FARMING FOR SUCCESS. 97 



were in substance in agreement with the popular opinion of farmers — 

 that the clover crop actually enriched the surface soil, and that tliey 

 were right in asserting that a larger crop of wheat could be grown 

 after clover than before, without the intervention of manures. 

 When the value of clover as a cattle food is weighed and coupled 

 with its value as a renovating crop, especially to precede wheat, or 

 indeed liarley, corn or potatoes in rotation, little is risked in 

 asserting that it is one of the most important of the crops grown in 

 Maine, and that in rotation it should never be left out. I find very 

 many sections where clover is little grown and poorly estimated. In 

 rotation of crops we have the rules laid down by the English, as fol- 

 lows, in their more obvious bearing: "Broad-leaved plants to alter- 

 nate with narrow-leaved plants. Those plants that require the same 

 kind of food should be kept as far apart as possible. Plants of the 

 same habit of growth and general character of growth should not 

 follow each other." Whatever may be the theoretical or popular 

 reasons for rotation of crops, we are glad to know that accurate 

 experimenters have actually found in practice that large crops follow 

 this practice. Upon this point Lawes and Gilbert will be accepted 

 as authority. They and others have so found. Roots followed 

 by barley, this by clover, and clover by wheat, was the famous Nor- 

 folk succession. This has been extended by many during late • 

 years. Markets, soils, and other reasons, will procure a strictly 

 theoretic rotation of crops for home. Indeed, with chemicals, it is 

 no longer so needed. In case of the illustration given in the wheat 

 crop of the need of rotation of crops, an addition of a superphos- 

 phate would have supplied the needed phosphoric acid and main- 

 tained a proper balance for wheat between the two materials. So- 

 for any crop, potash for potatoes. Resting their opinions upon this 

 basis of procedure many have proclaimed chemicals an antidote for 

 needed rotations, in order to exhaust a soil in equal relative ratios 

 of its elements of plant food. There are some deeper and more 

 problematical reasons for rotation of crops, that chemicals do not 

 meet in succession crops. Clover cannot be made to follow clover 

 long on most lands by any known method of procedure. Lawes' 

 experiments speak emphatically upon this point. While wheat fol- 

 lowed wheat nicely, turnips would not. For thirty-eight years, to 

 chemicals, a German farm maintained a yield superior to the yield 

 from yard manure for rye and oats, but sadly failed to come up to 

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