Clover as a Fertilizer. 123 



root goes down about as far as ordinary crops send their feeding 

 roots, and then the smaller roots and fibrous ones go on down, 

 down, and hunt and search for food, storing it in the large root in 

 the surface soil and in the top. When these are plowed under 

 you have the fertility brought up where corn, potatoes and \vheat 

 can get it. Few know how far down clover will send its feeders. 

 Do not think the readily visible tap root is all. When digging the 

 drain, told about in second chapter on drainage, where we drained 

 a hollow into a gravel bank without any outlet, we dug part of 

 the way 10 feet deep. It was in a clover lot. There was nothing 

 else growing but clear clover. It was just before we were to plow 

 it under for potatoes, so it had made its full growth. When we 

 had the ditch open I got water and sprinkled the sides, and found 

 the little white feeding roots of the clover down to a depth of 

 eight feet. I could readily see and trace them when wet. This 

 was on a porous subsoil a gravelly loam. The subsoil was not 

 much harder to dig at this point than the soil. A little ways 

 further we struck the heavier soil , which is found in most of the 

 field, except right on the hilltops. Here we traced the clover 

 down to about four feet in hard pan that we had to pick. We 

 could not force a spade into it at four feet deep, or at three. I do 

 not know how these delicate little fibrous roots could work them- 

 selves into such hard ground, but they were there. It was simply 

 wonderful to me. 



Second, it is now a settled fact that clover draws some nitro- 

 gen from the air. For many years this has been a disputed point. 

 Men of close observation have felt that it must be so, but scientific 

 men were unable to prove the fact, and so we clover men, 

 although certain in our own minds, could not say very much about 

 this. I remember riding across Wisconsin one day with my vener- 

 able old friend, J. M. Smith, a number of years ago. We were 

 talking on this point. Some of you may know that the writer has 

 done all he could in years past to get farmers to realize what 

 clover would do for them. If I hinted in the papers that clover 

 got any nitrogen from the air, why some writers would quote high 

 authorities to me and srt down on me pretty solidly. Of course, 

 these were men with just a smattering of book learning that they 

 wanted to air. Your real scientist is precious careful what he 

 says. He realizes that we know in part. No one ever heard Dr. 

 Lawes say clover does not get any nitrogen from the air, but 

 rather that we haven't yet been able to find that it does. Well, 

 friend Smith knew how I was working for clover, and from practi- 

 cal experience. I well remember his closing up with : "Well, 

 Mr. Terry, I cannot but believe that clover has the power of 

 using the free nitrogen of the air. I cannot fully account for the 

 great results that have come from its use in many instances that 

 have come tinder my notice during my long life in any other 

 way." Well at last we are backed by science. That is, science 



