"Yes, that might be. They tell me that they used to grow lots of clover here; but it played out completely, and nobody sows clover now, except occasionally on an old feed lot which is rich enough to grow anything. It takes mighty good land to grow clover; but cowpeas are better for us. They do pretty well for this old land, only the seed costs too much, and they make a sight of work, and they're mighty hard to get cured. You see they aren't ready for hay till the hot weather is mostly past. If we could handle them in June and July, as we do timothy we'd have no trouble; but we don't get cowpeas planted till June, and September is a poor time for haying." "It seems to me that clover is a much more satisfactory crop," said Percy. "One can sow clover with oats in the spring, or on wheat land in the late winter, and there is no more trouble with it until it is ready for haying about fifteen months later, unless the land is weedy or the clover makes such a growth the first fall that we must clip it to prevent either the weeds or the clover from seeding. This means that when you are planting your ground for cowpeas 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."