GYPSUM-RED CLOVER AS A FERTILIZER. 



BY WM. PENN KINZER. 



Notwithstanding an existing analogy in the vegetable and animal 

 kingdom is conceded by every intelligent agriculturist, yet, it is 

 matter of surprise, that so many disobey this important law of nature 

 in their practice. 



Animals thrive and improve most on a variety of food, while the 

 farmers of our country in very many,#and indeed in most instances, 

 seem to be unaware that their crops will be benefited by a variety of 

 manures. Many farmers will argue, that stable manure constitutes 

 the only useful alimentary food of plants, and adhere to this notion 

 in their practice as the alpha and omega of their hopes, to the exclu- 

 sion of all other manures. If a supply of such manure were endless, 

 it would perhaps go further to furnish the constituents of all the crops 

 we cultivate, than any other fertilizing substance singly ; but if the 

 wheat crop, for instance, were dependent in the middle States upon 

 this single resource, there would be an immense falling off in the an- 

 nual crop of that important staple. 



The true principles of agriculture require, that the soil be satura- 

 ted (or as much so as necessary) with every variety of all the sub- 

 stances which induce fertility ; or those constituents which our prin- 

 cipal crops afford upon analysis. So, in addition, or rather in con- 

 junction with stable manure, it is essential to the success of the far- 

 mer, to apply marl, ashes, compost, gypsum, magnesia and lime, with 

 all the other unnamed substances which enter into the composition of 

 wheat and other crops. But 1 must remark, if there be a zenith in 

 the prosperity of the farmer, that desideratum can neither be reached 

 nor maintained, without the liberal and extensive cultivation of clo- 

 ver. Give clover a seed bed in a soil thoroughly free from all kinds 

 of binding grass, well supplied with gypsum and lime, and the farmer 

 need seldom, if ever, be disappointed in his reasonable hopes. Clover 

 furnishing in its analysis a large proportion of gypsum and lime, 

 delights in a calcareous soil. If the phraseology be admissible, clo- 

 ver may be called a gormandizer ; and if well fed, is sure to repay the 

 farmer, not only in the abundance of the crop, but in the quantity of 

 manure returned to the soil. 



It is a singular fact, that after gypsum has ceased to act on clover, 

 an application of lime to the same soil, will render the gypsum as 

 operative as when the gypsum was originally applied. I never ob- 



