CLOVER CULTURE. 97 



abundance the elements of fertility which the potato needs. 

 The potatoes in turn can be removed from the ground in time 

 for a crop of winter wheat, with or without plowing, prefera- 

 bly without, as the potato ground furnishes the solid bottom 

 for the seed bed, with loose, mellow soil on top. Wheat can 

 be planted on this with a press drill as early as desirable, and 

 speedy and vigorous germination will follow. Winter wheat, 

 again, is one of the best nurse crops for clover. We do not 

 see why the fertility under this rotation should not remain 

 almost constant, and, if top dressing of manure is applied with 

 the clover, why it should not increase from year to year, the 

 clover increasing the supply of nitrogenous compounds and 

 the slow disintegration of the minute particles of rock, of 

 which the soil so largely consists, keeping up the supply of 

 potash and phosphoric acid. We advise farmers situated in 

 the winter wheat regions where potatoes are a profitable crop 

 to adopt it. 



