CLOVER CULTURE. : 



The old poet had some notions about clover as food for 

 dairy cows, for he sings: 



u lf milk be thy design 

 Bring clover grass. ' ' 



Ibid. 



It is a matter of history well known to all students, that 

 the revival of English agriculture, which has made such won- 

 derful development mall lines in the last century, wassyncyron- 

 ous with the introduction of clover and turnips, the clover 

 enriching the soil in the material needed for the production 

 of turnips, and the turnips furnishing the winter feed that 

 has enabled Englishmen to bring to perfection their famous 

 breeds of live stock. Nor need we go to a remote age, nor to 

 foreign knds to notice this wonderful distinction between the 

 clovers and the other grasses. 



While it is generally conceded among intelligent farmers 

 that exclusive grain-growing impoverishes the soil, and that 

 grass culture must be resorted to in order to restore wastes of the 

 soil robber, it is not generally known, as it should be, that 

 this restoration comes almost exclusively through the medium 

 of the clovers. Hence, we find that wherever farming is con- 

 ducted on scientific principles, clover culture assumes a posi- 

 tion of prime importance. At first, farmers are disposed to 

 believe that grasses of any kind add to the fertility of the soil. 

 In a measure this is true, but mainly true because they are 



frown in connection with some of the varieties of clover. The 

 iscovery that the recuperative power of the grasses lies al- 

 most wholly in the clovers comes to some farmers as a very 

 great surprise, and often in connection with blasted hopes. 

 How often have farmers who have sown their lands to timo- 

 thy exclusively, and after mowing two or three years and then 

 plowing them up and planting them to corn, -been grievously 

 disappointed in the results? It is a matter of common obser- 

 vation and remark that while timothy alone is a doubtful 

 and uncertain crop, when sown with clover it yields abund- 

 antly and nearly as much timothy is grown with the clover 

 as without and a fine crop of clover besides. The next year 

 it will be noticed that while the clover is said to be "frozen 

 out," but really dying out by the natural limitation of its 

 life, the timothy grows most luxuriantly, and the faith of the 

 farmers in this crop revives. The common explanation that 

 clover keeps the land moist or that it keeps it loose, is wide 

 of the mark. The true explanation is that clover feeds the 

 timo thy with nitrogen by means of its decaying roots. Farm- 



