SOIL EXHAUSTION AND ROTATION OF CROPS. £05 



because it is the most costly when we have to supply it by pur- 

 chase to our fields, we have 71 lbs. in the case of clover, against 

 24 lbs. in the case of rye. 



Now, the point conies in here again to which I referred yester- 

 day ; namely, the ratio of root to top and of foliage to seed. In 

 the rye crop, when ripe, I have nearly 14-15ths of the vegetable 

 matter above ground, (and the same is probably true of all the 

 grains,) and when I get off my crop, I get off 14-15ths of the 

 whole. (See table, page 195.) Fourteen-fifteenths of the vege- 

 table matter is carried away in my grain and chaff and straw, if I 

 cut close to the ground. In the observations whose results are 

 given in this table, there was no stubble. If I leave stubble on 

 the ground, I reduce the proportion of removed substances. 

 When 1 take off the clover plant close to the ground, for every 

 fifteen pounds, I take off, I leave ten pounds in the soil ; whereas, 

 in the case of rye, for every fourteen pounds I take off, I leave 

 only one in the soil. That is a great difference. When I cut the 

 grain crop low, I take it nearly all away ; but when I mow off my 

 clover hay, I leave two-thirds as much as I take. The assertion 

 which has been made, that the part of the clover crop remaining 

 in the soil is as good as that which goes into the barn, finds its 

 justification in these figures. They show with precision and in 

 detail, what observing farmers have long vaguely known. 



The reason of the truth of the old saying, that if you can start 

 clover, you can grow anything, is thus apparent ; and we know 

 further, from observation, that the habits of the clover plant are 

 such that we can often start on a course of improving the soil with 

 that plant when we could not with what are commonly called our 

 more valuable cereal grains. Some years ago, I was in East 

 Windsor, in this State, and I was shown two fields, separated by a 

 fence, one of which you would call perfectly barren and useless ; 

 on the other side was a growth of red clover a foot high, which I 

 was told by Mr. S. W. Bartlett of that place, had been brought 

 up within twelve months by the application of a bushel or two of 

 plaster to the acre and turning in some sheep. I believe there 

 was no seed sown upon the field ; the plaster alone brought the 

 clover in. The plants were there in an undeveloped state, and I 

 suppose the plaster, by furnishing sulphuric acid and lime, both 

 of which are large ingredients in clover, supplied the two things, 

 or the one thing, it may have been, which was necessary in order 

 to give the clover a chance to live. On the other side of the 



