132 RED CLOVER 
if clover is such a great plant for maintaining soil fer- 
tility as so many would have us believe it is, why do 
we have the conditions enumerated? Almost every 
farmer grows or attempts to grow it, and with the vast 
quantities that has been so long grown, our farms should 
show a high state of fertility if there be the fertilizing 
virtues in the plant claimed by its advocates. 
It is said that “Land becomes ‘clover sick’ only in 
the absence of a proper succession of crops, and the ele- 
ments of fertility necessary for the support of the plant.” 
There is some element in the soil necessary to the vig- 
orous growth of clover that is soon exhausted or our 
soils would not refuse to grow the plant, which shows 
the necessity of the proper handling of this plant with 
profit. 
Its success in soil building is only attained when its 
entire crop is left upon the soil or plowed under, for 
then it returns back again to the soil every element it 
extracts from it, and gives to the soil the element it ex- 
tracts from the atmosphere, the organic matter it pro- 
duces and the advantage of its covering. 
The author wishes to be understood as advocating the 
use of clover when it can be grown, but he does not hesi- 
tate to say that it is not a success as a first aid to the 
restoration of worn-out soils. If it could be made to 
grow on worn-out soils, and was not cut for either hay 
or seed, but its entire crop plowed under at the proper 
time, it would then be a valuable aid in building up our 
worn-out soils. And it must be used in the same man- 
ner or with a proper crop rotation if cut for hay or 
