THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



285 



CLOVER. SICKNESS. 



BY CUTHBERT W. JOITNSON, ESQ., T.K.S. 



The recently published researches of Messrs. 

 Lawes and Gilbert on the growth and failure of 

 the clover plant, are well worthy of the reader's 

 attention. They were carried on for a series of 

 years, with all the care and scientific accuracy 

 which usually attend the agricultural labours of 

 their authors {Jour. R. A. S., vol. xxi., p. 17S). If 

 the results they obtained were vague and incon- 

 clusive, the agriculturist must not feel surprised. 

 The difficulties which surround all investigations 

 relating to the diseases of organic hfe, will be very 

 readily acknowledged by all those who have suf- 

 fered by their visitations. Such a reader will feel 

 that when we have before us a diseased plant or 

 diseased animal, we encounter a phenomenon of 

 whose origin we know next to nothing, and that 

 all we can hope to accomplish is to note the 

 symptoms and mark the effect of certain modes of 

 treatment upon ailments whose origin we are 

 utterly unable to comprehend. We have, indeed, 

 in cases like these, to consider the action of the 

 disturbing cause upon what we denominate the 

 principle of life, the living principle of organised 

 beings, of which we know so very little, and of 

 which there is no present symptom of our ever 

 knowing more. It is such a consideration which 

 should prompt us to be patient at the slow increase 

 to our knowledge of the cause of land becoming 

 " clover-sick," and of the disease with which the 

 clover plant has of late years been affected. We 

 should not indeed be only patient, but we might 

 often be more grateful than we always ere, for the 

 valuable additions to our knowledge, which the 

 observations of the farmer and the chemist ever 

 and anon bestow upon us. 



The failure of the clover plant, it is well to 

 remark, is not peculiar to our country ; in Flanders, 

 the loss has been, in many very extensive districts, 

 as general, and perhaps more complete {Jour. 

 R. A. S., vol. i. p. 13). The German clover- 

 growers have also shared the same fate as the far 

 more skilful farmers of our own country. This 

 unpleasant truth was some time since thus de- 

 scribed by Professor Schweizer {ibid, vol. iii., p. 

 223). AVe have abundant evidence in Saxony (he 

 observes) that when the soil is neither too loose 

 nor too close, is deep, so that the plough can go 

 eight inches down, and is also rather moist, clover 

 is the most certain, and may be repeated the most 

 frequently, not only every six years, but, with high 

 farming, even every four years; on an inferior 

 soil, we may be quite certain that clover will not 

 do well every four years, as is proved in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dresden, where the land is completely 

 clover-sick. 



One or two practical reasons for the failure 

 of the clover crop in England, have been assigned. 

 Mr, George Turner, of Barton, near Exeter, some 

 time since told his brother-farmers, that he had 

 experienced on his own farm, the loss of red clover 



very often where there was the very best plant at 

 harvest, and that too on the best soils in good 

 condition, "The result of my experience," he 

 adds, " is this, that in nineteen times out of twenty 

 its failure is entirely owing to the stubble being 

 fed bare after harvest, and the plant being thus 

 so weakened, as to prevent its standing the wet 

 and cold of the succeeding winter. I have so 

 repeatedly proved this on various soils, that I 

 have not a doubt on the subject," The reverend 

 W, Thorp, of Womesley, in Yorkshire, also con- 

 cluded from the result of a series of patient obser- 

 vations, that to the frost of winter must be 

 attributed the loss of the clover plant, and this in 

 proportion to the want of cohesiveness in the soil 

 {ibid, vol, iii., p, 335), Other persons have con- 

 cluded that the clover plant exhausts the soil of 

 certain mineral substances essential to its growth, 

 and it was partly in reference to this opinion that 

 clover-sick soils have been analyzed. And again 

 as to the mineral constituents of the clover plant: 

 these have been carefully examined. It was hoped 

 that the result of these valuable enquiries would 

 have thrown some light upon the cause of the 

 clover failure; why the plant thrives better on 

 some soils than others ; why gypsum (sulphate of 

 hme) operates so well on some clover lands, and 

 is useless on others ; but these apparently reason- 

 able expectations were not realized. In some 

 examinations by Professor Way and Mr. Ogston 

 {ibid, vol, ix., p, 136), the chemical composition of 

 red and white clover grown upon two widely 

 differing kinds of soil was ascertained. The spe- 

 cimens they examined were grown by Mr. J. C. 

 Morton, of Whitfield. The soils, one a sandy and 

 the other a clay, upon which they were grown, 

 are upon one of the beds of the Silurian series. 

 The specimens of clover grown on different soils 

 contained per cent, after being dried in the air — 



The next table gives the composition of 100 

 parts of each of the several ashes :— 



Red Clover. White Clover. 



Siliceous Siliceous 



Sand. Clay. Sand. Clay. 



Silica 4.03.. 2.66,, 4.63.. 2.74 



Phosphoric acid .. 5.82.. 6.88.. 10.93,. 12.12 

 Sulphuric acid.... 3.91.. 4.46.. 7.05.. 7.38 

 Carbonic acid .. . 12.92 .. 20.94 .. 18.64 .. 17.41 



Lime 35.02 .. 36.76 ,, 26.32 .. 26.51 



Maanesia 11.91., 10.53.. 7.46,, 8.83 



Peroxide of iron.. 0.98.. 0.95.. 1.17.. 2.76 



Potash 18.44,. 11.30.. 16,17.. 13.50 



Soda 2.79.. — .. 3.03.. 4.41 



Chloride of Sodium 4.13.. 0.58.. 5.56.. 4.32 

 Chloride of Po 



tassium 



J°-} - ., 5.92 .. - .. - 



u 2 



