the next year after wheat or oats, we are just ready to begin harvesting our clover hay; and besides the regular hay crop we usually have some growth the fall before which is left on the land as a fertilizer, and then we get a second crop of clover which we save either for hay or seed.  Even after the seed crop is harvested there is usually some later fall growth, and some let the clover stand till it grows some more the next spring and then plow it under for corn.”

“I can see that clover would be much better than cowpeas if we could grow it; but, as I said, it’s played out here.  Our land simply won’t grow it any more.  Not having to plow for clover would save a great deal of the work we must do for our cowpeas.”

“Some of our farmers follow a three-year rotation and plow the ground only once in three years,” said Percy.  “They plow the ground for corn, disk it the next spring when oats and clover are seeded, and then leave the land in clover the next year.  In that way they regularly harvest four crops, including the two clover crops, from only one plowing; and in exceptional seasons I have known an extra crop of clover hay to be harvested in the late fall on the land where the oats were grown.

“In regard to the lime question,” Percy continued, “I wonder if you know of the work the Pennsylvania Experiment Station has been doing with the use of ground limestone in comparison with burned lime.”

“No, I never heard of ground limestone being used.  I supposed it had to be burned.  I should think it would be very expensive to grind limestone.”

“No, it costs much less to grind it than to burn it,” Percy replied.  “Mills are used for grinding rock in cement manufacture, and the rock phosphate and bone meal must all be ground before using them either for direct application or for the manufacture of acidulated fertilizers; and limestone is not so hard to grind as some other rocks.  Furthermore it does not need to be so very finely ground.  If fine enough so that it will pass through a sieve with ten meshes to the inch it does very well.  That you see would be a hundred meshes to the square inch; and, of course, a great deal of it will be much finer than that.  In fact the ground limestone used in the Pennsylvania experiments was only fine enough so that about ninety per cent. of it would pass a sieve with ten meshes to the inch, and yet the limestone gave decidedly better results than the burned lime, and it is not nearly so disagreeable to handle.  Besides this, the ground limestone is much less expensive.  It can be obtained at most points in Illinois for about a dollar and fifty cents a ton.”

“A dollar and fifty cents a ton!” exclaimed Mr. Thornton.  “Well, that is cheap, but how about the freight and the barrels and bags?  Freight is a big item with us.”

“The dollar and fifty cents includes the freight,” was the reply.

“Includes the cost and the freight both?”