210 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



fertilized it well to the same depth, he would have cured the 

 clover-sickness effectully. 



The weight of evidence goes to show that thi.s "disease "is 

 owing to the lack of nutritive material in the lower straia of soil, 

 where the long clover-roots go, and where they must find nutri- 

 ment. Those soils which are naturally adapted to clover are 

 those in which an equivalent to deep manuring is created by the 

 disintegration of the soil itself to a considerable depth. 



Mr. Lyman. We have instances in this country where clover 

 has grown for thirty years, in deep soil. 



Mr. Gould. The soil of the Genesee wheat lands, where their 

 regular practice has been, for seventy or eighty years, to alternate 

 clover and wheat— wheat is their staple crop, and always has 

 been, and they always prepare for it by a crop of clover — is what 

 yjou would call a rich loam, mixed to a considerable depth with 

 fragments of a slaty rock. This slaty rock decomposes so rapidly 

 as to keep the soil constantly rich, and rich to a considerable 

 depth. It does not decompose on the surface rapidly enough, so 

 that they can get a wheat crop eveiy year, but if they put on 

 clover, and let its roots go down where there are materials which 

 the roots of the wheat plant cannot reach, and bring those up to 

 the surface, then their wheat crop runs right along, and if rust or 

 insects' do not interfere with it, they get a large yield every time 

 they try it. They have two years of clover and one of wheat. 



Prof. Johnsox. Do they cut the clover entirely off? 



Mr. Gould. They do, one year. They generally have a pretty 

 good crop before they plow it in. They plow it in, usually, about 

 the first of August. 



Dr. Riggs. They take off the first crop, and plow in the second. 



Prof. Joiixsox. There are some further facts in regard to 

 clover which are very interesting. Dr. Voelcker, who has been 

 Chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England for the last 

 twelve years, when he was formerly in the Royal Agricultural 

 College at Cirencester, found that some of the fanners in the 

 vicinity not only thought that clover was an excellent preparation 

 for wheat, but asserted that the wheat did better when, instead of 

 plowing in the second crop, they took it off. The doctor we may 

 suppose, was rather incredulous but he found other farmers who 

 said, " Our wheat does best when we let the clover ripen, and 

 save the seed, and put the wheat in after that." These opinions 

 were put to him in such a way that he could but candidly say, 



