32 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the small fruits are harvested, the ground is lightly plowed, thoroughly 

 cultivated, and the same proportion of seed is sown in this. The plants 

 will remain small until along in September, and, with the cool weather 

 of approaching autumn, the plant begins to make its most vigorous 

 growth, and by the time winter arrives there is a very fine luxuriant cover- 

 ing to the soil. 



There is no doubt in my mind that the depletion of plant food is not so 

 great in the products which we take from the soil as that which follows 

 by its lying naked and uncovered for months after our crops have been 

 produced — especially cultivated crops — to take the washing and the 

 bleaching for months at a time. I believe there is greater loss of plant 

 food following this system than in the actual production itself. It has 

 been ascertained that the fall plowing necessary for the spring seeding, 

 with the land lying naked for so many months, is resposible for the rapid 

 deterioriation of the fertility of the soil in the spring wheat growing 

 belt. We have long heard it stated by scientific authorities that the 

 clover plant, with other plants of its nature known as the legumes, had 

 the power to take from the atmosphere nitrogen, the most costly element 

 of plant food, and, through bacterial agencies in the soil, build it up in 

 large quantities. This statement has come very largely from laboratory 

 experiments, and has been proven time and again to be true, but I have 

 been demonstrating upon a large scale the extent to which this may be 

 found to be true in the crimson clover for this purpose over an area of 

 nearly one hundred acres, annually. I will here give you 



THE RESULTS 



which have been obtained in this direction, the facts of which are not 

 only positive, but which perhaps may be very surprising to you. The 

 figures upon this chart represent the analysis of samples of soil taken 

 from my farm where three crops of crimson clover had been grown and 

 plowed in continuously; and, to give a greater value to this work, a 

 sample of soil was taken on an adjoining piece of land of the same gen- 

 eral character and under the same treatment, with the exception that no 

 clover had been used upon it. 



Crimson Clover as a Green Manure— Analysis of Soils. 



Water -.. 



Nitrogen 



Humus 



Phosphoric acid (available) . 



Three crops 



clover. 



Per cent. 



15.00 

 .21 



2.94 

 .015 



No clover. 

 Per cent. 



8.75 

 .12 



1.91 

 .00* 



The difference in percentage below shows the larger amount of water, nitrogen, humus and phos- 

 phoric acid in the clover treated soil per acre. 

 Water, 6.25 ner cent, equals 46,876 tons. 

 Nitrogen, .09 per cent, equals 1,3.50 pounds. 

 Phosphoric acid, .(X)7 per cent, equals 105 pounds. 



You will note in the analysis made for the water content of the soil 

 the verv wonderful 



