28ft 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



" It is impossible." very justly add these two 

 able chemists, " in carefully examining this table, 

 not to observe how very little difference really 

 exists between the specimens of the same variety 

 grown upon dift'erent soils : the numbers given for 

 red clover on sand and clay are in most respects 

 singularly alike, and the same of the two columns 

 for the white clover. It would not be by any 

 means safe to draw very decided conclusions from 

 one or two analyses of this kind ; but so far as 

 an opinion may be formed, the evidence would 

 tend to prove that the mineral constitution of the 

 clover is but little affected by the character of the 

 soil on which it grows ; whilst, on the other hand, 

 the different varieties of the plant are found to 

 possess a mineral constitution in some respects 

 essentially distinct." " Of course," they add in 

 another place, " any observations that can be made 

 here have reference only to the mineral matters 

 of the plant, and are therefore in no way to be 

 considered as comprehending the whole question. 

 Taking solely in reference to its mineral composi- 

 tion, we should be induced to call clover an 

 exhausting crop — that is, when the produce is 

 removed in the state of hay. A fair crop of white 

 or red clover would, indeed, with the exception of 

 silica, carry oft" fully as much of the mineral wealth 

 of the soil as an average crop of wheat or barley ; 

 but there is, it is conceived, nothing in the analysis 

 of the clover here given, that would justify us in 

 attributing the difficulty in its cultivation to any 

 peculiarity in mineral constitution." 



It was with a full knowledge of what had been 

 ascertained by previous chemical investigations, 

 that the Rothamsted examinations were com- 

 menced in 1849. Their authors remark at the 

 commencement of their report : " Experiments on 

 this farm have satisfactorily shown, that some of 

 the crops which are generally grown in rotation, 

 will yield a large amount of produce year after 

 year on the same land, on the application of certain 

 constituents as manure. Thus a part of the same 

 field in which the experiments on clover were 

 made, has grown barley for ten years in succession, 

 and on some plots large crops have always been 

 obtained. In like manner, in an adjoining field, 

 wheat has been successively grown for sixteen 

 years consecutively. Nor is there at present any- 

 thing in the results to lead to the supposition 

 that these crops might not be so grown con- 

 tinually for a century. The results of some- 

 what similar experiments with clover were very 

 diff'erent." 



The Rothamsted experiments, in fact, however 

 they might fail in throwing any light upon the 

 clover failure, or clover-sickness of our time, still 

 were valuable for the various carefully noted 

 results obtained by the employment of diff'erent 

 manures, not only upon the clover crop to which 

 they were applied, but on a succeeding wheat crop. 

 The following table furnishes us with the weights 

 per acre, of the green clover cut June 26 and 28, 

 August G, and October 1 9, 1 849, and also the produce 

 per acre of the wheat grown on the plots in the 

 succeeding year, 1850, the clover being given in 

 tons and cwts., the wheat in bushels and pecks, 

 and the straw in pounds \-^ 



With Mineral Manures. 



Unmanured 



Superphosphate of lime (150 

 lbs. bone-ash, 112lbs.sulph. 



acid 



300 lbs. sulphate of potash . . 

 300 lbs. sulphate of potash "1 

 Superphosphate of lime.. . . J 

 Mixed alkalies, viz., 

 300 lbs. sulphate of potash "j 

 100 lbs. sulphate of soda.. > 

 100 lbs. sulph. of magnesia J 



Mixed alkalies "1 



Superphosphate of lime .... J 

 Ammonia salts alone, or with 



mineral manure 



100 lbs. sulphate ammonia \ 

 100 lbs. muriate ammonia. . J 

 100 lbs. sulphate ammonia"] 

 100 lbs. muriate ammonia > 

 Superphosphate of lime.. . . J 

 100 lbs. sulphate ammonia"! 

 100 lbs. muriate ammonia. . > 

 300 lbs. sulphate potash. . . J 

 100 lbs. sulphate ammonia "| 

 100 lbs. muriate ammonia I 

 300 lbs. sulphate potash. . . f" 

 Superphosphate of lime.. . .J 

 100 lbs. sulphate ammonia.." 

 100 lbs. muriate ammonia 



Mixed alkalies 



100 lbs. sulphate ammonia 

 100 lbs. muriate ammonia. . 



Mixed alkahes ■ . 



Superphosphate of lime .... 



n 



21 



3I ,, , 



J ;>1000 lbs. rape cake . . . 



5! 



Clover. I Wheat. 



1849. 1850. 



14 1 29 2 



15 5 

 17 19 



10 19 



18 1 

 16 6 



32 2 

 30 1 



33 3 



31 1 

 33 1 



14 17 32 1 

 14 8 32 3 



■^1 



13 10 



17 12 



17 10 



17 10 



12 17. 



32 3 



35 1 



33 2 



Straw 

 1850. 

 3512 



3811 

 3906 



4197 



4088 

 4176 



3917 

 3720 



3842 

 4296 

 4135 

 3967 



For seven or eight consecutive years, these 

 valuable investigations were repeated on the farm 

 of Mr. Lawes, with a success but little adequate 

 to the labour and skill bestowed. It was in the 

 present year, after labouring for nine seasons, that 

 their authors had to tell their readers, that after 

 the clover had been subjected to a very great 

 variety of manurial, and other conditions of growth, 

 it is evident that no direct supply of manure, 

 either in the form of ordinary farm-yard dung, 

 or of the current artificial manures, is capable of 

 restoring the soil, from which a heavy crop of 

 clover has been taken, to a condition of immediate 

 productiveness for the same crop. In their 

 experiments indeed, not even the most complex 

 conditions and the repeated supply of those con- 

 stituents which are found most to increase the 

 clover crop when it is grown in the usual manner 

 after an interval of several years, have restored 

 the clover-yielding capabilities, which the soil pos- 

 sessed at the commencement of the experiment in 

 1849. 



While these experiments were going on in the 

 open fields at Rothamsted. another set of triala 



