THE FERTILITY OF THE SOIL 235 



cultural class to ascertain whether it is true that agriculture 

 is in a decline. . . . 



The terrible facts that the strongest chord which vibrates in 

 the heart of man cannot tie our people to the natal spot, that 

 they view it with horror, and flee from it to new climes with 

 joy, determine our agricultural progress to be a progress of 

 emigration and not of improvement, and leads to an ultimate 

 recoil from this exhausted resource of an exhausted country. 



EARLY RECOGNITION OF THE VALUE OF CLOVER. 



Mr. Taylor continues to discuss, in other numbers of 

 the Arator, the true source of nitrogen for the farmer : 



We must restore to the earth its vegetable matter before it 

 can restore to us its bountiful crops. Facts demonstrate that 

 by the use of vegetables we may collect manure from the at- 

 mosphere with a rapidity and in an abundance far exceeding 

 that of which we have robbed the earth. To draw from the 

 atmosphere the greatest quantity of manure to check the loss 

 the earth sustains from evaporation during the process of 

 shade, to give the manure the most lasting form, and to de- 

 posit it in the most beneficial manner, are primary objects of 

 the "inclosing system." The best agent known for effecting 

 the three first is red clover. Its growth is rapid; its quantity 

 exceeds the product of any other grass; it throws up a suc- 

 cession of stems in the same summer, and these stems are more 

 solid and lasting than those of other grasses. These successive 

 growths constitute so many distinct drafts from the great 

 treasure of atmospherical manure in one year. While these 

 drafts are repeated the clover is daily securing the treasure 

 in a form able long to elude the robber, evaporation, whom 

 it also opposes by shade. To the extracting from the atmos- 

 phere the greatest quantity of manure and elaborating it into 

 a lasting form the most suddenly of any vegetable cover, 

 clover lays for wheat are indebted for their fame. The tap 

 root of the clover also advances the intention of the "inclos- 

 ing system" in several respects. By piercing the earth to a 

 considerable depth apertures or pores are created for imbib- 

 ing; and sinking deeper, a greater quantity of atmospherical 

 manure, so well defended by the shade of the top, and the 



