eak a sod for corn, harrowing and rolling once, and then to put on
the lime. A cut-away or disk harrow should be used to mix the lime with
the soil before any moisture causes it to cake. When large crumbs form,
immediate efficiency is lost.

If the application is light, and may barely be equal to immediate
demand, it is better practice to put on the lime when preparing the
seed-bed for the wheat or other small grain in which the clover will be
sown. It should never be mixed with the fertilizer nor applied with the
seed. The lime should go into the soil a few days, or more, prior to
the seeding. The soil having been put into a condition favorable to
plant life, the seeding and the use of commercial fertilizers should
proceed as usual.

Lime should never be mixed with manure in the open air, but it is good
practice to plow manure down, and then to use lime as indicated above,
if needed. If manure and lime must be used after the land has been
plowed, the lime should be disked well into the soil before the manure
is applied, and it is advisable that the interval between the two
applications be made as long as possible.

CHAPTER IV

ORGANIC MATTER

Office of Organic Matter.--The restoration of an impoverished soil to a
productive state usually is a simple matter so far as method is
concerned. It may be a difficult problem for the individual owner on
account of expense or time involved, but he has only a few factors in
his problem. Assuming that there is good drainage, and that the lime
requirement has been met, the most important consideration is organic
matter. A profitable agriculture is dependent upon a high percentage of
humus in the soil. Average yields of crops are low in this country
chiefly because the humus-content has been greatly reduced by bad
farming methods.

[Illustration: Turning down organic matter with a gang plow.]

Nature uses organic matter in the following ways:

1. To give good physical condition to the soil. The practical
farmer appreciates the importance of this quality in a soil. Clayey
soils are composed of fine particles that adhere to each other.
They are compact, excluding air and failing to absorb the water
that should be held in them. The excess of water finally is lost
by evaporation, and the sticky mass becomes dry and hard. The
incorporation of organic matter with clay or silt changes the
character of such land, breaking up the mass, and giv