CLOVER CULTURE. 93 



shallow rooting crops, such as wheat, oats and corn, they 

 should also contain deep rooting crops, such as the clovers 

 and what are known ordinarily as root crops. 



Having thus described the general features of desirable 

 rotations, it remains to inquire how far the clovers meet the 

 wants of the fanner who is selecting a profitable rotation for 

 his own land, his own tastes and his own market. 



As a cleaning crop the clovers surpass all of the so-called 

 hoed crops in America. While hoed or cultivated crops, such 

 for example as corn, potatoes, mangels, beets, etc., afford 

 abundant facilities for the destruction of weeds that germinate 

 prior to July ist (cultivation being then for the most part sus- 

 pended by the conditions of the crop as well as the necessities 

 of the farmer) clover smothers out these as well as the weeds 

 that germinate later, which are usually as destructive as those 

 which germinate in the spring. A weed once sprouted and 

 then smothered is as completely destroyed as when it is killed 

 by the use of the plow or the cultivator. Farmers often find 

 that corn lands that have been kept scrupulously clean until 

 July ist, are foul with smart weed, hog weed, cocklebur and 

 other no less noxious weeds, and that there is no method 

 of destroying them after cultivation has ceased except by the 

 generally impracticable method of hand weeding. The longer 

 land is continuously in corn, the more foul under ordinary 

 circumstances does it become, especially in the Western 

 states. No matter how foul land has become, it is compara- 

 tively clean after it has been in clover even for two years. As 

 a deep-rooting crop the clovers have no equal, especially the 

 red, mammoth and alfalfa. 



In supplying the nitrogen upon which all the grain crops 

 draw to such an extent, the clovers are invaluable and the 

 more so, because, as we have before stated, they alone of 

 all the crops in general cultivation in America have the power 

 of obtaining their supply of nitrogen from the atmosphere. 

 It is true that beans, peas and other legumes have the same 

 power, but their cultivation is too limited to enter largely 

 into rotation crops. For the reasons above given, the clovers 

 form an essential part of the rotation in every part of the 

 world where advanced systems of agriculture have been es- 

 tablished. 



The only objection to the clovers, where it is practicable 

 to grow them in America, is that the care of the first crop to- 

 some extent interferes with the cultivation of corn and the 

 harvesting of the grains. It is one of the standing regrets of 



