PREFACE. 



The scientific facts pertaining- to agriculture, so far as 

 they have been discovered, are scattered through many books 

 and other publications, comparatively few of them being- ac- 

 cessible to the ordinary farmer ; the practical experience in 

 the application of these facts, so far as known, is in the pos- 

 session of the thousands of widely scattered farmers and 

 larg-ely beyond the reach of the public. 



It has occurred to us that we might do some service to 

 the farmers of the United States, and especially of the West, 

 by collating as many as possible of the facts that are accu- 

 rately and certainly known, and the experience of farmers over 

 as wide a district as possible, on the one subject of "Clover 

 Culture," and presenting them to the public in compact form, 

 in language within the comprehension of every farmer and at 

 an expense within the means of every man who grows an 

 acre of clover. We began the investigation of the subject 

 some years ago with the sole purpose of solving the difficulties 

 encountered in obtaining satisfactory stands of clover on sev- 

 eral hundred acres of land in western Iowa. Discussion of 

 various phases of the subject through the HOMESTEAD has 

 brought us hundreds of letters from farmers in many states 

 who were meeting the same or similar difficulties, and the 

 following pages are the condensed results of our study of the 

 subject, of the experience of our correspondents, of our own 

 experience and our observation both at home and abroad. 



526702 



