No. 4.] CLOVERS. 423 



years these fields have been subdivided into plots, and various combi- 

 nations of fertilizers employed. To a considerable area, the annual 

 application per acre is at the rate of basic slag meal 500 pounds, and a 

 potash salt sufficient to furnish 75 pounds of actual potash per acre. 

 The areas thus manured have steadily improved under the treatment 

 received. At the start there was but little clover. Under the system 

 of fertilizing followed, the proportion of clover has steadily increased. 

 The daisies have almost entirely disappeared, while the grass as well 

 as the clovers, though in less degree, has improved. The annual cost 

 of the fertilizers used amounts to about $7 per acre. The soil of these 

 fields is natural grass land, and is quite well adapted for clovers as well. 

 The product under this system of manuring ranges from about 2 to 

 2i tons per acre in two crops. During the present season these fields 

 have given one of the best as well as one of the heaviest crops produced 

 since 1889. 



2. Clovers are of especial value upon the farm as stock feed, on 

 account of their exceptional richness in protein. Protein, as is well 

 understood, is the most valuable of the food constituents, being essen- 

 tial to the formation of flesh, and undoubtedly influencing milk pro- 

 duction to a greater degree than any other food constituent. Hay 

 made from grasses is likely to contain only 6 to 8 per cent of protein; 

 hay made from clovers, on the other hand, is likely to contain from 

 12 to 14 per cent. Every farmer, however, who has had experience 

 knows the superior results which can be obtained in feeding when 

 good clover hay is available. This point, therefore, needs no further 

 discussion. 



3. The production of clovers under the right conditions enriches the 

 soil. This is true even when the crops produced are cut and removed. 

 Clover, as has been pointed out, is capable of taking its nitrogen from 

 the air. Not only does it take from the air under the right conditions 

 a large proportion of the nitrogen which becomes a part of its stems, 

 leaves and flowers, but it takes also large amounts of nitrogen which 

 become a part of its root. The 3 tons of clover hay which an acre of 

 good clover land will produce in a year will contain about 120 pounds 

 of nitrogen ; and yet after the production of this crop the soil will con- 

 tain more nitrogen than it did at the start, if conditions have been 

 right, for the roots and the stubble of the clover are very rich in this 

 element, and when these decay, the nitrogen they contain becomes a 

 part of the capital of the soil, and this nitrogen has been taken from 

 the air and thus brought within the reach of subsequent crops through 

 the agency of the growing clover. 



In one other direction the growth of clovers is likely to result in soil 

 improvement. Most of them are very deep-rooted plants. They have 

 long, thick tap roots, which run down into the soil. As a consequence, 

 the sub-soil is opened up and mellowed. The availability of the stores 

 of plant food in it, as well as in the surface soil, is increased. Crops 



