CAUSK OF THE FAILURE OF CLOVER. IGI 



was observed in all their experiments. A field on which 

 clover had failed was sown with barley, and when this 

 had yielded a rich crop, another attempt was made with 

 clover. 



' Tlie plants (say Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert) stood 

 tolerably well during the winter, but as the spring 

 advanced they died off rapidly.' There cannot be the 

 slightest doubt about the reason of this decay; the ex- 

 hausted subsoil had not received back any of the lost 

 conditions of fertility, and thus the plants were starved 

 as soon as they had pushed through the arable surface 

 soil, and their roots were beginning to spread in the subsoil. 



If the failure of the clover was attributable to a 

 disease, this must have been of a very singular nature, 

 as the richly-manured arable soil sliowed no traces of 

 it, and it was only the subsoil which was clover-sick. 

 The notion that there is any disease engendered by tlie 

 cultivation of clover is refuted most completely, though 

 unconsciously, by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert themselves. 

 They say, page 17, 'Before we enter upon the probable 

 causes of the failure in clover, it may be well to give the 

 results of some experiments conducted in the kitchen- 

 garden at Eothamstead. The soil was in ordinary garden 

 cultivation, and has probably been so for two or three 

 centuries. Early in 1854, the j^th of an acre (about 

 9 J square yards) was measured off and. sown with red 

 clover on March 29. From that time to the end of 1859 

 fourteen cuttings have been taken without any resowing 

 of seed. In 1856 this little plot was divided into three 

 equal portions, of which one was manured with gyi^sum, 

 another with sulphates of potash, soda, and magnesia, and 

 superphosphate of lime.' 



' The estimated total amount of green clover obtained 

 from this garden soil in six years, without further manure, 



M 



