FORAGE CROPS. 345 



by some means or other, restored, it is nevertheless a fact that after 

 a heavy crop of clover carried off as hay, the land, far from being 

 less fertile than before, is peculiarly well adapted, even without 

 the addition of manure, to bear a good crop of wheat in the fol- 

 lowing year, provided the season be favorable to its growth. This 

 fact, indeed, is so well known that many farmers justly regard the 

 growth of clover as one of the best preparatory operations which 

 the land can undergo in orde^r to its producing an abundant crop 

 of wheat in the following year. It has further been noticed that 

 clover mown twice leaves the land in a better condition as regards 

 its wheat-producing capabilities, than when mown once for hay, 

 and the second crop fed off on the land by sheep ; for notwith- 

 standing that in the latter instance the fertilizing elements in the 

 clover crop are in part restored in the sheep excrements, yet, con- 

 trary to expectation, this partial restoration of the elements of 

 fertility to the land has not the effect of producing more or better 

 wheat in the following year than is reaped on land from off which 

 the whole clover crop has been carried, and to which no manure 

 whatever has been applied. 



" Again, in the opinion of several good practical agriculturists 

 with whom I have conversed on the subject, land, whereon clover 

 has been grown for seed in the preceding year, yields a better crop 

 of wheat than it does when the clover is mown twice for hay, or 

 even only once, and afterward fed off by sheep. Most crops 

 left for seed, I need hardly observe, exhaust the land far more 

 than they do when they are cut down at an earlier stage of their 

 growth ; hence the binding clauses in most farm leases which 

 compel the tenant not to grow corn crops more frequently nor to 

 a greater extent than stipulated. However, in the case of clover 

 grown for seed, we have, according to the testimony of trust- 

 worthy witnesses, an exception to a law generally applicable to 

 most other crops. 



" Whatever may be the true explanation of the apparent anoma- 

 lies connected with the growtii and chemical history of the clover 

 plant, the facts just mentioned having been noticed, not once or 

 twice only, or by a solitary observer, but repeatedly, and by num- 

 bers of intelligent farmers, are certainly entitled to credit ; and 

 little wisdom, as it strikes me, is displayed by calling them into 

 question, because they happen to contradict the prevailing theory, 

 according to which a soil is said to become more or less impover- 

 ished in proportion to the large or small amount of organic and 

 mineral soil-constituents carried off in the produce. 



*' Agricultural experiences contradicting prevailing and, it may 



