THE GENESEE FARMER. 



PLOWING IN CLOVER. 



BT JOSEPH HARRIS, OF ROCHESTER, 



In the Patent Office Report for 1850-51 we find the following interesting remarks on 

 the cultivation of wheat : 



"Mr. R D. Kingman, of Bergen, Genesee county, N. T., says that liis 'crops of wheat for the last 

 five yeai-8 have averaged thirty-two and a tliird bushels per acre.' We commend tliLs fact to the 

 notice of those who have been led to believe that the 'Genesee country' was failing to produce the 

 great staple for which it has long been celebrated. Mr. K. has the following remarks on wheat culture : 



" 'Time of seeding, from 1st to 16th September; of haiwesting, from 20th to the last of July. 

 Brine and lime seed, and sow one bushel and three-fourths per acre; sometimes I sow two bushels, 

 but find it too thick. Plow three times : have this year procured one of Nourse & Mason's subsoil 

 plows, and subsoiled a part of each wheat field. It takes three heavy horses to haul the surface plow 

 seven inches deep, which is my gauge. Subsoil with a yoke of oxen and a pair of horses, driving the 

 plow six inches below the cut of the surface plow. The increase is from eight to ten bushels per 

 acre. Within the last ten years, I have not been troubled with the Hessian fly but once. Price of 

 wheat, from $1 to $1.12. At least one-tliird of my wheat is soAvn after spring crops, and clover always 

 follows, beiug sown in April, at the rate of ten pounds of seed per acre with one hundred of plaster. 

 I turn nothing into clover fields in the spring ; and when it is half in blossom, turn imder with the 

 plow. I now raise too much straw, and feel the need of understanding chemistry to learn what to 

 apply to increase the berry. We once had a chemist at Rochester (Dr. Lee) who would give the 

 desired information, but I did not then know that it was needed by me.' " 



It wotild appear folly to condemn any system of culture or rotation that yields on an 

 avei'age of five years thirty-two or thirty-three bushels of wheat per acre, and we have 

 no desire to do so ; yet the fact that too much straw is produced from plowing in clover 

 is a significant and interesting corroboration of scientific experiment, and deserves some 

 notice. 



It has been shown by Mr. Lawes' experiments, that when wheat is supplied with 

 ammonia, (nitrogen and hydrogen,) it obtains sufficient carbon from the carbonic acid 

 of the atmosphere ; and that when carbon was supplied, either as farm-yard dung, rape 

 cake, or ground rice, the crop was increased only to that extent which the ammonia they 

 contained would alone have benefited it. Thus : two hundred pounds of sulphate of 

 ammonia, containing forty jDounds of nitrogen and no carbon, had as great a beneficial 

 effect as eight hundred pounds of rape cake, containing the same amount of nitrogen 

 and some six hundred pounds of carbon besides. The same effect was produced with 

 the ground rice and farm manure — no benefit being derived from the carbon. It was 

 also found that as large a crjop could not be raised with rape cake as with ammouiacal 

 salts ; for when rape cake was supplied in sufficient quantity for its nitrogen to be equal 

 to that supplied in the ammoniacal salt, the straw was so unnaturally developed that the 

 crop was laid and an inferior quality and less quantity of grain produced. That this 

 effect was caused by the superabundance of carbon in the soil, few, we think, will 

 question. The uniformity of the results through a series of experiments for several 

 years leaves no doubt on our own mind, and had we space the point might be illttstrated 

 from numerous facts of which every farmer is cognizant. 



A ton of dry clover hay would contain about 40 -lbs. nitrogen, 960 oxygen, 740 

 carbon, and 80 hydrogen. It will be seen that when this is plowed in for a few years, 

 that oxygen and carbon would accumulate in the soil to an injurious amoimt, and " too 

 much straw" would be raised, especially on soils in which there was not an abundance 

 of lime and saline substances. Now, nitrogen being the only element of value that is 

 gained by the growth and plowing in of clover, and cai-bon and oxygen being injurious, 

 it is an interesting inquiry — HOw can we get rid of these substances and retain the 

 nitrogen ? Nature has furnished the means, and fortunately science has discovered them. 

 When food is consumed by animals, the carbon and hydrogen it contains is burnt in the 

 O N ^^^^S^ to supply animal heat, while the nitrogen and greater part of the earthy matter is j ' 



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