, and oats. And the same is true of beans and peas, though
probably not to so great an extent.

Now, it would seem that Indian corn can get more nitrogen out of a soil,
than wheat, barley, or oats--and to this extent, at least, we may
consider Indian corn as a renovating crop. In other words, the Indian
corn can get more nitrogen out of the soil, than wheat, barley, and
oats--and when we feed out the corn and stalks on the farm, we have more
food and more manure than if we raised and fed out a crop of oats,
barley, or wheat. If this idea is correct, then Indian corn, when
consumed on the farm, should not be classed with what the English
farmers term "white crops," but rather with the "green crops." In other
words, Indian corn is what old writers used to call a "fallow crop"--or
what we call a renovating crop.

If this is so, then the growth and consumption of Indian corn on the
farm, as is the case with clover, should leave the farm richer for
wheat, rather than poorer. I do not mean richer absolutely, but richer
so far as the _available_ supply of plant-food is concerned.

"It may be that you are right," said the Doctor, "when corn is grown for
_fodder_, but not when grown for the grain. It is the formation of the
seed which exhausts the soil."

If I could be sure that it was true of corn-fodder, I should have little
doubt that it is true also of corn as ordinarily grown for grain and
stalks. For, I think, it is clear that the grain is formed at the
expense of the stalks, and not directly from the soil. The corn-fodder
will take from the soil as much nitrogen and phosphoric acid as the crop
of corn, and the more it will take, the more it approximates in
character to clover and other renovating crops. If corn-fodder is a
renovating crop, so is the ordinary corn-crop, also, provided it is
consumed on the farm.

"But what makes you think," said the Deacon, "that corn can get more
nitrogen from the soil, than wheat?"

"That is the real point, Deacon," said I, "and I will ask you this
question. Suppose you had a field of wheat seeded down to clover, and
the clover failed. After harvest, you plow up half of the field and sow
it to wheat again, the other half of the field you plow in the spring,
and plant with Indian corn. Now, suppose you get 15 bushels of wheat to
the acre, how much corn do you think you would be likely to get?"

"Well, that depends," said the Deacon, "but I should expect at least 30
bushels of shel