34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



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gentleman would. Ten or twelve quarts to the acre is plenty, 

 planting the kernels at a distance of thirty-six or thirty-nine 

 inches apart. Grow corn for grain, whether you ensilage 

 it or not. 



Question. You put the corn ears and all into the silo, as 

 I understand it ? 



Professor Cheesman. Yes, sir. 



Question. Do you raise clover ? 



Professor Cheesman. \Ve have no difficulty in South- 

 borough in raising clover. 



Mr. Lynde. It is the almost universal practice, I believe, 

 among the farmers of Massachusetts when they seed down 

 their land to sow timothy, red top and clover, say eight or ten 

 pounds of clover seed in the spring of the year. Sometimes 

 we sow it with barley, sometimes with oats, sometimes we 

 sow it on the snow early in the spring ; but, whatever way 

 we sow it, we get very little clover. Formerly this clover 

 came up the first year, and the next year we would have a 

 great crop. AVe Avould cut it about the 20th of June, and 

 we would often get another very large crop. For some 

 reason unknown to me, we cannot do so now. Will Pro- 

 fessor Roberts tell us what is the trouble with the land that we 

 do not get as good crops of clover as formerly on land which 

 I think is equally as strong and equally as good ? I want to 

 know whether the land is clover-sick, whether the climate 

 has changed, or what is the reason ? 



Professor Robekts. The reason why clover does not 

 catch so well as it used to pr()l)ably is that the soil is some- 

 what depleted of its mineral elements. Clover does not 

 thank you for nitrogen. I could take you to our fields 

 to-day where we actually killed clover with nitrogen. 

 Clover is able to get all the nitrogen it wants on ordinary 

 soils, and it does not thank you at all for it ; in fact, it 

 abhors nitrogen if there is too much of it. AVe find in 

 j)ractice in New York that if we sow plain phosi)hates with 

 our wheat and a little potash the clover will take, but if we 

 do not sow phosphates with our wheat the clover is not apt 

 to come in ; showing conclusively that what clover wants is 

 some mineral matter to start with. Now, you have been 

 farming scientifically and very properly by saving your 



