LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 251 



The time of cutting clover is an important item in making hay, and I 

 believe as a general rule it is cut too green. I prefer to let it stand until two- 

 thirds of the heads are brown, and even longer if the weather is not good. I 

 cut a few acres at a time in the afternoon so as to not run the risk upon too 

 much at a time, letting lay until the next afternoon and then rake into wind- 

 rows, and if cured nearly enough put it up in bunches, but if it requires more 

 drying I leave it in the windrow and loosen it up with a fork or turn it over 

 with a horse rake after the dew is off. If dry enough it may be drawn in the 

 afternoon directly from the windrows,but 1 prefer putting it up in bunches and 

 draw next day, for if it is very dry (as it should be), many of the leaves and 

 heads are broken off and lost, wliile if it remains in bunches over night it will 

 become damp by sweating and the leaves and heads will not break off in hand- 

 ling. I prefer cutting in the afternoon because if cut in the forenoon it will 

 not get dry enough to put into windrows unless the weather is very fine and the 

 clover is quite tliiu and light; but the top will generally get dry enough to be 

 blackened and injured by a heavy dew, whereas if cut in the afternoon not 

 much of it will get dry enough to be thus injured, and it will all be wilted and 

 ready to cure very fast the next day. After the hay is taken off the field is 

 pastured or left for seed, but I think it is not a paying business in the long run 

 to raise clover seed for market, but will pay much better to put it back into 

 the ground, and if pastured, never allow it to be eaten off so closely that there 

 is none left for seed. 



CLOVER AS A FERTILIZER. 



How to improve the soil cheaply, and what will do it, is an important ques- 

 tion. In my opinion the cheapest and only practical way is by the use of 

 clover and plaster, especially where we make grain raising the principal busi- 

 ness. Barnyard manure is perhaps the best, but it is impossible to get enough 

 of it. I think every farmer will agree with me that a heavy growth of clover 

 plowed under in August, with proper cultivation of the surface, so as to make 

 a mellow seed bed, will uniformly bring a good crop of wheat, and there is 

 nothing equals a heavy clover lay for a corn crop. 



It has been found that almost all the elements deposited in the soil by the 

 growth and decay of clover^ is contained and held fast in the soil; the most 

 and richest near the surface, but comparatively little being found below six 

 inches. If this position be true, this six inches of soil holds nearly all that is 

 beneficial for succeeding crops. One great law of nature in enriching the soil 

 is to deposit its decaying plants and animals upon the surface, where it is held 

 in readiness for the next growth of plants. No farmer will for a moment 

 question the value of the clover crop as a manurial agent in connection with 

 wheat and corn raising. A ton of dry clover hay, as shown by analysis, con- 

 tains about forty pounds of nitrogen. Suppose the leaves left upon the field, 

 and the roots, to contain one-half this amount, by turning under a growth of 

 clover equal to one ton of hay per acre, the yield of the wheat crop would be 

 increased eight or ten bushels per acre, provided all nitrogen contained in the 

 clover could be made available to the wheat plants. As an increased growth 

 of clover would be promoted by this timely application of plaster and ashes, 

 the average yield of the wheat crop would be still further increased. Clover, 

 unlike wheat, is not a destroyer, but a large collector of nitrogen, much of 

 which it obtains through its broad leaves from the atmosphere ; hence its value 

 as a fertilizer. Every farmer, 1 think, will agree that clover is a very valua- 

 ble as well as a manurial agent to enrich the soil, and we sow it with that 



