dition,
you will frequently get clover, by this time, a foot high, and will have
two or three tons of succulent vegetation to turn under; and the farmer
who first recommended the practice to me, said that the cut-worms were
so fond of this green-clover that they did not molest the young
corn-plants. I once tried the plan myself, and found it to work well;
but since then, I have kept so many pigs and sheep, that clover has been
too useful to plow under. But we will not discuss this point at present.

"What I wanted to say is this: Here we have a field in wheat. Half of it
(A) we seed down with 12 lbs. of clover-seed per acre; the other half
(B) not. The clover-seed and sowing on A, cost, say, $2 per acre. We
plow B in the fall; this will cost us about as much as the clover seed
sown on A. In the spring, A and B are both plowed and planted to corn.
Now, which half of the field will be in the cleanest and best condition,
and which will produce the best corn, and the best barley, or oats,
afterwards?"

"I vote for A," said the Deacon.

"I vote for A," said the Doctor.

"I vote for A," said the Squire.

"I should think," modestly suggested Charley, "that it would depend
somewhat on the soil," and Charley is right. On a clean, moderately rich
piece of light, sandy soil, I should certainly expect much better corn,
and better barley or oats, on A, where the clover was grown, than on B.
But if the field was a strong loam, that needed thorough cultivation to
get it mellow enough for corn, I am inclined to think that B would come
out ahead. At any rate, I am sure that on my own farm, moderately stiff
land, if I was going to plant corn after wheat, I should _not_ seed it
down with clover. I would plow the wheat stubble immediately after
harvest, and harrow and cultivate it to kill the weeds, and then, six
weeks or two months later, I would plow it again. I would draw out
manure in the winter, pile it up in the field to ferment, and the next
spring spread it, and plow it under, and then--

"And then what?" asked the Deacon. --"Why the truth is," said I, "then I
would not plant corn at all. I should either sow the field to barley, or
drill in mangel-wurzel or Swede-turnips. But if I _did_ plant corn,
I should expect better corn than if I had sown clover with the wheat;
and the land, if the corn was well cultivated, would be remarkably
clean, and in fine condition; and the next time the land was seeded down
with clover, we coul