad ad developed large plants which in sent their root roots down into the subsoil nith the lessening of the fertility plants made small root growth and so failed to reach the supplies of 0 moisture in the cool soll far below hen a few hot weeks came the small rooted plants soon wilted and the ground deficient clent ot of humus dried out it Is said that the presence of at humus doubles the capa city lity of ordinary soil to hold water humus can be restored rei to the soil only by the use of if b binyard bi i nyard manure and of green crops plowed under where the clovers can be grown the decay of their roots in the soil 3 will he be p matters some the clove clover Is likely to fall on land devoid of 0 humus and this complicates matter in attempting to bring back the suit soll to its first estala the first aling for farmers to do Is I 1 to prevent present further loss of fertility and humus unfortunately there arf ar multitudes of farmers today to day still fol lowing the old wasteful methods and ruining the rich heritages they haac received from their parenti e may expect to see their farms become poorer year by ear till they pas pasi into tte tle tt e hands of the men that hoid boid the mortgages or go co to people that buy them tor for a song it Is duct easier to conserve tie tte fertility and humus of our lands than it ie fe to re store stere them when they have been dissipated farmers review how nature tills the land nature made the lands in a great part of our state rich and fertile how did she do it if a study nature and note how eho she Is working to main tain tala the richness of the land and how she has been doing to build up the ther eoll soil then possibly we can if we will stop this waste for thousands of years where timber ts s grown on an the ther land the annual crop of leaves has been deposited on the ground and the trunks and branches bran bes of the trees trem one after another nave fallen on the ground and decayed becoming vegetable mold occasionally a tree would turn up by the roots thus bringing up a portion of the subsoil and setting it on edge so that the elements the air sun frost and rain rala could act on it and make soluble and available allabe av the plant food tood contained in it As this subsoil suba oll brought up by the overturning trees Is crumbled and leveled flown down through tho the processes ot at nature it buries up a large amount of the decaying leave leaves and wood that have fallen on taa the ground and in this way the land Is plowed and cultivated sometimes very ti deeply and the decaying vegetable matter thoroughly mixed la in so 0 that the soil ID in filled with humus hum u 3 humus Is not only plant food but it lt 0 evallea ei ables the soil to hold much more water than it would without the humus the roots of the trees and shrubs and some plants that grow la in 0 the woods seni sent their roots down deep in ue oe U e earth thus disintegrating the soli soil and letting air into it and when these roots die as they IA in time aney a add more humus amus to 1 I the eoll soil C Q P goodrich Oo odrich in buying clover seed A bulletin of the department of agriculture saya says the pars charged for clover seed vary greatly each largo dealer haling two or more grades of different prices unfortunately tuna tely for ue lie buyer each dealer fas his own ovin grade names and even the standard terms prime choice and fancy as wed u ed by different dealers do not always mean the same thing it U tor for these Irle finite terms could be substituted a statement of the per centala ot at pur purs and sor seed the buyer could coula tell at once what sam am pie was the moat most for him to buy it la Is a eato sat u con elusion that the sample which while reasonably free from weed seeds con tallis the largest amount of pure and vigorously germinating clover at the least cost Is the best one for the farmer to buy low priced samples eldom seldom fulfill this condition nor do those eold sold at exorbitantly aih prices usually the high rade grade medium priced samples are really feally the cheap est but the only way to je the value of a ample sample Is to test the sri the result of at the purity test show how much pure seed 1 is pre aint and the germination tet test ho how w much of 0 this pure seed will grow i smacking the lips may be vulgar at time but of course it depends on whose lips you smack |