GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 201 



this wonderful power in gypsum, which had been first discovered as a fertilizing agent by a 

 Protestant pastor by the name of Mayer, in the principal city of Hohenlohe, and was the first 

 to call the attention of farmers here to its fertilizing power. Franklin simply traced the letters 

 of his name in powdered gypsum upon a patch of clover, and in a short time his name could be 

 easily read by all the passers-by. It stood up three times as high as the surrounding plants, 

 and was equally distinguished by the dark -green stems and leaves, and the vivid red blos 

 soms, from the unplastered portion, which was much smaller and less luxuriant, the stems 

 and leaves of a yellowish green, while the blossoms were of a pale pink hue, some of them 

 degenerating to an almost white color. Great multitudes flocked to see the miraculous hand 

 writing on the field, and sometimes the roads around it resembled a county fair from the 

 number of vehicles and horses that were collected. The doctor soon afterwards published 

 an account of the experiment, written in his most attractive manner, that was read by almost 

 every one, and thus it was diffused over the whole country. Every one was talking about it, 

 and a few tried the experiment, and from that time the culture of clover has been extending 

 even to the present day. 



Time of Cutting, and Method of Curiug Clover. Of course the time of cutting 

 clovers, as well as grass, differs with different latitudes, and can only be determined by the 

 condition of the crop. The opinion formerly prevailed that this crop should be cut after hav 

 ing fully blossomed and assumed a brownish hue, or as soon as the earliest heads showed 

 signs of ripening; but it has been ascertained, by many and repeated experiments, that the 

 proper time for cutting it is just as it is coming into full bloom, as it then has the maximum 

 amount of nutritive matter in a condition best fitted for assimilation. 



The amount of loss sustained by cutting clover at improper times was determined by Dr. 

 Voelcker in his admirable experiments made at the agricultural college at Cirencester. 



The plot upon which the experiments were tried was a good calcareous clay soil, and was 

 subdivided into plots, each of which was sixteen and a half feet square. Plot No. 1 was cut 

 six times, at intervals of a fortnight. The total amount yielded per acre was five tons, eight 

 cwt. and sixty-four pounds of green clover, and one ton, four cwt. and seventy-six pounds 

 of hay dried, and contained 388.8 pounds of nitrogenous, and 1,646.4 of non-nitrogenous 

 matters. Plot No. 2 was cut a fortnight later, and so each successive plot was cut a fortnight 

 after the preceding one. The clover began to blossom on the twentieth of May. Plot No. 7 

 was cut June sixteenth, and again on the second of July. These two cuttings yielded 

 eleven tons, seventeen cwt. and sixteen pounds of fresh grass, and three tons, thirteen cwt. 

 and ten pounds of dry hay, 780 pounds of nitrogenous, and 5,680 pounds of non-nitrogenous 

 matters. This was the maximum yield; each successive plot had given a richer yield up to 

 this point. After this, the amount steadily receded, until the last cutting, which was on the 

 twenty-eighth of July, when the fresh produce was four tons, ten cwt. ; the dry hay, two tons, 

 four cwt. and ninety pounds. The loss between the cutting of June sixteenth and that of 

 July twenty-eighth was, of dry hay, one ton nine cwt. and ten pounds; of nitrogenous mat 

 ters, of 480.8 pounds, and of non-nitrogenous matters, 1,315.2 pounds. The steady decrease 

 of nitrogen is shown in the following table: 



Per cent of 

 Nitrogen. 



June 16, .......... 1.81 



June 23, .......... 1.49 



June 30, .......... 1.32 



July 7 1.27 



July 18, 1.06 



July 28, .......... .97 



The above figures speak for themselves, and require no comment. When farmers gen 

 erally understand better what the real losses in nutriment are which are occasioned by cut- 



