150 POTATO CULTURE. 



is a change and rest to seed down with timothy. It is rota- 

 tion, but not renovation in the slightest degree. Timothy 

 feeds on the soil exactly as wheat and corn and potatoes do, 

 and leaves it just so much poorer. Timothy eats nitrogen, 

 as the Rural New-Yorker lately put it, while clover gathers it. 



Now, clover in regular rotation, in the place of timothy, 

 if you do your part, and on any soil where it is reasonably at 

 home, will do just this: It will give you about twice as 

 many tons of hay per acre, it' you want feed ; it is worth 

 about one-third more per ton to feed out, and about one- 

 third more as a fertilizer. Or, if you take into account the 

 fact that there is twice as much of it, the clover is worth 

 three times as much as a fertilizer per acre as the timothy, 

 above ground, without counting the roots. The roots are 

 also worth far more than the timothy roots, as a fertilizer. 

 Now the question comes up that is all important Where 

 does the clover get this excess of fertility V If from the soil 

 directly, as does the timothy, then we gain nothing in the 

 end, as we are only running our land down faster. But at 

 last it is known that this is not a fact. The clover has the 

 ability to absorb, through a peculiar growth on its roots, 

 free nitrogen from the air. At market rates for nitrogen, 

 there is in the air resting on a square rod of your farm more 

 than $97,000 worth. We need not worry about the supply 

 giving out, you see. 



Of course, clover can get no mineral matter from the air. 

 It must get that from the earth, as other crops do ; but there 

 is this difference : Clover is a deep feeder. It sends its roots 

 down far, and gathers up and brings to the surface. Perhaps 

 it gets what naturally exists in the subsoil, but it also lays 

 hold of what is constantly leaching down with the water of 

 heavy rains, and what has got below the reach of more 

 surface-feeding plants. It gathers up escaping nitrates as 

 well as mineral matter, and practically all comes to the sur- 

 face again, where other crops can get it when you plow the 

 sod under. But let me stop right here to say it does not 



