336 On the Failure of the Red Clovei\ 



tenacity to soil. (See Journal of Eng. Agricult. Society, for 1839, 

 Part ii., p. 185.) 



9. It explains, for the same reason, why chalking upon the 

 Yorkshire wolds is of so much value to the clover crops. Indeed, 

 by walking over these lands, it may at once be told whether the 

 land has received this operation by the firm sensation conveyed 

 through the feet. 



10. Lastly, it explains the failure of the numerous trials of 

 the growth of the Trifoliiim incarnatum (the scarlet clover), 

 which would be an invaluable plant, but invariably dies in 

 winter if sown upon land recently ploughed, which it is usually 

 sown upon ; while, if the stubble-land before sowing be simply 

 scratched by light harrows, and after sowing compressed with a 

 heavy roller, it will stand the winter. 



Sprengel remarks that the clovers delight in a close-topped 

 soil, or one which admits no great quantity of oxygen to the roots. 

 The best clover grown in Great Britain is upon the warp soil in 

 marsh-land near the river Humber ; for not only is such a soil dry 

 and compact, but abounds in microscopic animalculaj. Ehrenberg 

 has discovered that the mud of the various harbours in Europe 

 contains from one-third to half of its volume of distinguishable 

 organic bodies, chiefly polythalamia, from the nitrogen of which 

 no doubt these soils derive their general fertility. 



The cause of the failure of red and white clover after harvest 

 being ascertained, the remedy is easily prescribed, for farmers 

 have many ways of imparting compactness to the soil, — viz. by 

 rolling and pressing the surface, by claying, chalking, and liming 

 with caustic lime. I should say, lime the clover-ley when broken 

 up for wheat ; press the wheat, and also press the soil for barley ; 

 and after harvest, before November,* roll the barley with a heavy 

 roller; and the probability is that we should hear no more of 

 clover- sick lands : at all events, the remote and proximate causes 

 of the disease being discovered, I leave the remedy to the 

 farmer. 



Womersley Vicarage, near Poniefract, 

 Nov. 2, 1842. 



* This year (1S42) the frosts in the dry weather in October have very 

 much destroyed red clover upon the magnesian Hmestone. In this part of 

 the country the frosts were very severe at night, followed by a bright sun- 

 shine in the mornings; and the effects, p. 421, were witnessed. 



