10 A NEW TYPE OF EED CLOVER. 



attended with success. Furthermore, excellent growth is obtained 

 in a few regions immediately adjoining this area, and there are also 

 several sections wholly separated from it where clover is grown with 

 notable success. Among the latter may be mentioned the Willamette 

 Valley of Oregon, the Palouse country in eastern AVashington, and 

 also the Gallatin Valley of Montana, where red- clover is being suc- 

 cessfully and profitably grown under irrigation. 



A lack of definite information has for a long time existed as to the 

 exact life history requirements of red clover, the effect and impor- 

 tance of change of seed, and the relative seed and hay producing prop- 

 erties of the different varieties in use. It was to add to the sum of 

 our knowledge on these and other points connected with clover 

 culture that the present experiments were instituted. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF CLOVER CULTURE. 



The extraordinary importance of clover in renewing and maintain- 

 ing the fertility of the soil has been amply demonstrated by the 

 experience of thousands of American farmers and need not be dealt 

 with to any length in this connection. It is sufficient to say that the 

 thoroughly systematic and careful studies of recent j^ears have proved 

 conclusively that the beneficent effects of clover on the soil are due 

 to definite symbiotic relationships which exist between the plant 

 and certain bacteria inhabiting both the soil and the roots of the 

 plants. Nitrogen, at once the most important and costly of plant 

 and animal foods, is the element conserved in the soil or supplied 

 from the air as the consequence of this relationship. 



The need for broader knowledge concerning a plant of such vital 

 importance to our present methods of agricultural practice is espe- 

 cially great just now when the status of clover culture in a large part of 

 the clover region is so unsatisfactory. In those sections where the 

 troubles attributed to "clover sickness" exist in an aggravated form, 

 they threaten to make necessary new methods of agricultural prac- 

 tice in order to maintain farming on its present paying basis. Under 

 the methods of farming now in vogue, red clover possesses the val- 

 uable manurial properties previously referred to in a higher degree 

 of availability than any other leguminous crop ])lant at present 

 capable of growth on a scale extensive enough to accomplish what is 

 demanded in this direction in the large area suited to its cultivation. 



These conditions make it seem advisable to place immediately at 

 the disposal of the American farmer any facts likeh^ to contribute to 

 greater success in clover culture in its present well-defined area or to 

 aid in its extension into sections where hitherto its culture has not 

 been attempted or, if attempted, has been attended with only 

 qualified success. 



95 ^ 



