TILE DKAINAGE. 41 



seem to feel and write (in spite of occasional disclaimers) as 

 if clover were a means of creating fertility, a sufficient ma- 

 nure in itself to keep up fertility under cropping, and even 

 increase it, without commercial fertilizers or much manure 

 from live stock. 1 wish they could try my rather cold and 

 naturally unresponsive clayey soil. My chief difficulty has 

 V)een to get clover itself to grow well and regularly. It is a reg- 

 ular and reliable crop with me only on land that has been 

 tile-drtdncd and considerably fertilized, or else surface-drained 

 by plowing it in high, narrow "lands," with deep dead-fur- 

 rows, and v.-'i-y heavily manured at some previous time, or 

 directly for the crop with which the clover is sown. No crop 

 in my whole list responds so promptly both to tile drainage 

 and to fertilizers as the clover crop. 



Figs. 11 and 12 are companion photoengravings showing 

 the effects of drainage upon clover. Fig. 11 is tile-drained ; 

 Fig. 12 is not. In all other respects the treatment was the 

 same, except that the land shown in Fig. 12 lies nearer the 

 street and nearer the barn ; has had more manure in the past, 

 and has a hotter slope, easterly, than that in Fig. 11, which 

 is westerly. Both were in winter wheat in the fall of 1889, 

 drilled in the same day or consecutive days ; both were seed- 

 ed to clover and timothy alike in all respects, and the same 

 day, in March, 1890, and both were mown in September of 

 that fall, and weeds, stubble, clover, and timothy were left 

 as a mulch on the ground. About four quarts of clover and 

 six of timothy per acre were sown on both alike. The clover 

 in Fig. 12 came up pretty well, but did not stand the first 

 winter. In Fig. 12 there is not enough clover to prevent the 

 hay from being sold as clear timothy. In Fig. 11, especially 

 where superphosphate was used, it was nearly clear clover ; 

 that is, the clover was so heavy that it lodged, over much of 

 the field, and virtually smothered the timothy. If clover is 

 a good thing to help improve land, and it unquestionably is, 

 then we owners of clayey farms must tile-drain our land to 

 get clover as a reliable crop, in order to improve our land 



