CLOVER AS A MANURE. 209 



Mr. Thatcher then submitted the following Report upon 



CLOVER AS A FERTILIZER. 



In considering the subject of clover as a fertilizer, I do not 

 propose to make a lengthy paper upon the subject, but to throw 

 out such thoughts and views as have been suggested by my own 

 experience and in my limited observation among other farmers. 

 I should have let the matter pass without offering any thoughts 

 upon the subject, feeling that I should have been in the fashion, 

 to some extent, of the members of this body, were it not a prin- 

 ciple of my own, long since settled upon, to endeavor, in what- 

 ever position I am placed, to do the best I can to promote the 

 object of our association and employment as agriculturists. If 

 I may draw out or provoke a discussion by what I shall here 

 offer, the object for which these subjects are assigned to their 

 several committees will in some measure have been attained. 



Clover will grow on pretty much all soils that have been laid 

 dry by draining or that are naturally dry. It is the basis of good 

 farming on all lands susceptible of alternate husbandry. Its 

 benefits are threefold at least. It breaks, pulverizes and ameli- 

 orates the soil by its tap-roots, and it furnishes a cheap food for 

 plants as well as animals. A good clover lay I believe to be 

 worth to a crop as much as five cords of good manure to the 

 acre. To insure a good lay, at least ten or twelve pounds of 

 seed must be sown to the acre, and the ground well prepared 

 for the reception of that seed ; and after the seed has been sown 

 I would recommend the rolling of the ground and such other 

 methods of smoothing as different farmers may suggest or adopt 

 as their own. Its value as food for plants depends as much, if 

 not more, upon the quantity of roots as upon the luxuriance of 

 the stems, though the abundance of the latter depends in a 

 great measure upon the number of the former. 



To obtain the full value of this plant, we must cultivate it as 

 food for our crops as well as for cattle, and to use it successfully 

 for our crops, we must use it the first or second year, before it 

 has run out. Where the soil is adapted to the cultivation of 

 clover, there is economy in sowing it with small grains, even 

 though it should be ploughed-in the same or the next season. 

 Ten pounds of seed cost, upon an average, say $1.50 ; the 

 labor of sowing is comparatively nothing. Its value to the 



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