120 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



to check further accumulation. This is then the proper time 

 for plowing up the field, and renewing again its accustomed 

 round of crops. If desirable, the clover may be imperfectly 

 sustained on some soils, for a few years, by the addition of 

 gypsum, bone-dust, ashes and other manures, which will de- 

 velop and mature the ripened seeds ; but the greater tena- 

 city of other plants and grasses, will soon reduce it to a 

 minor product in the field. 



Complaint is sometimes made among farmers in England, 

 whose fields have been often in this crop, that their land is 

 clover sick. This arises, simply, from the exhaustion of the 

 land of some of those principles peculiar to clover, which are 

 needed to prepare them again for bearing good crops. Ro- 

 tations and judicious manuring are the only remedies for this, 

 ot similar deficiencies with other crops. 



Importance of the Clovers. The great value of the dif- 

 ferent clovers as forage, was well known to the ancients. 

 They were extensively cultivated by the early Romans, and 

 since that period, they have been extended throughout a large 

 part of Europe. They were not introduced into Great Bri- 

 tain till the 16th century, but have since constituted a profita- 

 ble branch of its husbandry. Their importance has long 

 been acknowledged in the United States. The nutritive 

 matter, although relatively less than from some of the grasses, 

 is yet, in the amount per acre, fully equal to the average 

 of any other forage crop, which is produced at the same ex- 

 pense. It is easily and cheaply raised ; it is liable to few 

 or no casualties or insect enemies in this country ; and its 

 long tap roots are powerful auxiliaries in the division 

 and improvement of soils. Its broad, succulent leaves 

 derive a large portion of their nutriment from the atmosphere ; 

 and while it affords a product equal to the best grasses, it 

 draws a large part of it from the common store-house of 

 nature, without subjecting the farmer to the expense of pro- 

 viding it in his manures. 



It is as a fertilizer, however, that it is so decidedly supe- 

 rior to other crops. In addition to the advantages before 

 enumerated, the facility and economy of its cultivation, the 

 great amount yielded ; and lastly, the convenient form it offers 

 for covering with the plow, contribute to place it far above 

 any other species of vegetation for this purpose. All the 

 grains and roots do well after clover ; and wheat especially, 

 which follows it, is more generally free from disease than 

 when sown with any other manure. The introduction of 



