132 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



acre in the mixture, as it will fill the vacancies and protect the 

 soil, and also furnish a large amount of sweet and nutritious food. 



As red clover is the variety of universal growth and great- 

 est value to the farmer, I shall confine myself to it in the re- 

 mainder of this chapter. I place a very high value on clover, 

 and believe that it ranks in value and importance with our lead- 

 ing grain crops. My reasons for this are : 1st. Because of the 

 large amount of food it furnishes at small expense. 2d. Be- 

 cause of the value of the manure made from it. 3d. It can be 

 produced not only without reducing the fertility of the soil, but 

 on the contrary, the field which has grown a crop of clover has 

 a larger supply of available plant food, and is improved in its 

 mechanical condition. 4th. It is a cleansing crop, by which I 

 mean that we have much less trouble with weeds, when cultiva- 

 ting a field that has been in clover than when one grain crop 

 follows another. 



In estimating the profit of a crop, we can not be governed 

 entirely by its cash market value, but must take into consider- 

 ation, 1st. The cost of producing and getting it into market, 

 and, 2d The condition of the soil after the crop has been re- 

 moved, and its capacity to grow a succeeding crop. Tried by 

 these standards, clover compares favorably with any crop of 

 the farm. While it is difficult, if not impossible, to estimate 

 accurately the fertility, either removed from or added to the soil, 

 we may, perhaps, approximate it, and I give the following as 

 what I believe to be a fair estimate : 



I should not expect to keep a field at average fertility if 

 continuously cultivated in grain without the addition of manure, 

 and if the field was dressed once in five years with fifteen loads 

 of manure, worth one dollar a load, it would average three dol- 

 lars a year per acre ; and this seems to me to fairly represent 

 on average soils the reduction of fertility by a grain crop. On 

 the other hand, I have rarely failed to get an increase of grain 

 when following clover ranging from five to twelve or fifteen 

 dollars in value per acre, and, even taking the lowest estimate, 

 it would give a difference of eight dollars per acre in the con- 

 dition of the soil in favor of the clover crop; and this estimate 



