Causes of Clover Failure 699 



for necessary drainage and sufficient lime to have overcome these 

 too frequent handicaps, not to speak of manure and fertilizer. 

 This caution is very important at tliis time when clover has grown 

 so luxuriantly that many will be inclined to sow it with a lavish 

 hand, forgetting past failures and that the favorable conditions 

 existing for the past two seasons are unlikely to be repeated 

 immediately. 



A young man of my acquaintance purchased a mn-down farm 

 of naturally light land, devoid of vegetable matter. He was handi- 

 capped for lack of funds, but for three years in succession he spent 

 $60 annually for clover seed, and during that entire period he 

 harvested four loads of what misjht be termed clover hav. When 

 1 advised him not to sow clover, he expressed surprise. After 

 I had pointed out what' that $180 might have done for him in other 

 lines and the ahnost certainty that like failure would result from 

 a similar expenditure unless humus were restored, he saw my 

 point and has since been giving attention to other more certain and 

 less expensive methods of soil improvement. 



After this rather lengthy but necessary introduction, I will 

 take up in order of their importance some causes of failure with 

 very brief suggestions as to remedy. 



LACK OF MOISTURE 



That abundant rainfall has been chiefly responsible for the 

 growth of clover referred to warrants my placing lack of moisture 

 first. jN^ote, I do not say rainfall, but moisture, for we can in no 

 possible way control the falling water, in either the early or later 

 rain, but we can control the fallen water to a much greater extent 

 than we do — by surface tillage, thus preventing evaporation ; 

 by vegetable matter in the soil ; and by drainage, all of which will 

 receive notice under different heads and are emphasized in other 

 parts of this bulletin. 



A brief summary of the functions of water emphasizes its vital 

 importance. There will be required 4,100 pounds of water to 

 produce the dry matter in a ton of clover hay. Moisture is neces- 

 sary to make plant food soluble, either applied food or that latent 

 in the soil. I heard an eminent chemist questioned as to why 

 phosphoric acid gave no returns on a certain area of land. He 



