158 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 



Forty years ago its culture may be said to have com- 

 menced in the United States ; but its progress was slow 

 till within the last few years ; and even now, the farmers 

 of large portions of our country are practically ignorant 

 of its improving and enriching qualities. Its benefits have 

 been great wherever it has been introduced, accompanied 

 with the use of gypsum ; and the two combined have done 

 much to improve our husbandry. But their benefits are 

 capable of being much more widely extended. 



Clover is less exhausting to the soil than almost any 

 other crop. It derives much nourishment from the at- 

 mosphere ; and its tap-roots, penetrating the soil to a 

 great depth, break and pulverize it, and fit it admirably 

 for the reception of tillage crops. We consider the use 

 of clover as cattle-food, great as it is, but of secondary 

 importance to the fanner — its most profitable uses being 

 to feed crops and furnish seed. No green crop is so ser- 

 viceable, as manure ; and the second crop of the early 

 variety may be profitably preserved for seed. We have 



recorded in the Cultivator the practice of Mr. , 



of Tompkins county, who has converted a poor farm 

 into one of great productiveness, almost entirely by the 

 judicious use of clover. He sows the seed liberally, 

 preferring the early or southern variety. This he feeds 

 till the 20th of June, or, if it is to be mown, he cuts it 

 by the 25th of that month. He then leaves it for a sec- 

 ond or seed crop ; and after this is off, he generally turns 

 up the ley for a winter or spring crop. Thus the first 

 crop serves to feed his cattle ; the second serves the 

 double purpose of feeding his cattle and filling his purse, 

 for the average product of an acre is four or five bushels 

 of seed, w^orth ordinarily from thirty to fifty dollars, and 

 the stems are carefully saved, and serve for cattle -food 

 and litter ; w^iile the roots and fohage left upon the field 

 go to fertilize it for the next crop. 



We can quote no better authority than Chaptal, a dis- 

 tinguished chemist, and a practical farmer upon a broad 

 scale, in support of the alternating system. He Kays, 



" Artificial grass lands (constituting a part of the alter- 

 nating system of husbandry, and in contradistinction to 



