HAY PRODUCTION. 45 



practice ; although if the corn land is fertilized with twenty loads 

 of stable manure to the acre and thorough preparation and tillage 

 follows until the field is seeded to clover, it will produce two 

 heavy crops a year for two successive years. The advantage of 

 frequent plowing of clover sod is poorly understood. It has been 

 ascertained that clover turf has nearly the same tonnage in roots 

 that it has in hay and that these roots are of great value as a 

 fertilizer, adding humus to the soil — a necessary element to plant 

 growth. 



Truly, the soil is replenished by the growing of red clover upon 

 it, for this is one of the plants that feed upon the free and inex- 

 haustible source of air. 



Recently it has been discovered that the so-called leguminous 

 plants, as clover, peas, beans, etc., can take up nitrogen from the 

 air, and can grow without being manured with nitrogen, if the 

 soil contains phosphoric acid and potash. The manner in which 

 this nitrogen assimilation takes place has been carefully and 

 patiently studied by scientists and it is sufficient for practical 

 purposes to know that nitrogen is taken from the air by the 

 growing clover plant, directly or indirectly, and that this nitrogen 

 assimilation takes place as the result of the life of bacteria. 



Since nitrogen costs the farmer from fifteen to twenty cents 

 a pound if purchased, and it is clearly established that the red 

 clover plant gathers it from the air, is it not important that the 

 farmer "should make the best use of the means which the God 

 of nature has placed within his reach" and secure this costly 

 fertilizer by growing clover? Potash and phosphoric acid are 

 quite abundant in our soils, and hence the price per pound rarely 

 exceeds four or six cents. 



Another and no less important reason for growing clover is 

 derived from its feeding value as compared with other grasses. 

 It is said on good authority that one hundred pounds of clover 

 hay contains about twice as much protein as one hundred pounds 

 of hay from the common grasses ; that clover hay can be safely 

 estimated as worth from one-fourth to one-third more for feeding 

 than common hay. This is true in spite of the fact that it does 

 not usually command a higher price in the markets, owing to 

 certain prejudices against its use. 



