372 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



depth of earth aud will not thrive in stagnant water. In compact 

 clay soils, tile draining will be necessary to insure the production of 

 clover. In some measure the result here sought will be produced 

 by supplying the second condition, namely: 



2. The addition of humus to the soil, either in the form of stable 

 manure which is by far the best, or by turning in rye aud winter 

 vetch sown early in the fall after a summer crop has been removed. 

 A top dressing of stable manure, well rotted, will be most effective. 



This will serve to retain moisture, so necessary to the young plant, 

 raise the temperature of the soil, prevents heaving, greatly facili- 

 tates the work of the bacteria and renders lime and commercial fer- 

 tilizers far more effective. 



3. If in testing the soil for acid with blue litmus paper, it is found 

 that it is sour, which will be known by the blue paper turning 

 red after having been placed in the moist soil for a few minutes, 

 lime should be applied in moderate quantities, never more than 

 fifteen bushels of freshly burned lime to the acre, evenly distributed; 

 or twentj-five bushels of air-slacked lime. If Wampum ground caus- 

 tic lime can be procured and applied with a drill, within three w^eeks 

 from the time it was ground, it will give the best results, and in 

 this form a thousand pounds will be ample. This should be drilled 

 in a week or two before the seed is sown to prevent injury to the 

 germinating seed. This will hasten the reduction of the coarse 

 manure to available forms and greatly promote bacterial action 

 which cannot exist in an acid soil. Should there be no evidence of 

 acid present, four or five hundred pounds of the ground lime per 

 acre wdll be of great advantage in mellowing the soil, liberating 

 otherwise unavoidable potash, and as a direct food to the plant. 

 The addition of a moderate dressing of bone phosphate or finely 

 ground bone, with potash, if on sandy soil, will be found very profi- 

 table. But stable manure and lime should be the chief reliance. 



4. For best results the clover must be treated as we treat other 

 crops — given an open field and a well prepared seed-bed. We give 

 the use of the field for a season wholly to corn or oats or wheat. 

 We never think of growing a crop of oats and of corn, of rye and of 

 buckwheat, or of timothy and of potatoes on the same ground at 

 the same time. Yet, in the production of clover, a crop worth more 

 than either, we have tried to grow three full crops on the same 

 ground at the same time. We have thought it should have a "nurse 

 crop." What w^e have meant by the term "nurse" it is difficult to 

 understand. If we thought it needed protection from the sunlight 

 we forgot the fact that sunlight is one of the essential conditions 

 of its growth. It needs a large amount of moisture — 452 tons for 

 the production of one ton of dry matter — fertility and sunshine, 

 and a "nurse" that deprives it of these is not a nurse, but a robber. 

 True, we may secure a partial stand where the wheat or rye is weak, 

 and especially if the field had been top-dressed with stable manure; 

 and if our object is to secure a light stand of plants between the 

 tussocks of timothy, this may accomplish that purpose; but a full, 

 even stand is the exception, and in our depleted soils is impossible. 

 Even on the best of soils where I have been able to secure what 

 was regarded as a good stand, I found an open land at the side of 



